61-year-old library in West Tambaram seeks support

Chennai: Operating from a dingy building, a 61-year-old branch library at Shanmugam Road of West Tambaram cries for attention from government and public entities.

Handful of people visit the makeshift library, which once was an individual house. Employee crunch and lack of funds are the reasons for the poor maintenance of the library, said the staff. The library is now being operated by a differently abled woman.

Though the village librarian has refused to talk to this newspaper, regular visitors of the place complain of many lapses. The e-service system, which is introduced in most of the libraries in the recent past, is not in a proper condition. “Two computers that were set up in the library are non-functional since many days. Except for the libr-arian, there are no one in the library to help the people with books and membership cards,” said Arjun Nagu, a visitor.

The restrooms are in a filthy condition and visitors also complain of the absence of water facility. “Forget about the up-graded facilities like CCTV cameras, the library has no good collection of books. ” Arjun added. The library, initially started for ladies and children, was inaugurated by Tha Mu Dhanabal in 1956 when Tambaram belonged to a panchayat. It was only after constructing the new building in 1986 and throwing it open to everyone that the facility started attracting book lovers .

(With inputs from Amirtha VK)