Banaras Hindu University - Library System

Library System

The Banaras Hindu University Library system was established from a collection donated by Prof. P.K. Telang in the memory of his father Justice Kashinath Trimbak Telang in 1917. The collection was housed in the Telang Hall of the Central Hindu College, Kamachha. In 1921, the library was moved to the Central Hall of the Arts College (now the Faculty of Arts).

The present Central Library of BHU was established with a donation from Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Upon his return from the First Round Table Conference, Gaekwad wanted a library built on the pattern of the British Library and its reading room, which was then located in the British Museum. On Malviya's suggestion, he made the donation to build the library on the BHU campus.

The Gaekwad Library is a designated Manuscript Conservation Centre (MCC) of the National Mission for Manuscripts, established in 2003.

By 1931, the library had built a collection of around 60,000 volumes. The trend of donation of personal and family collection to the library continued as late as 1940s with the result that it has unique pieces of rarities of books and journals dating back to 18th century.

As of 2011, the BHU Library System consisted of the Central Library and 3 Institute Libraries, 8 Faculty Libraries and over 25 Departmental Libraries, with a collection of at least 1.3 million volumes. The digital library is available to students and staff and provides online access to thousands of journals, besides access to large collections of online resources through the National Informatics Centre's DELNET and UGC's INFLIBNET.