ht. Libr. Rev. (1974) 6, 35-41

INTAMEL MEETING 1973, INDIA

(6) Delhi Public Library System and its Services 0. P. GUPTAf

The Delhi Public Library was established in 1950 as a Public Library Project by the Government of India in collaboration with UNESCO. The Library was supposed to provide free library service on modern lines for the people of Delhi. It was also intended to serve as a model for public library development in India in particular and other Asian countries in general. The Library was inaugurated by late Mr Jawahrlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India on 27 October, 1951.

The establishment of a modern public library in a metropolitan city was undoubtedly a land-mark in public library development in India. There were, of course, a few so-called public libraries in the country, even before the Delhi Public Library came into being. But these public libraries had closed shelves, insisted on compulsory cash security for enrolment and charged subscription from members. All these limitations restricted their use considerably. The Delhi Public Library was, how- ever, quite different. Founded on the fundamental principles of UNESCO Manifesto for Public Libraries, it had open shelves allowing unhindered access to books; it did not insist on a cash security for enrolment and of course, did not charge any fee or subscription from its members. It was indeed a bold venture. There was considerable sceptic- ism about the wisdom of such radical steps and there was a general fear that the Library would before long find its collection depleted. It was, perhaps, the guarantee of financial assistance from UNESCO for a period of five years that emboldened the Government of India to run this risk. However, luckily for the Library, the gloomy forebodings did not come true. The Library not only survived but flourished beyond expectations.

MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE

The Library is managed by the Delhi Library Board, an autonomous

t Deputy Director, Delhi Public Library, Delhi, India.

36 0. P. GUPTA

body established under a special Resolution of the Ministry of Educa- tion, Government of India. The Chairman of the Board is nominated by the Ministry of Education. The Board consists of 15 members, including the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, representatives of the Ministry of Education, UNESCO, Delhi Administration, Delhi Metropolitan Council, Delhi Municipal Corporation, New Delhi Municipal Com- mittee, four co-opted members and the Director of the Library who is the ex-officio Secretary of the Board.

The Delhi Library Board is registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act and is autonomous in its functioning. The Board has its own Memorandum of Association setting forth its constitution and objectives. It takes decisions on policy matters, passes the budget of the Library and sanctions all major expenditure. The Ministry of Educa- tion can, however, under certain circumstances issue directives to it.

The Library is financed almost entirely by the Union Ministry of Education. Only a small part of its income i.e. about 7% consists of receipts from overdue charges, cost of lost books etc. The Library has a budget of about Rs.15 lakhs for the current fiscal year. Apart from the annual grant which the Library receives from the Government of India for meeting expenditure on existing services the Library also gets special appropriations for new schemes of development and expansion of library services under the country’s Five Year Plans.

On an average the Library spends about 60% on staff salaries, 20% on books, serials and binding, and 20% on supplies and services.

THE LIBRARY SYSTEM

The Library started as a modest unitary library. It had, however, the rudiments of a modern public library. Besides the usual Departments viz. the Processing Department for acquisition and processing of books, and the Adult Lending and Reference Departments, it had a Children’s Department specially catering to the needs of juvenile readers, a Social Education Department employing audio-visual media for enlightenment and recreation of the Library’s public and an Extension Services Department for making library service available outside the precincts of the main Library through Mobile Vans and Deposit Stations. It took the Library about a decade to take roots in the cultural life of the city.

The Library had its first major break-through during the sixties when it got special funds for expansion of services under the country’s Third Five Year Plan. During this period the Library opened four big Branches, started a Braille Section for the blind, commissioned two more Mobile Library Vans and opened eight Sub-Branches. During the

INTAMEL MEETING 37

Fourth Five Year Plan the Library has opened seven bigger Sub- Branches including a Sports Library. The Library has thus grown into a full-fledged system consisting of a Central Library, an Extension Services Department providing library service through Mobile Vans and Deposit Stations, and 19 Branches and Sub-Branches.

TECHNICAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT

Books for the entire Library system are acquired and processed centrally by the Technical Services Department. New titles received on approval from the local booksellers are examined by the Head of Technical Services. Those found suitable for the Library are shown to the Heads of Service Departments and Branch Librarians who indicate the number of copies required by them. These are, thereafter examined by the Director or Deputy Director who approves the titles to be referred to Book Selection Committee, and also reviews the number of copies marked by Heads of Departments or Branch Librarians. Books approved by the Book Selection Committee are ordered with the booksellers.

Books of all languages are accessioned in one sequence. Instead of recording them in the conventional Accession Register, the entry for each volume is made on a card called the “Accession Card”. Books are classified according to Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme with certain modifications. For cataloguing the “A.A. Code, 1967” is followed with necessary modifications. Since the Library has now acquired a Card Duplicating Machine, the catalogue entries are made on the unit card principle.

READER'S SERVICES

The Library has a registered membership of about 132,000. It issues about 8000 books every day all over the system which means a total circulation of over 22 lakhs (a lakh= 100,000) in a year. The net book stock of the Library is at present over 5 lakhs of which 58% books are in Hindi, 22% in English, and 20% in Urdu and Punjabi, including a sprinkling in Sindhi and Bengali.

Central library (1) Adult lending and reference department. The Department catering for the reading needs of persons above 15 years of age has a membership of over 30,000. It issues over 425,000 books in a year. Over 160,000 volumes were read or consulted on the premises during the last year.

The Reference Department answers a large number of queries received in person, over the ‘phone and by post. The use of the Depart- ment is somewhat stunted by the shortage of space. It can also be

38 0. P. GUPTA

improved if it is located in an area frequented by the better-educated people.

(2) Ch’ld dp t z ren e ar merit. The Department has a membership of over 7000 and issues about 126,000 books in a year. The Department also arranges for its members, promotion activities e.g. story hours, group discussions, dramas etc.

(3) Social education department. This Department provides opportunities for adult members to form groups for cultivation of their interests and hobbies. These groups arrange lectures, discussions, dramas, concerts etc. Many speakers, writers and artists have blossomed from these nurseries of nascent talent. The Department also entertains the public by holding T.V. shows and film shows. Besides, it lends gramophone records to registered borrowers. It has a collection of about 2000 discs of all sorts-Indian and Western, vocal and instrumental, and a Lingua- phone set-and has a circulation of over 12,000 a year. Needless to say, the activities of this Department make the Library a lively Community Centre for enlightenment and entertainment.

Extension services department This Department is responsible for providing library service to areas

which are not served by the Central Library or Branches, through Mobile Vans and a network of Deposit Stations operated in association with other organizations which have the requisite accommodation, furniture and staff for the purpose.

The Mobile Library Vans serve some 55 areas, urban and rural once in a week. Most of the urban areas served by the Mobile Vans are heavily populated and actually deserve Branch Libraries. But the Library has to provide a modicum of library service until it has the resources to open Branches there. The Mobile Libraries have a member- ship of about 21,000 and issue about 300,000 volumes in a year. The circulation at some of the urban stations is as high as 100 volumes an hour which is far too high to afford a very satisfactory service to readers. There is another stumbling block. The Mobile Van can at the most carry about 3000 volumes. Since the Library caters books in four languages i.e. Hindi, English, Urdu and Punjabi, and to adults as well as to children, this further restricts the range and variety of books available to the readers.

There are 14 Deposit Stations (including one for Prisoners), and 3 Hospital Libraries functioning under the aegis of the Extension Services Department. Each of these has a bookstock varying between two to three thousand volumes. These Deposit Stations have a member- ship of over 7000 and issue over 210,000 volumes in a year.

INTAMEL MEETING 39

Branches and Sub-Bran&s The Library has four Branches and 15 medium and small Sub-

Branches. Each one of the Branches has a bookstock of 25,000 to 30,000 volumes, adequate to provide a fairly comprehensive service to their clientele, adults as well as children. They have also a collection of basic reference books. Each Branch has a membership of about 10,000 (one third of which are children) and an annual circulation of over 150,000. A Branch has a staff of about 15 headed by a Branch Librarian who is invested with necessary administrative powers for autonomous functioning.

The Sub-Branches are attached to the nearest Branch. They have a bookstock of about eight to ten thousand consisting of basic and popular titles. Each Sub-Branch has a staff of three to four persons including a qualified librarian who is in charge. The average membership of a grown-up Sub-Branch is about four to five thousand and the average annual circulation varies between 80,000 to 90,000. The Branch Library comes to the rescue of the Sub-Branches whenever there is a shortage of books or staff.

Braille department This Department, set up in 1963, caters for the needs of the blind

readers of the Library. Besides acquiring Braille books from Indian and foreign publishers it also transcribes popular books in Hindi into Braille. Recently it has also started transcribing School Textbooks into Braille for the benefit of blind students who had so far to get the help of sighted persons for pursuing school studies.

The Braille Department has a bookstock of over 4000 volumes and a registered membership of about 500. It lends books to readers mostly by post or through a Mobile Van which visits institutions for the blind once in a week. It has an annual circulation of about 12,000.

Recently the Library has received some 5000 “Talking Books” (Gramophone Records) in English as gift from the Library of Congress (United States). These can be enjoyed by the blind lacking knowledge of the Braille system of reading.

READERS AND THEIR INTERESTS

The readers of the Library are a truly democratic lot, representing a cross-section of the city population with all its diversities and disparities. The Library serves the V.I.P. and the lowliest citizen alike. It can count among the patrons the present President of India (who was a voracious user of the Library when he was the Vice-President) and on the other hand a humble porter from the nearby Railway Station. The

40 0. I'. GUPTA

survey carried out by UNESCO in 1955 revealed that the adult membership of the Central Library (then about 20,000) consisted of about 25% students. 40% employees (including white collar officials), 9% middle-class businessmen, 6% professional people, 3% housewives, 3% manual workers (skilled and unskilled), 3% educated unemployed, and about 11 o/o miscellaneous including retired people. Although the occupational pattern of membership of the Central Library must have undergone some change over the last 18 years, it may be safely assumed that the students and middle class employees still form the bulk of membership.

As regards the proportion of females among the adult members, it has risen from 8% (in 1955) to 12% at the Central Library. This is attribut- able not only to the spread of education among the females but also to greater freedom of movement now permitted to them. It is significant that the females consisting mostly of housewives and University students constitute about 23% of the total membership of the Branch Libraries which are located in predominantly residential areas. Coming to the pattern of circulation by Language, Hindi which apart from being the national language, is the medium of oral communication and instruc- tion in Delhi, accounts for about 60% adult reading. Quite naturally fiction forms the bulk i.e. about 65% of circulation in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi, which are spoken and read by a sizeable proportion of the local population have a circulation of about 20%. English which is still the language of the elite and the serious reader claims a circulation of about 20%, about two-thirds of which consists of non-fiction. Literature, Social Sciences and Applied Sciences are the most read subjects in Hindi and English. In Hindi their relative popularity is in the order given above, while in English Social Sciences come first followed by Applied Sciences and Literature.

TECHNICAL ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE

As a Public Library Pilot Project it is one of the functions of the Library to render technical advice and assistance to interested libraries, institu- tions and individual librarians. The Library receives requests for advice on diverse matters. Some of the more common problems on which advice is usually sought are stocktaking procedure, measures for checking book-lifting and policy with regard to loss of books. It is obvious that librarians mostly seek advice on matters which usually cause concern to the Library Authorities for reasons other than im- provement of library services.

The Library receives hundreds of Library Science students for obser-

INTAMEL MEETING 41

vation and practical training every year. It is also visited by educational- ists and others connected with the development of libraries in the country.

It must, however, be admitted with regret that potentialities of the Library as a Pilot Project have not been fully exploited in the country. It was envisaged by UNESCO that similar public library systems would come up at least in the metropolitan cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. But as it is, the Delhi Public Library is still alone in the field. Even some of the States viz. Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Mysore and Maha- rashtra which have enacted library legislation have not been able to establish any comparable public library system in the bigger cities. Perhaps, the establishment of comprehensive public library systems in the metropolitan cities is beyond the financial resources of the States and the Government of India should take the initiative in the matter.

CONCLUDING REMARKS Although the Library has made striking progress over the last two decades, it has still a long way to go. It has as yet covered about one- third of the population of the Union Territory of Delhi and hopes to cover the remaining two-thirds within the next 20 years, subject to provision of funds by the Government. The Library has a plot of land earmarked for the construction of the Central Library building. How- ever, at present it appears that it will take about ten years. The Library has drawn up a Master Plan for setting up eight Regional Libraries, with the Central Library at the apex, to give the Union Territory a well-knit public library system. At least one of these is in the offing and another may materialize during the next five years. The Library also has plans to establish a model Rural Branch in a village.

Before I close this paper I must perhaps caution visitors against expecting to see neat and clean books on the shelves. The dusty sur- roundings coupled with hot humid climate during the larger part of the year would not let the books remain unsoiled, do what we may. How- ever, I would rather have visitors go away unimpressed than present to them little used spick and span books in closed almirahs!