The National
Library observed the National Book Week from 14.11.13 to 20.11.13. The National
Book Week concluded on 20.11.13 with a programme where veteran readers of
National Library who are still availing reader services of Library were honoured
for their long association and continued relationship with National Library as
a Reader. Ms. Leena Mitford, Lead curator, South Asian Studies, British library
was invited as Guest of honour and Shri Arun Ghosh, Ex-Librarian, Centre for
Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata presided over the function.
P.Y. Rajendra Kumar
Director General
Lecture on Tagore by Professor Sudhir
Kakar
Professor Sudhir Kakar, the eminent
psychoanalyst and writer, spoke on ‘Young Tagore : A Psychological Portrait’ on
31 January 2013 at 3.30 pm at the Conference Hall, Bhasha Bhavan.
First Public
Lecture by Sri Anjan Sen
Sri Anjan Sen, Tagore National Scholar for
Cultural Research at the National Library, delivered his first public lecture
on ‘Medieval Manuscripts Cover Paintings of Bengal: impact of Chaitanya Deva’
on 22 January 2013 at 3.30pm at the Conference hall, Bhasha Bhavan.
Celebrating the
Asian Neighbourhood
A day-long programme of events was held on
12 January 2013 from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm in collaboration with Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad Institute for Asian Studies, Oxford University Press, School of Media, Communication and Culture of
Jadavpur University and INTACH at the Exhibition Gallery, Bhasha Bhavan. The
events were held in course of the Kolkata Literary Festival. The programme was
inaugurated by Sri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal, in the
presence of Professor Sugata Bose of Harvard University, and Dr Sreeradha
Dutta, Director, MAKAIAS. The themes included ‘Sunil Janah, Photography Pioneer
: A Tribute’, ‘Image, Identity, Literature and the Asian Women’, ‘Media for
Change: The Asian Neighbourhood’ and ‘Laughing Matter: Bengal Political
Cartoons from Both Sides of the Border: Interrogating the Nation State’. The
day-long programme was followed by a lecture on ’What Kind of Asian was
Gandhi?’ by Professor Ramachandra Guha on the steps of the Belvedere House. The
lecture was followed by a public conversation on the subject between Professor
Guha and the Director Genral.
Second Public
Lecture by Professor Gautam Bhadra
The second public lecture by Professor
Gautam Bhadra, Tagore National Fellow for Cultural Research at the National
Library, was delivered on 21 December 2012 at 3.30 pm at the Conference Hall,
Bhasha Bhavan. Professor Bhadra spoke on ‘Jogesh Chandra Ray Vidyanidhi and His
Vision of Indian Astronomy and Indigenous Almanacs’.
Lecture on
Charles Dickens
A lecture on ‘Dickens and the Popular
Imagination’ was delivered by Dr Paul Schlicke, formerly of the School of Language
and Literature, University
of Aberdeen, on 17
December 2012 at 3.30 pm at the Conference Hall, Bhasha Bhavan. The lecture was
organized to mark the bicentenary of the novelist in 2012.
On 9 January 2012, Professor Randall
McLeod, formerly of the University
of Toronto, spoke on
manual book production and textual studies in an illustrated talk titled
'Hammered'. Professor McLeod is a noted textual scholar, and inventor of the
McLeod Portable Collator, a stereoscopic device for comparing texts as images
that has been acquired by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge
and London, the
National Library of Wales, New York Public Library and Pierpont Morgan Library.
On 11 January
2012, advance copies of the book Nameless Recognition: The Impact of
Rabindranath Tagore on Other Indian Literatures were presented to members of
the Advisory Board. The volume, edited by Swapan Chakravorty, collects papers
read at a national seminar held at the library in January 2011.
On 24 January
2012, Anne Bancroft ACR, Senior Book and Paper Conservator, Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, will speak on 'Book Conservation Case Studies: Leather Binding,
a Chinese and European Illuminated Manuscript' and 'Book Conservation, Display,
Access and Handling at the Victoria and Albert Museum’ at the Conference Hall,
Bhasha Bhavan. She will also visit the Reprography and Laboratory Divisions of
the library.
On 27 January
2012, Professor Satiprasad Maiti, Head of the Department of English, Ramakrishna Mission
Residential College,
Narendrapur, will speak on Swami Vivekananda to students of New Alipur Multipurpose School
for Boys at the Children's Library.
On 24 February
2012, a seminar will be held at the National Library to celebrate the 175th
anniversary of the founding of Calcutta Public Library. Sri P. T. Nair, eminent
historian of Kolkata and of the library, Sri Arun Ghosh, former librarian of
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta, and Professor Aloke Ray,
eminent scholar of nineteenth-century Bengal,
will speak. A souvenir will be published on the occasion
Bimal Mitra
(1912-91)
On 21 August 2012: An exhibition on the life and works of the
Bengali novelist Bimal Mitra was inaugurated on 21 August 2012 at 5 p.m. at the
Art Gallery, Bhasha Bhavan, by the Hon’ble
Chittatosh Mukherjee, former Chief Justice of Calcutta and Bombay High Courts.
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with Bimal Mitra
Academy, Kolkata, to
observe the birth centenary of the popular writer who spent a substantial part
of his day at the National Library reading and researching for his fiction. The
exhibition displayed books, translations of his works in various languages,
manuscripts, rare photographs, lists of films and plays in different languages
based on his works, and a suite of paintings based on moments in his novels.
The exhibition remained open for public viewing from 21 August to 26 August
2012. At the inauguration Dr Shankar Ghosh, Sri Sabitendranath Ray and Sri
Swapan Moitra spoke on the author, while an aural performance of the play ‘America’ based
on Mitra’s story was staged by the theatrical troupe Sangbarta. This was
followed by songs rendered by Munmun Ghosh, Laboni Lahiri and Sanjukta
Bhattacharya.
Library digitisation enters third phase
Between the Lines
Kolkata scholars to get access to British Library's Bengali shelf
14th century manuscripts restored
Rare Glimpses of a Remarkable Mind
National Library turns over a digital leaf
Copyright as cultural notion
National Library to showcase some rare Tagore exhibits
23:09
National Library
