HYDERABAD: Housed in dilapidated buildings with infrequent supply of electricity, shortage of staff and facing space crunch due to increasing number of old books, the government libraries in the Old City are crying for urgent attention. 

Hyderabad district has about 90 libraries of which 40 are located in the Old City, reflecting that once this part of the twin cities had a vibrant reading culture. Today, the condition of these libraries is a deterrent for visitors. More than half of them are beset with infrastructure problems and lack of repair and maintenance of the buildings. The students who form the core of reader-visitors to these libraries say they wished the store house of books would also contain reading material for students and allocate exclusive areas for them. 

The Shah Ali Banda library is the only grade one institution in the Old City. Staff here says that the more than two-decade-old building is in need of repairs. "Electric wiring needs to be redone. Repairs are also required to the roof and walls. Damp and water leakage are affecting the books," said a record keeper. 

According to officials of City Central Library, which is the district nodal centre and supervises the functioning of the libraries in the city, the libraries in Sultan Shahi, Mir Alam Mandi, Jangamet, Doodhbowli, Dabeerpura and several other areas are in need of dire repairs. "At most places the buildings breed moth, the eternal enemy of paper, due to dampness. Some libraries do not have electricity forcing staff to keep them open only for a few hours," complained an official. 

Space is also a major problem for the Old City libraries for the officials. "Every year we receive a large number of books from the City Central Library. But there is hardly any place to keep the 1000 books that we recently received due to lack of proper mechanism to weed out the old books which pile up every year. Hence new books which have to be on the shelves, are lying in the cellar," said the record keeper at Shah Ali Banda. 

The students also feel that the libraries should frequently update their stock with new edition text books. "The library does not get new editions of required text books, and other reference materials, which are usually very expensive. We need them for preparing for the exams," said Shanti Swaroop, of Shah Ali Banda. 

It is not only these problems that are keeping denizens away. Says Javeed Ali a resident of Moghalpura, "Earlier libraries were the only place where information about anything was available. Today with the advent of internet, the libraries seem to have lost their importance. Obviously they have failed to keep pace with the changing needs of the people. It seems even the government has lost interest in funding and maintaining them. Today reference books are rarely updated. This has caused the readership to dip drastically." 

The library management staff at the City Centre library cites staff shortage as a reason for the status of the Old City's libraries but deny shortage of funds. "Last year we were allocated Rs 59 cr which is sufficient for our operations. We cannot take up repair or construction works unless proposals come from the library itself. Most of these libraries are in a neglected state due to shortage of staff," said a senior official. 

According to him, the government has filled existing vacancies through outsourcing but there are still 139 vacancies of the total 259 posts available. This has left several libraries without librarians, burdening existing employees. The problem has only been compounded in the last few months as staffs from the libraries were diverted for census duty. 

When asked why libraries in the new city are thriving despite staff problems, the official said that people in the new city are more active in maintenance of their community libraries as compared to their old city counterparts. "In areas like Himayat Nagar, we receive complaints from the residents and members of welfare associations if there is something wrong with the functioning of the library. But we seldom receive complaints from the Old City areas. This attitude has also contributed to the decline of the Old City libraries," he said.