Chief Minister to inaugurate CCL’s Centenary celebrations; Kuvempu Mobile Library to roll on city roads
Mysuru :
Libraries should be established in all taluks and villages across the State to improve the literacy rates, said District In-charge Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad.
He was addressing a meeting to discuss the upcoming State Level Library Day celebrations and also the Centenary celebrations of City Central Library (CCL) on August 12 at the Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) Office, here recently. The Minister instructed the officials to seek the opinions of scholars, writers and intellectuals in city on celebrating the Centenary of CCL.
Library at People’s Park: The meeting also discussed the technical difficulties being faced for the construction of Library at People’s Park in city. MLA Vasu requested the Minister to take up the matter with Chief Minister Siddharamaiah.
He also mentioned that former Chief Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda had laid the foundation stone for the library but the project failed to take off owing to technical problems. Making changes in the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) would help in construction of the new library building, Vasu added.
The Centenary celebrations will be inaugurated by Siddharamaiah on August 12 by laying foundation for the renovation of CCL on Sayyaji Rao Road.
Librarians from all over the State will participate in the Library Day celebrations. A procession of librarians and cultural troupes will be taken out from Kote Anjaneyaswamy Temple which will pass through the main streets of city before culminating at Kalamandira, where the celebrations will be held.
CCL, a landmark structure: CCL, a landmark structure on Sayyaji Rao Road in Mysuru, has been the fountain of knowledge for Mysureans and is one of the oldest libraries in India. Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, Sir M. Visvesvaraya and Sir Mirza Ismail were instrumental in the construction of CCL. B.M. Shri, Rao Bahadur Ranga Iyengar, Janab M. Hussain, M. Venkatakrishnaiah, E.W. Thomson, N.S. Subbarao and B.G. Lakshman Rao were the other key players in the establishment of CCL.
According to Deputy Director of Department of Public Libraries B. Manjunath, the library was formally inaugurated on October 15, 1915 by the then Mysore ruler Narasimharaja Wadiyar. However, with the advent of television and computers, the number of people visiting CCL has come down considerably. There are over a lakh books including literary books, novels, fictions and reference books for competitive exams at CCL. Apart from Kannada, Hindi and English, the library has books in Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Marathi, he added. “Computerisation was being done in the library at a cost of Rs. 32 lakh,” he said.
An Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) would be provided so that people sitting at home could know whether a particular book was available at the library or not, Manjunath said.
CCL building is being given a facelift with new furniture being readied; Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) has been given the responsibility of making heritage furniture for CCL while the PWD is renovating the heritage building, he added.
Ladies Managing Committee in CCL: Prof. S. Radhakrishnan of Maharaja College in city was actively involved in developing CCL. He used to spend most of his time reading books here. The then junior professor in Maharaja College Prof. B.M. Srikantaiah was one of the members of CCL Administrative Committee and was Secretary until 1927. B.M. Shri was instrumental in setting up of the Ladies Managing Committee in CCL. The Department of Libraries took over CCL in 1967 after the Karnataka Public Libraries Act was passed.
Father of Library Science: National Librarians’ Day will also be observed on August 12. The day is celebrated to mark the birthday of Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, considered the Father of Library Science.
Manjunath said that the best librarians from across the State would be felicitated on the occasion. Kannada Book Authority, Kannada and Culture Department and National Book Trust of India have joined hands in organising an exhibition, the Deputy Director said.
Kuvempu Mobile Library: The Department of Libraries has purchased a new chassis at a cost of Rs. 11 lakh and the vehicle’s body will be built at a cost of Rs. 14 lakh. The Kuvempu Mobile Library is expected to be ready by August 10. The mobile library, which was launched in city in 1984, stopped functioning in 2011 after the RTO refused to give a Fitness Certificate to the old vehicle.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Saturday – July 18th, 2015