BENGALURU: With exams round the corner, the state government reopened libraries that were shut for the last five months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Director of Public Libraries, Satish Kumar, told The New Sunday Express that a week after fumigation and with thermal screening devices in place, the libraries finally opened. “We have ensured a gap between seats for those visiting the library. We are complying with the safety protocols announced by the state government,” he said.
Books once returned will not be reissued for a week and kept aside to prevent Covid from spreading through books. But the same rule cannot be applied to newspapers and magazines, as a large number of KPSC and UPSC aspirants use the space for their studies. “Readers will instead be encouraged to use online editions of magazines and newspapers,” he said.
“I am still not sure if we can access all physical books. I had a difficulty in accessing the e-library for newspapers, magazines and books,” said Annie M (name changed), a UPSC aspirant.The Karnataka Digital Public Library so far has 4.6 lakh registrations. The online library has more than one lakh titles including newspapers and journals. It has 89,654 e-books and journals in English, 4,709 in Kannada and 454 in Hindi or Sanskrit.