Shelf, life: Uttarpara Jaykrishna Public Library, Kolkata | Salil Bera
Some compare it with paradise, some find it a haven. For many it is a metaphor—a powerhouse that fuels the imagination, a window to the world, the greatest arsenal one can ask for. One would think libraries are shape-shifters, but what essentially changes is the effect they have on us.
Even time stands still here. The air breezes in, careful to not ruffle too many pages. The sun, too, turns mellow, streaming in through an open window and warming up a cheesy romance. The labels here help pick a friend, not brand an enemy. There is a place for every book, with identities separate but never suppressed.
But is there a place for libraries in today’s world, a world that runs—never strolls—on algorithms? The British Council Library, for instance, shut its Pune branch and moved online in 2020. The pandemic, perhaps, only accelerated what was meant to be.
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We should have seen it coming though. Many libraries have vanished or are languishing because of lack of funds. Worse, there is no data available on the per capita expenditure of public libraries, as per a 2018 paper (A Policy Review of Public Libraries in India). Only five of the 19 states that have passed library legislations have a provision for a library cess or tax levy. And, while private and community-owned libraries are trying to step in and up, it is not an easy task, for the very same reasons that plague public libraries. Even our waning interest in or lack of time for reading is somewhere to blame.
But, as you will see in the following pages, libraries—public and private— can be stubborn. They are aware of their own silent power. That is why they pop up in places of resistance, be it Occupy Wall Street or our own Shaheen Bagh. That is why they are burnt, too—they bewitch you into believing the impossible. But they survive, despite everything. Because, as author Neil Gaiman said in defence of libraries in 2013, they tell us, everything changes when we read.
And, that is the only reason we need.