Marilen Daum is the Delhi-based regional director of library and information services (South Asia) at the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany. A postgraduate of the Hamburg University of Library Sciences, Daum began her career as a librarian at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics, and has since acquired 25 years of professional experience in the field of international library cooperation and project management. Before she was transferred to India in 2007, she worked for Goethe Instituts in New York, London, and Copenhagen. Currently she is redesigning the library network of Goethe Instituts in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan and India.

Newspeg. Late last year in partnership with the Bangalore-based Hippocampus Children’s Library, Goethe-Institut launched the Hippocampus Library for Children (HLC) in Chennai. The sprawling 2,200 sq. ft attractively furbished library is spread over two floors, offering a handsome collection of 13,254 books from around the world, 200 video games, 625 CDs, two iPads and an XBox to ensure gratifying reading, listening and entertainment experiences to children of all ages.

Unique selling proposition. HLC, which has 250 members, offers institutional membership to government and private schools, making them eligible to borrow 100 or more books at a time. Thus far 35 schools in Chennai have signed up for membership. HLC also provides support services to institutional members to help them establish their own libraries, and its full-fledged, qualified, school services team has already operationalised ten libraries this year.

Direct talk. “Since 2010 the Goethe-Institut has expanded its area of operations. Currently it funds new cultural projects and has also started offering cultural management training programmes. HLC will serve both these purposes,” says Daum.

Future plans.  Daum is bullish about HCL’s tremendous potential for Indo-German cooperation. “We intend to organise exchange visits between authors, illustrators, artists and librarians working with children from Germany and their Indian counterparts to build long-lasting relationships. One of the aims of our partnership with the Hippocampus Children’s Library is to create a sustainable model for libraries, which will serve as a catalyst for change within the under-developed public library system in India. Moreover our efforts to promote German language learning in government and private schools in India is making good progress, with over 1,000 schools agreeing to introduce German in their curriculums over the next few years,” says Daum.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)