Kolkata :

National Library, which could have been a repository of priceless books and documents, has turned into a dumping ground.

The roof of the new section -built at a cost of Rs 148 crore just nine years ago -has started leaking forcing employees to cover treasured books with tarpaulin.

Sources in the museum told TOI that rare books are being ripped apart, page by page, in the name of digital scanning and the original copies dumped like waste material. The microfilmed copies are also out of focus, having been copied by unskilled staff. Rare and old newspapers, which are supposed to be preserved, are dumped carelessly .

The old building — dating back over 200 years — didn’t have the infrastructure to pre serve and maintain old and rare books so the central government decided to build a stateof-the-art facility for this. It was named `Bhasha Bhawan’ and became operational in 2005.

But in less than a decade, the building is in a mess and its treasures worse so. To think that National Library is the apex body of 65,000 libraries, public and private, in India.

“Many portions of the ceiling are broken. During monsoon, water seeps in and falls on the books and newspapers kept on the racks. In some areas it’s so bad that we have to cover the books with tarpaulin or else they will all be destroyed. The stock verification department is supposed to check the condition of books and make a log sheet so that brittle ones can be sent for binding and lamination. But the department has been non-functional for a long time because of shortage of staff,” an employee of library said.

Not only that, the back door of the library is broken and there is no security to check if anyone runs way with a book or a precious document.

Library director P Y Rajendra Kumar insists everything is in order. “As far as I know there is no such leakage in the library . There was one leak from an AC duct and drops of water were falling on the books. I have told the person concerned to take care of it and it will be repaired immediately . Apart from that there is no leakage”.

Sources say the condition of newspapers is even worse. The newspaper section, which was earlier in the reading room of the library at Esplanade, was transferred to Bhasha Bhawan in November 2013 for better maintenance.

But the nearly 18,000 precious newspapers -including historical Hindoo Patriot, Englishman, Anglo Indian Recorder, and Indian Mirror — are in deplorable condition, say insiders. “The newspapers are kept in small racks meant for books, which leaves part of them hanging out. As these papers are old and brittle should be preserved more carefully,” an officer looking after the stack said.

There are nearly 30 lakh books in the library. According to officials, 10-15% books and nearly 30% newspapers need to laminated and restored urgently. Costly machines like aging chamber incubator, temperaturehumidity data logger, ph meter, brightness tester, electronic tearing tester, electronic stiffness tester, abrasion tester and paper cutter -used for the restoration old and valuable books and documents -are lying unutilized since they were purchased in 2010-11.

Though director Rajendra Kumar confidently says that restoration of old and rare books is done in a “regular manner”, the library authorities in reply to an RTI query have admitted that these machines are “not for regular use because CPWD (civil) could not complete renovation of the old storage area of the laboratory in time”.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Saibal Gupta, TNN / June 28th, 2014