Special Report: City’s central library gets a face lift

• New building to be constructed at the cost of Rs 98 lakh

Jyothi: With the aim to attract the public towards the library and to inculcate the habit of reading, Mangaluru’s central library has been organizing several reader friendly activities. Now the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) is giving heed to the call of the library and has come forward to build a new building for the library at the cost of Rs 09 lakh.

The central library which is located on Lighthouse hill road near St Aloysius College has a history of 65 years associated with it. About 15 years back the library was in a pretty bad state but in the successive days it was successful in giving good facilities to the public. The city’s central library’s officials are working with the aim to make the library a reader friendly destination by using the funds provided by the MCC library treasury.

What will be there in the new building?

Now, the funds collected in the library treasury will be utilized to build a two floor building. “The new building will be attached to the existing library building. The lower floor of the building will have parking facility while the first floor will have a full equipped auditorium. The auditorium will have a stage, seating facility and other facilities. But, till now the final blueprint for the building has not been prepared. Hence, the design of the building has not yet been decided. The children’s play and literature division which was in the old building will be relocate to the new building, “ informed Raghavendra, Deputy Director of central library to “Udayavani”.

In 2012-13, Rs 18.45 lakh was used from the treasury to repair the floor and walls of the library. In 2013-14, Rs 11 lakh was utilized to construct full ceiling for the first floor. The earlier aluminium sheets were removed and replaced with a full ceiling. With the aim to inculcate the taste of literature along with games amongst children, a games and literature division was opened. All the documents were computerized. The facility of membership card while taking a book and the provision to give the book after scanning is available in very few libraries in the state of which, Mangaluru central library is one. Besides, many other facilities will be provided at this library.

Multipurpose use

The library officials have decided to make use of the auditorium in the new building for multiple purposes. According to sources programmes related to the library, children’s library training and various other classes can be conducted here. MLA Vedavyas Kamath has laid the foundation stone at the place for the construction work on the new building and the work on the creation of the new building should begin soon.

More facilities for readers

“On a daily basis, Mangaluru central library have a minimum 400-500 visitors. A new building is being constructed to provide more facilities to the readers. The new building will be constructed utilizing the funds from the library treasury,” said D Vedavyas Kamath, MLA.