Mrs.Sneh Arora,Head Librarian of DPS R.K.Puram with delegates at the Workshop for Librarians	Workshop for Librarians at DPS R.K.Puram

A four days librarians’ workshop convened by DPS Society began at DPS HRD Centre, Dwarka on 2nd Feb 2010 with a participation of nearly 40 delegates. The workshop was a confluence of various DPS schools. Its aim was to  create  a meaningful platform for librarians from all DPS schools.
The second day of the conference brought the delegates to DPS RK Puram- the chosen venue for the ‘School visit’. The Principal, Dr. D.R.Saini extended a warm welcome to the chief guests, Ms. Anita Madan, Assistant Director, Early Childhood Education, DPS Society  and Ms. Vanita Kher, Director, Council of Education Management (CEM)and all esteemed delegates. He aptly described the library ‘as a temple of learning’ and the most important centre of knowledge. According to him, books are a constant companion for a person, enriching one’s life forever. The guests were then presented with some mementos.

The session focused on library perspective and included presentations on the librarian’s role and relationships with the academic staff.  It began with a presentation on ‘’Creating partnership with teachers’ by Ms. Sneh Arora, Head Librarian, DPS RK Puram. She elaborated on the program support extended by librarians of DPS RK Puram to the academic staff, which includes E-mail updates to teachers, writing book reviews, developing a balanced collection of resources, updating the teachers with the kind of books the students read, networking with academic faculty and running contact programs with other libraries to provide a larger platform for teachers.

The students of Class IX took the stage by storm with their presentation on ‘Library-The hub of activities’. The students were well informed about the contemporary books and authors and expressed their views on teacher-librarian relationship and the interesting collaborative activities organized by the library.

The next session had a presentation on ‘ Inculcating reading habits in children- Role of the parents, teacher and Librarian’ by Mrs.Anuradha Dang, a senior English teacher of the school. It was based on her interaction with students over the years – their beliefs and their ideas. Her paper was about reinforcement of skills that are forgotten over a period of time. She reiterated the fact that the books fire the imagination of the child, promote quick and easy learning and encourage creativity. She encouraged the teachers, librarians and parents to act as role models to motivate the students to read. She urged the parents to hold book discussions at home and build personal libraries for kids. She also suggested that the librarians should be approachable and organize competitions and provide incentives for reading.

The delegates were given a questionnaire to evaluate the functioning of their library and their role as librarians. An interactive session ensued with the team leader discussing the assignments that the participants  had drafted as a team. Ms. Vanita Kher congratulated the staff of DPS RK Puram for their commendable work. Mrs. Kamayani Kumar, Headmistress of DPS RK Puram proposed the vote of thanks. The delegation then proceeded for a visit of the Junior Library and the Audio Visual Library.

The workshop provided a great deal of information and a wonderful opportunity to interact and learn from peers across the country. The presentations gave valuable insight into the issues important to librarians.