MADURAI: A year and a half after establishing the folk art section at District Central Library, the section was thrown open to the public on Sunday. The section, functioning on the second floor of the library building will be open from 10 am to 5 pm.
The section, worth Rs 35 lakh, aims at promoting the dying folk art forms as envisaged in the announcement made by the State Government in the fiscal 2017-18 and has on display instruments, costumes, cosmetics and other equipment along with 200 books and audio visual projections. It also features photo documents of 63 folk artistes.
Speaking to TNIE, a regular visitor to the central library and a folk art researcher, P Muthukumar, said, "The section has a range of books on folk arts. But from a researcher's point of view, I feel that the collection could have been improved. The efforts taken to document the photos of around 63 folk artistes and the respective art forms are highly appreciable."
Yet another visitor, B Jaya, suggested that a staff could be appointed to guide the readers through the section as it is new to many. "Not everyone will understand the significance of the section. It is more like an exhibition to many now," she said.
Sources pointed out that the effective maintenance of the section is in question a the section is being manned by only a Grade 1 Librarian and 2 Grade 3 librarians along with a deputed Grade 3 librarian.
Though the regular visitors said that the section was opened to the public only on Sunday, the officials maintained that the order to open the section was passed on February 23, before the Model Code of Conduct for the Assembly elections came into effect.
District Central Librarian S Yesodha said, "As we had some preparatory works, we could not allow the public on the same day the order was passed. There is no necessity to appoint separate staff exclusively for the section," she added.
The section for folk art apart, the State government had also announced establishment of an exclusive library on ancient civilizations at Keezhadi in Sivaganga district, a fine arts library at Thanjavur, a library on Tamil medicine at Tirunelveli, Mathematics and Science library at Tiruchy, a library on Tribal Culture at the Nilgiris and an Astrological library in Coimbatore.