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 Are
you a voracious reader? Like to spend all the
day browsing through the newspapers, magazine
and books? Drop into the City Central Library.
You can find any reading material you want, here.
Dailies, Magazines, Journals, Novels, Textbooks,
you name the title and you will get it here. Maintained
by the Hyderabad City Granthalaya Samstha,
the City Central Library is one of the biggest
libraries in the twin cities, located in Ashoknagar
near Chikkadapally. Established in the year
1961, the library has its own well furnished,
spacious building.
The most interesting thing of this library is
that it caters to the reading  needs
of all sections of the society without charging
a single rupee. The library has 1, 57,037 books,
which are divided into different categories and
placed in the respective sections, namely: Magazine,
Children, Reference, Text-Books and the General
stock room.
Mrs. Rama Devi, the grade-1 librarian says,
"As there is no entry fee or membership
fee for utilising the services of the City Central
Library, more than a thousand readers visit our
library daily. We subscribe more than 30 leading
dailies of Telugu, English, Urdu, Hindi, besides
Marathi and Kannada"
Having 290 titles of various languages on
its racks, the magazine section of the library
is the right place for them who like to enjoy
the best stuff from the various famous and elite
magazines. Here you can chose your pet subject
like, film, sports, general news magazines, weeklies
and international magazines like Asia Week etc
from the vast collection.
 The
children section houses exclusive children books
like stories, cartoons, science and fiction etc.
Children below the age of 12years only will be
allowed into the section and it will be open between
2 pm and 8 pm only. The reference section is purely
meant for the serious readers as it is filled
with jumbo size books like dictionaries, encyclopaedias.
Generally people like research scholars, candidates
appearing for civil services examinations, who
want extra information and specific information
about a particular subject visit this section.
The textbook section situated on the second floor
of the building caters to the needs of the students
of all the higher classes starting from intermediate.
This section has textbooks for all the branches
of Engineering, Medicine, MCA etc. One
can find latest computer books, too, here.
Unlike other sections, the general stock room
and children section of the library lends books
to the members. You can take membership by paying
a nominal refundable deposit of Rs. 60/-. All
the members will be given 2 books worth Rs. 150,
which have to be renewed or returned in 14 days.
After the stipulated period each book will attract
fine of 5 paisa per day.
 There
would be no hassles in finding the required book
as the library is fully computerised. The Internet
connectivity work is under progress and is expected
to be operative, shortly. The visitors would then
be able to enjoy the power and flavour of the
word wide web, along with the books. The authorities
have several plans to improve the library. For
instance, they are planning to separate the competitive
examination section from reference. Once this
is done the aspirants of Civil Services and other
competitive exams will be able to find all the
relevant books and material at one place. The
networking of all the computerised libraries in
the twin cities is in the finishing stages. Once
this network starts working, one can know the
various books available in all the networked libraries,
through the click of a mouse!
 If
you are bored up with reading, you can relax with
the literary meetings and other cultural programmes
held frequently by the various private organisations
in the mini auditorium and the new open air auditorium.
The mini auditorium has the seating capacity of
200 and can be hired by paying Rs. 200 for 3 hours.
It is equipped with stage and sound system. The
tarriff for the newly built open air auditorium
is yet to be fixed.
Needless to say, the library preserves all the
newspapers and magazines. One can get a copy of
the particular news item or any thing published
for legal and other purposes, irrespective of
its being backdated for years.
Timings: 8 am to 8 pm; Children section:
2 pm to 8 pm
Holiday: Monday and 2nd Saturday
Entry: Free for all
Address: City Central Library,
Ashok Nagar, Hyderabad-500 020 Phone: 763 8249
/ 763 7632
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