National Mission on Libraries and the Status of Public Library Network in West Bengal

Public libraries play a vital role in the development of a society. It is a place where people from every section of the society can access without any boundness. Though it should get utmost care and emphasis, but truly speaking it is one of the less emphasized institutions of the society. After so many years of implementing library legislation very little progress can be found especially in the field of public libraries. In West Bengal most of the public libraries are facing stern challenges to keep their existence and provide proper service to its users. The government in 2014 launched the programme of National Mission on Libraries (NML) to provide a world-class library system by way of implementing an array of modern facilities for the public libraries in India in due course of time. This paper emphasizes on the current scenario of public libraries in West Bengal and the measures to be taken to match the standards of NML so that an amicable environment can be created to provide better services to the users.