Kolkata Has A Chain of Street Libraries And We Are Excited To Share Our Books

Imagine a library with no membership fees to borrow books, no return dates to keep for borrowed books and no librarian to monitor you! Sounds like a dream?

Street libraries are informal libraries that are set up in open spaces to make books accessible to all, in public spaces. iLead and Bichinta in Kolkata has started the Street Library Movement last year to bring back our reading habits, big time.

iLead has teamed up with Bichinta, a literary NGO given to the cause of education, and has opened several street libraries that are open-to-all spaces where you can lend, borrow, share and exchange books with all and one. There are more than fourteen of them spread across the entire city - from Bhowanipore to Newtown, Selimpur and Topsia. Most interestingly, these libraries do not need a membership and neither has a librarian to borrow the exchange of books. Borrowers  and lenders are only encouraged to follow some basic dos and don’ts that the library notice board will state. From fiction to non-fiction, magazines and children’s books — these libraries have it all, and also in different languages. 

A fabulous effort, there is literally nothing that we can think of bettering, except our reading habits and being more punctual in returning books.

The libraries are mostly open till late. They usually shut down by 10 at night.