The library network in Islamabad

“Learn to read, and then read to learn,” said one of the speakers at the opening ceremony of the ninth edition of the Islamabad Literature Festival last month.

That was one of the takeaways of the ILF.

In the same vein I have recently had a promotional email. The contents of the email begin with a question, “Are you a book enthusiast?” And then it enlightens one on the advantages of reading books. After spelling out those advantages in bullet points comes the punch line: “Now you’ve got more reasons to buy a book”.

Agreed.

Every book enthusiast loves to have their own study with bookcases all around them. But in this era of hyperinflation, buying a new book has become a luxury.

This is where libraries come in as a public service entities.

As a new resident of Islamabad, I was delighted to see the vast network of public libraries in this city. I wonder if any other metropolis of the country has as many public libraries as does Islamabad.

There is the Department of Libraries that runs six community libraries — two public libraries and a children’s library.

The department had midwifed a street library in Kohsar F-6 on public-private partnership basis, but it died in infancy.

“Many people took books from the erstwhile street library but never returned them,” said Muhammad Arshad, the Director-General of the Department of Libraries.

My first visit to one of those community libraries in my neighbourhood in Sector I/8 was a very pleasant one.

The library nestles in the canopy of trees, hedges draw its boundary, and the earth is carpeted with finely-mowed grass. It looks like a hamlet away from the hustle and bustle of the marketplace.

The lawn has benches, and I began to daydream about lounging in one of those benches and reading Tolstoy.

Soon I was inside the library talking to the officer in charge, Nida, about the procedure of obtaining a membership.

The most amazing thing about the community and public libraries is that they lend books too. Public libraries run by governments in any other major city of the country do not usually lend books, do they?

At least I do not know of any.

Books are issued for 15 days with the facility of renewals online.

I took a quick round of the two sections — one where you find books in Urdu and the other in English.

There I found works by James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Orhan Pamuk, Tolstoy, etc. You have a wonderful collection of Siddiq Salik’s works in one volume. Besides, you have Baba Bulleh Shah’s works, as well as Waris Shah’s and Sultan Bahu’s.

There in the community library, I came across a gentleman who must be in his late eighties. I asked him if the library had been serving him well.

He lamented over the fact that he didn’t find a couple of books he had been keen to read.

One of the books he hadn’t found in the library was Professor Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi. The book was first published in Britain in 1940 and was later translated into several languages.

It was translated into Urdu by Bilquis Jahan.

“Professor Ahmed Ali was reported to have said once that even he could not have translated it into Urdu the way Bilquis Jahan had done it,” the gentleman at the library told me.

Of course, a community library could only do as much.

All in all, the community library is doing a great service to the community, especially to the students who have been preparing for the CSS exams. Moreover, they are rendering these services under a limited budget.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2023.

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