After a seven-year fight, Howrah Seva Sangha Library finally got a librarian in February this year. The little room on the first floor of the clubhouse on Narasingha Dutta Road, has 9,500 books and since 2008, it was run by the club members themselves.

Howrah Seva Sangha, started as a social welfare group in 1923 and its members were involved in the freedom struggle. The library was established at around the same time, but later became a government-sponsored primary unit library. The club is popular for its sports, yogasana, gymnastics and multigym. The Durga Puja is also one of the oldest in the town. However, the library has been struggling to stay afloat for the past seven years. “Although this is a government sponsored library, we did not get a librarian after the previous one retired, even after repeated requests. The club members would open the library every evening,” said Amarnath Basumullick, the president of Howrah Seva Sangha Library.

Gouri Sanyal, who was earlier the librarian at Sahid Smriti Sangha Granthagar at Bakultala, was transferred to this library in February this year. “I visit this library three days a week. At present I am trying to bring some order to it, by making a fresh catalogue of books and arranging the shelves properly,” said Gouri. Funds had also stopped coming to the library in the past seven years but after the new librarian was appointed, a sum of Rs 30,000 was also sanctioned.

“The fund will be used for some basic furniture like a table, chairs and stationery for the librarian to work. This has been sanctioned from the library’s contingency fund. As the library starts coming back to the mainstream, we will sanction the regular annual grant as well,” said Tushar Kanti Chattopadhyay, the district library officer, who has taken an active interest in reviving this library. “We are trying to revive several such libraries in Howrah that are struggling to stay afloat. We have started with those in the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) area and we are trying to help revive them,” added Chattopadhyay.

Although the library has started functioning, another huge task is to bring back readers to the library. “I think a career guidance section and a children’s section are necessary to attract young readers to the library. There are a number of schools in this area and we can try to get the students from the schools to come to the library regularly,” said Sanyal. Other interactive programmes and discussions like the one on the importance of books held at the club on July 4 on the 92nd annual programme of the club and library are being organised.

Barid Baran Ghosh, the president of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Arup Roy, agriculture marketing minister, Chaitali Dutta, professor at the library sciences and information department of Jadavpur University and Tushar Kanti Chattopadhyay, the district library officer were present at the July 4 programme and spoke about how books can be a person’s best friend.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Howrah> Story / by Dalia Mukherjee / Friday – July 10th, 2015