A first-time visitor can mistake it for a shop selling old books
Unwary visitors are apt to mistake it for an old book shop, given the whiff of old books stacked up on racks and the floor. Only a closer look would reveal that it is a government library functioning from shops out of a commercial building.
Confined to three shops in a nondescript commercial building at Bhagavathipuram off the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway, the Tiruverumbur branch library, a taluk-level library of the Department of Public Libraries, has been functioning with pathetic infrastructure for the past several years.
Although well stocked and patronised, lack of space, for both books and readers, has been the bane of the library, complain loyal visitors. The library has a collection of nearly 30,000 books and nearly 4,000 active members. Not less than 50 persons visit the library everyday, indicate the library records.
Established in 1965, the library has functioned from different premises over its 51 years of existence. Until about four years ago, the library was functioning at a cramped private building at Bhagavathipuram when its owner asked the department to vacate the premises.
Following efforts made by the department, the erstwhile Tiruverumbur Town Panchayat had allotted three shops on rent for the library on the first floor of its adjacent commercial building. But the three shops just make for a floor space of about 300 square feet, hardly adequate to accommodate the books.
One of the shops is used as a “reading section,” but readers have hardly any space even to sit here. Visitors have to occupy the few chairs on the narrow corridor outside. The few racks in the other two shops are overflowing with books. Bundles of new books and newspapers are lying on the floor. Visitors could hardly move around the racks to select the books.
“The library has a good collection, including reference books. But there is hardly any space for visitors or students to sit and take notes. Being a taluk-level library, it should have different sections such as reference, women, and children apart from Internet facilities. But it has been reduced to a namesake facility for want of space at a time when it should be celebrating its golden jubilee,” says G. Shangumavelu, a social activist of the area.
The library attracts a good number of visitors, but senior citizens and differently abled people find it difficult to climb the stairs to access it, says C. Paramasivan, a senior citizen and regular visitor to the library.
Local people have been trying to find a suitable site for the library for long but in vain. Representations have been made to the elected representatives. Since the Tiruverumbur Town Panchayat has been merged with the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation, the civic body should allot a piece of land for the library, they said.
Sources in the Department of Public Libraries said the department was willing to construct a building if only a site was allotted for the purpose.
In its golden jubilee, the library has no space for readers to sit.Corporation is yet to allot land for constructing a new building
