If someone opened a english book library in Colombo...

[Anisha]

If someone were to open a non academic english book library in the middle of Colombo, what features would you want the library to have? How much would you be willing to pay for membership? Would you be interested in e-borrowing options? Would you go and spend a few hours at the library if it was nice and had comfy chairs, or would you just borrow books and leave? Do you think there would be a point to opening a library, given that the British Council and the public library exist?

[vin_dee]

I think this is a great idea! My opinion is that the membership fee should be a bit lower than the British council rates- at least at the beginning. Since the British council and the public library comes with a lot of rules and can be a bit confusing and intimidating for a not-so-regular user, it would be comforting to have a small hide-out surrounded by books. You can even have read-aloud sessions and story times for kids to raise awareness in reading. Kids these days could do with a bit of support and motivation!

[Mohammed]

It's a great idea, Something I've seen in BC is that books tend to flavor around the UK and many new non fiction (even best sellers) doesn't seem to be available, even the ones published in the last two to three years. I'm kind of person who needs to read in my own comfortable room settings, so just borrow and leave is my strategy.

[anugp61]

Hello all,
A lovely idea! Am I too late to chime in?

Anyway I would definitely go for ebooks, borrowed electronically via a specific account maintained by members. Make them accessible over a server, for a 2 week lending period. Extending the lending period can be fixed (another 2 weeks) or flexible (24 hours to 2 weeks) depending on the demand for the book.
Something like the Open Library (https://openlibrary.org/) perhaps?

We could start with those who already have ebooks and have sort of a book exchange corner (subjected to a 2 week borrowing period). A membership fee is a MUST, because (a) people don't value anything given free! (b) Funds are needed to purchase new books, maintain the servers, pay for domains etc. (c) It's a good way to bring in different types of books and readers.

I can go into a long list of advantages of setting up an ebook library over a traditional one, but the main thing is with the geographical constraints and busy modern life (jobs, kids, education etc.) a lot of young people cannot really commit a couple of hours browsing through physical copies of books in a library.

Once there are enough members/ funds/ growth in the reader base of the e-library, we can perhaps think of a cozy little place with comfy chairs, a number of hard copies and a couple computer terminals to access the ebook collection!

Fingers crossed for updates!

[Janith]

Wonderful idea !. I would like to donate some books too. The annual fee of our general public library (Dehiwala) is just 100 bucks. But the Colombo library charges Rs 1000, maybe due to jurisdiction. I think a free range of 500-1000 would be reasonable.

[Indika]

Hi. Don’t know whether this is relevant now, but this is a great idea. Your library should be something like the public library of Colombo (PC)but with the added features of the BC. PC is by far the largest collection in the public sector but it’s burning low now, due to lack of funding. On the other hand BC has all the new additions and comforts but books are only by brits(I haven’t gone there for about 5 to 6 years, so if this has changed pray excuse). So there is only a small collection compared to the PC. On the other hand PC doesn’t accept members without any guarantors from the Colombo but BC does. I would like to visit a library that has a varied collection but with fewer rules and more comforts for readers.