| MUMBAI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, RAJABHAI
TOWER, FORT |
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The University of Mumbai is one of the earliest Universities established in 1857. It Acquired fame as the seat of higher learning in last century. In August, 1864, Premchand Roychand, a Merchant Prince of Bombay, offered the University a donation of Rs. 2 Lakhs towards the erection of a university library which may be an ornament to the city, and by becoming a storehouse of the learned works, not only of the past but of many generations to come, may be the means of promoting the high ends of the University. The foundation stone of the library and the Rajabai Clock Tower was laid on March 1, 1869 and the work was completed in November 1878. It was formally opened to readers on 27th Feb. 1880, after the conversazione by Chancellor. A unit of the University Library was started in July 1971 at the Vidyanagari (Santacruz) Campus of the University when the Department of Statistics, Physics, Chemistry and Geography were shifted to this campus. With the shifting of Departments of Economics, Sociology, Applied Psychology and Mathematics there, thousands of books and periodicals pertaining to these Departments were transferred from the Fort Library to the Vidyanagari Campus Library which was then housed in the Arts Faculty Building. The new Library Building, named, Jawaharlal Nehru Library (JNL) was inaugurated on 18th October 1976. The JNL now functions in a full fledged manner and caters to the library needs of students, scholars and faculty members of the Departments of the University. The Department of Library and Information Science integrated with the University Library provides training in Librarianship through the B.L.I.Sc. and M.L.I.Sc. Courses in the Library itself at Vidyanagari Campus, Santacruz. Library Collection... Library at present operates from both the units i.e. from Fort Campus and from Vidyanagari Campus. The Mumbai University Library (Both Units) comprises a collection of 7,15,571 volumes which includes 76,119 periodical volumes, 1,190 manuscripts in Urdu, Arabic and Persian and about 7,418 manuscripts in Sanskrit and allied languages, 3,679 Microfilms and 16,620 Theses/Dissertations. The University Library , acquires books on various fields of knowledge such as Sciences, Computers, Social Sciences, Literature, Humanities etc. The collection at Fort Library is strong in Literature, Biographies etc. where as the Vidyanagari Campus Library is strong in Social Sciences. Besides catering to the academic needs of students and faculty members of the university, the Library also has a profound collection of reference sources such as Encyclopedias (General as well as on specialized subjects), Dictionaries, Almanacs, Year Books, Census Reports, Technical Reports, Books in Prints, Gazetteers, Bibliographies, Biographical Sources, various Reference Sources in History and Geography etc. Further, the University Library also acts as an UN depository which encompasses a collection of several UN documents. The collection of UN documents is housed in a separate section. University Library also has collection of Maps, Letters/Correspondence of eminent personalities in Indian History such as Lokhitwadi, Dr. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, V.D.Savarkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Swami Vivekanand etc. It also has a special collection of A.K. Priolkar, Dr. Ambedkar, C.D. Deskhmukh etc. and Collection of some of the old newspaper clippings. The Library has some of the rare collection including the :-
Above all on an average Library adds about 6000 (including purchase/donated) volumes yearly to enrich its collection and serve its user. |