Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Uses of A Public Library” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Uses of A Public Library

A public library is an institution which maintains a large collection of books, newspapers and magazines for the use of general public. Thus, a library is a rich treasure-house of knowledge. A little leisure spent in it, profits us more than a lot of time spent in the world outside. It has been rightly observed that an hour in a good library is worth an age outside.

Apart from newspapers and magazines that keep us acquainted with latest in the national and international arena, thereby enhancing our general awareness, the books available in a public library are the source of intellectual light and spiritual education. Ruskin called good books “Kings Treasuries,” not transient treasuries of gold and silver but the immortal and inexhaustible treasures of wisdom, knowledge and insight. Public libraries preserve the precious thought-gems, the exquisite imagination, the valuable counsels and the accumulated wisdom of all ages. Macaulay had declared, ” I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading”.

The value of books, maintained in a public library, in feeding our intellectual powers and training the rationalist in man, is invaluable “Man does not live by bread alone”, is aptly applicable in this case. Man also lives to satisfy his intellectual hunger.

Books and magazines are as necessary for the well-being and healthy growth of mind as bread is for that of body. Most people fail in the business of life for want of proper study and understanding. They are fleeced and fooled on account of their ignorance of science, history, economics and other subjects. Library books and magazines on varied subjects, make us partakers in a life larger, richer and more diverse than we ourselves can ever know through our individual knowledge and they do this not only because they open up new fields of experience and new lines of thought and speculation, but also because they carry us beyond the pinched and meagre humanity of our everyday round of existence into contact with fresh, strong and magnetic personalities of all ages and all countries.

A good public library is our best friend in solitude. When we are fed up with the hurry and worry of life, the path of the future lies through a thick forest and when we are utterly alone in darkness without a single ray of light, we find a rare source of inspiration and enlargement in the company of books and magazines.

The newspapers found in a library serve to formulate an enlightened public opinion. By presenting the pros and cons of the major issues of the day, they help keep public opinion in a healthy state of thoughtful ferment.

Various books, newspapers and magazines that we come across in a library give light to those, who are benighted, guide those who stray and cheer those who feel melancholic. In books are recorded and preserved the memories of the ages gone by and by reading them we can transport ourselves into the past and witness the panorama of a new life opening before our very eyes. We travel so that we may see other nations at home, their cities of men and manners, climates, councils, governments and this is what we really conceive as an important agency in human culture. Through books, magazines and newspapers, we become familiar not only with the minds of other races but with the minds of other epochs as well. In the silent company of great books, we take a journey through ages, learn the manners and customs of the nations long extinct, see the glory of the empires long ruined and listen to the words of men long dead.

A good library serves not only f intellectual delight, armament and ability but also plays a vital role in revolutionising the public opinion and reforming the moral tone of human society. In a public library, we find an escape from the cares and worries of life, from the fever, the fret and the weariness of this world. A commonplace thing acquires beautiful shape and looks attractive. Our fancy is transported from earth to the skies and on the viewless wings of poetry we flit from flower to flower forgetting the others below.

Besides, a public library is useful in a number of other ways. Every person can’t afford to buy all magazines and books on the subjects of his interest. A library offers everybody an opportunity to go through a wide variety of books and magazines at one place and at a negligible price. Also, at times some books are so old that they are out of print and it is difficult to find them in the market but they are readily available in a library. Further, a person cannot read for long in solitude of his personal study. But in a library a number of persons sit face to face and side by side and engage themselves in reading one thing or the other, and thus create a competitive atmosphere which allures even dull people to read more and more.

A Public library plays a pivotal role in the nation- building process by opening new vistas of knowledge and information for the rank and file. It gives everyone a chance to make a creative use of one’s leisure because an empty mind is like a devil’s workshop. A public library is thus like a teacher which provides valuable knowledge to everyone thereby paving the way for an all-round progress of the country by leaps and bounds.