Bookworms ignore lure of e-books, flock to libraries

Coimbatore: Though mobile phones and computers have become the primary sources of information and e-book readers have taken over paperbacks, books still haven’t lost their charm, reveals data from the district library commission.
The annual visitor count in the 246 libraries in the districtthe District Central Library, branch libraries, village libraries, part-time libraries and a mobile libraryshow an increasing trend, amid popular pronouncements that ‘reading habit is dying’.

The total annual visitor count in the district’s libraries has gone up by about 2.4lakh in the last three years. While 26.6lakh people visited the libraries in the district during 2016-17, their numbers went up to 29lakh during 2018-19 (till March), according to official data.

Officials of the library department and librarians say the habit of reading as pastime and as an interest has not waned. While officials of libraries in urban areas say initiatives such as talks and seminars attract more people, village librarians say they see a steadily increasing stream of visitors, even without such initiatives.

The District Central Library on Cowley Brown Road, the biggest in the district, has now free WiFi and e-magazine reading facilities. It also has Delnet, which links all important libraries in the country. The network allows readers to access journals and research papers.

“However, most of the readers prefer to hold hard copies,” said a library staff. The library also conducts camps, talks and seminars for children at its sought-after children’s section.

Officials at the commission said that of the 27 full-time libraries in the district, which function from 8am to 8pm, 16 have been equipped with computers.

Not just urban libraries, village libraries also have seen an increase in visitors. “Though we could not conduct events as big libraries do, the number of readers has increased by about 10% compared to the last year,” said a village librarian.

Meanwhile, officials said libraries in the district would receive new books through library orders in a month. Each of them would get about 3,000 new books on average.