VOLUNTRY SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANISATIONS

LIBRARIES

Karvir Nagar Wachan Mandir.

The Karvir Nagar Vachan Mandir was founded in 1850 with the object of collecting and purchasing mainly Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi and English books and periodicals and supplying them to the public for reading purposes. It was originally called the Native General library.

The membership of the library consists of patrons, life-members and ordinary members. There are, besides, three other special categories viz. (i) honorary members, persons who render great help to the library; (ii) student members; and (iii) child members. Patrons have to donate Rs. 1,001 at a time. Life-members have to donate material worth Rs. 101 or more. Ordinary membership is of three kinds viz., those paying Rs. 2, Re. 1 and As. 8 per month. There were 893 members (in 1957), of whom three were patrons, nine life-members and one honorary member.

The managing committee is responsible for the management of the library. A peculiar feature of the constitution is that the managing committee and the president, vice-president and the auditor are not elected in a general body meeting. All elections are held by secret ballot. In addition to the annual meeting, a general meeting is required to be called in July and November every year.

The managing committee consists of nine elected members, one Government nominee and one nominee of each of the institutions giving a grant to the library of Rs. 1,001 or more. The Kolhapur Municipality can nominate two members. The managing committee elects its own chairman, secretary and treasurer. It can appoint special sub-committees for special purposes.

The library has a building of its own with a large lecture hall. There are more than 26,000 books in its possession, some of which are valuable ones. It has also a very good reference section. The library arranges every year a series of lectures by eminent perions. The Vachan Mandir now functions as the District Library of Kolhapur district. The annual income of the library in 1956-57 was Rs. 12,682 and its expenditure was Rs. 12,094; its assets were valued at Rs. 2,44,625. The number of members was 893, of whom three were patrons, nine life-members, one honorary member and the rest were ordinary members.

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