Indian Institute

Institute

On the 6th October, 1964 the Indian Institute of Advanced Study came into being as a Society created by the Government of India's Ministry of Education. The following year, on the 20th of October, the Institute was formally inaugurated at Shimla by the-then President of India, Professor S. Radhakrishnan. In accordance with his wishes the Institute aims at a free and creative inquiry into the themes and problems of life and thought. As a residential centre for research, it encourages creative thinking in areas of deep human significance. In this sense the Institute serves as a tribute to the memory of that great seer and profound scholar. The environment of the Institute is eminently suitable for academic pursuits - especially in select areas of the Humanities, Indian Culture Religion and the Social and Natural Sciences. From time to time, other fields of research are added. As the nation's premier institution deliberating on these issues, today, the Institute provides facilities for advanced consultations and collaboration. It also has comprehensive library and documentation facilities.
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library

The Institute has a well-developed Library. It has grown into a most prestigious one in the country through tremendous efforts put into its making by a number of dedicated individuals like Shri B.S.Kesavan, then Director of the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre, New Delhi. As Library Advisor to the Institute, he was able to place ten thousand volumes on shelves on the day of the Institute's inauguration on 20th October, 1965. The library's collection was soon enriched by acquiring the private collections of eminent scholars and organisations like the British Council, the Asia Foundation, and League of Arab Nations generous gifts of hundreds of rare phamplets and books. Later, the library obtained rare Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian texts and manuscripts containing miniatureaintings.
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Collection

Over the past about four decades of its existence, the Library has built up a collection of a little over 1.50 lakh volumes of books including around 40,000 back volumes of journals, microfilms and other documents. The present subscription list includes around 500 journals. The collection of the back volumes of the journals includes many reputed titles like Analysis, Journal of the Asiaitic Society of Bengal, Journal of the Bihar and Orrisa Research Society, Journal of the American Oreintal Soceity, Journal of Ganganath Jha Research Instittue, Mind and numerous other titles. While building up its collection, there has always been a conscious endeavour to maintain a balanced growth of collections. The collection consists of both the primary as well as secondary resources covering both the broad subject areas of research in Social Sciences and Humanities as well as highly advanced areas of interdisciplinary research like Science and Consciousness, Working of Mind, various facets of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Civilization, Postmodernism, Theoretical and Cultural Studies pertaining to Philosophy, Religion, Political Science and Sociology, Gender and Environmental Studies, Socio Economic Planning and Development, Gandhian Studies, Islamic Studies, Applied Mathematics and the like.
Currently, the main focus of the Library has been on filling up major gaps in the collection in the areas of research relating to Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. During the past two years, the Library has acquired almost all the publications of more than 20 Institutions specializing in Indological Studies. Ever since its inception, the selection of books for the library has been careful, judicious and adequate as all the scholars in position have been actively engaged in the Book Selection process. In fact, majority of books and periodicals are acquired on the recommendation/selection of the scholars in position.
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Special Wings

Besides the main wing of the Library which consits of English language publications, the Library has developed the following separate wings :
(i) Wing consisting of Hindi language publications
(ii) Wing consisting of Sanskrit texts
(iii) A separate wing consisting of publications in modern Indian Languages other than Hindi
(iv) Professor R.C. Majumdar collection
(v) Professor H.C. Ray Chaudhuri collection
(vi) Special collection of classics consisting of publications like Tibetan Tripitaka (168 Vols.) and the publications brought out under Loeb Classical Library series of Harvard University Press, Sacred Books of the East, Great Books of the Western World etc
(vii) Wings consisting of Arabic, Persian and Urdu manuscripts as well as printed publications.

Computerization/Library Automation

The Library had commenced the work pertaining to computerisation of its housekeeping operations way back in 1989. The routine house-keeping operations like acquisition, cataloguing, circulation and maintenance stand computerized. It has since built up its database pertaining to books which can now be retrieved from shelves by consulting the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue).
The Library has a LCD Video Projector, Scanner and VCD/DVD Player for its Audio Video Wing in which it is proposed to organize regular demonstrations of library databases to acquaint its scholars with the various computer operations for getting access to OPAC, INTERNET and DELNET databases. It has also acquired a substantial number of DVD/VCDs of classic films, many depicting the various facets of Indian Culture and plans to screen them on a regular basis. Presently, two Plain Paper Copiers are installed in the Library; one at the disposal of the Fellows and the other for attending to the work of the IUC Associates and official work.

Library Services

The Library has been rendering its services as per the Library Rules framed and approved by the authorities from time to time. A copy of the Library Rules can be obtained on request from the Librarian. Admission to the Library is generally restricted to its bona fide members. However, consultation with restricted access are also extended to non-members also mainly teachers of universities and colleges against the payment of nominal membership fee fixed by the authorities. The Library has arrangement for obtaining materials in different forms for Fellows and IUC Associates from other libraries of the country. The Library extends photocopying facility to the members, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act.