Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on 8 February 2010, donated about 1,000 rare books from his collection to the upcoming Anna centenary library, a world class public library being built at a cost of about Rs 170 crore in the heart of the city.

Disclosing the information here, Madras University vice-chancellor G Thiruvasagam said: "I have been collecting books for the project for the last two weeks. I visited the chief minister's residence early on Monday in this regard and collected the books from him." He said a host of medical books, including journals and research proceedings, worth around Rs 5 crore was also donated for the library by the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University authorities.

"We collected about 1,000 books from school education minister Thangam Thennarasu who is also in charge of the libraries department," he said. Only two weeks ago, deputy chief minister, MK Stalin had donated 350 books to the library from his personal collection.

Pointing out that medical books were very expensive, he said Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University authorities, headed by vice-chancellor Mayilvahanan Natarajan, were indirectly helping poor students by donating them to the library. Thiruvasagam added that visitors would also find the research proceedings useful.

A total of 13,500 books, including 5,200 back volumes of medical journals up to 2004 and 4,400 research reports up to 2004, were donated by the medical university.

The library, set to be ready in June, is expected to house 12 lakh books spread over eight storeys.

Source: TNN