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The purpose of this paper is to review the literature about oriental manuscript collections in India and provide an overview of the area.

A core set of literature on oriental manuscript collections in India was retrieved after doing a thorough literature search in different databases. Literature on various aspects of this topic was reviewed. The paper is organized based on various themes to make the study fruitful for various sections of society.

Oriental manuscripts are present in different research libraries, university libraries and public libraries in India but university libraries are leading others in preserving these manuscripts, with few exceptions. Manuscripts are available in different oriental languages but mostly in Sanskrit. Every religious sect in India has contributed immensely in collecting and preserving these manuscripts. The contribution of famous kings of Indian history is also enormous in this regard.

The review does not claim to be exhaustive, as most sources might have been skipped during the study for their non‐availability.

This paper provides a concise overview of manuscripts present in different Indian libraries and research institution/universities and provides a valuable entry point to the field of Indian manuscripts for research scholars, information scientists and other interested parties.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the present situation in the development of indigenous digital libraries in India. The study aims to evaluate different retrieval features of Indian digital libraries, especially those provide access to multilingual and multimedia documents.

For this study, eight digital libraries originated in India, which are available in 24×7 timeframe and accessible worldwide through the internet, have been identified and selected. The retrieval features and other information on these digital libraries have been collected mostly from their respective websites and from other published literature, annual reports, etc.

The paper finds that Indian digital libraries provide universal access to informative and culturally rich digital content related to South Asian region. The digitisation efforts in Indian institutions make these digital libraries operational.

The institutional repositories and open access archives of Indian institutions that give access to the current research literature are not included in this study, because their retrieval features are mostly similar to each other as they use either DSpace or GNU EPrints open source software.

Indigenous digital libraries in India provide universal access to information and knowledge related to culture and heritage of people of South Asian counties. This study gives an insight on how diverse contents are integrated and disseminated to the end‐users in a user‐friendly manner. This study also indicates research initiatives on different aspects of multilingual contents in this region.

No such evaluation on Indian digital libraries has been done from the perspective of information retrieval features. This study will generate new knowledge in area of indigenous digital libraries in a developing country like India. This study is also an attempt to popularise Indian indigenous digital libraries among the world community.

This chapter outlines current developments in Indian libraries, information services and cultural sector collectively highlighting recent trends and developments as India increasingly takes centre stage in the area of libraries and information literacy development. The chapter also provides a critical analysis of library and information science education in India and highlights the need for government strategies and policies related to public libraries. Some 17 federal states and union territories in the Republic of India have no public library legislation and therefore low literacy rates. India needs public awareness campaigns, civic engagement and community developments including the grass-roots empowerment of public libraries. Financial reforms, modernization and federal funding strategies for public libraries are also required to energize cultural organizations and national libraries. A recent major development is the establishment of a National Commission on Libraries following recommendations by the National Knowledge Commission. However, Indian public libraries do not cater sufficiently for the growing youth population or other strata's of Indian society. The growing Indian higher education sector also necessitates information policies for open access, digital preservation and repositories development.

1. Documentation, library and book organizations (0) American Documentation Institute

Monastery libraries have, for centuries, been the hub of religious education and research. They house collections that are unique and even rare and have been useful to students of religion as well as to members of the public. Some, along with the monasteries to which they are attached, even serve as tourist attractions, being as they are ancient relics with rich culture and history. The Tawang Monastery, in Arunachal Pradesh, India, is one such monastery whose libraries are unique and valuable. This paper reports results of a study on the collection in the two libraries of Tawang Monastery which not only found that they are among the best in terms of format, variety and value but also discovered shortcomings like shortage in staff and space which need to be addressed at the earliest.

For this research, case study method was used by the researchers. The tools used for data collection were questionnaire and interview. This is because they were found to be easier and convenient methods to carry out this research. Apart from that, observation method was also carried out throughout the research period. Besides these field work research methods, literature review was also carried out to gather mostly historical and some background information about the monastic libraries in India. Internet searching was also carried out to find out other relevant information.

This study provides an enumerative account of collection development in the Tawang monastery libraries. During the study, certain pitfalls were noted. First, the ancient Parkhang library building is in a very precarious state of existence. In fact, the library building was undergoing renovation during the period of this study. Due to this very reason also, it’s collection of Kanjur and Tanjur religious texts have not been subjected to any preservation methods, although it is of utmost necessity.

During this particular period of study the ancient Parkhang library was undergoing the process of building renovation. In fact, the whole library building was deserted as a result, and was in topsy-turvy condition. The tour of the library hall was given, for whatever it was worth by the librarian himself, during which some photographs were taken. Hence, most of the data collection was possible only due to the dedicated cooperation of the monks and a few learned teaching staff of the monastery school. Much relevant information was collected through personal interviews, apart from the questionnaire sets. On the other hand, no such hindrance was faced for the data collection from the school library.

This study, to an extent, shows that the collection development in the Tawang monastery libraries (especially Parkhang library) is a very vital and important asset, both for the state of Arunachal Pradesh and for India as well. It is the first full-fledged study on collection development in the Tawang Monastery libraries, covering all aspects of the topic at hand, and can serve as a precedent to other such studies.