KARACHI: The city administration on Thursday formed a council of libraries comprising representatives of government and private libraries including the British Council, Alliance Francaise and other national and international organisations in a bid to restore public libraries being run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and other government departments.

Informed sources told Dawn that the city administration took the decision to this effect at a meeting that observed that the public libraries being run by the KMC, district municipal corporations and other government departments had been neglected and most of them needed improvement.

They said that the meeting chaired by Commissioner Iftikhar Ali Shallwani was attended among others by the municipal commissioners of DMCs, officials of KMC and DHA, director of Liaquat National Library, and representatives of the different organisations running libraries including British Council and Alliance Française de Karachi.

The officials said that the council of libraries was formed during the meeting.

They said that it was decided that the council would work out a plan for the revival and improvement of public libraries. Representatives gave presentations in the meeting about the current condition of their libraries, it was shared.

The participants of the meeting decided that the representatives of public and private libraries would be given representation in the council of libraries.

The British Council and Alliance Francaise would also play a part to support the government-owned libraries and give guidance to modernise them and improve management.

Officials said that it was pointed out in the meeting that most of the libraries run by the KMC and DMCs did not have direction boards on main roads to attract people to visit the libraries.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Shallwani said that the city needed to have a central public library that met international standards.

He stressed the need to have a public library in each town so that common people could develop reading habits and benefit from books and newspapers in every part of the city.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2019