Puducherry: Roman Rolland Government Public Library in Puducherry region and 54 branch libraries, Dr. S.R. Ranganathan Government Library and 18 branch libraries, Government Public Library and 3 branch libraries at Mahe, Government Public Library and 2 branch libraries at Enam. Apart from these, there are a total of 85 libraries including 4 libraries operating in Puducherry Government Museum, Government Archives, Bharathidasan Memorial and Bharatiyar Memorial.
There are more than 13 lakh books in these libraries. Roman Roland Library is functioning as the main library near Rajnivas, Puducherry. This library was started in 1827. This 195 year old library has more than 4.5 lakh books in Tamil, French, Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu languages.
To benefit poor students the government has started a separate section of practice books for competitive exams in Puduvai libraries. Here are the books you need to prepare for Junior Clerk to IAS exams. More than 200 students come here every day for training. A large number of youth sit and study outside the library in the verandah surrounded by trees.
A children’s library section is also located in the library premises. In such a situation, the upper part of the wall between the children’s section and the area where students study for competitive exams has collapsed. The roof of the library has also collapsed. The condition of most of the libraries in the state is poor.
When the library inquired about this, they said, “The library is old. Hundred years old building. Also, because it is closer to the coast, the displacement of the car increases due to the salt air. They said they would fix it. This problem arises because it is a very old building despite annual maintenance. We have informed the government.
Generally updated information of current year will be useful for students for competitive exams. There are a lot of books for competitive exams in the last 2022, so a lot of youth are coming here. “17 students have won the LTC exam and 10 students have won the UTC exam.”
Vacancies: Similarly, 1989 vacancies were filled for Library Division in Puduvai. After that people are not selected. No post has been filled for the last 33 years hence many posts are vacant. There is a shortage of staff in various libraries. Due to this, students of their respective areas are not able to use the books in the library.
Although the government buys books and sends them to libraries, there are not enough staff to properly sort them and give them to the public. Books thus purchased are stacked in bundles in libraries. Books are getting wasted due to lack of staff to purchase books and distribute them among the public.
The public and youth demand that the vacant posts of librarians should be immediately filled by the Puduvai government to provide books to the people and to purchase and distribute books for competitive examinations.
When top officials of the Art and Culture Department were asked about this, they said, “Vacant posts have not been filled in the Puducherry Library Department for the last 33 years.”
So out of total 83 Library Information Assistant posts, 82 posts are vacant. Similarly, 2 posts of Assistant Library Information Officer and 20 posts of Library Clerk are vacant. The files to fill it are currently with the government. Due to shortage of staff, various libraries have books but they are not able to give them to the public.