This article is about how social network sites Facebook has come in handy in developing a library in a school located in Nellyadi a far off place in Dhakshina Kannada Karnataka

1. Building School Library: A Unique Experience Through Facebook1
Vasantha Raju N.1 and Vimal Kumar Nellyadi2
1 Librarian, Government First Grade College, Periyapatna, Mysore
vasanthrz@gmail.com
2Teacher, Government Higher Primary School, Nellyadi, Puttur. Dakshina Kannada
Abstract. Social media sites have become major source for information. Social media sites have also
been extensively used in political campaign, social activism and for social good. This paper elaborates
on how social media giant Facebook has been used for seeking help to develop a school library at the
Government Higher Primary School, Nellyadi, Puttur, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka.
Keywords: School Library, Social Media, Facebook, Government School, Library Development, Social Good,
Puttur, Dakshina Kannada
1. Introduction
Today we live in world where technologies, mainly Information and communication technologies
have penetrated every aspect of human lives. People of all walks of life have now use Internet for
accessing information, connecting with family and friends, sharing information, watching movies and
listening music and what not. The path breaking innovation of Tim Berners Lee in the early 1990s of
introducing World Wide Web has changed the information landscape considerably. Today because of
the introduction of WWW, user generated content can be shared and used on the web. Availability
of the dynamic nature of content on the web can attributed to the early development in the field of
web technologies (Morville & Rosenfeld, 2007). Social interaction through websites were made
possible in 1997 through SixDegrees.com which was regarded as first recognizable social network
site2
(SNS) (boyd & Ellison, 2008).
The emergence of Friendster in 2002, MySpace, Orkut and Facebook social media sites such Flickr,
YouTube and Last.FM all have changed the way we interact on the web. The SNSs features such as
connecting with friends, sharing wide range of contents (audio, video, and images) and accessing
many of the SNSs through hand held devices have made huge success on web users. Social network
sites are the most often accessed websites on the web. YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, QQ.com and
Twitter are some of the top ranking sites on the web (Alexa, 2014). The democratic (?) nature of
2 The authors used the word social network sites (SNSs) and social media sites interchangeably throughoutthe
paper.

2. Social network sites has allowed users to leverage them for social activism, political campaign and
many other purposes of social good. SNSs have played in crucial role in political campaign and social
activism in many of the countries in recent times especially in the Middle East (e.g., Arab Spring). The
subsequent section of this paper discusses crucial role played by SNSs in political campaign (e.g.,
2014 Indian parliamentary election) and social activism (e.g.,Occupy Wall Street).
2. Role of Social Network Sites in Social Change
In recent times social networks sites have been playing crucial role in political and social activism and
also space for social good. Internet in general and SNSs in particular provide the masses with free
and timely information which has the power to enable attention, awareness and eventually activism
says Clay Shirky, a renowned expertin new media studies (Shirky, 2009).
The Middle East which has seen the downfall of many authoritative regimes in recent years was
simply because of social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The Egyptian revolution is
known as Facebook Revolution, people used the Facebook social media platform for organizing
protests and sending instant information to the people. “We are all Kahled Said” Facebook page
created by Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing executive eventually led for downfall of repressive
regime of Mubarak. Iran and Tunisian repressive regimes (much before the start of Egyptian
revolution) have had also seensimilar fate of Mubarak regime in Egypt because social media sites.
Occupy Wall Street campaign has also used Facebook and Twitter for mobilising people and
resources. More than 450000 people have had joined the Occupy Wall Street campaign Facebook
page to expresstheir support (Kannalley, 2011).
Though Internet penetration in India is less compare to developed countries. It is gaining its
momentum in recent years. By the end of October 2014, there were 278 million Internet users in
India. It was expected that by the end of December 2014 Internet user base in India would be
reaching 302 million (Internet and Mobile Association of India, 2014).
The Anti-Corruption Movement led by Anna Hazare in India was truly driven by social media. People
engaging in social media sites have extended their support to make it a success. The Facebook page
“India Against Corruption” was huge hit among social media users in India and attracted almost 1.5
million likes (Jha, 2014). Pink Chaddi campaign against moral policing went viral through Facebook

3. (Chattopadhyay, 2011). The recent Kiss of Love Campaign3
also against moral policing went viral
across India which was first started in Kochi, kerala, because of social media sites such as Facebook
and Twitter. 2014 Indian parliamentary election has also seen extensive use of social media sites for
campaigning. Social media played crucial role in complete debacle of the previous congress
government. The present BJP government at the center attributed their success to social media (Ali,
2014).
Social media sites are not only using for social activism but also for social good as well. One notable
example is: production of recent Kannada film Lucia through crowd funding. One of the upcoming
Kannada film directors Pavan Kumar created a Facebook page called Project Lucia4
to attract funds
for producing the movie. More than 100 investors contributed funds for the making of the film
through Facebook and a blog (Gooptu & Kandavel, 2013). It was a huge success. Pavan Kumar went
again to make another movie through crowd-funding using social media sites like Facebook.
This paper brings out another unique way of how Facebook is used for social good. Though social
media sites have become an integral part of library and information services (Riza Ayu & Abrizah,
2011), here is an example how Facebook a social media giant can be used for developing or building
government school library. The subsequent part of this paper discusses how school library
construction was made possible through Facebook.
3. How Facebook facilitated for Developing School Library at Government Higher Primary
School, Nellyadi (Puttur)
It was all started when the teacher (one of the author of this paper) asked his students to read books
available in the school in the free time. One of the girl students stand up and said that there was no
new books in the school to read. There was no fund available in the school. This made the teacher to
think about establishing a library in his school by seeking donations/funds from outside sources. For
this, the teacher to think of seeking help through online social networking platforms, in this case the
author used Facebook5
, one of the highly ranked social networking sites. According Alexa6
a web
analytics which ranks websites based on the users’ visits, Facebook is the second most highly visited
websites in the world, nextto the Google.
3 https://www.facebook.com/kissoflovekochi
4 https://www.facebook.com/luciathefilm
5 https://www.facebook.com/vimalkumar.nellyadi
6 http://www.alexa.com/

4. The teacher posted a message (posted on 3rd
October, 2014) on his personal Facebook page seeking
help to provide reading materials to his students (see Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Teacher Requesting for Providing Books in his Personal Facebook Page
After his post appeared on his personal Facebook page, his friends responded positively for the
unique message. Even unknown people who have come across his personal page found this unique
initiative very interesting and extended their help to establish a library at the Nellyadi Government
Higher Primary School. Almost 80 people liked the status, 101 people shared his status and 30 people
commentedpositively for his message (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Comments for the message posted on the teachers personal Facebook Page

5. The book request status appeared on the teacher personal Facebook page was picked by the editor
of one of the well-known Kannada online literary magazine avadhi7
(CªÀ¢ü) and posted in their
website. Immediately, some of the well-known literary people and journalists likes of Dr. C.N.
Ramachandra, a renowned Kannada literary critic, Gauri Lankesh, journlist and Dr. Jagadish Koppa,
writer and a journalist responded through the websites that they would send books to the school to
build a library (See Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Dr. C.N. Ramachandra’s and Dr. Jagadish Koppa‘s comment for the post appeared in
avadhimag.com
People from abroad also responded very quickly and positively to send books to the library. Some of
them even sent money through postal service (Many Order) to the school to purchase the required
books. Some publishers also come forward to donate books to the school library. More than 1.50
Lakh rupeesbooks were donated to the school in a span of 40 days.
Overwhelmed by the Facebook users’ response to the request for books, one of locally elected Taluk
Panchayat member Mrs. Usha Anchan came forward to donate book shelves (furniture) for the
library. A father of a student came forward to arrange wall paintings for the library. All these things
happened in a quick time because of this new media. Eventually the Nellyadi Government School has
7 http://avadhimag.com/

6. got a good new library with sufficient number of books to read which is simply happened through
Facebook (See Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. The teacher’s expressing his thanks for the overwhelming support on his Facebook
Wall
Eventually the library was formally inaugurated on November 20th
of 2014 by the local literary figure
Shri. Purandara Bhat with full of joy on the face of school teachers and students. (Fig. 5).

7. Fig. 5. Nellyadi Government Higher Primary School Library inauguration report appeared in
one of local newspaper
4. Conclusion
Social media sites have changed the way we use information in our daily lives. It has provided
wherewithal to create content and share them with likeminded people without any physical and
geographical constraints. Social media sites have provided enough space for political and social
activism as well as for social good. People sharing their thoughts and ideas through social media
space to attract users’ attentions. Sometime new ideas and thoughts get wider attention and
become reality in action as shown in this paper.

8. References
Alexa. (2014).The top sites on web. Retrieved from http://www.alexa.com/topsites
Ali, I. (2014, June 6).Social media played big role in India’s election. Voiceof America.
Retrieved from http://www.voanews.com/content/social-media-emerges-as-a-key-tool-
in-indias-election/1931238.html
Boyd, D., & Ellison. N.B. (2008). Social network sites: Definition, history andscholarship.
Journal of Computer MediatedCommunication, 13(1),210-230.
Chattopadhyay,S. (2011). Online activism for a heterogeneoustime: The pink chaddi
campaign and the social media in India. Proteus: A Journal of Ideas,27(1). Retrieved from
http://www.ship.edu/uploadedFiles/Ship/Proteus/2011Proteus.pdf#page=35
Gooptu, B., & Kandavel, S. (2013, April 13). Crowd-fundingshow gains pace with Kannada
movie Lucia, over 100 people invest throughFacebook & blog. The Economic Times.
Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-04-
13/news/38511296_1_kannada-film-industry-lifeu-ishtene-first-kannada-movie
Internet and Mobile Association of India. (2014).India to cross300 million Internet usersby
Dec 14. Retrieved from http://www.iamai.in
Jha, C. (2014).Can social media and Internet help reduce corruption?Retrieved from
http://ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=353
Kannalley, C. (2011).Occupy Wall Street: Social media role in social change. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/occupy-wall-street-social-
media_n_999178.html
Morville, P., & Rosenfeld, L. (2007). Information architecturefor the world wide web (3rd ed.).
Beijing: O’Rielly
Riza Ayu, A.R., & Abrizah, A. (2011).Do you Facebook?Usage and applications of Facebook
pages amongacademic libraries in Malaysia. The International Information & Library
Review,43,239-249.
Shirky, C. (2009). Herecomes everybody:The power of organizing without organization. New
York: Penguin.

9. Author Affiliation:
Dr. VasanthaRaju N., is the Librarian at the GovernmentFirst Grade College, Periyapatna,
Mysore. He can be contacted at: vasanthrz@gmail.com
Mr. Vimal Kumar Nellyadi is the Teacher at the Government Higher Primary School, Nellyadi,
Puttur, Dakshina Kannada. Mr. Vimal Kumar is the brain behind using Facebook for
developing the Library in GHPS-Nellyadi.
Citationforthis Article:
Vasantha Raju N., & Vimal Kumar Nellyadi. (2014). Building school library: A unique
experience with Facebook. In K.V. Prabhakara., N.S. Harinarayana, M.V. Sunil., N. Vasantha
Raju & M. Veena (Eds.). Social Media and Libraries, SBRR Mahajana First Grade College (pp.
105-114).Mysore:SBRR MahajanaFirst Grade College, Mysore.