What belongs in a Mini-Library

An open library in a public place is a public thing. These are the rules a Captain applies, and they are deliberately short enough to remember.

Yes

• Fiction and non-fiction in any language, for any age.
• School and college texts, reference books, exam guides.
• Magazines and periodicals, if they are in reasonable condition.
• Books somebody in your village would actually pick up. That is the real test.

No

• Anything sexual, or anything that sexualises children, in any form.
• Material that attacks a religion, a caste or a community, or calls for violence.
• Party political campaign material. A book about politics is fine; a pamphlet asking for a vote is not.
• Advertising dressed as a book, including coaching-centre promotional material.
• Books that are falling apart, mouldy or missing pages. One damaged book makes a whole Mini-Library look abandoned.

Libraries where children are the readers

Where a Mini-Library is at a school, an anganwadi or anywhere children are the main readers, the Captain keeps adult material out of it entirely — not because the material is wrong, but because that is not where it goes.

When something has to come off

The Captain takes it out. No committee, no appeal, no waiting for us. If you are not sure, take it out and ask — a book can always go back; a village's trust in its library is much harder to put back.

A book that is removed keeps its page and its history. Removal is not deletion: the notes other readers wrote on it are theirs, not ours to erase.

If you see something wrong

Every Mini-Library page has a way to report it, and it reaches us as well as the Captain. You can also write to us directly.