NEW DELHI: By early afternoon, nearly every seat inside Dyal Singh Public Library near ITO was occupied. Under rows of tubelights, students preparing for competitive examinations revised mock tests and worked through stacks of printed notes in near silence, while a few elderly readers quietly turned newspaper pages near the entrance.
The atmosphere reflected how Delhi’s public library culture is metamorphosing from spaces for casual reading into affordable study environments for young students in an expensive and crowded city.
The shift is visible in every nook and corner of Dyal Singh Public Library. According to the staff, the library hosts about 150 visitors daily, the majority of whom are students preparing for competitive examinations or adults using the reading halls for work and study. While the halls remain crowded for hours, many of the bookshelves appear worn out and dated.
Competitive examination books and study guides are among the library’s most in-demand resources, but most could only be used inside the library and were not available for issue.
Tanishka Dhoundiyal, a law student, said public libraries were important to her because they allow her to focus and structure her schedule. “Libraries feel different, because you can sit for hours and focus without being expected to spend money. Even if the infrastructure is not always perfect, these spaces still feel comforting and necessary for a lot of students like me,” she said.
The library allows users to borrow fiction and non-fiction books at a refundable security deposit of around `500 without forcing any membership fee on them. This makes the space accessible to students across economic backgrounds.
Many branches of the Delhi Public Library offer an atmosphere similar to that of Dyal Singh Public Library. Its Janakpuri and Mayur Vihar, Phase II, centres have reading halls dominated largely by students, rather than recreational readers.
Anushkaa Manishi, an engineering student, who prepared for engineering entrance examinations in one of these libraries, said libraries today are evolving rather than disappearing. “During my entrance preparation, libraries gave me a quiet and disciplined environment that is difficult to find elsewhere,” she said.
However, many public libraries continue to hold their niche audiences despite ushering in the change. Dr B C Roy Memorial Children’s Library near ITO is smaller than Dyal
Singh Public Library and fully air-conditioned. Its focus seems to be less on competitive examinations and more on cultivating reading habits among children.
A young girl, accompanied by her father, was seen issuing between six to eight books at once, reflecting a quieter, but continuing, culture of physical reading among children nd families.
Among both categories of evolution, Delhi’s public library culture remains vibrant, even when it has evolved to suit different needs.
Visible shift
The shift is visible in every nook and corner of Dyal Singh Public Library. According to the staff, the library hosts about 150 visitors daily, the majority of whom are students preparing for competitive examinations or adults using the reading halls for work and study. While the main halls in the library remain crowded for hours, many of the bookshelves appear worn out and dated.