Punjab: In this age of mobile phones and internet, readers want information to be presented in a concise and easily understandable format and as a result their interest in visiting libraries has almost dropped to zero. With very few or no readers, it is clear that the book business has stopped. Readers have turned to the internet to quench their thirst for knowledge. This is reason enough why the Gurdaspur district library is getting hardly one or two visitors per day. Compare this with the pre-mobile and internet era, when the library used to get over 150 visitors per day. Here the library is functioning with a meagre staff of just two people, one of whom is the mandatory peon! The two-member staff pays from their own pockets to get a sweeper every day to keep the premises clean. The library is always short of funds. It received a grant of Rs 20 lakh early last year, but it will be used to develop the building and its associated infrastructure. There is no money to buy new books. Forget about new libraries, maintaining 60,000 old libraries, almost all of which lie in broken shelves, has become a financially taxing task. There are a total of 15 district libraries in Punjab. All of them are in the same condition as Gurdaspur. These institutions are on the verge of closure, a phenomenon that saddens the hearts of purists. As traditional information institutions, libraries are undergoing radical changes. They no longer attract people as more and more digital content is available. The library was shifted to its current address in 2006. Earlier, it was located in the heart of the city. Such was its popularity that the area was called “Library Chowk”. Librarian-cum-restorer Rupinder Kaur says, “The change in reading habits is due to the internet. As people are getting used to reading only short blurbs, their overall attention towards novels and longer literary works is decreasing. They tend to look through the internet for the information they want, rather than reading till the end with a good book, as we used to do in our time.” Staff member Pawan Kumar has the right logic to bring back readers. He says, “A good internet search engine can give you 5,000 answers. But only a librarian can give you the right answer.”
Punjab: Declining number of visitors, lack of funds, state libraries gathering dust
