Jammu, April 23 (Scoop News) – On the occasion of the World Book Day the Department of Libraries and Research organized a day long exhibition of rare and historical books in different parts of the Jammu and Kashmir state .
In Jammu the Department of Libraries and Research organized a day long exhibition of rare and historical books in the SRS Library.
Director Libraries and Research, Arun Kumar Sharma inaugurated the exhibition.
About 200 rare and historical books were exhibited in the exhibition. These include the books which were published in 17th and 18th century. Some of the books which were exhibited include Kalhan’s Rajtarangni in Sanskrit in 1867 and its translated version English by Stein published in 1867 and in some other local languages. The Mahabharata published in 1819, the Golden books of Indian by Sir ROPER published in 1893. Shahnama Firdousi published in 1874 and some historical books were also exhibited. The photo albums of the Rajas were also exhibited in the daylong exhibition. The exhibition was witnessed by large number of people included some prominent scholars, educationists and writers.
On this occasion, Director Libraries explained the purpose of holding such exhibition. He apprised that this department has 140m libraries in the different parts of the state at district level, tehsil level and even block level. There are about 50000-60000 books in SRS Library, Srinagar and SRS Library, Jammu. In addition Department has about more than eight thousand manuscripts have been digitized recently. The department purchases the books from prominent writers every year and also from the local authors. Preference is also given to the books in the local languages like Kashmiri and Dogri.
The Director explained that by exhibiting these books the department is making aware the general masses about the information available in these public libraries, which the electronic media cannot provide. The Director also explained the freedom, prosperity and development of a society and individuals are fundamental human values and these values can be attained through well informed citizens who will be shaped through utilization of public libraries. These public libraries provide excess to all citizens for all type of information at all levels and these public libraries act as Information Centres. The Director also appealed to general massed to visit these libraries and develop habit of reading books.
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