Major Libraries in India
Parliament Library, one of the richest repositories of books in India, was established in the year 1921 to assist members of the Indian Legislature. This is the largest library in Delhi and second largest library in India after the National Library.
The National Library of India is an institution which is responsible for collecting, bibliographically recording, preserving and disseminating the nation’s cultural heritage. It provides information on practically all branches of knowledge and functions as a Centre of coordination, planning and stimulation of the country’s library system. The National Library of India, Kolkata is both a ‘depository’ and a ‘repository’ library. It is ‘depository’ in the sense that, it being a ‘legal deposit library’, publishers publishing books and periodicals from any part of the country, in any language are bound by law to deposit a copy of the same to the National Library of India under the Delivery of Books and Newspaper (Public Libraries) Act, 1954 (amended in 1956). It is ‘repository’ in the sense that once a book or periodical is deposited, the National Library of India is mandated by law to preserve for posterity all printed heritage of our country.
Delhi Public Library was started with the objective of providing a free public library and information services to the people of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. The Library also acts as a community center for informal education and a model for public library development in India. Delhi Public Library serves the needs of all members of the community especially of Neo-Literates and Children without any distinction of class, creed, occupation, race, sex etc.
State Central Library Karnataka
The network of the libraries includes state Central Library at the state level, District Central Libraries at the District level and City Central Libraries at all places having a population of more than one lakh together with libraries at the taluk, municipality levels. For the proper functioning of Public Libraries, the Library authorities are functioning throughout the state at state, city and District levels.
Connemara Public Library, Chennai
Connemara Public Library is at Egmore in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. This is one of the oldest libraries in the country. This library is one of the four National Depository Libraries which receive a copy of all books, newspapers and periodicals published in India. It is located in the Government Museum Complex on Pantheon Road, Egmore, which also houses the Government Museum and the National Art Gallery. This contains a huge collection of Books (8,50,000). The library contains mainly books in English and Tamil. Also the library contains books in languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali. There are many rare books available in the library. The library is a repository of centuries-old publications, wherein lie some of the most respected works and collections in the country. It also serves as a depository library for the UN.
Government District Library, Mumbai City
The main objective of the Directorate of Libraries is to establish, maintain, organize and develop public libraries in the State of Maharashtra. For this, various schemes of library service are being implemented by the government through the library directorate.