Consider the daily routine of an engineering student. He attends college. He works on his engineering projects and his classwork and laboratory. He maintains his knowledge base with all the new technologies in the world. But he is certainly unaware of many socio-economic problems, current issues and recent events which affect the society as a whole.

On the contrary, Katta is a symbol of Discussions & Debates. The Katta is generally a centre place of any village. It is like a raised platform around a tree where people come usually in free time. And this is exactly what Library Katta is for our students. Students meet-up at the central library stairs each month on Wednesday to share their thoughts on a certain topic.

The Rajarambapu Institute of Technology has started this activity with the vision of overall development of students, which is also the ultimate purpose of education. Library Katta provides the platform to the students to share their thoughts on a particular issue. It is an informal gathering of the students to think and express themselves on social issues in the community by improving their reading of newspapers, books, magazines etc. There is no evaluation and assessment of any student. It is only informal discussion amongst them that improves their presentation skills and confidence level. As an engineer, the sensitivity to social and community issues is important so that the students can identify such problems and develop solutions.

In today’s social life, a student’s thinking ability seems to be diminishing. Creating a desire for students to observe themselves, to discover themselves, to think, to explain, and to present them in a way that they understand, in an attempt to achieve holistic development of the students.

Through this activity, we try to brainstorm thoughts on the issues that arise in society, the objectives of the government, policies, social, cultural, economic, educational, national – international issues. The initiative aims to create positive change in the student, strengthen his academic level, take serious thought and poise and develop a strong youth.

This initiative is very important for the library also, as it provides an opportunity for dialogue and discussion of the staff and students of the library along with the reader’s needs. Assessment of the students’ perceptions of their social concerns is necessitated. This is an attempt by the Library Katta to try to raise awareness. As an outcome of implementation, we are able to create social awareness of Library Katta as well as motivate students from this initiative. Our mission is to continue with the declaration, “You come and bring others” to benefit the society.

Still today, the total number of topics discussed is 17 and the number of students participated in the activity is approximately 600. Some of the topics discussed are Triple Talaq and the present day conditions of women in the society, CAA and its impact, Las Vegas- Another Indicators of Peacelessness, Clean India Movement- Just a slogan or Do we really care, Women’s Safety, etc.

The Outcome of the activity is observed as an increase in frequency of visits to the library by the users.

User satisfaction levels have increased. The informal feedback from the users in the form of dialogue also helped to correct or modify certain procedures that helped them. User interaction is encouraged by all the sections on an informal basis and this has improved the functioning and activities in the library.