Treasure trove of books

CHENNAI MAY be one of those few places in the country that boast of many monolithic structures commissioned during the days of the Raj. Entering Pantheon Road that houses three of the oldest edifices in Chennai, one would hardly think they are mere reminders of the British period.

The Museum Theatre, the Museum and the Connemara Library speak volumes of the time and people of a bygone era.

Way back in the late 19th Century it was felt that there was no proper place for the British to preserve their publications and avail of a conducive environment for reading. This spurred the commissioning of the Connemara Library in 1890 and after six long years it was completed.

It was inaugurated by Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock, the Governor who succeeded Lord Connemara in 1896. The public was formally invited to use it from December 5, 1896. The architecture of this 104-year old library has an Anglo-Italian influence, with high ceilings, elaborate teakwood interiors, neat shelves and sprawling halls.

The designer was H. Irvin, who was the consulting architect to the government of Madras and it was a semi-circle-shaped building with a truncated semi-circled roof.

The ceiling, which was made of wood, has curved sides with coloured glass pieces. And, the flooring was made of exquisite marble brought specially from Andhra Pradesh - ferried across the 'Buckingham Canal' - what a surprise... to imagine that the Buckingham Canal was actually navigable a hundred years ago.

The architecture was obviously tastefully done with imposing beams elaborately designed. In 1952, mezzanine teak-wood flooring was added to the building in order to accommodate the increasing number of readers.

The original structure had about 27,000 sq.ft. space and roughly about 20,000 sq.ft. of shelf space. To this, was added another block with 50,000 sq.ft. in the late 1970s. This alone had about 209 windows and 40 doors.

In the year 1950, Connemara was given the status of a State - Central Library and from 1966, and Institute of Library Science was also added to one of its wings so that the untrained staff could get trained here.

To mark the hundred years of its existence, another building was also constructed in 1997. Currently, renovation work is on and it is no ordinary task to conserve a construction of such proportion.

The work has been going on for two years now as the wood has fallen prey to termite- attacks and the beams and pillars have weathered. Conservation work is laborious and has been estimated to cost about Rs. 1 crore, of which two-thirds will be borne by the Central government and the remaining by the State government.

This means all the teak interiors will be replaced and the 20-odd alcoves will also get a face-lift. Efforts are also on to transfer the ancient books onto micro-forms so that they can be preserved better.

The library abounds in rare books - a Bible published in 1608, 12 volumes of the Hortus Indicus Malabaricus published between 1678 to 1703, the Flora Indica published in 1768 and the Memoirs of Zahir-Ed-Din Muhammed Babur published in 1826 to name a few. If you are on the look out for rare and antiquated publications here, one is sure to find them, perhaps yellow with age, but otherwise well-maintained.

When the Library was constructed exactly a century ago, it catered to the needs of the erudite English as well as the few educated Indians.

The collection, at that time was only in English. It was only in the due course of time that books from Tamil Literature was added to the collection. And today, they are proud of a collection of over 5,00,000 books.

If you have an assignment in a vague subject like anthropology or even meteorology or pharmacognosy, you can rest assured that you can get some vital information from the racks.

The library has the privilege of serving as the Information Desk of the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations. Having been deemed a State-Central Library, it also gets a regular supply of books, magazines and newspapers that are published in the country. For the visuisually handicapped, there is a separate 'Braille section' that was opened in 1995. With a new photocopying division and Internet facilities, the Library now allows outsiders to use these services for a nominal charge, which goes towards its upkeep.

The library offers many services, of which home delivery and bibliography services are unique. Imagine getting all your books home-delivered... that too from an old institution such as this!

The membership fee is very nominal - Rs. 300 for the initial deposit followed by an annual fee of Rs. 25.

This ensures that at a time, one can borrow upto six books without any hassles.

SHANTI ARUN KUMAR

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