<![CDATA[This paper reports a village-level initiative in Batubantar that paired the renewal of the Puspa Smart library with a community book-donation scheme, framed as an education-driven route to broader community empowerment, wider access to knowledge, and stronger public involvement in developing local human resources. The initiative responded to a long-standing problem: residents rarely used the village library as a shared learning space, largely because its collection was small, its facilities were minimal, and no ongoing literacy programming existed to sustain interest. Work proceeded through a participatory model in which the physical space was rebuilt, the collection reorganized, volunteer librarians trained, and new reading material sourced through donation drives matched to what residents and lifelong learners actually needed. Rather than treating renovation as an end in itself, the team paired the physical upgrade with creative programming — communal reading sessions, tutoring for children, discussion forums, and other activities meant to position residents themselves as the drivers of literacy in their own village. The book-donation component brought several stakeholders together to widen public access to reliable, quality reading material. What followed was a visible rise in residents' enthusiasm for reading, a library that increasingly functioned as shared community space rather than an underused building, and a broader public appreciation for continuous learning. Beyond Batubantar itself, the revitalized Puspa Smart library is offered here as a possible template for building literacy hubs elsewhere that are sustainable, open to all, and responsive to local educational needs — while also illustrating how residents, schools, and other stakeholders can be drawn into one coherent, mutually reinforcing learning ecosystem.]]>
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