Features
US: Use of Libraries; UK: Tradition; SL…..
I was sent the text of a report authored by Kathi Inman Berens PhD, and Rachel Noorda PhD, both of Portland State University, Oregon, based on data collected in 2022 on the use of libraries and books in the US. Dr Berens is a Fulbright Scholar of digital culture, prize winning author and Associate Professor of Book Publishing and Digital Humanities. Dr Noorda is Director and Associate Professor of Publishing. Her research is mainly on consumer behaviour, marketing and entrepreneurship in the book industry.
The main point of their research is that 54% of Gen Z and Millennials visited a physical library within the previous 12 months. This is considerably high use of libraries in this age of electronics and the availability in-house of all information via Internet etc.
The two terms used above need clarification here. “Millennials or the millennial generation is defined as those “born between 1981 and 1996, which means anyone between the ages of 24 and 39 in 2020. This age range, like other generational cohorts, is chosen for statistical analysis of certain trends rather than being a strict identifier.”
“Gen Z or Generation Z is the name for the generation that follows Millennials. It is the name given to the current generation of young people by many demographic researchers. According to the Pew Research Center, Gen Z consists of people born between 1997 and 2012. Google Trends data show that Generation Z is far outpacing other names in people’s searches for information. While there is no scientific process for deciding when a name has stuck, the momentum is clearly behind Gen Z.”
The repor
Getting back to the Berens – Noorda report, of the 2075 Gen Z and Millennials surveyed in 2020, more than half reported they visit libraries and also borrow from a library’s digital collection. “The data also revealed younger Americans’ distinct preference for physical version of books; these young ones read and bought on average twice as many print books per month as any other category.” Thus Dr Noorda, accepting this find as ‘great news,’ commented: “Not only are younger generations of people reading books, buying books and visiting libraries, but they are also engaging with other forms of media. They are gamers, readers, writers and fans who are comfortable with the malleability between media categories and forms.”
Change to suit times
I write about this use of libraries in America because it is excellent news for librarians; me being one. I well remember that at a summer course in Wales in the early 1970s the fear being expressed that the book was surely going the way of dinosaurs to extinction and computers would take over. Book libraries too were on the way out to obsolescence. That meant the redundancy of librarians. Thus the first move: name change from Librarian to Information Scientist, Documentalist etc.
Then libraries changed from being somber, silence-demanding, book lined places with a commanding librarian as supervisor to a completely user friendly, relaxed space of various media, with the book still upfront and taken down and read. Libraries transformed to media centres and some went to the extent of having coffee and snacks on hand.
Silence boards were thrown out even in still conservative libraries. With social media taking over, books were relegated to second place, but still of importance and interest Thus the sheer delight in reading the report I mention above which affirms more than half of the American young adult population is actually visiting physical (against) virtual libraries and reading or borrowing paper-printed books. Great! This applies, I am certain to other advanced countries too.
The President of the American Library Association (ALA), Emily Drabinski adds: “These digitally-immersed generations make clear that libraries are about more than books. Programming relevant to teens and their parents – coding clubs, job application help, gaming, draws even non-readers to the library as does the physical space to connect and collaborate.”
Over here in SL
Thank goodness in a way that Sri Lanka is somewhat backward. Many of our libraries remain as they have always been, book dominated. But many are computerized now, multi-media stocked, and the emphasis moved to users and the concept of dissemination of knowledge. I shudder to think there may be school libraries, even public, that still have books in locked glass fronted cupboards – not open shelving – and a martinet of a librarian guarding the books.
The most encouraging feature connected to reading and books is that both are still very popular across the board. We had a high literacy rate from way back and though the majority suffered the disadvantage of not having much money, reading and books were always held in high esteem. Public libraries were heavily patronized. With the help of organizations such as Room to Read, Dharmavijaya and many others, school libraries were either set up in the recent past or developed. Testimony to the fact that almost all Lankans love and revere books and reading is the large numbers that attend the annual Colombo Book Fair. A very heartening sight is a parent or elder, carrying book parcels and hurrying children to bus halts down Baudhaloka Mavata. Thank goodness! The printed book lives on, and is read.
Tradition in Britain
Every country has its traditions. Britain has more than most; carefully preserved and faithfully followed and practiced for centuries. One such is the Throne Speech delivered by the reigning monarch at each state opening of Parliament for the year. This started in the late 14th century and in its present style in 1852 when Parliament was rebuilt after the great fire.
Traditional customs are unchanged; the monarch and consort arrive in a special gilded carriage in full regalia, the monarch wearing the bejeweled Imperial State Crown Queen Elizabeth II delivered 67 Throne speeches.
This year it was a king who read what the government intended to do in the year ahead, after seven decades. King Charles III and Queen Camilla took centre stage on November 7, 2023, at Westminster.Commented on was the fact that Charles read with deadpan political neutrality that his Parliament under Rishi Sunak planned to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
He is one of the strongest supporters of the reduction of use of fossil fuels, having made his first speech on environmental protection in 1990 as a 21 year old Heir to the Throne. He has announced that all people “strive together to protect the world from our most existential challenge of all” –global warming but on November 7 he followed tradition unerringly and read out a statement that went against his belief and advocacy.
Traditions here
Boasting a cultural heritage of more than two and a half millennia, Sri Lanka has inherited traditions from the BC period. One such is the Esala Perahera held in Kandy since the third century BC. I make bold to say that unlike in Britain where almost all traditions have been retained and practiced in the original manner, ours have undergone changes. Of course we were colonized and had to bow down to rules imposed by the Portuguese, Dutch and British who first intruded, then annexed coastal regions and finally settled down as rulers of the entire island.
Some traditions were stamped out like temple customs when the Portuguese wielded power. But traditions have been changed by us and ourselves. The Kandy Esala Perahera concentrated on dignity and practicality when it began.. However, the competitive spirit and ‘I can do better’ attitude crept in, so much so that around 100 elephants or more are brought to parade. The Nilames of the Dalada Maligawa and devales, a couple of years ago, approached the then President – Mahinda R – for release of elephants from orphanages for their peraheras. An internationally recognized expert was Head of the Wild Life Conservation Department.
He refused to release elephants from the Uda Walawe orphanage as they were being nurtured to return to the forest when able to fend for themselves. Since the refusal was not acceptable, he resigned his post causing tremendous loss to the nation. Did peraheras of long ago, say even 50 years ago, insist on so many elephants to be tortured by being made to parade at pereheras?
Comes to mind Katina pinkamas since this is the month for such ceremonies to end monks’ three months vas retreats. These pinkamas were simple and dignified; now they tend to be even garish and affordable by only the very rich. Basics are the same, trappings and trimmings have undergone change; the emphasis being on money spending.
How many young ones bow on bended knee to their parents? And the unacceptable recent twist to it of making children go down in respect to all and sundry – school visiting politicians, chief guest at a prize giving. My generation and before, we bowed to parents, grandparents and Buddhist monks; not to family outsiders however powerful they were.
Covid gave a prohibitive blow to kissing as a form of greeting and smooching on one’s cheek and even the western-imported handshake. We went back to greeting or leave-taking with palms together and slight bow. That is how we in Kandy expressed love, appreciation, welcome and goodbye then. Smooching was alien, even repugnant to us.
We Lankans have wonderful traditions, most preserved and practiced as they were long centuries ago, but some tinkered for enhancement but in reality degrading and taking away much of the grace of the customary tradition.
It could be quite premature to claim that the US has closed ranks completely with the world’s foremost fascist states: Russia, China and North Korea. But there is no denying that the US is breaking with tradition and perceiving commonality of policy orientation with the mentioned authoritarian states of the East rather than with Europe and its major democracies at present.
Increasingly, it is seemingly becoming evident that the common characterization of the US as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’, could be a gross misnomer. Moreover, the simple fact that the US is refraining from naming Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its refusal to perceive Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia, proves that US foreign policy is undergoing a substantive overhaul, as it were. In fact, one could not be faulted, given this backdrop, for seeing the US under President Donald Trump as compromising its democratic credentials very substantially.
Yet, it could be far too early to state that in the traditional East-West polarity in world politics, that the US is now squarely and conclusively with the Eastern camp that comprises in the main, China and Russia. At present, the US is adopting an arguably more nuanced approach to foreign policy formulation and the most recent UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine bears this out to a degree. For instance, the UN resolution in question reportedly ‘calls for a rapid end to the war without naming Russia as the aggressor.’
That is, the onus is being placed on only Ukraine to facilitate an end to the war, whereas Russia too has an obligation to do likewise. But it is plain that the US is reflecting an eagerness in such pronouncements to see an end to the Ukraine conflict. It is clearly not for a prolongation of the wasting war. It could be argued that a negotiated settlement is being given a try, despite current international polarizations.
However, the US could act constructively in the crisis by urging Russia as well to ensure an end to the conflict, now that there is some seemingly friendly rapport between Trump and Putin.
However, more fundamentally, if the US does not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia as a result of the latter’s invasion, we are having a situation wherein the fundamental tenets of International Law are going unrecognized by the US. That is, international disorder and lawlessness are being winked at by the US.
It follows that, right now, the US is in cahoots with those powers that are acting autocratically and arbitrarily in international politics rather than with the most democratically vibrant states of the West, although a facile lumping together of the US, Russia and China, is yet not possible.
It is primarily up to the US voting public to take clear cognizance of these developments, draw the necessary inferences and to act on them. Right now, nothing substantive could be done by the US voter to put things right, so to speak, since mid-term US elections are due only next year. But there is ample time for the voting public to put the correct perspective on these fast-breaking developments, internationally and domestically, and to put their vote to good use in upcoming polls and such like democratic exercises. They would be acting in the interest of democracy worldwide by doing so.
More specifically it is up to Donald Trump’s Republican voter base to see the damage that is being done by the present administration to the US’ standing as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’. They need to bring pressure on Trump and his ‘inner cabinet’ to change course and restore the reputation of their country as the foremost democracy. In the absence of such action it is the US citizenry that would face the consequences of Trump’s policy indiscretions.
Meanwhile, the political Opposition in the US too needs to get its act together, so to speak, and pressure the Trump administration into doing what is needed to get the US back to the relevant policy track. Needless to say, the Democratic Party would need to lead from the front in these efforts.
While, in the foreign policy field the US under President Trump could be said to be acting with a degree of ambivalence and ambiguity currently, in the area of domestic policy it is making it all to plain that it intends to traverse a fascistic course. As has been proved over the past two months, white supremacy is being made the cardinal principle of domestic governance.
Trump has made it clear, for example, that his administration would be close to ethnic chauvinists, such as the controversial Ku Klux Klan, and religious extremists. By unceremoniously rolling back the ‘diversity programs’ that have hitherto helped define the political culture of the US, the Trump administration is making no bones of the fact that ethnic reconciliation would not be among the government’s priorities. The steady undermining of USAID and its main programs worldwide is sufficient proof of this. Thus the basis has been adequately established for the flourishing of fascism and authoritarianism.
Yet, the US currently reflects a complex awareness of foreign policy questions despite having the international community wondering whether it is sealing a permanent alliance with the main powers of the East. For instance, President Trump is currently in conversation on matters in the external relations sphere that are proving vital with the West’s principal leaders. For example, he has spoken to President Emmanuel Macron of France and is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK.
Obviously, the US is aware that it cannot ‘go it alone’ in resolving currently outstanding issues in external relations, such as the Ukraine question. There is a clear recognition that the latter and many more issues require a collaborative approach.
Besides, the Trump administration realizes that it cannot pose as a ‘first among equals’, given the complexities at ground level. It sees that given the collective strength of the rest of the West that a joint approach to problem solving cannot be avoided. This is particularly so in the case of Ukraine.
The most major powers of the West are no ‘pushovers’ and Germany, under a possibly Christian Democratic Union-led alliance in the future, has indicated as much. It has already implied that it would not be playing second fiddle to the US. Accordingly, the US is likely to steer clear of simplistic thinking in the formulation of foreign policy, going forward.
by Upali Gamakumara,
Upali.gamakumara@gmail.com
The Clean Sri Lanka (CSL) is a project for the true renaissance the NPP government launched, the success of which would gain world recognition. It is about more than just cleaning up places. Its broader objectives are to make places attractive and happy for people who visit or use services in the country, focusing more on the services in public institutions and organisations like the SLTB. Unfortunately, these broader objectives are not apparent in its theme, “Clean Sri Lanka,” and therefore there is a misconception that keeping the environment clean is the main focus.
People who realise the said broader objectives are excited about a cleaner Sri Lanka, hoping the President and the government will tackle this, the way they are planning to solve other big problems like the economy and poverty. However, they do not see themselves as part of the solution.
From the management perspective, the CSL has a strategic plan that is not declared in that manner. When looking at the government policies, one can perceive its presence, the vision being “A Prosperous Nation and a Beautiful Life,” the mission “Clean Sri Lanka” and the broader objectives “a disciplined society, effective services, and a cleaner environment.” If the government published these as the strategy, there would have been a better understanding.
Retaining the spirit and expectations and continuing the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project is equally important as much as understanding its deep idea. For this, it needs to motivate people, which differs from those motivators that people push to achieve selfish targets. The motivation we need here is to evolve something involuntarily, known as Drivers. Drivers push for the survival of the evolution or development of any entity. We see the absence of apparent Drivers in the CSL project as a weakness that leads to sporadic hiccups and free flow.
Drivers of Evolution
Drivers vary according to the nature of envisaged evolution for progress. However, we suggest that ‘the force that pushes anything to evolve’ would fit all evolutions. Some examples are: ‘Fitting to survival’ was the driver of the evolution of life. Magnetism is a driver for the unprecedented development of physics – young Einstein was driven to enquire about the ‘attraction’ of magnets, eventually making him the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
Leadership is a Driver. It is essential but do not push an evolution continually as they are not sprung within a system involuntarily. This is one of the reasons why CSL has lost the vigour it had at its inception.
CSL is a teamwork. It needs ‘Drives’ for cohesion and to push forward continually, like the Quality Improvement Project of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Their drivers are outlined differently keeping Aims as their top driver and saying: Aims should be specific and measurable, not merely to “improve” or “reduce,” engage stakeholders to define the aim of the improvement project and a clear aim to identify outcome measures.
So, we think that CSL needs Aims as defined by NHS, built by stakeholder participation to help refine the project for continuous evolution. This approach is similar to Deming’s Cycle for continual improvement. Further, two more important drivers are needed for the CSL project. That is Attitudinal Change and Punishment. We shall discuss these in detail under Psychoactive Environment (pSE) below.
Aside from the above, Competition is another driver in the business world. This helps achieve CSL objectives in the private sector. We can see how this Driver pushes, with the spread of the Supermarket chains, the evolution of small and medium retail shops to supermarket level, and in the private banks and hospitals, achieving broader objectives of CSL; a cleaner environment, disciplined behaviuor, efficient service, and the instillation of ethics.
The readers can now understand the importance of Drivers pushing any project.
Three Types of Entities and Their Drives
We understand, that to do the transformation that CSL expects, we need to identify or adopt the drivers separately to suit the three types of entities we have in the country.
Type I entities are the independent entities that struggle for their existence and force them to adopt drivers involuntarily. They are private sector entities, and their drivers are the commitment of leadership and competition. These drivers spring up involuntarily within the entity.
Type II are the dependent entities. To spring up drivers of these entities commitment of an appointed trustee is a must. Mostly in state-owned entities, categorized as Boards, Authorities, Cooperations, and the like. Their drivers do not spring up within or involuntarily unless the leader initiates. The Government of a country also falls into this type and the emergence of drivers depends on the leader.
Type III entities have neither independent nor dependent immediate leader or trustee. They are mostly the so-called ‘Public’ places like public-toilets, public-playgrounds, and public-beaches. No team can be formed as these places are open to any, like no-man-land. Achieving CSL objectives at these entities depends on the discipline of the public or the users.
Clean Sri Lanka suffers the absence of drivers in the second and third types of entities, as the appointed persons are not trustees but temporary custodians.
The writer proposes a remedy to the last two types of entities based on the theory of pSE explained below.
Psychoactive Environment (pSE) –
The Power of Customer Attraction
Research by the writer introduced the Psychoactive Environment (pSE) concept to explain why some businesses attract more customers than others who provide the same service. Presented at the 5th Global Conference on Business and Economics at Cambridge University in 2006, the study revealed that a “vibe” influences customer attraction. This vibe, termed pSE, depends on Three Distinct Elements, which can either attract or repel customers. A positive pSE makes a business more attractive and welcoming. This concept can help develop Drivers for Type II and III entities.
pSE is not an all-inclusive solution for CSL, but it lays the foundation for building Drivers and motivating entities to keep entrants attractive and contented.
The structure of the pSE
The three distinct Elements are the Occupants, Systems, and Environment responsible for making a pSE attractive to any entity, be it a person, institution, organization, or county. Each of these elements bears three qualities named Captivators. These captivators are, in simple terms, Intelligent, Nice, and Active in their adjective forms.
pSE theorizes that if any element fails to captivate the entrant’s mood by not being Intelligent, Nice, or Active, the pSE becomes negative, repelling the entrant (customer). Conversely, the positive pSE attracts the entrants if the elements are Intelligent, Nice, and Active.
For example, think person who comes to a Government Office for some service. He sees that the employees, service, and environment are intelligent, nice, and active, and he will be delighted and contented. He will not get frustrated or have any deterioration in national productivity.
The Significance of pSE in CSL
The Elements and the Captivators are universal for any entity. Any entity can easily find its path to Evolution or Progress determined by these elements and captivators. The intangible broader objectives can be downsised to manageable targets by pSE. Achievements of these targets make the entrants happy and enhance productivity – the expectation of Clean Sri Lanka (CSL).
From the perspective of pSE, now we can redefine the Clean Sri Lanka project thus:
To make the Elements of every entity in Sri Lanka: intelligent, Nice, and Active.
How Would the pSE be A Remedy for The Sporadic Hiccups?
We have seen two possible reasons for sporadic setbacks and the discontinuity of some projects launched by the CSL. They are:
The absence of involuntary Drivers for evolvement or progress
Poor attitudes and behaviors of people and leaders
Remedy for the Absence of Drivers
Setting up a system to measure customer or beneficiary satisfaction, and setting aims can build Drivers. The East London NHS principles help build the Aims that drive type II & II entities. The system must be designed to ensure continual improvement following the Deming Cycle. This strategy will create Drivers for Type I & II entities.
This process is too long to explain here therefore we refrain from detailing.
Attitudinal Change
The most difficult task is the attitudinal and behavioural change. Yet it cannot be postponed.
Punishment as a strategy
In developed countries, we see that people are much more disciplined than in the developing countries. We in developing countries, give credit to their superior culture, mitigating ours as rudimental. The long experience and looking at this affair from a vantage point, one will understand it is not the absolute truth. Their ruthless wars in the past, rules, and severe punishment are the reasons behind this discipline. For example, anyone who fails to wear a car seatbelt properly will be fined 400 AUD, nearly 80,000 LKR!
The lesson we can learn is, that in Sri Lanka, we need strong laws and strict punishment together with a type of strategic education as follows.
Psychological Approach as a Strategy
The psychological theory of attitude formation can be used successfully if some good programmes can be designed.
All attitude formations start with life experience. Formed wrong or negative attitudes can be reversed or instilled with correct attitudes by exposure to designed life experiences. The programmes have been developed using the concepts of Hoshin Kanri, Brainstorming, Cause-and-Effect analysis, and Teamwork, in addition to London NTS Quality Improvement strategies.
The experience and good responses we received for our pSE programs conducted at several institutions prove and have built confidence in our approach. However, it was a time, when governments or organisations did not pay much attention to cultural change as CSL expects in the country.
Therefore, we believe this is a golden opportunity to take the CSL supported by the pSE concept.
Although they are visually impaired youngsters, under the guidance of renowned musician Melantha Perera, these talented individuals do shine bright … hence the name Bright Light.
Says Melantha: “My primary mission is to nurture their talent and ensure their sustainable growth in music, and I’m thrilled to announce that Bright Light’s first public performance is scheduled for 7th June, 2025. The venue will be the MJF Centre Auditorium in Katubadda, Moratuwa.”
Melantha went on to say that two years of teaching, online, visually impaired youngsters, from various parts of the island, wasn’t an easy ride.
There were many ups and downs but Melantha’s determination has paid off with the forming of Bright Light, and now they are gearing up to go on stage.
According to Melantha, they have come a long way in music.
“For the past few months, we have been meeting, physically, where I guide them to play as a band and now they show a very keen interest as they are getting to the depth of it. They were not exposed to English songs, but I’ve added a few English songs to widen their repertoire.
Melantha Perera: Invented a notation
system for the guitar
“On 7th June, we are opening up for the public to come and witness their talents, and I want to take this product island-wide, giving the message that we can do it, and I’m hoping to create a database so there will be a following. Initially, we would like your support by attending the show.”
Melantha says he didn’t know what he was getting into but he had confidence teaching anyone music since he has been in the scene for the past 45 years. He began teaching in 2015,
“When I opened my music school, Riversheen School of Music, the most challenging part of teaching was correcting tone deaf which is the theoretical term for those who can’t pitch a note, and also teaching students to keep timing while they sang and played.”
Melantha has even invented a notation system for the guitar which he has named ‘MelaNota’. He has received copyrights from the USA and ISO from Australia, but is yet to be recognised in Sri Lanka.
During Covid-19, Melantha showcased MelaNota online and then it was officially launched with the late Desmond De Silva playing one of his tunes, using MelaNota.
Melantha says that anyone, including the visually impaired, can play a simple melody on a guitar, within five minutes, using his notation system.
“I’ve completed the system and I’m now finalising the syllabus for the notation system.”
Melantha has written not only for the guitar, but also for drums, keyboards, and wind instruments.
For any queries, or additional information, you could contact Melantha at 071 454 4092 or via email at thebandbrightlight@gmail.com.
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