Book reading is a good habit.
Once a great educationist said, that ``if he had c some money for education, he would do three things’’. He would, first of all, build a big hall where students could meet one another as friends. This hall would be the center of the students’ social life. After this he would build a library where students could go to study. If he had still some money left, he would employ a few teachers. What the educationist meant to say was that a library was one of the most useful things in a town or an educational institution.
This is true not only of educational institutions, but of other place as well. A library is really one of the most useful institutions in the world.
Why is it so?
In the first place, a library stocks rare books and manuscripts. It is not possible for every person to buy these books, for they are very expensive. But libraries can afford to purchase them, and thus give the ordinary student an opportunity to have a look at them. In this way they bring the most valuable books within the reach of even ordinary persons.
At the same time, it contains costly dictionaries, encyclopedias and books of reference. It is clear that it is not possible for everyone to possess all these books. But if one wants to consult such books, one can very easily to go to a public library. Similar is the case with books on science and other subjects. Since individuals cannot afford to possess all of them, they can make use of them in libraries here they are kept.
Public libraries, in some respects, serve the same purpose as educational institutions. They spread knowledge and banish ignorance. This is the reason why are called temples of learning. It is not always possible to study at home without being disturbed by one thing or another. But in a library one can study for hours without having one’s attention distracted by anything. It is so because every one goes there with the set purpose of studying. So much silence reigns there that one feels disposed to study. In this way libraries provide us with facilities for quiet undisturbed study.
Libraries not only spread knowledge, but also increase the stock of human learning. It is only by patient study in libraries that people discover many new things; it is there that people collect material for new books and articles. Thus they serve indirectly to increase human knowledge.