Friends there was a time when rental library culture was flourishing all over India and specially in northern India.
In almost every mohalla of every town there were small libraries which use to provide comics/novels on rent to the readers,the rent being normally 10% of the printed price of comics/novels.
The library business was quite a profitable one as a majority of Indian middle class readership could afford to read via renting only,in many cities library business established like a self funded small scale business providing employment to a large volume of under educated Indian population.
Mostly a library was formed by those persons only who themselves have great interest in reading and after purchasing comics/novels continuously finally comes up with the novel idea that why not to earn by this habit also !
As i have also mentioned many times that during my school days i too use to open up a temporary library at my home which was functional in summer holidays where i first use to read all comics myself and then put them in library for renting.
In many libraries there was also facility of home delivery and home picking where one or two library guys use to deliver comics/magazines/novels on bicycle to nearby homes and pick it also after stipulated time along with rent.
Local libraries were the most voluminous customer of the local comics/mags/novel dealer.In my city only there were as many as 15-20 renting libraries within a radius of 4-5 Km.
But later on time changed and with the advent of TV first then video then video games,mobile and now internet reading culture suffered a huge setback which laid a drastic effect on library business and slowly slowly almost all renting libraries from cities and towns got vanished.
Now neither i could find a renting library anywhere i visit and nor do i hear about it.
Recently when i went to my home town then somehow i thought of to search any of the still existing rental libraries nearby my locality and in the process i was able to found two of them about which i am going to discuss here.
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In almost every mohalla of every town there were small libraries which use to provide comics/novels on rent to the readers,the rent being normally 10% of the printed price of comics/novels.
The library business was quite a profitable one as a majority of Indian middle class readership could afford to read via renting only,in many cities library business established like a self funded small scale business providing employment to a large volume of under educated Indian population.
Mostly a library was formed by those persons only who themselves have great interest in reading and after purchasing comics/novels continuously finally comes up with the novel idea that why not to earn by this habit also !
As i have also mentioned many times that during my school days i too use to open up a temporary library at my home which was functional in summer holidays where i first use to read all comics myself and then put them in library for renting.
In many libraries there was also facility of home delivery and home picking where one or two library guys use to deliver comics/magazines/novels on bicycle to nearby homes and pick it also after stipulated time along with rent.
Local libraries were the most voluminous customer of the local comics/mags/novel dealer.In my city only there were as many as 15-20 renting libraries within a radius of 4-5 Km.
But later on time changed and with the advent of TV first then video then video games,mobile and now internet reading culture suffered a huge setback which laid a drastic effect on library business and slowly slowly almost all renting libraries from cities and towns got vanished.
Now neither i could find a renting library anywhere i visit and nor do i hear about it.
Recently when i went to my home town then somehow i thought of to search any of the still existing rental libraries nearby my locality and in the process i was able to found two of them about which i am going to discuss here.
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