Today we had a visit to the Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpurm, Chennai - just to see the facilities. It was a long pending action item. Fortunately, was able to allocate time today!
The library was opened on September 15, 2010 and is one of the Asia's largest libraries.
The parking space is enough, at least for the two-wheeler. Though there are some parking slots for cars in the open, I did not check if there was a basement parking. I suppose it should be there.
There is a statue of Mr. C. N. Annadurai, (CM of TN 1967-1969) in a reading-pose at the entrance to the library.
The security does not allow any kind of bags - including ladies' hand-bags to be carried into the library. Photograph is allowed from outside, but prohibited inside. We got to know that on normal week-days, there are about 1000 visitors per day which may go up to 3000 on week-ends and government holidays.
There is no membership offered now, but the plan is in pipe-line. RFID based inventory management and book-issuance will be put in place shortly. Intra-net access catalog is working and it is expected that in the next one month, catalog will be available in internet too.
The library is fully air-conditioned. It consists of 9 floors. Each floor is divided into two wings (A and B). There are 4 lifts, but only one was operational when we went today. There is an escalator which leads you up from the ground floor to first floor - the space above that is left open to get natural light in all the 9 floors. The library is closely monitored using CCTV cameras - there are ample of them to cover each and every shelf of books in all of these floors!
Ground Floor: Reading Material for differently-abled persons, Reading Materials on Competitive Exams and a small hall where one can bring outside books and read.
1st Floor: Periodicals, Magazines (English, Tamil and a very little Hindi) and Newspapers, Children's section - Play Area and Books
2nd Floor: Tamil - Literature, History, Novel, Religion and Rare Books
3rd Floor: English - Spiritual, Social Sciences, Psychology, Humanities, Foreign Relations
4th Floor: English - Economics, Literature, Novels
5th Floor: English - Science and Mathematics
6th Floor: English - Engineering, Accounting, Management, Arts, Sports, Technology
7th Floor: English - History, Geography
8th Floor: Office Space
The ambiance in the children's section and the collection of books are very good - A must visit for parents if their children are in school. There are even computers with nice games and puzzles loaded in them!
There is an Open Air Theatre and a conference room also with limited seating facility. Visitors can carry their laptops to any of these floors and reading rooms. There are very nice sofas / chairs put on each of those sections - So, it is an enjoyable place to read peacefully. Each section has an entry register in which you need to mark your name and sign before proceeding. I suppose they may use this for statistical purposes. I could see as you go up in the floors the number of entries in a single day kept on reducing. Though, was surprised to find that the number in History/Geography section deviated from this trend towards the higher side.
Some features that can be added are
- Audio and Video Collections
- Presentation Halls and Discussion rooms to be use for small groups
- A full-fledged restaurant (There is one snack-bar kind of store in the ground floor)
- An integrated open park / play area, which may also serve as a kind of talk-place
- A wi-fi internet connection (not sure whether it exists as on date)
Also, found that the rest rooms could be maintained a little better.
