BANGALORE: A huge building amidst greenery with clean and quiet surroundings is how you would describe the City Central Library in Hampinagar (RPC Layout). Located right behind the RPC Layout main bus depot, this library serves as the main branch for the West zone of the Department of Public Library. Around 29 service centres fall under this branch along with 8 Gram Panchayat (GP) libraries. The Hampinagar City Centre library boasts of 8000 members with a collection of 60,000 books, but is crippled with many woes. Library assistant Jalaja said, “We issue around 150 books on a daily basis. Upto 90 per cent people who come here are students and those appearing for competitive examinations.” Some of the readers we interacted with complained of the competitive books not being updated frequently and even the books under the fiction category being outdated.Nuthan said, “The employment newspaper in Kannada hardly comes on time which deprives us of many job opportunities. There are a lot of books here, but they are not updated based on the public needs. Hence, I end up purchasing books on my own and read here. Whenever we collectively place a request for a new book, it either comes very late or never comes. “Right from the board outside the building to the index section, everything is written in Kannada and people who can’t read the local language found this to be a hindrance. Bharath, a reader said, “I understand the need of giving instructions in Kannada since its the local language. But, I can only manage to speak broken Kannada and I can’t read it. Its very difficult to browse books without taking help from others. Even 90 per cent books here are in Kannada.”Though the infrastructure is pleasing, on speaking to a few readers we found out many readers complaining about the sad state of the men’s restroom. Even the ladies’ restroom is not up to the mark when it comes to sanitation. The drinking water facility is available, but the glasses aren’t clean.Another major problem faced by the readers is the inadequate seating arrangements for the readers, considering the large number of visitors who visit the library. Though the library is huge, the seats are mostly fully occupied round-the-clock. Many readers were found sitting on the stairs. Keshav, a UPSC aspirant and a regular at the library said, “I come at 8:30 in the morning and still do not find a seat for myself. There is so much space which goes into waste in this building which can be used in a better way. He added, “There is a auditorium in the ground floor which is used for cultural and theatre activities and conducting classes for competitive exams. Having an auditorium is a good thing. But, sometimes it proves to be a nuisance when there are activities taking place for the entire day especially during weekends and the noise reaches till the second floor. Otherwise, noise is not a issue here and the surroundings are peaceful too.”Deputy Director Venkatesh wasn’t available for comments.
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