Kamal Ghorui
Chennai: After six decades of delighting book lovers, the British Council Library in Chennai is shutting down with the lease for its premises on Mount Road ending. The library has begun selling its collection; books will be available for purchase until Feb 15.For Harini R, a final-year BA English Literature student, the library was far more than a place to borrow books. “It was like my research mentor and discussion partner. I found everything relevant to my course here: textbooks, academic and scholarly papers, humanities resources, and even political literature. Even though it was a small space, it never felt limiting. It was the perfect place to study for exams, prepare, and even just sit and think,” she said.
The sense of loss is shared by parents and returning expatriates like Shashank Ravi, a stay-at-home dad who has been actively exploring library spaces in Chennai after returning from the US last year. “I’ve visited many libraries, looking closely at facilities, infrastructure, and how child-friendly they are. The closest I could find to what I was used to abroad was the British Council Library. It had everything a child needed, reading spaces, activity areas, classrooms. The best part was it was open on Saturdays, which really matters for working parents,” he said.In a letter addressed to its members, the British Council said it currently has more than 1,60,000 digital library members across India and believes that an online-first model is better suited to inclusivity and accessibility. The organisation stated that it will continue to operate digitally for now, while also exploring the possibility of finding another physical location to set up its centre in the future
