DELHI
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SYSTEM
The Delhi
University Library began in 1922 with a small gift of
1,380 books. In 1933 it was located in the Ballroom of the
Old Vice Regal Lodge (the present office of the Vice
Chancellor). Sir Maurice Gwyer, Vice Chancellor of the
University from 1938 to 1950 was responsible for the
initial growth of the Library. Under his care, it was
transformed into "a place of beauty as well as of
learning". One of the early benefactors of the library
B1was Shri GD Birla. The Library moved to its present
location in the heart of the Campus on the l!t December,
1958.
During
this early phase of the Library, four significant strides
were taken in four very different fields. The Law Faculty
Library, established in 1924, became a repository of
materials for legal education in the country. The 1940s
witnessed the emergence of libraries of the Central
Institute of Education (CIE, now called the Department of
Education), the Department of Modern European Languages
(MEL) and the Delhi School of Economics (DSE).
The
Library of the DSE, better known as the Ratan Tata Library
(RTL) was established in 1949. Since then, it has not only
become a partial depository of publications of the United
Nations and other International Organisations (30,000 such
publications are available) but has also developed an
extensive collection of almost 40,000 documents of the
Central and State Governments, including Reports of
various Committees and Commissions. The RTL has holdings
not only in Economics; but also, since the 1960s, in the
fields of Sociology, Geography and Commerce.
The 1960s
saw a new trend in the growth of the Delhi University
Library System (DULS). Starting with the Faculty of
Music and Fine Arts, several Departmental libraries took
root in the Faculties of Arts, Management Studies,
Mathematics, Science, and the Social Sciences. Between
1962 and 1965 all major departments in the Science Faculty
developed their separate collections. Some of these have,
in more recent years, grown as nuclei of Advanced Centres
(CARB, CARC and CARPA, in the Departments of Botany,
Chemistry and Physics & Astrophysics respectively).
In the 1970s, access to the Central Reference Library was
closed to undergraduate students for whom four Zonal
Libraries in different locations of the city were created
instead.
A library
for visually challenged students the Braille Library, has
also been established. It has within it an Audio Book
Research Centre with nearly 300 cassettes along with
computer aids for the visually challenged. During the
Platinum Jubilee Year of the University, a separate
Audio-Visual Library was added to the CRL.
The
DULS is largely funded by the University Grants
Commission. Its present holdings include:
Over 1,404,000 volumes.
Regular subscription to about 2,000 journals.
Approximately 4,000 journals are available online through
the University Computer Network.
Over 13,000 PhD theses. The Library brings out a volume
entitled 'Doctoral Research' every year on the eve of the
Annual Convocation. This gives the abstracts of all theses
for which degrees are conferred at the Convocation.
Over 13,000 M.Phil. Dissertations.
Nearly 700 manuscripts, of which Sanskrit and Persian
account for 480 and 153 respectively. There are some
manuscripts in Arabic, Urdu and Pushto as well.
The Library possesses invaluable books such as Foster's
Glossary/Vocabulary published in 1799, the complete set of
the Proceedings of the Royal Society from 1688 onwards,
the Greenwich Observations from the early 19th century,
the Catalogue of the British Museum in 250 volumes and the
Catalogue of the Library of Congress in 300 volumes.
Libraries under the Delhi University Library System
The units comprising the Delhi University Library System
are:
A. Major Libraries
1. Central Reference Library
2. Arts Library
3. Ratan Tata Library
4. South Delhi Campus Library
5. Central Science Library
B.
Faculty Libraries
6. Faculty of Education Library
7. Law Library
8. Faculty of Management Studies Library
9. Faculty of Music Library
10. Mathematics Library
C.
Departmental Libraries
11. African Studies Library
12. Botany Library
13. Buddhist Studies Library
14. Chemistry Library
15. Computer Science Library
16. East Asian Studies Library
17. English Library
18. Pablo Neruda Germanic and Romance Studies Library
19. Professor Parthasarthi Gupta History Library
20. Library and Information Science Library
21. Linguistics Library
22. Philosophy Library
23. Physics and Astrophysics Library
24. Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Studies Library
25. Social Work Library
26. Zoology Library
D.
Special Libraries
27. Platinum Jubilee Audio Visual Library
28. Biomedical Research Library
29. Braille Library
30. Computer Centre Library
31. Law Centre I Library
32. Law Centre n Library
33. Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board Library
34. S.P. Jain Research Centre Library
35. Women's Studies and Development Centre Library
E.
Undergraduate Library
36. Undergraduate Textbook Library (South Zone)