Nayagarh: The lone government-run library functioning from the District IPR office here is struggling for survival.
The library on Khandapara road is presently subscribing to 20 English and Odia dailies, ‘nijukti khabar’ and several monthly magazines. It also has over 10,000 books on virtually all subjects, including the ‘Purnachandra Bhasakosha’. The aim is to provide knowledge to school and college-going students.
However, the sorry state of affairs at present portrays a different tale.
The library has 135 members only. In its heyday, at any given point of time, there always used to be more than 50 readers present in the reading room. Now the number has come down to an abysmal seven to 10 visitors per day.
Also there are no cupboards shelves to keep the books in a proper manner and they lie unattended and scattered around the floor.
Some locals said that since the library is located more than two kilometres from the college, students shun it. Some said that with the dependency of the students increasing on the net, the library has virtually become defunct.
Locals have urged the administration to take steps to streamline the functioning of the library so that a large number of readers would be benefitted.
When contacted, librarian Surendra Kumar Sahu said the number of readers has decreased since its change in location. Efforts are on to add some features to the library to attract more readers.
PNN