The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Design for modern State library finalised

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Saturday, Jun 14, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Design for modern State library finalised

B. Kolappan

It will be an 8-storeyed complex
Twice as big as Connemara library

Chennai: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is likely to lay the foundation stone soon for the Rs.100-crore state-of-the-art library complex coming up in the city.

The design of the building has been finalised, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu told The Hindu.

Explaining the salient features of the new library to be built by the State government, he said, “The modern library will provide easy access to poor students.” Science books, new publications, historical works and reference books still remained beyond the reach of the common people, he said.

The eight-storeyed library will come up on eight acres near the Government Data Centre in Kotturpuram. Tender notification would be issued in July first week. Finalisation of contracts would be done in October first week and the work would begin in the second week. The construction work was expected to be completed in April 2010.

All under one roof

“Our objective is to make it a complex where everything one looks for in the world of books will be available. There will also be a cyber café, a food court and a scholars’ hostel,” said the Minister. It would have a plinth area of 3,33,140 square ft.

Chief Minister Karunanidhi seems impressed with the design of the library. On June 10 while attending a book release function organised by Tamil Nadu Tamil Publishers Association, he said he was shown the design by the minister and expressed the hope that the library would be a treasure house of the Tamils.

“We want to ensure that every book written so far on Tamil Nadu and Tamils is available in the library. We have plans to approach all the libraries in the world to get a copy each of such books and stack them here. We will also obtain all microfilms available on Tamil Nadu,” Mr Thennarasu added.

The library would have a seating capacity of 1,250 persons, almost twice the capacity of the Connemara Public Library in Egmore. There would be two conference halls on the ground floor, besides a Braille and Talking book section. An amphitheatre would come up on the terrace.

The first floor would accommodate the children’s section, newspapers and periodicals, while Tamil books would be available on the second floor. The third floor was exclusively for English books and the fourth floor for books in Dravidian languages (except Tamil) and other Indian languages. Fifth floor was for back issues of newspapers and periodicals and the sixth floor for government documents. Donors’ collection, audio and video section would come up on the seventh floor. The eighth floor would accommodate rare books, a preserving unit, a photo library and a digital library.

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