Rates for purchase of books by libraries revised

School education department recently constituted a four-member committee led by the director of public libraries, to recommend the new rates for procuring books from the publishers and printers.

A senior official from Directorate of Public Libraries told DT Next that many publishers were not willing to supply books to the government as they felt that the rate fixed by the authorities were low. “Most of the books became unaffordable and public libraries were not equipped to give latest information to the visitors or members,” she added. “The supply got reduced by about 50% in the last couple of years,” the official pointed out.

According to the new rates fixed by the committee, small books of crown size (12.5 X 8 cm) can be purchased at the rate of Rs 5.75 as against old price of Rs 3.92. Similarly, medium size books “demmy”, can be procured at the rate of Rs 6.90 against the old Rs 5.43.

“The new procurementrates will come to immediate effect,” the official said adding that thegovernment has also ordered torevise the purchase rates every three years once.

In the normal course, 25% of cess would be earmarked for books and 6.5% of the cess for periodicals in a given year. In addition, books were also procured to an extent of Rs 3 crore per year with the financial assistance of the Raja Ram Mohan Roy Library Foundation, an official said, adding, “At present the book stock in public libraries throughout Tamil Nadu stands at 8.15 crore.”