It is a good seventy-five years since the Coastal Public Library of Vaddy has been functioning as a beacon of enlightenment in the coastal region. The CLP has been a big boon to this educationally and socially marginalized coastal belt. The rays of knowledge emanating from here have opened up a whole new world of letters to all those around it.

Way back in 1930   a small group of enlightened youth built  a mud house with a thatched roof close to the Vaddy St Antony’s Church and named it St Antony’s Reading room. This was the inception of the library. The only reading material in the library consisted of the daily newspapers brought to the library after the local people had read them.  A great storm and torrential rain in 1936 led to the collapse of the modest building and the library was shifted initially to the parochial house and later to a tuck shop in Vaddy junction. In 1947 under the auspices of the CYMS the library was revived. The office bearers included Mr A Kasmel Fernandez (President), Mr. P A Joseph (Secretary), Mr. A Francis Fernandez(librarian). It was then renamed the Coastal Public Library (CPL). In 1948 the library obtained affiliation from the State Library Council. On February 12, 1950 the chief minister of Travancore Cochin, Sri Paravoor T K Narayana Pillai laid the foundation stone for the library in the leased land of the government. With the help of the contributions of the public the library building could be completed.

Due to space constraints in the existing building, it was decided that a new building be constructed on the western side and the foundation stone for the same was laid by the then secretary Sri Marcel Fernandez in July 1963 and the library was shifted to a small tiled building. As part of the silver jubilee celebrations   a new memorial building with better facilities was envisaged. Due to the tireless efforts of the members this could fast become a reality. Ambrose P Ferns, a generous donor inaugurated the building on 27 Dec 1972 and the library started functioning in its new premises thereafter.

At this time there were over 8000 books in the library, it was a store house of encyclopedias, dictionaries, gazette publications, state manuals, service-related texts, historical texts, old publications, reference texts and a large collection of translated texts. Besides these, the works of Shakespeare and most works of contemporary writers found a place here. It was a pleasant sight to see all books (including those in English language), arranged, catalogued and stacked neatly in chronological order in glass almirahs.

The entrance to the library housed a reading room and an office. About ten daily newspapers including two English dailies, leading publications in Malayalam, Reader’s Digest, Illustrated Weekly, Science Today, Competition Master, Full gazettes of the Kerala government were available in this library. The locals, people of neighboring places and students made good use of the library.

After shifting into the new premises, the drive to gather more books and enhance the grade of the library gained greater impetus. Books were collected both from individuals and organizations.  Books were bought by obtaining membership in monthly book clubs and signing up for pre-publication schemes.

The collection included the complete works of Mahatma Gandhi and the literary canon Swami Vivekananda. The management was keen to purchase books relating to engineering studies and higher education.  Membership campaign drives were conducted and a Television was installed. Literacy drives were conducted in the sheds (provided by  CYMS), where women engaged in net making used to assemble. With the development of various activities, the library board gained recognition. This library was given an award at the Taluk level and became a Centre for taluk level meetings and literacy drives and was raised to the level of an ‘A’ grade library. Many dignitaries visited the library and have entered their opinions and comments in the visitors register.  The library committee members Sri P N Panicker, Sri P T Bhaskara Panicker, Thengamom Balakrishnan along with Kujunni Maash, Dr N V Krishna Warrier, Kakkanadan, Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan, Sri C V Ananda Bose and two librarians from Great Britain have visited the library.  However, the agricultural yield and the monthly membership fee could not make ends meet. The main source of income of the library was the generous contribution of the expats and the natives.