National Library Day - WordPress.com · 2018. 8. 9. · Celsus Library Celsus Library, located at...

Experience the Knowledge of India

National Library Day

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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National Library Day - WordPress.com · 2018. 8. 9. · Celsus Library Celsus Library, located at...

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