Standing in the middle of the sprawling campus of The American College is an imposing two-storey building, the red-brick walls of which hold a century-old history. It is one of the oldest and the biggest libraries in South Tamil Nadu -- the Daniel Poor Memorial Library (DPML). With its Indo-Saracenic façade, lofty windows and stone archways, the library looks impressive yet modest. Inside its labyrinth of rooms and attics is an inseparable part of Madurai’s regal past.
Librarian Dr. N. Vasanthakumar says it took him two years to segregate, arrange, label and display the entire collection of antiques and books. “It was like a treasure hunt and we kept unravelling room after room, bundle after bundle and we still have more work to do.”
Spread over 7,200 sq.ft, the DPML houses many original palm leaf manuscripts of Tamil poems and epics, some rarest editions of famous books, decades-old Government gazettes, collections of weapons and warfare items, antique coins, brassware, idols and ancient showpieces.
Rare books
The first floor of DPML houses a rare books section, a back-volume archive of journals and magazines, a reading/reference space and a small museum. The musty smell of old paper is unmistakable inside the small dingy room where over 1,400 rare books are neatly stacked on centuries old racks made of rosewood. “Everything in this room from the books, the typewriters, chairs and tables are at least 100 years old,” says D. Aldrin Samuel Royappa, assistant librarian. Among the proud possessions of the DPML, is a 1720 edition of the Holy Bible in Hebrew. With its sepia-tinged papers, partly nibbled at the edges by louses, the book is delicate to touch. Other highlight of the collection is a century-old edition of The Mahabharata in Tamil and English.
An exclusive rack in the library displays original palm leaf manuscripts of 21 Tamil titles, totalling to over 1,500 individual inscribed leaves. The well-known manuscripts available at the library are: Grantha Suvadugal, Kathirkaamamalai, Jeevaka Chinthamani, Thiruparangundrathu Maaalai (an anthology on Thiruparankundram) and Thirupugazhal by Arunagirinathar. The museum section displays a collection of Iron swords of various shapes and sizes, maan-kombu, knives, armours, helmets and shields used in war, brass collections, wooden carvings and coins, currency notes and stamps. “We are not sure about the exact age of these antiques but they seem to belong to the medieval and colonial periods,” says Vasanthakumar.
Digitalisation
The ground floor of DPML opens to an airy reference hall which contains thousands classified under an Online Public Access Catalogue, a user-friendly search interface developed by UNESCO. The library also retains the age-old Card-catalogue that follows Deeway Decimal Classification system. The cards are arranged in a wooden box with numerous small drawers, labelled author-wise or subject-wise. For Tamil books, the library follows the Colon Classification, developed by Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, Father of Indian Library Science. “He is one among the many prestigious visitors the library had,” adds Vasanthakumar.
The DPML was one of the first libraries in South India to be digitalised as early as 1995. Keeping in line with its rich tradition, the library has also been ranked fifth in the country in terms of maximum utilisation of e-resources provided under ‘National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content’, a project of UGC. In the pipeline are a talking library for visually challenged and a separate cell for competitive exam preparations.
Earn while learn
The library offers ‘earn while learn’ facilities for students who can assist in the upkeep of the library and get paid Rs.20 per hour for the service. “Students from poor backgrounds spend time in the library in shifts and earn. There are currently a dozen of them enrolled in the programme,” says Vasanthabalan, who also conducts a passport mela at the library for staff and students. Dinesh Kumar, a Chemistry student says, “I work for five hours a day, cleaning and arranging books or making entry in the registers and take home Rs.100.”
“Truly, the library has been a repository of knowledge and history. We are amazed at its rich inventory and proud that it is part of not just the college’s heritage but also the city’s legacy,” says Dr. M. Davamani Christober, the principal of The American College. The college will be holding the library’s centenary celebrations on January 8 and 9, 2016 when DPML will also be opened to public and students from other colleges from January 9 to 31.
History of DPML
The library of The American College began officially on June 28, 1915. Mr. J.A. Sunders worked as its first librarian and 5,000 books were accessioned during the first year.
The current library building was built in 1926 with a gift of 25,000 USD from Mrs. Samuel A Morman, the granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Poor, one of the founders of the American Madura Mission in 1835.
Originally it was planned as a ground floor to house 50,000 volumes but today it has a collection of over 1,50,000 books in total. A mezzanine floor was constructed in 1987 to accommodate more books.
Famous visitors to the DPML include Rabindranath Tagore, Poet Subramaniya Bharati, Khan Sahib, C. N. Annadurai, V.V. Giri and M. Karunanithi.
