Books galore, but membership tough here

Here’s One From India on The library at Gujarat Vidyapith. It has an impressive collection of over half a million books, a fact that should be a matter of pride for any public library. However, stringent guarantee norms make sure that its membership to general public remains difficult. This despite the fact that Vidyapith Library receives State Government grant for being a public library and under the Copyrights Act, it also receives copies of books published anywhere in the country.

July 20, 2005 by Uncategorized 4

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4 Responses

  1. opaqueentity says:
    July 20, 2005 at 1:36 pm

    Might sound overly harsh but…
    how much stock do they lose? And if they lose much is it more easily traced?
    If they’re not letting in any old person with a razorblade and a shopping list of old map pages then maybe that’s a good thing?

    Depends what their remit is I guess. You could say that they are protecting the collection for the public good.

    Reply
  2. lislemck says:
    July 20, 2005 at 11:50 pm

    Overly harsh strictures, IMHO
    OMG, there are still library gargoyles and dragons out there! That’s the part of the librarian stereotype I hoped was actually going away. The guardian, the gatekeeper. I have known a few. The don’t-touch-those-books-they-are-mine-all-mine-I-t ell-you librarians.

    This is a PUBLIC library that receives public funding for that purpose. If it’s “a mere Rs 90,000 a year”, maybe they should disengage from that particular feeding tube. Or the gargoyles and dragons should be working elsewhere.

    Reply
  3. VALIS says:
    July 21, 2005 at 5:47 am

    Re:Overly harsh strictures, IMHO
    Agreed….90, 000 rupees is less than 5% of their books budget (20 lakh, a lakh being 100, 000).

    Maybe someone should remind them that “books are for use”?

    Reply
  4. opaqueentity says:
    July 21, 2005 at 4:13 pm

    Re:Overly harsh strictures, IMHO
    >This is a PUBLIC library that receives public funding for that purposeMaybe someone should remind them that “books are for use”?

    They would probably say, well fill out this form and you can come in. And you could.

    The very fact that the guarentor has to be a member of the parliament (or thereabouts) says to me that the government knows all about it. And yet they still pay that money. Sounds to me like it’s done on purpose.

    Reply

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