Readers' Club Online Meeting with Mr. Binoy Mathew - A Report

As the members of the Reader`s Club weren`t able to conduct a meeting for a while, an online meeting was conducted on 29th October 2024, from 7 pm to 8 pm. The members started joining the meeting by 7 pm and we were surprised by a special guest who joined us and gave an amazing session. The guest was Mr. Binoy Mathew, the Gram Panchayat Librarian of Valapattanam, Kannur. A total of 37 students attended the session.

Initially, Mr. Binoy described his library and the Gram Panchayat of Valapattanam. He emphasised on the different programs and activities that took place in his library especially on the concept of library notebooks. The Valapattanam Gram Panchayat Library is a two storied building and is also a green library (runs through solar power). Anyone who likes reading can be a member of this library and the membership for the children are free as well. In this library, there is the concept of library/reading diary, which I was fascinated about. All the members are given this diary and they can write anything about what they read or their reading experience. Every month a person is given a prize for maintaining the best library diary. All the programs and activities are organized and planned by the children itself. Another thing that I found very interesting was that a selected number of children accompanies the librarian whenever they have to buy books for the library. There are also 5 forums in the library led by Binoy sir: Children`s forum, Youth Forum, Senior-Citizen Forum, Women`s Forum and Cultural Forum.

Then we had a Q&A session where many members asked Binoy sir some interesting questions for which Binoy sir patiently explained and gave all of them answers. The session was concluded by a wonderful and formal vote of thanks by the Club President, Nehara. Overall, all the members thoroughly enjoyed the session and learnt a lot of new things. I am sure Binoy sir inspired many of us to read more and also gave each one of us an amazing time.

Prepared by Joshna N, IX D
Secretary, Readers' Club