(UTV|COLOMBO) – The directorate of public libraries in Tamil Nadu has collected nearly 40,000 Tamil books from the public and educational institutions to replenish the resources of tge Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka, which had lost its rare collections of books and manuscripts to a fire in 1981,
The Tamil Nadu government has launched a drive to collect one lakh Tamil books for the Jaffna Public Library in October.
“We received books through our readers, general public and educational institutions. The collection of books varies from ancient Tolkappiam to biographies of famous film personalities,” S.Kannappan, previous director of public libraries who helmed the project till last week, said.
As the 41st Chennai Book Fair is being held in the city, the officials have requested the publishers to donate new titles for the iconic library in Sri Lanka.
The Jaffna library had over 90,000 rare books and palm-leaf manuscripts. It was burnt by a Sinhalese mob in 1981 and subsequently, it was rebuilt and opened in 2003. Now it has close to 100,000 books. The move of Tamil Nadu is expected to boost the resources of Jaffna library.
The officials were confident they could collect one lakh books within a month’s time.
“The universities and educational institutions are collecting books. We expect at least few thousand books from publishers who have participated in the book fair,” officials said.
Since the books are collected for the library, the directorate of public libraries is accepting only new books. “Whatever the books collected so far was categorised and packed neatly,” sources added
It was planned to send them in two shipments. Now they want to send them in one shipment. “The Jaffna library will get the books in February,” they said.
The University of Malaya in Malaysia will get some books as part of the announcement, but a majority will be sent to Sri Lanka.
Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle
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