Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 20: Plagued by recurrent complaints of inadequate infrastructure in the city-based Harekrushna Mahtab State Library, the Department of Culture has now decided to give a facelift to the state building, which houses the library and was constructed in 1959.
According to the officials in the department, construction of another floor has already begun and once completed, can cope up with the problem of inadequate space that prevents the authority from increasing membership. Officials say several other plans are in the offing to improve the library, which is spread across an area of more than 1,60,000 sq feet.
Talking to Orissa Post, Bhawani Prasad Ray, deputy director, Department of Culture said, “We are planning to give a facelift to the decades-old library of our city. We have several plans for the centre of study in order to facilitate learning of the students coming to the institution. We have planned to make digital records of our catalogue in order to make the painstaking work of searching for books easier. The digitisation work will help the students save time.”
The department has also decided to make the whole campus more disable-friendly. “We will take adequate measures to make sure that the whole library campus is made more disable-friendly so that physically challenged students do not face any kind of discomfort while studying. This will ensure that they take part in studies actively,” says Ray.
The deputy director also said in order to accommodate more students and to enhance capacity of the building, work is on to build another floor. The move he says will help in accommodating several students, who are keen to study in the library, as new members.
It may be recalled Orissa Post Thursday, February 19, carried a story titled, “Apathy fails to deter spirit of avid readers in city library”, where the problems faced by present and aspiring members were
highlighted.
The library was built as per the recommendations made in the first Five Year Plan. Earlier it was known as Gandhi Bhawan. However, in 1987 it was renamed as Harekrushna Mahtab State Library. Official website of the library claims that the total capacity of the library is 350 (number of seats), while the daily demand is 600-700. Data say that the library is home to nearly 1,44,000 reference books, alongside 15 newspapers that the institution subscribes. Officials say that they have more than 6,000 registered members. The library has books on fine arts, language, literature, text books, children’s books etc; it also has several sections – Braille section, computer section, reprography section, technical section, among others.
