It’s been just over four months since the Ashok Nagar public library re-opened after the floods, and already, library officials say, the daily number of visitors is almost back to the usual 600 or so.
Thanks to an outpouring of donations from residents and organisations, the library has received close to 15,000 books, after having lost around 1.4 lakh books, when the entire ground floor was inundated during the December floods, said librarian K. Deenadayalan.
The library is one of the biggest in Chennai, said district library officer Elango Chandrakumar.
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“Four other libraries that were also rain-damaged are all functional now,” he said. Around 3,500 books were collected by the ‘Save Chennai Libraries’ campaigns, said Lavanya Gopinath, an IT professional, who was one of those spearheading the drive.
“After we began our collection, it just took off — many more organisations got involved as well. We handed over our donations by the end of February,” she said.
The Isha Foundation, Sri Sairam Engineering College and several publishing houses also donated books, said Mr. Deenadayalan. “And members of the public donated close to 5,000 books,” he said.
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“So many people gave us between 25 and 150 books. In fact, they’re still donating,” said Uma Devi, also a librarian there.
With 10,000 books from the Connemara Public Library and 8,000 from the government, the library now has close to 35,000 books, said Mr. Deenadayalan.
Late on Monday afternoon, there were at least a dozen people in the library, where stacks of construction material fill a corner, and two sections of the ground floor are closed off.
The Tamil Nadu Foundation, a non-profit organisation, is re-doing the entire flooring of the ground floor, the wiring and panelling and is planning to make the library a child-friendly space by doing up the children’s area,” said Vasumathi Benny, executive director (projects) of the Foundation.
The first floor is filled with hundreds of donated books that are being sorted, said Ms. Devi.
“What we still need are textbooks, books for competitive exams, children’s books, English fiction and biographies, Tamil historical novels, biographies, cookery books and those on religion,” she said.
V. Manoharan, a tailor in Ashok Nagar, tries to visit the library whenever he has time to spare. “A lot of the books were lost, but the ones they have now are also really good,” he said, while reading one.