Daniel Poor Memorial Library in Madurai
Daniel Poor Memorial Library often abbreviated as DPM Library is a century old college central library of The American College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu in India that officially began its functions on June 28, 1915.
 | |
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| Type | Academic Library |
| Established | 28 June 1915 |
| Location | Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Books, Journals, Magazines, Newspapers, Backvolumes, Rare Collections, Maps, Drawings, Palm scripts and Medieval Weaponry. |
| Other information | |
| Director | Dr. M. Davamani Christober |
| Staff | Dr. N. Vasanthakumar |
| Map | |
| Lua error in Module:Mapframe at line 764: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
History
Daniel Poor was one of the pioneer missionaries of the American Board who started the American Ceylon Mission in Jaffna in 1816. He was also one of the founders for the American Madura Mission established in Madurai (then Madura) in 1835. Samuel A Morman, the granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Poor, was the key person to build the library building by donating $25,000 to the American Board of Missionaries on January 26, 1926.[1] [2] Between 1914 and 1920, J. A. Sanders worked as its first librarian, establishing the college library. This building was originally planned for a ground floor that would house a stack room for about 50,000 volumes, a small museum, and a teacher's room. The first floor was to house a library study room and two lecture rooms. Presently this building houses a stack room, a reference section, a reading room, technical section and a computerized student access catalog system. Stack room at the library houses more than 1,60,000 volumes. [3] [4]
Vision
“Provides services to a variety of clientele diverse in skills, expectations and creates an atmosphere of trust, support and encouragement among all members in the American College”.
Mission
“To provide the collections, services and physical environment to satisfy intellectual curiosity and information needs of the users in the American College”.
Mile Stones
Date of Starting American College Library : 28 June, 1915
Daniel Poor Memorial Library(Corner stone lay on): 26 January, 1926
Daniel Poor Memorial Library Opened: 28 January, 1933
Mezzanine Floor Built : 1987 – 1988
Open Access System Introduced: 07 March, 1998
DPM Library Internet Center Opened : 19 August, 2014
Librarians
1914 – 1920 - Dr. A. J. Saunders
1920 – 1921 - Ms. L. C. Guise
1921 – 1923 - Ms. Nettie B. Guise
1923 – 1924 - Ms. E. L. Nolting
1924 – 1926 - Ms. Wallace
1926 – 1933 - Ms. Nettie B. Guise
1933 – 1935 - Ms. Susanna M. Flint
1935 – 1940 - Ms. Milred M. Hess
1940 – 1969 - Mr. A .G. Solomon
1969 – 1986 - Mr. Justin D. Rajan
1986 – 2003 - Mr. G. P. Reuben
2013 – Till Date - Dr. N. Vasanthakumar
Later Developments
The first floor houses the current periodicals, back volumes of periodicals, and a rare book collection.
The only structural addition in the building is the mezzanine floor built during 1987–1988.
This facility doubled the space for shelving books and helped expand the reading room space,
Radio Frequency IDentifier (RFID) Integrated Security Gate
RFID integrated KIOSK
RFID integrated Intelligent Shelf
Facilities [5]
Fully wi-fi enabled Library
Closed Circuit TV Camera Facility Available.
Internet Browsing Center (Free of cost to all users)
Reprographic facilities are made available.
Users’ suggestion box available.
e-Group Service available
RO Water facility available.
Separate servers available for Library Automation and Internet.
Fire Extinguisher facility available
Rare Resources [6]
Manuscripts List
Grantha Suvadugal
Kathirkaamamalai
Seevagasinthamani
Thirupirangundru Maalai
Murugan Paattu
Thirupugal –Arunagiri
Granta Script
Yovan Eluth
Vaipadu (Multiplication Table)
Encuvadi
Museum Collections
Brass Collections
Iron and steel collections
Wooden carvings
War exhibits
Coins and Rupees
Stamps.
Visitors
Famous visitors to the DPM Library include
Rabindranath Tagore,
Robert A. Millikan,
(Robert A. Millikan was an American experimental physicist honored with the Nobel Prize
for Physics in 1923 for his measurement of the elementary electronic charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect)
S.R. Ranganathan, Father of Library Science in India,
Khan Sahib,
C. N. Annadurai,
V.V. Giri,
M. Karunanithi,
Poet Subramaniya Bharati and many others....
Collections
The library boast's rare antiques, archaeological artifacts and ancient coins of Pandyan Dynasty, Cholas as well. Many ancient palm leaf script copies like Tiruvacakam, Manimekalai etc. are preserved here under rare archives section.[7]
Important letter correspondence between the Indian Government and The American Missionaries are preserved here, wood carvings from Nayak period, five metal bronze statues of Vishnu and other Hindu gods, Indonesian wood carvings and wooden statues dated more than 1000 years etc. are few among the collection.[7]
Proper documentation of all this collection is not done and many of the artifacts seems to mishandled and some are missing.[7]
See also
Coordinates: 9°55′46″N 78°07′55″E / 9.929355°N 78.132073°E
References
- ↑ "Daniel Poor Memorial Library, The American College, Madurai". Retrieved 2021-06-10.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ "Daniel Poor Memorial Library, The American College, Madurai". Retrieved 2021-06-10.
- ↑ Singh, J.; Seṭhī, Ā.; Indian Library Association (1985). Indian Library Directory. Indian Library Association. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
- ↑ "DPM Library Facilities". Retrieved 2021-06-11.
- ↑ "Rare Resources, Daniel Poor Memorial Library". Retrieved 2021-06-11.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Shrikumar, A. (2015-08-26). "The library that has outlived a century". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2021-05-08.