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Parag Fellowship for Library Practitioners 2024
Library practice as an area of professional engagement and development has little recognition and opportunities for growth and strengthening work around libraries remain a challenge. Since its inception in 2015, ¬the Library Educators Course, a flagship program of the Parag Initiative has offered opportunities to library educators and teachers to create vibrant libraries for children, catering to some of the most underserved communities in the country. It has enabled participants to gain familiarity and deepen their understanding about library practice and children’s literature through the 7-month blended course. So far, the course has seen diverse participants including teachers, library educators and professionals from not-for-profit organizations from over 19 states in the country. The initiative has continued to support the participants in their journey of strengthening their library practice through an active alumni network.
About the fellowship
As we recognize that it is important to continue to offer opportunities to help library practitioners examine their own work with a critical stance and further add value to library practice and children’s literature, we rolled out the Parag fellowship for Library Practitioners earlier this month. The fellowship, supported by Doorbeen, an initiative of the H T Parekh Foundation for children’s library and literature, will enable practitioners to step back from their routine work and delve deeper into aspects of library practice. It will enable the practitioner to work with a focus on library collection and explore the various possibilities in creating informed and engaged readers. The fellowship extending over a period of three months, specifically encourages individuals to explore how a diverse collection and books on specific themes, genres and formats help create engagement with readers through dialogue and collective meaning making.
Selected Fellows:
Following a two-step selection process, the fellows have been selected based on various criteria including their understanding of the significance of the book collection, the scope of the dimensions they propose to explore and the needs of the contexts in which their libraries function.
We are happy to announce the selected fellows:
Working as a trainer with Feminist Resource Center – Aalochna, Vandana has 20 years of experience in editing magazines and books. She has also been a coordinator of mobile resource center program and has taken efforts to increase reading interest among children and teachers along with parenting policy. She has been coordinating the Pustak-maitri course and library initiative run by Pragat Shikshan Sanstha. Having completed the Library Educator Course in the year 2021, she has authored two books for children.
As a primary school teacher in a school in Noida, Poonam Sharma completed the Library Educator Course organized by Parag in 2020. She loves working with children aged eight to ten years, as she believes that it is easier to form habits at this age and books are a great way to do that.
A native of Nagaon district of central Assam and a chemistry graduate, Debasish, found purpose by starting Satirtha Foundation in 2022. Through the organization he strives to create equitable reading opportunities for every child through accessible libraries. They operate a community library space for children, which is the first and sole of its kind in the region. Having completed the Library Educators Course by Parag Initiative in 2022, he stands for the ‘right to read’ of every child.
Working as a trainer with Feminist Resource Center – Aalochna, Vandana has 20 years of experience in editing magazines and books. She has also been a coordinator of mobile resource center program and has taken efforts to increase reading interest among children and teachers along with parenting policy. She has been coordinating the Pustak-maitri course and library initiative run by Pragat Shikshan Sanstha. Having completed the Library Educator Course in the year 2021, she has authored two books for children.
As a primary school teacher in a school in Noida, Poonam Sharma completed the Library Educator Course organized by Parag in 2020. She loves working with children aged eight to ten years, as she believes that it is easier to form habits at this age and books are a great way to do that.
A native of Nagaon district of central Assam and a chemistry graduate, Debasish, found purpose by starting Satirtha Foundation in 2022. Through the organization he strives to create equitable reading opportunities for every child through accessible libraries. They operate a community library space for children, which is the first and sole of its kind in the region. Having completed the Library Educators Course by Parag Initiative in 2022, he stands for the ‘right to read’ of every child.
What does the Fellowship offer:
Selected fellows will be provided a financial support amount of Rs 30,000 per fellow, paid in two instalments, apart from an additional amount of Rs 6,000 for purchasing children’s books or other material for their study.
They will be mentored by an expert through the fellowship period of 3 months (mid-December 2023 to mid-March 2024), to finalize the design of the study, guide the fellows in conducting the study and provide feedback in the process of writing the report.
LEC Hindi is open to all educators and intended for teachers, school librarians, development sector professionals, and literacy and language educators and in fact for every one working with children and books with the desire to spread the joy and culture of reading. The LEC offers a unique opportunity to strengthen understanding and academic thinking linked to practice in a well-designed, highly charged environment with some of the best library practitioners in the field.
The course comprises three contact sessions in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. LEC hindi has successfully completed seven batches. More than two hundred library educators and teachers from 43 organisations across 19 states have participated in the course.
Participation on moodle during distance mode, completion of assignments and field projects are graded. For more information, please go through the course prospectus.
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