After 15 years, British Council Library to reopen next month

KARACHI: The British Council Library back in the 1990s was a catalyst that invariably shaped the minds of thousands of creative voices and instincts, providing them a haven for self-expression.

Its closing down around 15 years ago was a blow the city never recovered from and unfortunately, no other organisation or institution, private or state-owned, took up the mantle to fill this gaping hole.

The British Council on Tuesday, in an attempt to right these wrongs, announced the reopening of its library in August.

The guided tour of the library, with Rabeea Arif, manager of libraries, at the helm, was an effort to emphasise using, reusing, and adapting spaces for a range of cultural activities and bringing about a semblance of normality to an otherwise disrupted narrative.

“There have been a lot of changes in Pakistan in the last 15 years. We now see the need for convening spaces in the city but they are hardly any," said Arif.

The theme of the new British Council Library is simple: take the fundamentals of a conventional library, merge it with technology, with a mix of culture, incorporating a creative symphony of entertainment and food, and you have yourself a winner. Electronic checkouts for borrowed books; around 10,000 volumes from varied genres to choose from; access to digital books as well as online academic sources and articles; subscriptions to newspapers and magazines from around the world; the British Council Library is a one-stop portal.

On entering the premises there appears to be a lack of theme to the physical elements of the library, but as you continue browsing, the flexibility afforded to the space seems to be a deliberate attempt to push the boundaries of what a library can offer.

The space is built so that it can be repurposed to provide a safe space for dialogue; an auditorium is also built with modern technological facilities and is aptly named after the visionary Ismat Chughtai. The courtyard outside can host events of a different variety, and a fully stocked organic cafe adjoins it.

Graphic novels catch one’s attention while walking into the library. Self-help books catered for teenagers and adolescents are available at the other end; lifestyle and fashion given its due, while travelogues and travel guides are placed strategically to provide vagabonds and wanderers guidelines to the world outside. Autobiographies are aplenty, alongside a wide range of non-fiction titles. The novels at hand incorporate classics as well as contemporary and modern fiction. There is much being offered and also much to build up on; the library is still a work in progress.

The book collection would benefit greatly if alternative genres are also incorporated and titles lesser known, not available at bookstores around the country, are made part of the offering. According to Ms Arif, books in Urdu and other regional languages will be part of the fold soon enough.

Maarya Rehman, director of libraries at the British Council, spoke about how security concerns had resulted in the shutting down of the library. This is, however, changing as “Pakistan’s security concerns have diminished. The council has a very proud history of opening libraries in places such as Burma, and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, which became beacons of information and freedom of exchange of ideas. So why not have one in Pakistan where there is a constriction of availability of safe cultural spaces?” she said.

However, a glaring impediment to the success of the library is its current location. Constructed on the premises of the British High Commission, the library can be accessed only after stringent security checks which can pose to be a deterrent for book enthusiasts. For Ms Arif, this is a matter which was discussed at length and various improvements made to the systemic induction of members with the aim to reduce the problems faced by book lovers wanting to frequent the library. Online databases will be maintained with personal contact information, and members thoroughly vetted before being given admittance.

Of course, there exists the debate of the library being located in an area which is not frequented by people from all walks of life. Would this, one wonders, affect the overall impact of the library, especially considering that the original set-up was in a place with much greater accessibility? Only time will tell.

Originally published in Dawn, July 20th, 2016