Community Library Service of Open Forum is initiated with the objective of providing a free public library and information services to the people of Nation. The Library will also act as community centre for informal education and model for public library development in India. Community Library will serve the needs of all members of community without any distinction of class, creed, occupation, race, sex and specially those of neo-literates and children. The numerical involvement in community development activities has been in practice due to the poor implementation mechanism of the spirit of the participatory community development approach. The actual participation requires a participatory decision-making process that enhances the role of local people in the decision and management of community matters of development. Thus, participatory community development has been critically important in the pace of rural community development.

India is a developing country where the literacy rate is very low. Among the literate people, the women, marginalized and disadvantaged people are only a low percentage. For sustainable rural development, rural community people should be literate so that they can actively participate in community affairs. In this respect Open Forum has been adopting the spirit of community development throughout its approach. Taking above facts into consideration Open Forum has initiated to come up with two Community Library Centers in Kakana, a very interior village of Madhubani District which falls under the state of Bihar and Gamharia, a large Village of Jharkhand in Saraikela-Kharsawan District. Land has already been purchased for grassroots communities to mobilize the process for setting up of Community Library in these two locations. The Community Library will also initiate following activities as agreed by the local residents and community as part of the most prevalent outreach activities: Community meetings, General health clinics, Women’s health clinics, Blood drives, Investment and micro financing training, Women’s entrepreneurship training, English classes, Literacy classes, Animal livestock workshops, Women’s discussion groups, Vaccination drives, Peace-building conferences, Leadership training, Book days, Wall newspaper training and production, Mothers’ classes, AIDS awareness programs, etc.

Objectives
The following shall be the objectives of the Community Library Service of Open Forum:

1.	To enable the citizens to translate into reality the truth contained in the dictum, ‘Reading and Information are our Birthright’, in as free and easy a manner as possible;
2.	To ensure the availability of Library and Information service to every citizen according to his or her need recognizing libraries as National resource centers for the transfer of information and knowledge and as agents of fostering friendship and mutual understanding among the nations of the world;
3.	To keep the electorate enlightened, or through the potent instruments of educational institutions, which libraries truly are, realizing that for the success of democratic experiment and enlightened electorate is a sine qua non;
4.	To provide books ( for the literates ) and other forms of documents, such as , audio- visual aids ( for the illiterates ) fully realizing that books etc., are the “ Daughters of Democracy”
5.	To ensure suitable and efficient library and information services to all the citizens in a time-bond manner, utilizing all means of communication – manuscripts, print and non print, electronic etc., and the modern information technology devices;
6.	To ensure sufficient regular flow of funds for the maintenance and further development of library and information services.
7.	To ensure adequate resource sharing at all levels of the System;
8.	To ensure the existence of a full-blooded publishing and communication industry, which can promote and enrich public libraries, which truly are the Peoples’ Universities; and
9.	To give encouragement to the book trade, recognizing it as the most fundamental service of the public.

Open Forum believes a community library is more than just a library. The library is defined as a local educational institution, outside the formal educational system in village areas, which is set up and managed by local people to provide various learning opportunities for community development and improvement of people's quality of life. The concept of a community resource centre is that of a community owned centre for lifelong access to educational materials. While on one hand, it serves as a storehouse of knowledge and information, on the other hand, it works to create a space for the community men and women to collaborate on a range of development initiatives. Library and information centres are vital and powerful national resources for individuals, organizations and governmental agencies. Community libraries help local people to develop sound reading habits. They provide reading materials to all age groups and people from different interest groups. With easy access to the library, technology and information, local people become literate and develop their skills. This turns villages into viable places to live by creating jobs and access to technology, thus balancing the urban-rural opportunity gap.

Such Community Libraries will have a critical role in helping disadvantaged and marginalized groups use new opportunities to become better educated and economically and socially empowered. The Community Library of Open Forum works on three approaches:

First, the approach builds on a community’s assets—its strengths, and not its deficits. There will be no layers of bureaucracy. Rules will not be imposed on people. Leadership teams are established by the people in the community. Leaders live in the community, understand it, and are ultimately accountable to their immediate constituency. When problems arises, community members and local leaders will hold discussions, argue, and ultimately pose solutions that may benefit the entire community. Because each community is unique, each library will be distinctive in its response to serving the interests, needs, and purposes of its local citizenry. Libraries will serve as information centers for issues relating to livestock, farming, and water. Similarly, book selections for each library will be based on what is important to the community members.

Second, as community resource centers libraries will broadly define outreach to include activities that are important to the community. Outreach activities will not only be created for them; rather, the community members themselves make these decisions. They will use their meeting spaces to provide health clinics, lectures on reproductive rights, or vocational classes specially targeted to the immediate needs of the community. Through their rich array of activities they are breaking down caste barriers and drawing in a diverse range of people who want to take advantage of their services. In every case, they are meeting people “where they are” to create new opportunities for learning and development.

And third, these libraries will address literacy development not through formal training but by trying literacy activities to practical action. Thus Literacy becomes a tool for knowledge generation to improve one’s economic and social life. As a result, literacy will be seen as having a functional and purposeful role in attaining goals.

Specifically, we summarize some of the best practices our Community Library will undertake in this community participation approach model are as follows:

1.	There will be open access to a broad constituency. Libraries will be open 16 hours each day, 7 days a week.
2.	Books and outreach activities will be related to community needs in the language of their patrons.
3.	Books and constructive toys create a center for early childhood education.
4.	Libraries will be owned and operated by the community through sustainability projects that support economic and social development.
5.	Many other opportunities will also be created for women and indigenous people to lead in their community and to participate in activities, helping them develop a voice and communicate with others.