Limited edition, literally
Membership
We keep membership to 150 readers, enough to know everyone by name, few enough that the book you want is usually on the shelf.
Membership plans: ₹150 for six months, ₹250 for a year
Member card · 6 months
₹150
for six months of borrowing
Member card · 12 months
₹250
for a full year, the better deal
Government school students borrow free, from a shelf kept for them: no membership fee and no reading charge. Come in with your school ID. To borrow from the Basic set as well, a student can take a year's membership for ₹150.
Basic membership and deposits
A membership on its own is Basic, and borrows from the Basic set: books the librarian has chosen, most of them for children. Every other book goes out against a refundable deposit, paid on top of the membership fee:
- Premium, ₹500: opens books priced books up to ₹399.
- Elite, ₹1,000: opens books priced books up to ₹899.
- Starlight, ₹1,500: opens books priced books up to ₹1,299.
The books you have out against a deposit can add up to a little less than it, so Elite covers one ₹899 book or two at ₹399. The deposit comes back when your membership ends, or after 6 months of regular visits, less anything owed.
Borrowing Fees and Duration
- A reading fee of 15% of the price printed on the book, never less than ₹10, paid when you borrow.
- Books go out for 15 days. Keep one longer and the reading fee goes up a week at a time, to five fees at most; there is no need to ask first. From day 23, no new books go out until it is back.
- The membership fee is not refundable.
- Bring books back on time and in the state you took them.
- Lost or defaced books are replaced with a new copy ... that's how a small library survives.
- Good borrowers get first say on new arrivals and reservations.
Every fee, the steps for keeping a book longer, and what happens to a lost book are set out in the library rules.
How to join the library in Taramani
Come to the library (No.13/15, Arangannal Street, Near Panchamukha Hanuman Temple, Taramani) with a photocopy of your Aadhaar card and a passport-size photograph. We'll take your name, a phone number, and your first borrowing. That's the whole process; there is no form on the internet. Government school students: bring your school ID and there is nothing to pay.
If you have not been before, how to get here has the landmark to steer by and the drive from the neighbourhoods nearby.
Anything you want to ask first (whether we have a book, whether there is room this month) reaches us on WhatsApp at +91-90803-25985 or at pageslendinglibrary@gmail.com.