Maulana Azad Library
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| Established | 1875 (formally in 1877 as Lytton Library) |
|---|---|
| Location | Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh |
| Branches | 100 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 1.4 million volumes |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | 60565 |
| Population served | 28,000 students; 1,342 Faculty, 5,610 non-teaching staff |
| Other information | |
| Budget | 23.37 Million Rupees |
| Website | http://malibrary.amu.ac.in |
The Maulana Azad Library is the central library of Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. It is the second largest university library in Asia. The seven-storey building is surrounded by 4.75 acres (1.92 ha) of lawns and gardens. It has about 1,400,000 books. It celebrated Golden Jubilee on 7 December 2010.
It got a donation of about 5000 books which were the personal collection of Kaifi Azmi.
Nabi Hasan serves as the current University Librarian of the library.
The foundation of the Library was laid in 1877 at the time of establishment of the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College by Lord Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, the then Viceroy of India and it was named after him as Lytton Library. The present grand seven-storied building was inaugurated by Late Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India in 1960 and the Library was named as Maulana Azad Library, after a great scholar, educationist, statesman, freedom fighter and the first Education Minister of the independent India.
In late 2014 the university's vice-chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah turned down a demand by female students of the college to be allowed to use the Maulana Azad Library, which was male-only. Shah stated that the issue was not one of discipline, but of space as if girls were allowed in the library there would be "four times more boys," putting a strain on the library's capacity. Although there was a separate library for the university's Women's College, it was not as well-stocked as the Maulana Azad Library.National human resource and development minister Smriti Irani decried Shah's defense as "an insult to daughters."
Responding to a petition filed by a Human Rights Law Network intern, the Allahabad High Court ruled in November 2014 that the university's ban on female students from using the main library was unconstitutional, and that accommodations must be made to facilitate student use regardless of gender. The High Court gave the university until 24 November 2014 to comply.
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