Borrow as you please

Shyamosree Dasgupta likes to read, but you're unlikely to bump into her in a library. Instead, she hoards ebooks and online reading material that grabs her attention. At 19, she shrugs uncertainly when I ask if she has memories of her school librarian. She happens to be self-read. She also happens to be my sister.

Shyamosree is just one of the many millennials whose adolescent years were not enlivened by the quintessential librarian figure — tall with a fly-away bun or pudgy with fingers that can sift through catalogues at unreal speed, pushing Enid Blytons, Lewis Carrolls or Louisa May Alcotts into your arms at the end of the weekly library 'class'. That was my life. Six years her senior, I luxuriated in the love-hate dynamic with the school librarian (so I held on to Chamber of Secrets for a week longer, big deal!), who, at that point, didn't have to fight with Kindles and video games for my attention. The role of the school librarian, it would seem, has undergone a dramatic makeover in the past few years.

Shim Mathew, principal, VIBGYOR High, explains the shift. "With multiple mediums taking up students' mind space, the librarian has to be involved and evolved," he says, putting down this evolution to participation and communication beyond the clerical chores of labelling, tracking of and recommending a book or two. The academician — who believes his students benefit from regular reading exercises conducted in collaboration with librarians, teachers and visiting authors — requests librarians to "update and modernise their stock in keeping with what kids wish to read at a given time".

Basically, if that Blyton classic fails to interest a student, the librarian has to be open to the possibility of a lesser-acclaimed contemporary author doing the trick. "I see kids intrigued by Indian mythology in contemporary writing, and that's okay... we have to start by feeding them whatever they are curious about." Vouching for librarians who can, with friendly communication and observation, bring in "a teacher's perspective" in the reading room, Mathew says it's time we expanded our notions of both libraries and librarians, and looked forward to synergies between physical and digital reading spaces.

Sweedle Almerah, senior librarian at Billabong High International School, is happy to adapt to this space. "Things might be different, but for a librarian, it is easy to spot bookworms, or those who can be converted into one," she laughs. At Billabong, Almerah is involved in a host of creative exercises from overseeing the 'reading corners' in each classroom to conducting the book-review club in a way that excites the new generation. "We need to be the person who is in between a friend and a teacher. It took me three months to reach out to a girl who would read greedily in the lunch break but refused to take home any story books," she recalls, sharing the dilemma of a young bibliophile whose parents discouraged non-academic reading at home. Only until Almerah intervened, of course. "Two years on, this girl is heading our Reader's Club," she informs, the pride evident in her voice.

Maya Rane, a compulsive reader and mother to 12 year-old Rohan, recognises the early role of parents in fostering a child's relationship with books, which the librarian can later nurture. "My son, a big fan of thrillers, wouldn't usually read anything other than Goosebumps. Yet the other day, he was overwhelmed after he picked up William Shakespeare's The Seven Ages of Man. With kids who lack that kind of exposure at home, the librarian has to step in as the saviour," she reflects. "What librarians must recognise is that as with food habits, the reading pattern of each child can be unique. It is not fair to ask a slow reader to give up a certain book in seven days—he may never finish that book again!" Her take on the influx of ebooks and virtual reading material is simple—use the problem as the solution. "Instead of blaming the kids' brief attention span, we can create projects that require them to refer back and forth between digital and physical," she muses, hopeful that the forced liaison will eventually develop into love for the magic of "holding a book in your hands".