177-YEAR-OLD TREASURE TROVE
Professor of Literature from the French Lyce’e of Pondicherry M.Bourdat while writing on reconstruction of history is candid in admitting that“ it would be tedious to revel exclusively in stones and inscriptions. There remain texts, not only more lively than stones but often valuable monuments themselves”. To look into these texts there cannot be a better place than the Library named after French scholar Romain Rolland, a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi.
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Out of3, 38, 304 books in the Library, Tamil section has 1,20,000 books and English literature to the tune of 1.75,000. In the reference section 22,300 books and in Children’s library 40,000 books are there. Thorough mobile service 3000 books and mini mobile service 1500 books are reaching the reading public. The State Government of Pondicherry provides every year Rs. 4 to 6 lakhs of funds. And the new purchases for the year 2003-2004 is 4254 books. “ Local writers with political clout or other contacts are pushing their books while many deserving UNESCO publications are not being bought” commented N.J.Karthikeyan Sub Editor of Sun News (Tamil) who hails from Pondicherry. Rajaram Mohan Ray Library Foundation of Kolkatta has so far provided 18422 books under non-matching scheme free of cost. “ Efforts must be taken to reach out to various other similar foundations abroad to get books free for enlightening the knowledge of Pondicherrians” opines DrA.Arivunambi Head of the Department of Tamil at Pondicherry University.
It appears that out of existing 300000 books around 45000 books have to be declared condemned books and replaced. Among the 54 branch libraries in Pondicherry 4,30,000 books are there and in it 35,000 books are to be condemned. Existing books are too facing threats from insects and the entire Library must be centrally air conditioned along with periodical chemical and other treatments to keep bookworms and other insects away. Years of neglect had come to an end with the Aegean stables being cleared under the dynamic vision of B.V.Selvaraj I.A.S, Secretary Arts & Culture with the able assistance of a knowledgeable Director Miss N.Sumathi.
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In Pondicherry fortunately because of the French rule lot of French books have been housed in the Romain Rolland Library. In post merger phase with India, the replacement of English in the place of French, had led to the neglect of that language and its rare collection of books. “Catalogue General” a compilation of rare books in Romain Rolland Library written by Madame Yvonne Robert Gaebele and published by Pondicherry Government in 1960 is yet to see a reprint or up date.”Despite humidity the parasites and the rough casualness in the treatment of the volumes precious editions have survived.,” opined M.Bourdat in his book 18 th Century Pondicherry. Till very recently a French knowing librarian was not there and decades of ignorance of the French books in the Library has led to lot of loss to the priceless collections. The newly inducted lady assistant who knows French is courteous and helping researchers with adequate information. Not only that many valuable manuscripts were handed over to National Archives unnecessarily, instead of preserving here. After decades of neglect the current Librarian Murugappan had started to put the house in order amidst rising expectations from research scholars. Is Treasure safe? Custodians of the trove must ponder and plug the loopholes.
Courtesy : The New Indian Express
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