The Madras Literary Society (MLS), founded in 1818, is one of the oldest public libraries in India. It has been on College Road at Nungambakkam since 1906, and houses around 55,000 books, published over two centuries. Yet, it remains relatively underrated.
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The heritage building reflects the Indo-Saracenic style with Rajasthani influences in its jharokhas (false balconies), jallis, and red exposed bricks. Among the oldest books in this Chennai’s oldest subscription library is Aristotle’s Opera Omnia from 1619.
A coding system of its own
Uma Maheshwari, the full-time librarian, has been with the MLS for three decades, knowing all the members by name, besides their reading and genre preferences. “Our subscribers can borrow two books a month, and they can become members in the long run. And when it comes to cataloguing, we have our MLS coding system, which is a way to put books in order by genre,” she explains.
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Even though some know about the MLS for its old-school books, it offers much more, like the events that go down on the second Saturday of every month. “Volunteers play a crucial role in many aspects of our library, like MLS Saturdays that include rare book displays, authors meet-and-greet, book launches, the heritage walk committee, the CSR committee, and 17 ongoing projects. Our passion for books and heritage unites all the members, patrons, and volunteers,” says Thirupurasundari Sevvel, general secretary of the MLS, who joined as a member more than a decade ago, when she was a third-year architecture student. She praises the grade 1 stable structure of the library.
Strong and stable
“Many architecture students and people from the Heritage Conservation Committee visit the MLS to study its structure and see how the building endures. It is a structurally stable and strong building, but whenever there is any requirement, renovation is done. The manner in which the librarian showed me around the building for the first time made me come back again and again,” she remarks.
“How can we contribute more?” is what the senior members are discussing when it comes to developing the library and its membership, says Ms. Thirupurasundari. She also encourages everyone to check out the MLS anytime, even while underscoring the importance of visiting local libraries, an ecosystem which makes you grow. An interaction with Team MLS revealed that a large number of books were falling apart because of age, dust, and humidity. They required restoration before it was too late. The heritage building is maintained by small donations, grants, and the members’ subscriptions; so, it requires sustainable sources of funds to thrive.
If you wish to contribute to or participate in the MLS events, now is the time. With Madras Day coming up next month, the MLS has lined up events for every Saturday in August and curated a list of Madras-themed books.