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Khuda Bakhsh Library is not merely a library, it is in fact a nucleus of multi-dimensional activities. It caters to the needs of intellectuals and scholars, promotes research, advocates communal harmony and also serves public. During the last fifty years it has organised about 200 extension lectures, talks, group discussions and debates. Eminent personalities have delivered lectures on a variety of subjects.
International seminars have been organised on manuscript literature on Tibb (Unani Medicine), Tasawwuf (Islamic Mysticism), Quranic sciences, Medieval Indian history followed by the seminars on Urdu Manuscripts and on lndo-Uzbek relations. Free India and Dr. Zakir Husain were the topics for national seminars. Besides, symposia on Reservation for Muslims and Indian Woman have also been arranged in the library.
Several talks have been organised on health care and hygiene specially for public awareness. The library also arranges National and International Mush'ara's (poetry recitation), Kavi Sammelans and Qawwalis besides film shows representing Indian culture and also documentaries.
Khuda Bakhsh struggled throughout his life for communal harmony. The library thus represents this quality of the Founder through its collection and holds group discussions on the issue.
The Library has been recognized as a Research Centre by seven Universities, namely -
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Shantiniketan University, Calcutta
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Hamdard University, New Delhi
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Kashmir University, Srinagar
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Gulbarga University, Gulbarga, Karnataka
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Magadh University, Gaya
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B. R. Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur
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Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Promotion of Research Work
The Library encourages scholars and provides them all research facilities including free accommodation. It awards 10 research fellowships - 3 Senior and 7 Junior - for a period of 2 years and helps them do Ph.D./D.Litt. It also assigns different projects to them, for example, editing of manuscripts, compilation of descriptive catalogue of manuscripts, indexes of Urdu periodicals, subject bibliographies, etc.
Besides, it also offers lump sum amount to retired professors to work on our manuscripts.
Compilation of descriptive catalogue of manuscripts is also a research work. Our catalogues published so far contain rich information about the manuscripts and hence they are highly valued in the academic world.
The Library has so far published 43 volumes of Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts covering about one-third of the total collection. Moreover, the hand-list of manuscripts in Arabic (4 vols.), Persian (5 vols.) and Urdu (1 vol) have also been compiled and printed for the benefit of the readers. More volumes of Descriptive Catalogue are likely to be published soon. |
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The Library has started a 1 year PG Course in Oriental Librarianship and Manuscriptology to help produce well trained staff to manage any oriental library. Three batches comprising of people selected mostly from in-house staff has been successfully concluded and work is going on to improve the scope of this course even further.
The Library facilitates exchange of scholars with other countries and takes steps for sharing its resources with other libraries either in India or outside to enrich its collection.
The Library arranges exhibitions of its collection from time to time. It keeps on regular display new arrivals.
Apart from the exhibition of books, it has also displayed its rare calligraphic masterpieces, gorgeous paintings and manuscripts on Quraniyat (Quranic sciences) and, Islamic sciences at different occasions in the library. Books on Indic religions have also been kept on display in National Museum, New Delhi.
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