A Question for Indian readers
This is for anybody who has ever lived in India or has family there. Please take a moment to read this post!
I'm trying to find information on public libraries in India. What has been your experience? Have you ever visited one and borrowed books?
In my own experience, I have stepped into one public library. That has been in Panaji, Goa.
I remember a library (or so it seemed) at the back of a municipal school near the big fish market in Chembur, Mumbai. The state of the building and the location in general did not encourage visitors. Are there many such libraries in Mumbai (and elsewhere)?
I wonder if we (India) have a government minister/department responsible for libraries etc.
Please leave a comment on the subject. If you have never seen a (public) library during your stay in India, please say so.
The Government Connemara Library in Madras is public.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.connemarapubliclibrarychennai.com
ReplyDeleteUV Swaminatha ayyar library of tamil literature
Theosophical Society Library, chennai
(Last two names courtesy Chandrachoodan at Selective Amnesia)
Sorry .. have only used Brtish Council and some kids libraries in India. I use the council one now though..
ReplyDeleteBritish Council and American Centre Library in Delhi.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of local municipal libraries in Chennai. Called 'maddhiya vattara noolagam' or Central Municipal Libraries. Dark, dingy places whom no one ever wanders into! I don't know if they still exist tho'.
ReplyDeleteI am in my thirties, used to live in Assam and Delhi. In my childhood in Assam, until the mid-80s, I still used the State public library in Guwahati although it had sadly deteriorated from the late 70s when my much older siblings used it. Three main causes - the govt funds were clearly drying up to buy books, users were becoming fewer and more dishonest, and in the apathy showed by users, the staff were increasingly indolent and indifferent (i.e. would not bother to track delinquent/late borrowers, keep books back on shelf etc). We started using private lending libraries, in our desperation to find light reading. Forget getting anything for one's studies. Altho I was able to get Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson etc from the govt library simple b/c they were kept in the reference section. Today, my elderly mom still uses Guwahati's public library, but now it is one run by a foundation which keeps mostly magazines and newspapers and does not allow borrowing. Since it is a smaller city, no British Council library, but if there was, middle class readers would shift there. I'm afraid the free access to browsing and reading a hugely eclectic collection of books that the state-maintained Indian public library library provided is now a thing of the past. When I first went to live in the UK, I almost went mad, delighted at the treasure trove of borrowing I could do from the town public library. It is even better in Canada since I can avail of a free service to get books, music, films etc from all over the city. The reader and writer I am today is due to the govt public libary of my childhood, but sadly children in Guwahati or most Indian cities today don't have that opportunity.
ReplyDelete