By IANS
New Delhi : India is set to launch an ambitious mission to give a fillip to libraries, seen as critical players in a knowledge society, as the draft report on the project has been prepared and will be finalised soon, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni said Tuesday.
During a meeting with National Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda, she said a task force has been set up by the ministry of culture to prepare a national census of all libraries. The Raja Ram Mohan Rai Library Foundation, Kolkata, is the nodal agency for the purpose.
It was felt that there was need to make a paradigm shift in the role of libraries from the present strategy of collection or acquisition of knowledge to a strategy of knowledge access, the ministry said in a statement.
She said that her ministry’s stress is on better access, ambience and modernisation of libraries. The ministry has constituted a high powered committee for the upgradation and modernisation of libraries, she said.
A token provision has been made in the ministry’s annual plan for 2007-08 for setting up of a Library Mission, Soni said.