Books piled up haphazardlyA bibliophile's paradise and a librarian's pride that's what a library with a collection of over two million books, manuscripts, newspapers and periodicals ought to be. Instead, the 89-year-old National Library situated in an idyllic 30-acre campus in Calcutta, has degenerated into a book lover's despair and a librarian's nightmare.A sampling of the rare books in the library's possession only serves to accentuate the sense of loss-a copy of the first complete works of Shakespeare, dated 1623, based on the bard's original manuscript; the script of Goethe's Faust bound in the original morocco leather with gold tooling and a silver alloy medallion-studded cover depicting its dramatis personae; the Persian manuscript of Abul Fazl's Akbarnama dated 1556; a 17th-century palm-leaf Tamil manuscript of the Kamba Ramayana.The majestic, Doric columns on the library's facade camouflage the chaos inside. Books are dumped all over the place, catalogues are outdated and many valuable works have been lost or damaged owing to sheer apathy and mismanagement.Most importantly, the library, which is meant to be a premier national institution and a seat of scholarship and research, has lost its special character. It has become just another lending library. Says former director, R.K. Dasgupta: "It is a public library, a students' library as well as a children's library. But it isn't a national library." Admits the new director Dwarika Nath Banerjee: "The first priority is to restore the national character and lost glory of the institution."This is not as easy as it sounds. The library struggled without a librarian between 1971 and 1983, and without a director between 1980 and 1984. The neglect is now being reflected in its state of affairs. The most acute crisis it is facing is the lack of space. The existing shelf space of 32 miles spread over three buildings has proved to be inadequate with lakhs of books yet to be shelved. And it has to cope with nearly 35,000 additions every year..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Invaluable books and manuscripts have been damaged or destroyed by termites, rainwater and sheer apathy. Others have simply been stolen.Even existing books are not catalogued properly. The library is severely understaffed with nearly 50 posts lying vacant. A major portion of the work remains manual with a fledgling computer unit managing to document just 3,500 books and 200 periodicals in a month. By the time new books are catalogued and reach the racks, they run the risk of being outdated. Exasperated readers spend hours trying to locate books of their choice. Writer Amitav Ghosh, who also uses it, says: "It's in an appalling state." Agrees the secretary of the employees' association, Asis Niyogi: "The methods of running the library are as historic as the library itself."For book lovers, it has been a steady process of irreparable loss. Treasures worth thousands of rupees have been damaged by termites. Four years ago, rainwater seeped in through the ceiling and destroyed hundreds of books, catalogues and picture albums. Thefts are a regular occurrence.Eminent historian Nisith Ranjan Ray, who has been a regular user of the library found that many of the cartoons from back issues of Punch had been torn off. In 1990, several hundred rare newspapers were found missing from the reading room in Esplanade. Equally astounding was an earlier theft of a 42-volume encyclopaedia.Most of the library's troubles are self-inflicted. Sophisticated machines, meant to streamline its functioning, have lain idle for as many as seven years. Moreover, attempts at modernisation are stalled in the battle between the authorities and the left-oriented unions.For instance, an ambitious microfilming project of the library's 60,000 rare books on South Asia by the US Library of Congress was stiffly resisted by the union. The reason: a private firm was given the task despite the library having its own reprographic division.The neglect is not total. There are plans to resuscitate the library which include large scale computerisation for processing, cataloguing, information storage and building databases. An ambitious Rs 50-crore master plan for expansion of the library is awaiting the sanction of the Human Resource Development Ministry.What is really needed is a vision for the future and a heart-felt commitment to save a national treasure from sinking into oblivion. There is no evidence of this yet.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 31, 2012--- ENDS ---
