Usha Mukunda has inspired generations of children to discover the joys of reading. An ardent advocate of open libraries, she is deeply interested in nurturing discerning readers and users of the library. She co-founded the Centre for Learning (Bangalore) in 1990 and set up an open library there. She has been working with several rural, government and community libraries across India. She writes regularly on books and libraries for various journals, and blogs at library.cfl.in. She participated in the NCERT exercise to select good books and other programmes to strengthen school librarians of the Southern Regions, resulting in two manuals and workshops for school librarians. She was a member of the special committee for libraries and knowledge networking under the aegis of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission. In 2009, she was awarded a Karnataka State award for her service to school libraries.