State libraries: Soon, separate identity cards for all four categories of members

Kolkata: The state Mass Education Extension and Library Services department will issue separate identity cards for all its four categories of members and at the same time encourage people across the state to take up global membership that provides access to all state-run libraries.

“We have four categories of membership in libraries — for children up to 11 years, for persons in the age group of 11 to 60 years and those above 60 and global membership. There is no membership levied on the first three categories while for global membership Rs 5000 is charged. We want to issue separate identity cards for all our categories of members and for this we have sought the approval of the state Finance department,” Siddiqullah Chowdhury, Minister in Charge of Mass Education Extension and Library Services department said during the question-answer session at the state Assembly on Thursday.

Presently, the number of global members is 1.5 lakh and the department has set a target of having 5 lakh such members.

With global membership, a person can access books and resource materials from 2,480 libraries across the state. The minster appealed to all the MLAs to go for global membership.

The minister urged the MLAs to pay a visit to the Central library near Ultadanga where 35000 rare books have been digitised and state-of-the-art facilities for reading books have been developed.

“We are eager to digitize such rare books spread across different libraries. So, if you come across any such book, kindly bring it before our notice,” Chowdhury appealed to the members.

The department provides Rs 2500 every year to private libraries across the state and this year 1.81 crore has been allocated for private libraries.