Getting Library Membership


Yesterday I confirmed my temporary membership at the Carrollton Public Library, Texas. I am simply floored by this wonderful county library and the simplicity with which one can become a member and borrow learning resources from here.


Before I go on I would like to write a little about Carrollton, a little suburb of Dallas which sprawls across an area of 37 sq. miles and hosts a population of 120,150 (January 2007). It has about 1,200 acres of officially notified green spaces and parks. One thing impressive about the city is its vast open spaces and its sustainable development. The natural landscape and formations have been preserved very well... the creeks and springs still flow (some have drainage flowing into them), almost all roads are lined by green lawns. Minimum width of the road would be approximately about 60'. There are two public libraries and membership to one automatically provides acess to resources in the other.

Now coming back to the membership process to the Carrollton Public Library. About two weeks ago I walked in to check out some magazines and also to verify the claim of several people who had said that internet browsing is free in public libraries in US and most EU countries. Yes this library and several others in the country provide free internet access (1 hr at a time) to members. And how does one become a member? No lengthy forms to fill up, no need to get your character and identity attested or endorsed by a gazetted officer of the federal government... nothing of that sort.


Just fill in a simple form and provide an identity and local address proof and bingo, you will get an impressive looking barcoded plastic card which will give you access to the phenomenal amount of resources the library offers. Since I didn't have a local address proof on my first visit they gave me a temporary membership which allowed me internet access and reading books and other resources in the library. The library also organises regular book reading sessions, book club meetings and other activities to promote reading and learning activities among students and youth. These activities are open for general public too.


The library has a collection of 250,000 books and other resources including magazines, journals, project reports, CD-ROMs, DVDs, VHS tapes, audio tapes. A member can borrow upto 45 resources at a time and keep it for over 2 weeks without having to pay a penny. Apart from these, the library offers private study rooms which have to be booked in advance, a childrens play room, a reference section, a research center and mentoring section. Awesome, this library is free, but it is better than even the British Trade Office library in Bangalore. I don't know whether India has even one library of this standard and which offers all these facilities yet.


In India getting a library membership is a herculean task, one has to fill in forms and then get it attested by a Gazetted officer of the state or central government and then wait for our identity and antecedents to be verified before we are granted membership. And after that one can borrow only 2-3 books only from the library. The other concepts, like private study, a children's play area, etc are unheard of in India. Internet access is still alien in most government offices, and 99% of the public libraries are owned and managed by the government. When will India become like here, with over 450 million youth in the country if we don't give them access to knowlege which is available in books, we are doing them a great disservice. If you want to do charity, don't give money to poor people, buy them books.


Think about it.