As she emphasized the role of publishers in bringing the two ends together, I was remined of my father Late Shankar Dayal Singh, an avid reader, accomplished author and established publisher himself, who would often say, writing a book is the simplest job while reading it is comparatively tough. However, the toughest job is that of a publisher as their stakes are the most.

I also remember him saying that so far as it is in the form of paper, its price surges but as soon as something is written (or printed) on it, its price starts diminishing and very often it lands up with the ‘raddiwalah’! While the rim of paper is ‘Lakshmi’ personate, the book represents ‘Sarswati’; and the hostility between the two is well-known. Therefore, it is not surprising that while the followers of Lakshmi are rich, the devotees of the latter are poor!

Speaking to the publishers and librarians, Mugdha Sinha did recognize that the concerns of the publishers and libraries are not alike. While publishers aim at reaping profit, the objective of the librarians is to make the experience of their readers pleasant. Likewise, the government would also want the books to be affordable and meaningful.

In spite of its third rank globally, in terms of number of books sold and sales revenue generated, India faces the challenge of bringing the readers and the reading material together. It is not just the popularity of digital games that has turned off the readers, the paucity of interesting reads too has made literature in general, and the libraries in particular, obsolete.

Most of the publishers are happy to have their books on the library shelves and do not bother if it gathers dust after that. It is not therefore surprising that the publishing industry in India is getting more and more dependent on government purchase for its profitability. With advent of the digital printing, publishers tend to print a few copies for submissions and get the requited number of copies printed once they get confirmed orders. This is truer for the Hindi book publishers who often find pocket size of their readers small.

Libraries, therefore, have become merely storehouses or repositories of books and are no longer the treasure-trove of knowledge and information that they once used to be. Sinha not just lamented this unfortunate state of affairs, but also gave some very useful advice to make libraries vibrant hubs of lifelong learning, innovation and cultural preservation. Stressing on the need for the libraries to reinvent themselves, she suggested that they could organize book fairs and serve as a venue for dialogues and discussions on subjects of relevance.

Today, people want access to knowledge and information online with libraries trying to rise to their demands. As Sinha pointed out, the Central Libraries in India are entrusted with the task of disseminating information and knowledge digitally. However, this practice has also resulted into erosion of copyright law. This was brought into focus at the seminar with Sinha laying down the benefits of mass digitization and FICCI worrying about its fallback and stressing on the growing need of safeguarding IPR in digital eco-system. Indeed, this cannot be ignored either and the onus of addressing this lies primarily on the government as the act of using purchased digital content is not at all governed by the copyright law, but by contract law that is more local than universal.