It was no regular launch of a new library on Friday at Justbooks CLC (community library chain) at Adyar.
No celebrities and no hype. City couple Vinay and Shwetha Grandhi of PRISM Inc, owners of the franchise’s first outlet in Chennai, left it up to book lovers to check out the place from curiosity, seeing the prominently displayed sign board that announced the store’s arrival.
Vinay says, “This is the 58th outlet of the franchise in India,” and adds, “Members have access to 3,00,000 books, as all our outlets across the country are interconnected.” These include outlets in eight other Indian cities In an age of online libraries and Kindle readers, Justbooks keeps the concept of the lending library convenient with facilities for the tech-savvy new generation user. Shwetha points to the library’s kiosk, “All records of books taken and returned are recorded here by the members themselves.” She quickly adds, “And if we don’t have a book that you want, you can simply place a request (via the kiosk or over the website) and it should be delivered from another centre in 15 days .” Says 11-year-old Saksha Shakthivel, “I like to read funny books like Captain Underpants.
Coming to the library and going through all the books, reading the back cover and finally choosing one is most fun.” Evidently, the format of a lending library is bound to have a certain charm over its modern rivals. The best part? Slow readers have something to be glad about — no late fees! Justbooks is situated at 42, first avenue, Indiara Nagar, Adyar.
Posted on IBNLive, Apr 02, 2012 at 07:53am IST
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