The Hindu Business Line : Oh, for those genuine libraries

Remember the neighbourhood circulating library from a couple of decades back? It stocked a standard set of bestsellers, magazines and comics from India and abroad. The librarian was probably no literary connoisseur, but knew you by name and tucked away a copy of the latest book by your favourite mystery writer for you to pounce on.

People always stood around the place, especially on evenings and holidays, falling into groups by age or interest, discussing everything from fiction to Vedanta that they had read or should read, and not necessarily from the library. No ‘ambience’, no expensive cups of coffee — just the musty smell of old books and lots of people who loved to read.Such places are now fast disappearing.

But Easy Library, set up by Vani Mahesh in Bangalore’s southern suburb of Koramangala, manages to retain this genuine atmosphere. A software engineer by training, Vani relocated from the US in 2000, and with a young daughter at home, did not want to work for anybody. Always an avid reader, the ex-IBM employee decided to wed her devotion for books with her professional skills and hence was born an online library.

e-option

The e-option (www.easylib.com) was backed by the brick-and-mortar version, so one could drop by to “actually see the books”. Easy Library’s members today number 2,500, having grown from the initial 150. Around half of these are ‘offliners’, who choose the old-fashioned way of walking in and looking around before picking up what they want to read. The rest are ‘onliners’, who browse the library’s Web site, place an order and have the books delivered and collected from their addresses — a blessing in the traffic-choked, fast-paced city.

The English-language library’s collection of 18,000 tomes is much admired. It runs far deeper than that of your average next-door library and members from all age groups and walks of life seem pleased with it.

While twelve-year-old Samvida drops by to scout for rare “old hard-bound Nancy Drews”, well-known writer Anita Nair is glad that the shelves stock authors like Barbara Trapido who are hard to find elsewhere.

Vani, on her part, gives great weight to readers’ requirements. If you ask for a book the library doesn’t have, she gets it for you, and when it arrives, you get to read it first.

According to Vani, the library has grown with these requests, and so has the categorisation of books. She recalls a young man who walked up to her and said, “Why have you kept books for girls and boys together?” which led to the labelling of pre-teen girls’ fiction. Vani also regularly updates the collection by keeping abreast of book reviews across many sources.

One of her philosophies is to track a few members who are voracious readers. “As long as they are happy”, says she, “I know my collection is good”. Vijay Krishnamurthy, an active member and book lover, says “the library has quality books. Not just those that have hit the headlines”.

Catching them young

The library also works towards drawing youngsters to the written word. Inspired by libraries and bookstores in the US, Vani organises story-telling sessions and reading camps for them. Professionals and artists interact with the children, getting them to imagine and enquire. The sessions also give children an opportunity to exchange views and recommendations on books.

Easy Library does not charge for these activities and non-members are encouraged to participate. Says Vani, “If we (a library) don’t do this, who will?” This approach has resulted in forums of participation for older enthusiasts as well, like meet-the-author sessions, and a weekly club for discussions on philosophy called Mindshare.

Besides, the library Web site encourages readers to review the books they have enjoyed. Some of these reviews are printed out and displayed near the relevant shelves. Vani, who sometimes reviews new and interesting genres for a newspaper in the city, readily recommends titles for members.

No graphs!

When asked about growth plans, “no graphs, no numbers” is her unlikely answer. While Easy Library’s concept has already spawned imitation in the city, and some like Krishnamurthy feel she should advertise more, the lady herself has decided to keep her smart idea simple.

With no intention of setting up branches in Bangalore or elsewhere, “the only goal”, Vani counters, “is to collect more good books. If you are a reader, you will come here”.

Related Stories from The Hindu:
Books at your door