A fulltime library for each revenue district of Kancheepuram is on the anvil.
The Sembakkam Municipality has agreed to part with 50 cents of land for this purpose and the project will be carried out with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) assistance, said district library officer of Kancheepuram district, K. Rajendran.
He said that a new floor space had been added to the branch library in Perungalathur, which had proved to be a model that could be emulated.
The branch library, functioning as a part time library, has been upgraded as a fulltime library and it accounts for 6,000 members.
The building on the first floor has been constructed at a cost of Rs.6 lakh drawn from local area development fund of Animal Husbandry Minister T.K.M. Chinnaiyya, who inaugurated the building recently, in the presence of Sriperumbudur MP K.N. Ramachandran.
At a time when buildings of branch libraries belonging to the State government and the District Library Authority are crumbling or are cramped, dingy and rented, the branch library in Perungalathur is a welcome departure from this situation.
The branch library functions near the St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union Primary School on Krishna Street, new Perungalathur.
“The library, which attracts more than 250 people every day has more than 40,000 collections on different subjects, which serves as a boon for book lovers,” said K. Damodaran, librarian.
Senior citizens, homemakers, a number of college and school students frequent the library.
Apart from newspapers, magazines, story collections of stalwarts, there was also a good collection of Tamil epics. Young men and women preparing for competitive exams of the State and Centre visited the library to prepare notes, Mr. Damodaran pointed out.
Plea to construct
compound wall
Readers at the library also appealed to the local body, Perungalathur Town Panchayat and the Kancheepuram district administration to take measures for putting up a compound wall to protect the building from misuse.
