Public library faces hurdles in preserving rare archives

T'puram: Thousands of rare govt records documenting over a century of Kerala's administrative and political history are lying in vulnerable conditions at the State Central Library in Palayam, due to acute space shortage and inadequate preservation infrastructure, raising serious concerns over the safety of the state's archival heritage. Around 25,000 govt gazettes dating back to 1904 are currently stored without proper protection inside the library premises. The absence of adequate shelves and storage facilities has forced authorities to stack many of these records on the floor of office halls, exposing them to potential damage. Besides the gazettes, the library also houses thousands of archived newspapers and magazines, including Malayalam and national dailies preserved since 1975, widely accessed by researchers, historians, civil service aspirants, students, and government officials for academic and reference purposes. State librarian K P Shobhana said the lack of space remains the institution's biggest challenge. "We do not have sufficient facilities to preserve books and archival materials properly. Many of the gazettes are currently kept on the floor inside office rooms because there are not enough shelves and storage racks," she said. An earlier proposal to shift a section of the gazettes to the top floor of the nearby British Library building, popularly known as the Children's Library, to ease congestion was abandoned after concerns emerged over the structure's deteriorating condition. The building's traditional terracotta-tiled roof has suffered extensive damage, posing a serious risk of water leakage during the monsoon season. "If the gazettes are shifted there, they could suffer irreversible damage," Shobhana said. The library has repeatedly flagged the issue to the PWD, which is responsible for maintaining the heritage building, as well as to the state govt.While Rs 2 lakh was recently sanctioned for purchasing additional shelves, only after the matter was escalated to the chief minister's office, officials said the assistance falls far short of what is needed given the scale of archival materials housed at the library. The institution is also grappling with rising footfall. A large number of civil service aspirants depend on its facilities for their studies and over 300 students are currently undergoing internships there."We are struggling to manage both the preservation of archival records and daily academic activities within the available infrastructure," a library official said. Although digitisation of gazettes up to 2014 has been completed, work on subsequent records is still ongoing. Officials have warned that unless urgent infrastructure upgrades are undertaken, many irreplaceable historical documents could remain at risk.