The advent of technology has affected the reading habit
of people. It has also hit libraries in the Tricity. But there are people who
still mark their presence at libraries to study in peace.
THE SMELL of a book, the scope for scribbling
in the margins, underlining interesting sentences and quotes, folding a corner
of the page, keeping colourful bookmarks within and then the pleasure of
sleeping by keeping the book beside a pillow are some of the things that still
compel city residents to continue their love affair with printed books rather
than the eBooks available on Kindles and mobile phones these days.
Enter any of the libraries, and you will find
almost every reader carrying a smart phone or a laptop. But then keeping all
the digital aids aside, they are glued to their books with pencils and
highlighters in hand.
Parveen Khurana, librarian incharge, State
Divisional Library, Sector 34, says, “You may carry 300 books with you in your
Kindle or in your tablet while travelling. But the battery will always be an
issue while there is never a problem with printed books. Also, we can never
claim eBooks in our Kindles as our property as they vanish after a year;
sometimes due to the battery back-up problems, readers are likely to lose the
downloaded material but the hard copies of books are always our property.”
“Once you buy a book, you own it. The
distinct smell of its pages, and each and every engraved letter is something so
very personal,” says Vikram Chopra, a resident of Chandigarh and a regular
visitor at The Browser Library and Bookstore, Sector 8.
A first-year student of SD College, Sector
32, Vikramjeet says, “I believe reading books in the library is the only old
tradition we are still following; we will continue to follow it for the simple
reason that flipping through pages gives an inner satisfaction which no eBook
can ever provide.”
The libraries also see a large number of aspirants preparing for various
competitive exams who prefer to come here to study. A variety of options for
children are another reason that parents prefer to bring them to the libraries.
The T S Central Library, Sector 17, and State Divisional Library, Sector 34,
cater to around 3,000 students daily. The library incharges here maintain the
lack of adequate space is a common and long-pending problem. Two more floors
are yet to be made functional at the Sector 34 library.
“We already have a space crunch and still
three departments are occupying our space: the civil defence, census and the portraits.
Since the footfall of readers had increased, we had to convert our magazine
room into a reading room,” says Anju Gupta, incharge of the TS Central Library,
Sector 17. She adds, “There were days when people of all age groups used to
come here to spend time with books but now one of the reasons which holds back
most of the readers is the lack of parking space. There is no parking space
even for our own staff. So how can we expect general public or senior citizens
to waste one hour finding a proper space for parking before coming to the
library? Another thing is that this area becomes deserted after office hours.”
With more than 30,000 books available for
buying and reading, The Browser Library and Bookstore still sees about 30-40
visitors every day. The library offers a silent environment to its visitors,
which allows them to sit and read for hours. “Over the years, we have retained
our old readers. But there is a decline in the number of youngsters who visit
the library nowadays,” says Ghanshyam Mohanto, an executive who has been
working at the library since 1998. However, for avid readers like Abhinav and
Shelley who visit the library on a daily basis, nothing can replace printed
books. “Yes, we are from that so-called Internet-savvy age, but at the end of
the day, I still turn to the hard copy of a book, instead of a Kindle, though
it is more economical to download a book on Kindle and it is also very easy to
carry it around,” says Shelley.
The British Council Library, which was
shifted to Elante Mall in 2013, has about 14,000 books in its physical library,
and continues to see around 50-60 visitors daily. The library also has an
extensive online collection, and organises regular poet-reading and
book-signing workshops. “A lot of people do actually prefer just reading
online, which is why we have a vast online repository. We also provide our
readers with Wi-Fi facility at the library,” says Namrata, an employee at the
British Council Library.
At these libraries, the children’s section
continues to attract the majority of readers, closely followed by fiction
books. Working professionals can also be seen turning up at the libraries after
work, and reading their favourite authors.
“Imagine yourself on a rainy day, when you
are cosying up with a warm cup of coffee. You wouldn’t want to turn to a Kindle
to read stories of far and beyond; you would most certainly turn to the hard
copy of a book. Books have a character; books make you enjoy the art of
reading,” adds Vikram.
Smart ideas
Sharing their ideas for the smart city project being initiated by the UT
Administration, the incharges of T S Central Library, Sector 17, and State
Divisional Library, Sector 34, assert that the administration should make a
provision for connecting these libraries through a common smart card which
could be used for issuing or returning the book at any of the libraries. The
librarians also suggest having a drop box at the nearest e-sampark centre where
the readers could drop the book whenever they have to return it, in case they are
not able to come to the library.
“Also, we are pushing the administration to
allow us to keep the library open for 24 hours instead of the restricted timing
of 8 am to 8 pm. Although we already have a provision for converting the books
into an audio-visual format here at the library, we plan to introduce a smart
device in the library which will help the visually impaired readers to reach
the right shelf, once they speak the name of the required book,” says Parveen
Khurana, incharge librarian, State Divisional Library, Sector 34. Khurana, who
joined the library a few months ago, keeps updating his blog http://divisionallibrary34.blogspot.in/ as well which
comprises an online membership form of the library, the list of new books added
to the library every month, seven e-papers, e-libraries having 22 lakh books
from across the world, and the current affairs.
Source | Indian Express | Chandigarh | 28 September 2015
