CHENNAI: In recent years, one might have heard of a yellow revolution, an orange revolution, an Egypt revolution or even the Anna Hazare movement against corruption, where people hit the streets to strive and bring in the true spirit of democracy in the government’s functioning.
But there is a silent revolution happening in our own backyard — inculcating the true spirit of democracy by taking education to youngsters across all sections of society.
The recently inaugurated Anna Centenary Library (ACL), a storehouse of knowledge of countries and cultures across the globe, has become a centre for knowledge revolution in the city, attracting huge crowds from a 4-year-old to even senior citizens.
“I have visited various libraries in the country, including libraries of central universities and research institutes, but I have never seen such a variety of collection for every single subject like the Anna Centenary Library,” said Kirpa Karan, 39, a manager at a software company, who was seen spending time with his four-year-old kid at the children’s section.
The section had a wide range of collection from English grammar and comics to periodic novels and even computer facilities for children to play games.
“There are many extra-curricular activities like kerchief-making, yoga and storytelling organised at the library. If we were to do this on our own for our kids, it would cost us a bomb. Also, the computer facilities help our children learn basic skills,’’ Devi, 34, of Mandaveli, said.
The big draws in the kids’ section was the artificial tree at the centre of the hall and a painting of cartoon characters across the room, which attract about 500 children every day to the library.
“I force my parents to bring me here to read Cinderella and play games to improve my memory power,” said Suganiya, (8), a Class 3 student.
“So far we have received 1,558 forms for membership for kid section,” said an official in-charge of the kids’ section.
Equally interesting was the Braille section in the library. There were more than 1,500 Braille books and audio books on various subjects, including school and college text books, children’s stories, biography and self-improvement books. The section also had six computers to facilitate the visually impaired to learn from audio books.
“The section also has a reader called Braille Mitra, through which books of our choice can be downloaded and read on our own without anybody’s assistance,” said Nazeer Ahmed, a music teacher living in Mogappair.
“The library has embosser facility which helps us to take print-outs of government orders or books,” he added.
The nine-storeyed building stocked a massive 1.20 million books in all major languages of the world, besides providing access to two lakh ‘e-books’ and 20,000 e-journals.
Seven of the nine storeys of the library were filled with books in the following pattern: the first floor was for children, second floor for Tamil language, third floor for humanities and social sciences, fourth floor for engineering and management, fifth floor for medicine, sixth floor for general science and seventh floor for manuscripts and rare books.
“In this library, I can refer to rare books on medical science, which are not found even in medical colleges,” said Dr Vimal, a surgical oncologist working at the Apollo Speciality Hospital. Dr Vimal was preparing for his higher medical studies and was found browsing through books at the medicine section in the library.
Ramesh Sankar, a visiting professor of Anna University, said he was not only impressed by the wide range of books, but also the way they were indexed. “Mention any name of the book to the librarian, and it will be on your table in next 10 minutes,” he added.
Another special feature of the library was the own book reading section. People could bring their own books and read in this section.
“We come in the early morning and read till the library is closed. The building is fully air conditioned and there are no disturbances,” said the group of students, who were preparing for CA exams.
Speaking to City Express, G Arivoli, Director of Public Libraries, Tamil Nadu, said, “The library is designed as an activity centre. Many programmes for the children are organised to improve their extra-curricular activities and to inculcate a reading habit among them.”
P A Naresh, Joint Director of Public Libraries and Chief Librarian and Information Officer of Anna Centenary Library, said, “To give exposure to the students on the various aspects of education, we have already sent notifications to all the schools and colleges in the state to bring their students to the library.”
Moreover, free coaching for IAS/IPS exams and other state service examination would be organised at the library and educational experts would be called from across the country to deliver lectures to the students on emerging trends in education, said Naresh, adding that in the auditorium of the library, they were planning to screen children’s film.
The membership fee for the library would soon be announced, he added.