THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Legislature Assembly Library occupies a prime position at the Administrative Block of Niyama Sabha Complex. Established more than a century ago, it got renamed as the Legislative Library in 1921 and again as Travancore Cochin Assembly Library in 1949, and is now the Kerala Legislature Library.
The library started with a collection of books from various Diwans of Travancore. The building once served as the headquarters of the Nair Brigade of Travancore Army. It was converted into a legislative museum in 2006.
The moment you enter you will realise the huge dimension of the library, which is considered as one of the best reference libraries in the state. It has more than 1,33,000 books, reports, gazettes, old issues of periodicals, newspapers and other materials arranged in shelves, their old paper filling the air with fragrance of history.
Historian M G Sasibhooshan said many of the former legislative members actively visited the library. “It has an exquisite collection about Kerala, from Travancore state proceedings to 15 daily public newspapers arranged as per year markings from 1888 till the present. Old photographs, film posters and writings of many generations are maintained remarkably well,” he said.
Some of the oldest books in the collection include “Hindu Tribes and Castes” written by M A Sherring in 1879, and “The Cochin Tribes and Castes” by L.K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, also known as the father of anthropology in India.
There are also old periodicals carefully bound together such as the National Geographic and EPW Magazines dating back to the 1940s and 60s, the Mathrubhumi Weekly published during the formation of the state’s first government, etc.Some other interesting books include “Constitution in Malayalam” by S Subbaramayyan in 1953, and “History of Kerala written in the form of notes on Visscher’s letters” by K P Padmanabha Menon in 1929.
The Kerala State legislature library is essentially an exclusive library catering to the needs of the legislators in discharge of their functions. But recently, the library was open to the public. “Since November 2022, college graduates were allowed to enter the library directly. The general public can access the library through the website. We are in the process of uploading materials dating back to 1888 on the site,” says Laila A S, chief librarian.
The library has three floors. The ground floor houses Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha gazettes, census reports, ruling party reports, and more. The first floor has old newspapers, proceedings of the Travancore State and Travancore Cochin Assembly and legislative records. The second floor has reference books, reports, and books about Parliament and souvenirs.
The library is governed by the Kerala Legislative Library Rules of 2006. Its members, a chairman, six councillors, and a legislative secretary as an ex officio member, are in charge of updating the books, overseeing the facility’s expansion and presenting the speaker of parliament with suggestions for the library’s future growth. The library is open from 10.15 am to 5.15pm.