Punjab Public Library is a public library located in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

, Pakistan. It was established by order No. 2798 dated 8 November 1884 of the lieutenant governor of the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, in the Home General Department. It has been registered under the

Societies Registration Act A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

of 1860.

History

The library began operations in the Baradari Wazir Khan, an imperial building built by Nawab Wazir Khan, the governor of

, during Emperor Shahjahan’s reign with the assistance of the government of the Punjab. Its purpose is to be a public library and reading room. Other library blocks were built in 1939, and a block housing the

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

and Bait-ul-Quran section was constructed in 1968 and inaugurated by General Mohammad Musa, then

governor of West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial Enclave and exclave, exclaves created during the One Unit, One Unit Schem ...

. Govt. Punjab Public Library, Lahore, lies in the heart of the city of Lahore at Library Road near the Lahore museum, off Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam. It is surrounded by educational institutions and the

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a State university in Jalandhar, Punjab * Panjab University, a public collegia ...

(Old Campus). The commercial centre of

Anarkali Anarkali () was a legendary woman said to be loved by the 16th-century Mughal Prince Salim, who later became Emperor Jahangir. According to some accounts, Anarkali was the nickname of the courtesan Nadira Begum or Sharf-un-Nisa, though scho ...

, the main offices of the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (Town Hall) and the provincial government offices, i.e., the Civil Secretariat, are a short distance from this building. The library holds a collection of books in all fields of knowledge in

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 ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

. Its total collection is about 0.3 million volumes and includes books, bound volumes of back numbers of

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s, reports, the old gazettes of Punjab, Pakistan and undivided India, and more than 1500 manuscripts. The library receives 170 magazines, 24 journals by subscription and the rest as free copies. 12 dailies are received in the library.

Aims and objectives

* To provide a public library for the use of all classes of people in the province which contain official publications as well as general literature, both Oriental and Occidental. * To provide a reading room open to the public, free of charge. * To contribute to the intellectual advancement of the country. * To make accessible at one place information that may be required for historical

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

, or for any other enquiry that depends upon records rather than upon experience.

Library administration

Govt. Punjab Public Library, Lahore, is under the administrative control of the Education Department, Government of the Punjab, Lahore. The Punjab government, vide notification No.SO(A-IV)2-24/2009 dated 25.02.2010, has constituted the following board of governors of the Government Punjab Public Library, Lahore, under the Punjab Government Educational and Training Institutions Ordinance, 1860 (West Pakistan Ordinance No.XI of 1960):-

Membership

Borrowing facilities are provided to the members only.

Sections

The library has the following sections: Acquisition section Used for acquiring books for the library from booksellers. The selection of books is made by a book purchase committee which also includes subject specialists. Readers’ suggestions are given consideration when purchasing books for the library. A book selection policy is followed for the purchase of books, and government procedures are followed for payment of the bills. Books are accessioned here, payments are made and the accessioned material is then sent to the technical section for processing. Suggestion books to be used for suggesting books for the library or making other proposals are provided. Technical section Books and other material received from the acquisition section are provided with labels and stamps and are classified and catalogued. D.D.C. 20th Edition is used for subject analysis while A.A.C.R-2 is followed for cataloguing. Cards are typewritten. Reference material is kept in the reference section and all other books are sent to the library shelves for circulation. Circulation section On the first floor of the English section there is an English counter at which books for home study are issued and received back. Oriental language books are issued at the counter in the Oriental section. Approximately 250 books are issued or received back at these counters every day. Reference section The Reference Section is frequented by students, research scholars and the public throughout the library working hours. It contains reference works such as encyclopaedias,

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...

yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

s, directories, almanacs,

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

es, gazetteers, etc. along with reference works in subject fields. The official gazettes of Punjab and Pakistan kept in this section are important sources of information for many people of the city and rural areas of various districts of Punjab. Bound files of newspapers are available. The section serves its readers by providing

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

reports,

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s and designs, and back numbers of English magazines. This section is useful for students preparing for such competitive examinations as CSS and PCS. The section is staffed by library professionals and

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

specialists. The Bait-ul-Quran This section of the library was established in 1968 by Mr.

Mukhtar Masood Mukhtar Masood (15 December 192615 April 2017) was a renowned Pakistani Urdu writer and bureaucrat. Early life and career Born in Sialkot, Punjab, British India on 15 December 1926, to Shaikh Ataullah (1896 - 1968), a well-known literary scholar ...

, then commissioner of the Lahore Division, and inaugurated by then governor of West Pakistan, General Muhammad Musa. It contains manuscripts of the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

, some dating back to 500 years. The section houses copies of handwritten and printed Qurans collected from all over Pakistan, e.g., the photocopies of the Quran remained under recitation of Usman Ghani, Amam Jaffer Sadiq, Molana Rom,

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...

and a hand written Quran by

Aurangzeb Alamgir Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

, Emperor of India. Translations and commentaries of the Quran in different languages and other Quranic Literature are all placed in this section for the use of research scholars. A mural painting by an artist of Pakistan, Mr. Shakir Ali, depicts Quranic Ayats in fine

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

and decorates the section. Children's section A separate children's section was established in March 1982. Material comprises illustrated books, children encyclopaedias and dictionaries,

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and adventure books, illustrated

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

, biographies, historical and Islamic books, books on Quaid-e-Azam and

Allama Muhammad Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

, as well as on Pakistan, both in English and Urdu languages. it contains about 6,000 volumes. Oriental section The section has about 125,000 volumes in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Punjabi,

Pushto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

, Sindhi,

Balochi Balochi, sometimes spelt in various other ways, may refer to: * Balochi language, a language of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjective for something related to the Baloch people, an ethnic group of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjecti ...

, etc. Some rare books possessed by the section have been bound in cloth and

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

. The building has now fallen short of its requirements with respect to additional books and the increasing number of readers . Computer section and e-library The computer section of the library was established in 1993 and became functional in 1996. A catalogue of the books in the library has been computerized and readers have been provided browsing facility on

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

service is provided to the public at a nominal charge of Rs. 10/- per hour. CD writing and printing is available in the section. AVA Section The section contains

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...

readers, microfilm reader/printers, TV and VCR equipment with more than 600 video films available. An

LCD TV Liquid-crystal-display televisions (LCD TVs) are television sets that use liquid-crystal displays to produce images. They are, by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type. LCD TVs are thin and light, but have some disadvantag ...

has been provided in the section by courtesy of the Punjab Library Foundation. Other sections of the library are the: * Bindery * Account section * Hindi, Gurumukhi, Sanskrit section * Records section * Gazetteer/gazette, report section * Old newspaper & magazine section * Braille section

Collections

Collections which have been donated are as follows: Riffat Sultana Memorial Collection This is the largest collection donated to this library by any individual. Dr. Mumtaz Hassan, a scholar and governor, State Bank of Pakistan, has donated about 9,000 volumes to the library in the memory of his daughter, Riffat Sultana. The collection has been placed in a section known as the Riffat Sultana Memorial Collection. It has been functioning in the library since 1963. Prof. Abdul Qadir Collection Mulana Muhammad Ali Qasuri Collection Abdul Hamid Collection Dr. Azhar Ali Collection''

Facilities

Book reservation Books can be reserved in both the English and Oriental sections of the library. As soon as a book which has been reserved is received back in the library, the borrower is informed of its availability. Photocopying The library has two

photocopying A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...

machines for providing readers with photocopies of required material. Library catalogue Dictionary catalogues have been provided for the English and Oriental sections as well as the other collections of the library. Books can be searched by consulting the catalogues for authors, titles or subjects. The computerized catalogue is also available at the circulation desk. Reader/reference services Reader/reference assistance is available for students, readers and research scholars. Cultural activities To make the library a hub of cultural activities, a series of lectures has been started on educational, literary, Islamic and library topics for readers, students and scholars. Scholars and persons of repute are invited to deliver these lectures.

Classification scheme

For arrangement of reading material the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme is followed. The 19th edition of this scheme is being used along with AACR2 and the 15th edition of the Sears List of Subject Headings. Sometimes a number which is difficult to build from the 19th edition is built from the 20th edition.

Funding

The Punjab government provides an annual grant-in-aid amounting to Rs. 16 million. The other sources of income include nominal membership fees, etc.

Presidents of the Managing Committees

Librarians and Chief Librarians

References

{{Authority control Academic libraries in Pakistan Libraries in Lahore