Lending libraries keep alive city’s love affair with books

A working woman, Subbalakshmi Raghavan has tried kindle and reading online. However, her love for reading books has made her remain a library member. She says, “Nothing beats the pleasure of reading books. I could never get the same thrill on kindle or reading from sites, though I am a gadget-savvy person,” she says with a smile. 

Subbalakshmi is not alone, when one sees the list of lending libraries that have continued to thrive over the years. Fifty-five-year-old Easwari Lending Library has about eight branches in the city, with a whopping membership base of 40,000. They have been steadily opening branches as well.

P Saravanan, who manages the activities of the library started by his father, who began the venture at a time when reading ruled the roost. He says, “Keeping in pace with the changing face of the readers, we have been engaging with clubs and gated communities, to have libraries inside them. We also have door delivery options, of course for a charge, for the convenience of our members.” 

The library with a collection of over a 1 lakh books across genres has been tapping on the Tamil reader population through a specific subscription category called language readers. 

A relatively young library— two-year-old Little Love Library in Anna Nagar—has been garnering readers from as young as three years old to the middle aged. Swetha Mohan (26), who runs the library, says that most of the members in the library are young readers. Riding on the storytelling wave and with silent reading sessions at the Anna Tower Park on Sundays, Swetha has built a membership base close to 200 in a short span. She says, “The younger ones are of course brought in by mothers, who are avid readers themselves. Some of them want to enrol in the library because buying children’s books is a very costly affair. In this library, we have family subscriptions in which the entire family can avail books for a lifetime membership fee of Rs 850.” 

Anusha J, a mother of two girls, says that the best gift a parent can give to their child is the interest in reading. “It keeps them away from gadgets and the time they spend with books is far more productive,” she says. 

Libraries like Jayalakshmi Lending Library in Choolaimedu has been thriving due to its oldest members, A source from the library says, “We have lost about 20 per cent of our readers to several factors, but senior citizens have continued to patronise us,” he says, admitting that staying afloat has been a challenge. 

On the other hand, 10-year-old Bookmark Lending Library on ECR has been drawing more members with its annual book sale. “They look inside the library during the sale and decide to become members. We also make monthly discount offers to keep the base growing,” says G Mangaiyarkarasi, who manages the library.