Novel book-collection drive for central library pays rich dividend

With Chief Minister M Karunanidhi donating over 800 rare books on many titles, Madras University’s collection of books drive for the Arignar Anna Centenary Library, a world class public library being built at a cost of about Rs 170 crore in the heart of the city, crossed over the seven-lakh mark on Monday.

Madras University Vice-Chancellor G Thiruvasagam who had launched the book collection initiative last month, and has drafted lot of volunteers and colleges, did not stopping knocking at the doors of celebrities.

He went to the residence of the Chief Minister on February 8 along with students and accepted a library of books on a range of subjects from literature to philosophy, history, religion, rationalism and poetry to art forms from the Chief Minister.

Some of the rare titles which the Chief Minister has donated included Narada Bhakthi Sutras, The dawn of a new era, India— The emerging giant, Anna centenary celebrations souvenir, Bharathiyarin Aanmikak Kavithaigal, Building diplomacy and Face to Face with Fidel Castro.

Earlier, acceding to the request of students of MOP Vaishnav college, Deputy CM M K Stalin donated around 350 books from his personal collection. It was on New Year day.

“When I tour the state for various programmes, many people gift books to me. Mostly, I donate them to the local libraries. Even last week, I donated books for rural libraries in Dharmapuri district,” said Stalin.

The collection from the Deputy CM ranged from Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s ‘Argumentative Indian’ to ‘Globalisation and its contents’ by economist Joseph Stiglitz to William Dalrymple’s ‘The last Mughal’. ‘Unlimited Power’ written by Anthony Robbins, Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Discovery of India’ and rationalist Periyar’s ‘Why has the woman become a slave?’ are also part of the collection, besides his father M Karunanidhi’s literary works.

Madras University Vice-Chancellor also received books, journals, research proceedings and theses worth Rs 7 crore from the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University vice-chancellor Mayilvahanan Natarajan for the library. The host of medical books donation included 13, 000 books and 5,000 journals.

School education minister Thangam Thennarasu who is also in charge of the libraries department, donated 1000 books.

The Aringer Anna Centenary library, set to be ready in June at Korattur in Chennai, is expected to house 12 lakh books spread over eight storeys.

The target was to collect 10 lakh books from households in the city for the Library under construction. Around 25,000 students from colleges affiliated to the university had been engaged in collecting books from households from January 24 to 26 in Chennai and its neighbouring districts. Though deadline has been over for completing the collection of books, the donation is streaming in, the university sources said.

The Vice-Chancellor of Madras University launching the drive had announced some awards to the students: five students who collected the most number of books would be given seats for the course of their choice in post-graduate programmes of the university; and awards to the educational institutions too. That did the magic.

If such a scheme was launched in Sri Lanka, especially in the North and East, the great library that was destroyed in Jaffna could be rebuilt. Many have expressed desire to go in for door to door collection, but nothing has taken off so far. If there is no organized drive, the rare books so collected might end up in private collection.

- Asian Tribune -