The School Education Department is operating 5 central libraries to provide study facilities to the citizens, especially the students, in the state. Along with this, Swami Vivekananda Library (formerly British Library) is being operated by the department in GTB Complex, Bhopal with financial grant. In these libraries, students are also being provided facilities to prepare for competitive examinations.
Government Maulana Azad Central Library Bhopal is also known as Central Library. This library is also a storehouse of literary books. Maximum facilities are being provided in the library at minimum fees. At present, more than one lakh books are available in the library in languages like Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic, Persian etc.
Along with this, various monthly magazines, newspapers, internet facility, free seminars are also available. On an average, 600 students sit and study in the 3 study halls of the library every day. This year, the maintenance and development work of the library has been done by Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation.
For study facilities in the library, 32 cabin model study rooms have been developed from the budget allocated by the Directorate of Public Instruction. The women self-help group has been given the task of running the 'Didi Canteen' in the library.
Ahilya Central Library Indore is a 60-year-old heritage building. Under the 'Pustake Bulati Hai' (Books Call) campaign, more than 17 thousand students have joined and visited the library so far. A facility has been set up in the library to guide the competitive exam candidates by an administrative officer at an interval of every 15 days. Students of Library Science also come here for training. Locker racks with a capacity of more than 190 have been purchased from the budget allocated by the Directorate of Public Instruction for keeping the personal belongings of the students visiting the Government Central Library Gwalior.
As per the decision of the meeting of the autonomous committee of the library, 13 types of new memberships have been started by revising the old memberships. The entire activities of the library have also been started in digital form. A competition corner with new facilities has been launched in the library for the preparation of competitive examinations. Out of the students studying in the library, 20 students have also been selected in various competitive examinations.
An additional room has been made available to the Government Central Library Jabalpur by the Government Higher Secondary School near it. The reading room of the Central Library is being operated for the readers in the said room. Students preparing for competitive examinations and coming from rural areas are also getting benefited in the Central Library of Jabalpur. Various programmes are also being organised regularly from time to time for the promotion of the library.
An additional reading room has been developed in the Government Central Library Rewa due to the continuous increase in the number of participants for the preparation of competitive examinations. Free Wi-Fi zone facility is also available for the readers in the library premises.
The vacant space available in the premises of Government Central Library Rewa has been approved by the state government under the new 3-storey building re-densification scheme.
