Chased from rented building to rented building, the State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications (SIEP), the publisher of the ‘Sarvavijnanakosham’ and proud owner of thousands of rare and priceless encyclopaedias from all over the world, has frantically resumed its search for a permanent home.
Literally ejected two months ago from a Tourism Department building at DPI Junction which it had occupied over the past few years, the SIEP has now shot off a proposal to the Cultural Affairs Department seeking space at the Government School, Attakulangara. ‘’At present, we are housed in a building behind the GPO, squeezed into one-fourth the space we had at Kalpana Bungalow, the Tourism Department building at DPI. We’ve asked the Cultural Affairs Department to allot us space at the Attakulangara school,’’ said SIEP director M T Sulekha.
The present quarters at GPO is the fifth building rented by the SIEP after it was originally established as the Department of Malayalam Encyclopaedia in 1961. In 1976, SIEP got its present name and became an autonomous body, and 11 years later, was placed under the Cultural Affairs Department. SIEP shot to fame with the sustained publication of the general encyclopaedia ‘Sarvavijnanakosham’ in multiple volumes. Over the years, it has also brought out specialised encyclopaedias in Malayalam on astronomy, environment and world literature.
On Friday, SIEP will launch Phase II of a digitisation programme which will enable Malayalees across the globe to access all the volumes of ‘Sarvavijnanakosham’ online. But the search for a home continues for this government institution - a veritable treasure house of books - largely due to official apathy.
The only time the dream came near to materialising was in 2001 when the Cultural Affairs Minister of the day T K Ramakrishnan unveiled a foundation stone on an 18-cent plot next to Vikas Bhavan for the SIEP HQ. By then, SIEP had changed homes thrice, once from a building which housed a liquor shop on the ground floor.
When SIEP was later shifted to the Kalpana Bungalow at DPI, officials say the impression given was that the search for a permanent home had finally ended. But this impression also cost the institution the plot at Vikas Bhavan. It was taken back by the government.
It was not smooth sailing at Kalpana Bungalow either. Every inch of available space, including the kitchen and inner verandahs, was crammed with priceless books. During the rainy season, the tiled roof had to be draped with tarpaulin.
Kalpana Bungalow is now making way for a building complex of the Cooperative Department and, reportedly, the SIEP has been promised space on one floor. ‘’But we cannot be too sure about that, as the agreement was made orally, and the construction of the complex could take years,’’ Sulekha said.