Municipal Library Rawalpindi

Municipal Library Rawalpindi has a history dating 150 years. It had 1,000 books initially, but it grew, and now it has around 80,000 books on a variety of topics.

The collection of 80,000 books is a remarkable achievement for any public library, keeping in view the dying trend of book reading in the country.

No budget allocation has been made for this library for purchasing new books since 2015. This is the main reason why the number of books have remained unchanged for the past seven years.

In 1868 Rawalpindi Municipality came into being; during the period of British regime. In 1873, a municipal library was setup in the municipal corporation, which had consisted of only 1,000 books. This library initially had only 25 members.

The library in current building is located at Murree Road, adjacent to Liaquat Bagh, was shifted in 1968.

In late 70’s General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, the late President of Pakistan awarded Rs1 million for the expansion of the library. This was a handsome amount at that time, keeping in view the current exchange rate of rupee versus US dollar.

Moreover, an additional Rs1 million were also awarded for the renovation of the building. However, this amount was later spent in 1983-84 on the building by the concerned authorities.

The provision of modern facilities in the library, is the reflection of a personal interest of the former Mayor Rawalpindi, Shaikh Ghulam Hussain.  These facilities had included construction of the conference hall, installation of air-conditioning system; besides facilitating it with modern computer system.

Due to dedication of the former Mayor and his personal interests, the number of books reached to 28,234, while the membership reached to 1,530 in the 80’s. Earlier, there were only 9,890 books and the library had only 298 members.

This library also has a history when General Zia-ul-Haq decided to introduce the system of Zakat, this library was the first building used for this purpose.

During this period, an advisory board was also put in place, headed by Shaikh Ghulam Hussain serving as President and the Chief Corporation Officer Rawalpindi was its secretary. The deputy commissioner Rawalpindi, the principal of Medical College Asghar Mall and others were its members.

Syed Altaf Kazmi who is in-charge of the library told Bol News that currently the library holds a collection of around 80,000 books.

He said during massive floods in Rawalpindi in 2001, 80 percent of books in the library were destroyed; as a result of six feet high flood water, which had accumulated in the building.

He said that afterwards, the Academy of Letters were requested to make it mandatory for publishing institutes, to donate two sets of each book to the library. Punjab Public Library also cooperated in the process to rehabilitate the library, he further stated.

He said that this library was initially setup in the Municipal Corporation’s office, which was then situated at Raja Bazaar. According to him; initially it had only one room and it had staff consisting of only two persons.

Assistant Librarian, Rahila Siddque told Bol News that this library holds a lot of reference books. She said there around 2,000 reference books in the library including dictionaries, encyclopedias and others.

She said that the visitors can also read 11 daily leading newspapers of the country, including four English dailies and seven Urdu dailies at the library.

The library got the capacity of handling copies of newspapers for only two months. Due to space related issues these copies after two months are deposited in the storerooms of the municipal corporation. The library is not in a position to maintain a catalog of the clippings of newspapers on different topics for reference purposes, for the readers. Some renowned libraries of the country do maintain the clippings of the newspapers in proper order, which may be used for research purposes.

Getting membership of the library is easy. It requires a total annual fee of Rs250. Later only Rs.50 are charged on annual basis; from members. There are no charges of any kind on the visitors.

To get a membership; one is required to submit a form signed by class one officer, along with a copy of identity card and two photos of the applicant. The female applicants are exempted to the submission of photos. The members are issued only two books at the same time for 15 days. Extra 15 days may also be awarded to them on request. However, after this timeframe the member is required to return the books.  Rahila Siddique said that there are 250 members of the library and there are thousands visitors who regularly, come to peruse through a great assortment of books.

The library has three large halls, showcasing large bookcases. There are proper seating arrangements for the book reading for the visitors. The visitors after selection of the desired books, can read it by sitting on chairs, placed in front of large tables. The calm atmosphere of the library helps the readers to enjoy books without having any sort of trouble.

The library also has a lawn which is situated in front of the building.

The library has already seen its peak time; and now it is witnessing a decline in terms of its membership and number of books.

The installed water cooler in the premises, had developed some technical issues a year ago and it could not be repaired yet. This public facility is a paradise for book lovers, where they can enjoy books of their choice in a serene environment.

However, the library needs the budget allocation, for fresh arrivals of more books.