THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Tuesday, it will be exactly one year; and the State Government, despite the big talk, has not kept its promise. The YMCA is about to.
A year after the British Library closed its doors to the reading public of Thiruvananthapuram, the YMCA will open its own library in the same dove-white building on Press Road where the British Library functioned for 43 long years.
The British Library closed down on March 31 last year following a British Council decision to change its nature of work globally. The YMCA, which had announced its own library a few months later, will open a Library and E-Learning Centre to the public on Monday, March 30, 2009.
The State Government, despite the initial ga-ga about opening a library at the Jawahar Balbhavan with the books donated by the British Council, has not even sanctioned the promised Rs 25 lakh for the project. The 27,000 books are gathering dust - an entire library unread and forgotten - in locked rooms at the PWD Rest House, Thycaud. It is reliably learnt that the government file on the Jawahar Balbhavan project is awaiting redemption at Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac’s Office.
The YMCA Library is aimed at the youth and the students. Initially, the plan is to open it as a reference library and reading room so that the public too may have access to it. Like the British Library, it will have journals - both Indian and international ones, YMCA secretary Shyju E.D. said. It will also feature an internet facility.
The YMCA had approached the British Council when the latter decided to shut shop. However, the books had gone to the State Government after Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan announced after a hyped visit to the library that the Government would run the library in the same building.
Later, the Government and the YMCA had locked horns over the ownership of the library building. But, later, the Government had announced that its library will be set up at the Jawahar Balbhavan at Vellayambalam, in a bid to avoid delays.
For details on membership at the YMCA library, contact: 0471-2330059, 2339078.
trivandrum@epmltd.com
