Documentary Heritage of Indian Libraries

The subject of this work is documentary heritage, which means ‘individual documents, collections, holdings and fonds which have intentionally or unintentionally been retained’ by the libraries. Without these documentary resources our historical understanding of the world would have remained fragmentary. India, the country of ancient civilization and culture is dotted with famous libraries in various parts of the country. The growth and development of these libraries has been accelerated during the last three hundred years. Like other regions of India, South India too played a prominent role in the history of the country and its emergence as a nation. The southern states of India viz., Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Kerala have a rich tradition of existence of prominent and old libraries possessing very rare and valuable documentary sources. The present work Documentary Heritage of Indian Libraries deals with thirty two very old and famous libraries in the southern states of India. For the first time, an attempt has been made to study in depth, each of these libraries in respect of genesis and development, nature of collection, subject coverage, preservation and conservation, national and international level significance of documentary sources, organisation of the collection, accessibility of documentary heritage and an assessment of the library. This work is a small but a significant in the study of the state of our documentary heritage. It is hoped that this study will prompt and encourage the researchers and the others, interested in our documentary heritage to undertake similar study to know the state of our documentary heritage in other parts of the country and bring to the notice of the concerned authority at the state and national levels, the urgent need for initiating necessary measures to safeguard our rare and invaluable documentary heritage.