Libraries can help rebuild our war-torn society
A retiring librarian on her life experiences, libraries and reading.
Mrs. Kirupaimalar Hoole retired from her duties as a Jaffna university librarian earlier this year. In her three-decade long career as a university librarian at the Open University of Sri Lanka and the University of Jaffna she helped pioneer digital cataloguing, automated library management and online access. In the mid-2000s, she also served as a librarian at the Harvard University. She shares her life experiences, her love for libraries and how reading can help a crippled society find its feet once again in this interview which appeared in Yarl Thinakkural.
Can you tell us about your schooling?
My early schooling was at Nelliady Methodist Mission School where both my parents taught. I moved to Point Pedro Methodist Mission School for Year 3 and, later, studied at the Vembadi Girls’ College for my Advanced Level.
I was part of the first batch of graduates from the University of Jaffna. We were admitted to the university in 1974 and the entire science batch read double mathematics and statistics owing to the lack of lab facilitates for other disciplines. There were 70 Tamils and 30 Sinhalese in the first cohort of students. There were also Tamil and Sinhalese lecturers. Ethnic segregation happened only after the 1977 Riots. Even though we did our utmost to protect the Sinhalese students and the lecturers at the time, the lecturers subsequently left owing to distrust and related fears. The civil war took hold soon after and our lives were severely disrupted but I am glad to note that the bonds of friendships stood the test of time.
What did you do prior to becoming a librarian?
I worked as a teacher in the first decade of my career. I taught at several local schools, did two contracts in Nigeria and a spell at the Chundikkuli Girls’ College.
During this time, I witnessed the 1983 Black July violece, the fratricide among Tamil militants in 1986 and experienced the early hope and promise of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord which turned out to be a tragedy in the coming years. Too many innocent lives were sacrificed in the name of liberation.
A few Jaffna university academics, including my husband, co-wrote the book Broken Palmyra in response to these events. The book documented not just the violations of the state and the Indian Peace Keeping Force but also that of the Tamil militants. Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, one of the authors, was shot dead for her independent activism and, particularly, her contribution to the book. These academics encouraged the students to not just to be better students but also to reflect deeply about what was happening around them and defend truth, justice and human rights inside and outside the university.
One memory that stands out for me from this time is what my husband said immediately after hearing the news of Rajani’s demise: ‘I won’t flee Sri Lanka. I will stay on and finish the work we started.’ Aside from teaching at Chundikkuli, I did whatever I could to support my husband and his colleagues in their efforts.
How did you become a librarian?
We moved to the UK in the early 90s, coinciding with my husband’s sabbatical. I read an MSc in Business Information Systems at the East London University during this time. When we returned to Colombo, I voluntarily contributed to the digitisation and automation of the Open University’s existing library system. The Open University Librarian Mrs. Sriranjini Korale who was impressed with my work asked me to apply for an Assistant Librarian opening; she wanted someone capable of developing a fully digital library management system for the Open University.
I joined the Open University in 1993 where I would serve for the next 10 years. During this time, I had the joy of working under a skilled senior librarian whose strength was her wide ranging knowledge of books and writers. She herself was an avid reader and she was passionate about accumulating a great collection of books for the university. She would read every journal that the Open University was a subscriber of. I learnt from her that the ability to choose appropriate books is the most important attribute of a librarian. She knew the gaps in our library’s collection and would always actively seek to plug them. I used to accompany her on her monthly visit to the local book shops to survey the new arrivals.
In 2004, my husband and I moved to the USA. He was a visiting scholar in mathematics at Harvard University and I worked at different Harvard libraries during this time. This experience exposed me to a variety of library systems and services. In particular, I worked with machine-readable cataloguing systems and learnt how they paired with online access. By the time our Harvard days drew to a close, the war had intensified. We could not return immediately and sought refuge in Chennai with our friends for four years.
We eventually moved back to Jaffna in 2010, after nearly 20 years. My husband rejoined the Jaffna university mathematics department almost immediately upon return and I joined the university library as a Senior Assistant Librarian in 2012. In the intervening years, I volunteered to automate the St. John’s College library using the open-sourced WINISIS platform.
What was your reaction to coming back?
I had mixed feelings.
I was of course glad to be back but it was also evident the war had crippled a once learned society. Ten years on, it is clear how much education has suffered. People no longer read. Only a few can articulate their thoughts in English. In place of rational discourse one finds various forms of jingoism and mindless rituals in the university. So there is definitely a sense of deep sadness.
Can you tell us about your experience at the Jaffna university library?
I was fortunate to have had the opportunity of sorting and cataloguing book donations from eminent members of the Tamil society. It was a privilege to interact with material that shaped some of the most impactful members of our society and I am glad that the library now houses these valuable books for the benefit of the staff and students — present and future.
With better digital infrastructure, the university library is now able to provide students with online access to a wide selection of journals and other local and international electronic learning resources. It is also a source of joy that students’ library usage improved during my time at the library. I played an integral role in the information literacy programmes we offered to the students — helping them become better at searching for and retrieving the information they require.
Working with the late librarian Mrs Srikanthaluxmy Sivanesan — while different to my Open University experience — was nonetheless exciting. Mrs. Sivanesan’s strength was her resourcefulness and abundant creativity. She was very resourceful and led a number of initiatives to promote reading in the wider society. In particular, she was dedicated to promoting reading in primary school and her work in this regard is exceptional.
Do you have any final thoughts?
We are preoccupied with unnecessary, unproductive internet-based attention merchants. Working in the library was a blessing. I was able to improve the knowledge of students from diverse social and economic backgrounds. I wish more people would take to this task. Particularly at a time like this, parents have the opportunity of encouraging their children to read and study independently.
Access to information alone means nothing. We need to learn how to read, understand and think for ourselves. Knowledge comes from reading not through information technology. My wish is that our academics and students — starting from school level — read more.
