The State Central Library Hyderabad, ( te, స్టేట్ సెంట్రల్ లైబ్రరీ) ( ur, مكتبہ آصفیہ) known as the State Central Library (SCL) earlier known as Asafia Library, is a
public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants.
There are ...
in
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
,
Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...
. The building was constructed in 1891. It is one of the most imposing structures in the city and was granted heritage status in 1998 by
INTACH
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non-profit charitable organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
In 2007, the United Nations awarded INTACH a special consultative status with Unite ...
, Hyderabad.
The library is located at
Afzal Gunj
Afzal Gunj is one of the part in Old City, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, close to river Musi. Afzal Gunj is the hub of local transportation due to the presence of Central Bus Station in the region. The bus station provides services to most of p ...
on the bank of the River Musi. It houses 500,000 books and magazines including some rare
Palm-leaf manuscript
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed ...
s. This library is the apex of the state's library system.
History
The State Central Library began in 1891 due to the efforts of
Syed Hussain Bilgrami
Nawab Syed Hussain Bilgrami, Imad-ul-Mulk Bahadur, CSI (1842-1926) was an Indian civil servant, politician, educationalist and an early leader of the All India Muslim League.
Early life
Syed Hussain Bilgrami was born in 1844 in Gaya from an ...
, whose personal library formed the institution's initial core.
The library building has an area of 72,247 square yards and was built under the supervision of the architect,
Aziz Ali
Aziz Ali (born September 15, 1980) is a Kenyan amateur boxer who qualified for the 2008 Olympics at light-heavyweight at the 2nd AIBA African 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament despite being knocked out by Bastie Samir in the last fight. At th ...
. The foundation was laid in January 1932 by Prince
Mir Osman Ali Khan
Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (5 or 6 April 1886 — 24 February 1967), was the last Nizam (ruler) of the Princely State of Hyderabad, the largest princely state in British India. He ascended the throne on 29 August 1911, at the age of ...
. At the construction's completion, the Asafia Library shifted to the new building in 1936 to mark
Nizam VII
Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (5 or 6 April 1886 — 24 February 1967), was the last Nizam (ruler) of the Princely State of Hyderabad, the largest princely state in British India. He ascended the throne on 29 August 1911, at the age of ...
The Library has a collection of around five hundred thousand books published since the early 19th century, and
Hyderabad Samachara
In British India, Hyderabad Samachara was a newspaper published by His Exalted Highness Mir Osman Ali Khan in the year 1941. This was published in Kannada, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu
Urdu (;
The first phase of computerisation and networking in libraries through e-Grandhalaya software developed by
National Informatics Centre
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an Indian government department under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The NIC provides infrastructure, IT Consultancy, IT Services including but not limited to architecti ...
has begun. The project will begin on an experimental basis in Warangal and Hyderabad. Over 40,000 books have already been digitized at SCL with the help of Carnegie Mellon University's ''Universal Online Library Projects.'' The digitised works include titles in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
Persian languages
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
.
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
provides the funding for this project.
See also
*
Sri Krishna Devaraya Andhra Bhasha Nilayam
Sri Krishna Devaraya Bhasha Nilayam earlier known as Sri Krishna Devaraya Andhra Bhasha Nilayam (Telugu: శ్రీ కృష్ణ దేవరాయాంధ్ర భాషా నిలయం) is one of the oldest non-Government Library in T ...