Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
National Library Day
D.K.Hari & D.K.Hema Hari, Founders, Bharath Gyan
From time immemorial, books have been the best friends of man. When there were no media like radio, television, internet etc. books have been always there, as man’s primary source of information. Librarium The word Library is derived from the latin word Librarium, which means a book case, a place to keep books. Pustakasangraha They are known as Pustakasangraha. Pustaka means books, and Sangraha is a collection. India, A Land of Libraries Ancient India was verily a land of libraries.
Libraries are homes to books and are the main repositories of knowledge.
From ancient times, there have been libraries across this land. Libraries have been an integral part of Indian thought. There is a mini-library verily in every house.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Temples were Centres of Learning In days of yore, temples were the centers of learning, and each temple had a library attached to it. In ancient India, every temple had a library. These temples are infact libraries of records, and are known as Pustaka Ashrama. All the inscriptions that we see in temples are temple records. They were in palm leaf - Tadapatra, copper plates, bark sheets etc.
Tirumala Temple Even the famous Tirumala temple houses the collection of Annamacharya inside the main temple prahara. It is there for all to see even today.
Copper Inscriptions of Annamacharya at Tirupati Temple
Brihadeshwara Temple Brihadeshwara Temple, in Tamil Nadu is famous for its inscriptions.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Inscriptions at the Brihadeshwara Temple
Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia The famous libraries of Angkor Wat temple, in Cambodia are known as Pustaka Ashrama.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Angkor Wat temple Sutra Godown The first samskrt text in Brahmi script arrived in Japan in 552 CE, which is now preserved in the Sutra godown of Zenkouji temple.
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Kyozo, The Sutra Repository, Zenkouji
More on the Sutra Godown in our book, Indo Japan – A Connect Over Millennia.
Ranganathan Dr. S Ranganathan is a noted Librarian and Mathematician, who headed the Indian Library Association from 1944 to 1953.
In 1923, he left his position of a Mathematics teacher at the University of Madras for that of the University librarian. He later trained in library sciences at London.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Dr. S R Ranganathan
He became an honorary member of the International Federation for information and Documentation and vice-president for life of the Library Association of Great Britain. Father of Library Sciences He is today revered as the Father of Library Sciences in India and his birthday is observed as National Library Day.
Dr. Ranganathan is known for his 2 greatest legacies:
1. The Five Laws of Library Science
2. Colon Classification System The Five Laws of Library Sciences The five laws of library sciences include,
1. Books are for use
2. Every Reader has his/her book
3. Every Book its reader
4. Save the time of the Reader
5. The library is a growing organism
First Law : Books are for use In this law, Dr. Ranganathan gave importance to use, rather than storage. Which means that, libraries are not just for storage of books, their preservation. These books need to be accessible to the users. Thereby Dr. Ranganathan gave importance to use, apart from preservation.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Second Law: Every Reader has his / her book As per the second law, every community shall have access to their books in a library, the primary purpose of which is education. Hence a library should have books on diverse subjects, catering to different people, and a librarian should promote these books, so that they reach the appropriate user.
Third Law: Every Book its reader The third law is similar to the second law, but it gives more importance to the books. It implies that each book shall have its own individual, who would find that book useful. The library should arrange many methods through which the book will reach its appropriate reader.
Fourth Law: Save the time of the reader This law states that the library should be efficient in its service to the users. Thus, Dr. Ranganathan proposes many business methods to improve library management. The centralization of library will be useful in this regard, he observed. He also wanted that the library staff shall posses technical skills in cataloging, cross-referencing, ordering, accessioning and circulation of materials. This is apart from the referencing skills that the staff should have.
Fifth Law: The Library is a growing organism In this law, internal change was given more importance over environment itself. The library organizations should accommodate staff growth, the collection of books, and patron use. The growth of the library will include, increase in physical building, reading areas, shelving and in space for the catalog. This law, actually implies that the library should never be a static institution, and growth should be an integral part of this institution. Colon Classification System Colon Classification is one of the most systematic schemes of Library Classifications devised by Dr. Ranganathan, used in many libraries in India and a few libraries abroad as well. The colon classification uses 42 main classes that are combined with other letters, numbers and marks, to sort a publication. Destroyed libraries There are innumerable libraries destroyed over times.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Library Centers Destroyed Worldover
Burnt library of Maya codices The library of Maya Codices was a library located in Mexico. In 1549 CE, Monk Diego de Landa burnt this library on the pretext that it “contains nothing except superstition and machinations of the devil”.
Monk Diego de Landa
Later De Landa realized what a barbarian crime he had committed and searched for Mayan scripts, but without success.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Bibractis Druid College Library The Bibractis Druid College library, now located in Autun, France, had 1, 00000 scrolls on Philosophy, Medicine, Astronomy and Sciences. This library was destroyed by the Romans.
An illustration of the destruction of the Bibractis Druid College Library
Library of Carthage Romans created fire for 17 days, around 146 BCE to destroy the Library of Carthage in present day Tunisia, which had a 5 lakh volumes of literature.
Ruins of the Library of Carthage
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Serapeum Library destroyed A Serapeum is a temple dedicated to Greco-Egyptian Divinity, Serapsis. This library had 3 lakh books, a complete catalogue of authors in 120 volumes.
A 5th century scroll which illustrates the destruction of the Serapeum library by Theophilus. Celsus Library Celsus Library, located at Ephesus, in Istanbul, Turkey, which had over 12000 scrolls was destroyed by an earthquake in 11th century CE
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Celsus Library Nalanda University Nalanda was one of the most famous universities of the ancient world. It was primarily a Buddhist university located in present day Bihar. It started as a university for Buddhist learning in the year 455 CE and grew over the next 600 years till 1087 CE, to be one of the largest universities of those times. The invader Bhaktiyaar Khiljee along with his troops destroyed the whole university and put it to flames.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Invader Bhaktiyaar Khiljee destroying the Nalanda University and Library
The university was so large that it burnt continuously for 11 days and 11 nights. It had over ten lakh manuscripts.
Ruins of Nalanda Library
More on the Nalanda University in our book, Breaking The Myths – About Ability.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Takshashila Library Takshashila library of India was destroyed by Huns in 455 CE. Jaffna Library The Jaffna library of Sri Lanka was built in 1933, and soon became the biggest library in the subcontinent, consisting of 97,000 books and manuscripts. On June 1st,1981, an organized mob in Sri Lanka burnt the library, destroying all the books and manuscripts.
Jaffna library
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
The government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga reopened the library in 2003, but the destroyed book and manuscript remain lost.
Jaffna Library after it was reopened in 2003
More on the Jaffna Library in our book, Ramayana In Lanka.
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Experience the Knowledge of India National Library Day
Let us protect our libraries Today, we have hundreds of libraries in India and across the world. These libraries are long term source of information for the future world. We need to ensure that these repositories of knowledge are protected.
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