The committee rued the fact that very few of the 60-odd legislators of the state have actually visited the assembly library, which is primarily meant to cater to the needs of legislators and for helping them "discharge their functions".
Chaired by opposition MLA John Manners Marak, the committee expressed concern over the "non-utilization of the various services provided by the library by most of the members (MLAs)"."The committee invites all the members to visit the library regularly and utilize the resources available," the report said. "The legislature library is essentially a special library catering to needs of legislators in discharging their functions. The main function of the library is to render reference materials to the MLAs," the report pointed out "inviting" the MLAs to visit the library regularly.
Set up in 1972, soon after Meghalaya achieved statehood, the "relatively modest" library at the assembly secretariat houses about 10,000 books, covering a wide range of subjects, including law and parliamentary affairs, history, economics, political science, sociology, literature, fiction and non-fiction sections.
"Reports of different committees and commissions, central and state acts, rules and regulations, gazettes of state government, debates of Indian legislature are included in the library collection," the committee informed in its report presented in the assembly recently. Besides books, periodicals, newspapers, special collections from the northeast, the library also has a separate Gandhiana' section, which comprises books by, on, and about Mahatma Gandhi.