In an earnest effort to celebrate libraries and librarians, to facilitate world-class libraries across the country, OneUp Library, Bookstudio and Learning Lab launches The Bandana Sen Library Awards.
Envisioned in the memory of Bandana Sen, a pioneer in the field of children's libraries and reading programs in India, BSLA aims to motivate and promote the library as a space for nurturing young students’ imagination, critical thinking abilities and the development of collaborative spirit and innovation. BSLA invites entries for excellence in best practices in nurturing learning environments to librarians and school heads from schools across the country from 15th July to 15th September 2019.
BSLA envisions the ‘library’ at the heart of our school communities that catalyzes the child’s development by providing a continually evolving, dynamic and joyful environment that encourages discovery.
They have a higher purpose of nourishing souls, and every child deserves a Librarian who believes in them and can help them grow their bond with books. School libraries today have the potential to not only support the school curriculum but also be classified as collaborative learning zones that center on critical-reading activities. It is therefore imperative that we strengthen our school libraries and laud our librarians, to enable them to nurture the reading culture in our society.
Joining the cause is a committed panel of jury and advisors, who share the vision and add immense value with their areas of expertise. The erudite Jury members have enviable reputations as educational professionals and include Abha Adams, Dr. Shabbi Luthra, Ruchira Ghosh, Peggy Sood, Dr. ShaliniAdvani, Donavon Reinsmoen.
The talented and passionate advisers are drawn from the worlds of literature, arts, and publishing and include Paro Anand, Sanjna Kapoor, Usha Pandit, Mahesh Rao, Hemali Sodhi, Himani Dalmia, Kirandeep Kaur, Preeti Gill, HeeruBhojwani.
According to Dalbir Kaur Madan, Founder Director, OneUp Library and the driving force behind BSLA, “LaunchingBSLAwards is a huge step for us since we are honoring Ms. Bandana Sen’s spirit and her work. For the first time in the education world, we celebrate the unsung champions: our librarians, along with our school heads, who open a world of possibilities for our children through books. Through these awards; we hope to create a road map to invigorate futuristic libraries, which can set out to become role models for others”.
The BSL Awards will be given out at a special event on 9th November 2019 at IIC, Delhi.
More about the awards
CRITERIA: These awards are available to full-time librarians /teacher- librarians in grades K-12 in the CBSE / ICSE affiliated boards in India and will be awarded to teachers/teacher librarians who:
THE AWARDS: This year, BSL Awards will be given to the Head of School and the Librarian/Teacher-Librarian for excellence in best practices in nurturing learning environments: