GP Birla Centre now gets a library

The GP Birla Library at the GP Birla Centre was inaugurated on Friday. The library has an exclusive collection of books on varied subjects such as art, archeology, architecture, religion, culture, history, indology and also other subjects like iconography, numismatics and museology. Readers can also browse through a vast collection of books on ivory, glass, jade and porcelain in addition to dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Dr BG Sidharth, director general of BM Birla Science Centre, said, “There are more than10,000 books here. All these were collected by Nirmala Birla over the years. The library has rare books on ancient India on art, history and culture.” The books would not be issued and people would have to read them here.

“There is a facility to photocopy a few pages for research purposes. One can find many rare books that are not available in the market,” said librarian P Nagesh. There are two reading rooms with huge glass windows overlooking the city. The institutional membership per year is Rs 6,000 and for individuals it is Rs 3,000 per annum. Institutions can send ten research scholars at a time, an official said.