LibOnClick

“లైబ్రరీ ఆన్ క్లిక్” – ఒక ఆన్‍లైన్ లైబ్రరీ. హైదరాబాదు నుండి నడిచే ఈ లైబ్రరీ, దేశవ్యాప్తంగా తమ సర్వీసులను అందిస్తున్నారు. పుస్తకపఠనాసక్తి కలిగి, పదిమందికీ మరింతగా  పుస్తకాలను చేరువ చెయ్యాలన్న సదాశయంతో ఉన్నతోద్యోగాలు విడిచి ఈ రంగంలో తమ సేవల్ని అందిస్తున్నారు. ఈ లైబ్రరీ వెనకున్న “గౌరవ్ నేగీ” గారితో జరిపిన ఈ-మెయిల్ interview ఇక్కడ:

“Library on Click” – an online library – what triggered this idea? (The entire story please..)

The website that we initially set up was more of personal interest and passion rather than business. We set up www.olivegreenbharat.in as a platform where we could talk good about India. I have always believed that India is a great nation and a good society. But do not know why, a lot of Indians do not feel proud of being Indian. They have every reason to crib and talk about what is not right. They have lost the ability to look at the brighter side of India. I admire or rather worship the Indian Armed Forces. If you go to www.olivegreenbharat.in you would see that we have dedicated this website to the India Armed Forces. This website initially had a library that housed books only on India, Indian Armed Forces and Indians who have done the country proud. Later we thought making this library a full fledged one with books on every subject, of course, including the ones that we had started with. Members can now directly reach the library at www.libonclick.in . The idea was to get more and more people to the website. While browsing the library, users do visit the other links on India and that is what we wanted. There are a lot of things in the pipeline for India and nationalism part of the website !!!

Pursuing reading as a hobby is a costly affair, thanks to libraries which save our pockets. But turning a hobby into profession, is a tough call. From the concept to the execution, how difficult was it to turn around?

I would say it was a lot of learning. What you think and plan on paper does not get translated into reality the same way. We had to tweak our model a number of times to catch customers psyche. Processes and systems are properly in place now.

What do you think is the USP of your online library?

Its convenience and cost. You can choose and order for books sitting at home at any time of the day. The price that you pay to read a book is just a fraction of the cost of the book. If you take into account the time and money that you spend in going to a physical library to borrow and return books, LibOnClick is definitely a much much cheaper and convenient option.

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My wife and I started this library. My name is Gaurav Negi and my wife is Aparna Anand. Both of us are financial analysts (CFA) by profession. I was a banker for more than 10 years before I quit my job. Aparna is Managing Director of a Roulac Global Funds, a investment management company. We have twin kids- a boy and a girl. As I said earlier, we are proud to be Indians and we have put this into practice by naming our kids as Siddhant Bharat and Shatakshi Bharat. They do not carry my surname. They carry their nation’s name- Bharat.

From interviews given to the media, I get to know that you’re a bookworm as well? How difficult was it for you to get books you wanted to read? Was that any inspiration to the online library idea?

Yes, that was the inspiration. I read more about the Indian Army and one does not get these books very easily. Books in general are costly. One cannot just keep buying all books that one wishes to read. — one you cannot spend so much and two you will run out of storage space. We believed that if a library is available that can be accessed conveniently, book readers will definitely use it.

How did Hyderabad become the choice of this online library?

We are residents of Hyderabad so this city happened to be the place of origin of this library by default. We always wanted this online library service to be available to book readers across India and today it is a pan-India service. Location of the library is immaterial now.

What parts of India do you cover? And how different are the services from that of in twin cities?

We service entire India except the North-East, this is because logistics costs of reaching readers in North-East is higher. Our website has a list of postal pin codes that are serviced by LibOnClick. Servicewise, I would say it is the same across all locations. However, since we are based in Hyderabad we have a section on Telugu Books.

Is there a place where you stock books and customers can walk in, either to buy or loan books?

We have a place where we stock books but this is only a warehouse. Members cannot walk in here. Books are always home delivered and picked up. We are now looking at the option of letting members pick-up and return books at our office. The process of ordering books will remain the same.

Are there any special attempts to induce the reading habit among kids? Any tie ups with schools?

No we do not have any tie-ups with schools tough we have a good collection of children books at LibOnClick. We are concentrating on retail/ individual books readers. Parents are encouraged to take memberships for their kids.

Books can be purchased from the site as well. Are there any used books for sale?

We had initially planned to sell books but now we have closed that option. We want to be known as a library and not a seller. However, if our members want to buy books, we do source books for them.

How many books are available for sale and loaning purposes, language wise?

All books displayed on the site are for lending. The collection is predominantly English followed by Hindi and a small section on Telugu books. We want to expand the Telugu section but we find that difficult to do because me and my wife are Telugu illiterates !!!! Probably you can help us here. I see that your site is a complete Telugu site.

Are there any interesting customer experiences wherein you’ve revived their reading habits?

Many of our members told us that they could revive their reading habits because of the convenience and the variety offered to them by LibOnClick. Now they do not have to especially take out time to visit a book store/library during some specified time of the day. Interestingly we observed that members place the orders even at odd hours.

The site shows books on Indian Armed Forces. This is something rare and unique. How and why this interest in books of Indian Armed Forces?

As I said earlier, appreciation for India and Indian Armed Forces were the reasons for setting up this website. The initial library had books only on Indian Armed Forces. We wanted people to read these books. LibOnClick library owes its existence to this library of books on Indian Armed Forces.

How does Library On Click work behind the scenes? How does it get the books to be loaned and sold?

Before starting the library, we had done a survey on what kind of books people in Hyderabad like to read. We did a online as well as a off-line survey. The initial collection was based on these surveys. After this we have been adding books. We keep adding new releases and other books on customer’s request.

Does Library on Click accept donations of old or used books from people?  If yes, how can book lovers approach you with contributions?

We are open to accepting books. Anyone interested in donating books can call us on 9704000229 or email at libonclick@olivegreenbharat.in

How has the media support been for your venture? What modes of publicizing do you rely on?

Our initial publicity was through print media. “The Hindu”, “Deccan Chronicle” and “Andhra Jyoti” had carried articles on LibOnClick. This gave us a good mileage. N TV also aired our interview on LibOnClick. We advertise in newspapers and online.

How has been the support of the family for this venture?

All this would not have been possible without support of Aparna, my wife.

How are books chosen to be in the library?

Before starting the library we had done a online survey on what people like to read. Also Aparna did a hard work on identifying books.

Being non-localites, how do you get to choose the Telugu books for your library?

A friend of ours helped us choose these books. She even wrote the titles in English for us to read. Not knowing Telugu has been a handicap here !!

Are magazines part of your collection too?

We offer only novels and books.

Does LibOnClick featuring in the upcoming Hyderabad book fair? If yes, details of the stall please.

Yes LibOnClick will be present at the Hyderabad Book Fair. We will be at stall no. 23.

What are your future plans?

Now that we are available across India, we want to strengthen of collection of books of regional languages. And that would involve a lot of hard work since identifying good books in different languages will not be easy !!