Sri Lanka declared October as the National Reading Month (NRM) in 2004 after a campaign to the effect by the National Library and Documentation Services Board (NLDSB), Sri Lanka.
The NLDSB generally issues circulars related to programs and activities aiming to develop reading habits among the people,that could launched by the different types of libraries, such as school, public, special, university and college during the month. However, during this Covid-19 pandemic, it is not advisable to organise mass events.
The use of information and communication technologies is the most appropriate strategy, which many youth, especially, student groups are able to adjust through their mobile phones and allied technologies.
Librarians can apply certain environment-friendly devices and techniques to facilitate their readers. They can serve different communities through outreach services.
Outreach services
Eminent personalities have expressed the importance of reading books and libraries;“There is no friend as loyal as books.”- Ernest Hemingway; “A book is a gift you can open again and again.” - Garrison Keillor; “One of the greatest gifts adults can give to their offspring and their society-is-to read children.” - Carl Sagan; “There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world.
Love of books is the best of all.” - Jacqueline Kennedy; “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” - Abraham Lincoln; “Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve and contribute to improving our quality of life.”- Sidney Sheldon.
“The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts.
Monuments fall, nations perish, civilisations grow old and die out, and after an era, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men’s hearts of the heart of men centuries dead.”- Clarence Day
Asset for all
It is obvious that the love of books, libraries and reading is a great asset for all. Reading is essential for everybody to spend time productively.
Reading directly or indirectly supports the development process of a county and helps people in different ways, such as to get ready for examinations and tests, empower the mind and thought, become a creative personality, for study and research purposes, gaining more experience, solving problems, for pleasure and leisure.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the people who are housebound can spend their time profitably by reading books.
A valuable opportunity has arisen for all of us to make a change in life by reading and making use of reading for writing short stories, fictions, poems, other literary, artistic creations and academic and professional creations.