KARACHI, June 11: The Liaquat Memorial Library, Karachi, the largest public library of Sindh, even in this modern era of communication, lacks modern facilities like internet, microfilming and audio-visual accessories.

The library run by Sindh Culture and Tourism Department houses more than 159,000 books and subscribes to some 50 local and international newspapers and periodicals.

The library is the most popular place for serious-minded students of Karachi, preparing for academic, professional and competitive exams. Its two-storey main reading hall has a capacity for some 300 readers.

Since the library has no separate reading hall for women, the management has carved out a 50-seat reading room for women from the periodical section.

Furthermore, to facilitate students preparing exclusively for the CSS and other competitive exams, another separate reading room with 30 seats has been set up at the former administration office. Thus, the library’s total seating capacity comes to some 380 readers, while the number of daily visitors to the library ranges from 500 to 600, which rises even more in exam season.

The library works in two shifts: from 8.30am to 3.30pm, and 3.30pm to 9.30pm. Seats are allotted on first-come-first-get basis.

When this scribe visited the library at 8am in the morning on Saturday some 50 students were waiting outside and by 8:30am, when the main gate of the library was opened, their number was more than a 100.

A student from Garden area said that to secure a seat in the reading hall, he had to leave home early in the morning.

Due to paucity of seats, only 'early birds' get seats in the reading hall, while latecomers have to be content with reading sitting on the floor in the corridors, on the steps of the main building, and the grass-beds of the park and on the benches, he said.

LML Director Syed Moinuddin told PPI that presently the library lacked the facility of computerization, but some four computers were due in a week, and so the computerization process of the library would begin soon.

Regarding the low seating capacity, he said a new auditorium with 500 seats was being built after which the existing auditorium, with 200 seats, will be converted into an additional reading hall.

Syed Moin said the LML had a separate children’s library with CDs and books.

The general cleanliness of the main reading hall and corridors was good; however, the staircase connecting the library with offices of the National Book Foundation, the Copyrights Office and the Higher Education Commission, seemed filthy, with leaking sewerage pipelines.

An employee of the Copyrights Office said they had lodged several complaints with the PWD for repairing the gutter and sewerage lines, but in vain.

The Librarian, Mrs Naheed Jahan, said the library had two manual catalogues: title-wise and author-wise. However, she regretted that there was no computerized catalogue service to save precious time of readers.

This largest public library of the province badly needs modern facilities like internet, computerized cataloguing, microfilming, audio-visual, cafeteria, mosque, air-conditioning of reading halls, besides increased seating capacity.—PPI