National Library of Kolkata
Temple of knowledge called Library is very essential for human life. There is a lot of public libraries spreads all over India. Among this libraries National library of Kolkata is the second largest library of Asia. It is provided by ample space for gaining various knowledge through varities of books with many different languages. There is also a beautiful environment for readers. This 1836's creation is very much attracted by visitors also.
National library in Kolkata:
The first public library of Eastern India named national library is established in 1836 in at the Belvedere Estate, near Alipore Zoo in Kolkata. It is the largest library in India with a collection of 24,50,655 books and a grand collection of manuscripts, periodicals, journals and newspapers. It is known as an institution of National importance under the Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Government of India. Actually the library was not known the national library earlier but due to an evolution and merged with public libraries and British libraries, now we know it as a national library. The basic features of this library is that yhe library is purchased both India and foreign books mainly from Britain. It was believed that Azim - Us-Shaa was constructed this library in 1700 A.D not the British. Lady Hastings was also the owner of this building for short period. It was endowed with public donations. Sadar-Ud-ddin, the Zaminder of Buhor, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee are the donners of this library.
Prince Dwarkanath Tagore was the first proprietor of this great library. This library was firstly called Imperial Library and was opened to the public on 30th January 1903 at Metcalf Hall. The library was shifted to 6, Esplanade East from Metcalfe Hal in 1923. After the independence of India it was known as National library. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was inaugurated thia library for the public in 1st February, 1953. Sri B.S. Kesavan was he first librarian of the National Library, Kolkata.
The different foreign languages books, available in thia library are divided in to sections like German Division, Asian Division, Roman Division, West Asian Division, Slavonic Division and African Division. It consists of different Indian language books like Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. This library occupies a 30 acres of land. It has a great space as about 19 thousand people gather to sharing and gaining knowledge on various subjects. . The time schedule for this library is from 9 A.M. to 8 P.M. Books are the important requirements for human beings and this national library provides a great hand towards it.
