An Educator Establishes Largest High-Tech Private Library in South Kashmir

Shahid Shafi Itoo envisioned an affordable private library with national-level infrastructure. In November 2025, he turned his family’s commercial complex into a modern library-cum-study centre where students focus, prepare, and shape their future.

Every morning, Sameena Bibi travels 18 kilometres to prepare for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) at the Iqbal Library-cum-Study Centre, the largest high-tech private library in South Kashmir. The library offers what her home cannot: quiet reading halls, a personal reading space with a drawer, high-speed internet, and a canteen where she takes short breaks with tea between study sessions.

“The library provides the best facilities at an affordable fee,” said 18-year-old Bibi, a resident of Kharpora, a pastoral hamlet in Kokernag area of Anantnag district. “The atmosphere of the library allows me to concentrate without disturbance.” 

Bibi joined the library three months ago and aspires to become a doctor. For students like her, the Iqbal Library has provided the best academic resources, offering them the structure, discipline, and conducive environment to stay consistent

The well-equipped library was started in November 2025 by 40-year-old Shahid Shafi Itoo, a lecturer in environmental sciences. He converted his family’s commercial complex in a busy market into a library-cum-reading centre. “This library was never about business,” said Itoo, a resident of Bulbul Nowgam area of Anantnag district where the library is located. “It was my long wish to create an academic space in our area, especially for students who cannot afford costly facilities.”

The three-storey structure, built by Itoo’s father, could have been rented out for business. Instead, it now houses two large reading halls with a capacity of 114 seats, separate for boys and girls. Each student gets a designated desk with a chair and a drawer. The facility offers high-speed internet, air conditioning, separate washrooms, water purifiers, and an in-built canteen that serves tea and snacks at modest prices. “When you read continuously for hours, you need a short break to refresh your mind. That is why we set up the canteen,” Itoo told DNN24.

The library charges ₹700 per month, while ten seats always remain reserved for students from underprivileged backgrounds free of cost. “Poverty should not become a hurdle in education,” Itoo said. “Every student deserves quality educational facilities, irrespective of religion, caste, or class.”

The library also has a rooftop space where students can step out for fresh air and brief relaxation. At present, the library remains open from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. It has also kept some rooms as accommodation for students who come from faraway places. “In the near future, we will remain open round the clock,” said Itoo.

The reading rooms have been given an aesthetic look and feature motivational lines pasted on the walls: “The best view comes after the hardest climb,” “The best way to get something done is to begin,” and “You will never have this day again, so make it count.”

The library has a separate activity hall named GAASH, which means light in Kashmiri. It is meant for educational, spiritual, and social programmes. “This space will always remain open for activities that support social development and cultural preservation,” Itoo said. “We have already organised two free interactive sessions with achievers under the series ‘Let Us Meet Qualifiers.’ We plan to hold more.”

In coming future, Itoo said, the hall will also host poetry gatherings, and lectures on the life of Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, popularly known as Nund Rishi,  a revered 14th-century Kashmiri Sufi saint, poet, and Islamic preacher.

Rows of book racks line the library, waiting to be filled in the near future. Most of the racks, Itoo said, will be filled with books donated by well-established personalities in society. “At present, we are approaching established people to donate books for the library. The books will be used by students free of cost,” said Itoo. “If someone donates books for an entire rack, we will name that rack after them.”

Itoo said the idea to start the library dates back to 2007 when he was pursuing a Masters at the University of Kashmir. “While sitting in the university library, I often imagined a similar facility in my hometown,” he recalled. “I wanted students here to have the same environment at an affordable cost.” Nearly two decades later, that thought has turned into reality.

Itoo is now on a mission to build the Iqbal Library on par with national-level reading centres. “I hope this initiative grows into a larger institution one day,” he said.

Usmaan Fayaz, another NEET aspirant who joined the library three months ago, said the atmosphere makes a difference. “I could not believe it when I entered the library for the first time. I did not expect such facilities in our area,” he said. “The environment of the library pushes you to study and stay focused.”

Itoo believes that his library can revive a reading culture that is slowly fading in Kashmir. “Reading is the solution to most problems,” he said. “The more you read and understand the world, the more success moves toward you.”

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