{"id":1158,"date":"2023-06-09T10:41:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/?p=1158"},"modified":"2025-06-20T07:08:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T07:08:46","slug":"a-heritage-library-in-the-mountain-observatory-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/?p=1158","title":{"rendered":"A Heritage Library in the Mountain Observatory (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christina Birdie & A. Vagiswari<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special Archival Collection of resources in the library of Kodaikanal Observatory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Library inherited the priceless copy of \u2018Astronomia Nova\u2019 by Kepler dating back to 1609. The volume is leather-bound with 650 pages of Latin text, calculations, tables of observations, and woodcut diagrams of planetary orbits. Very little is known about the date of acquisition and source from where it was acquired (It is believed that the copy in the Kodaikanal Observatory is the only copy available in India). This volume was available in the Madras observatory library collection, as mentioned in the catalogue of books registered in the Madras observatory in the year 1893 (Birdie 2014). Another priced title, Historia Coelestis Britannicae (Tribus Voluminibus Contenta 1675-1689, 1689-1720), in three volumes by Johannes Flamsteed published in the year 1725, is available in the library in fairly good condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astronomical observations made at the Madras observatory vo.1 (1831 ) to vol. 8 (1848), the celebrated Madras Catalogue of about 11,000 southern stars is available in multiple copies. Sir George Airy hailed it as the greatest catalogue of modern times. The title page of the catalogue has the Woodcut drawing of the Madras Observatory in the year 1838 (from Taylor\u2019s catalogue vol.4)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book\u2019s register has some entries handwritten by Michie Smith himself. The titles listed in the register include \u2018An account of astronomical observations made by W. Wales during the course of his attempted voyage to the South Pole\u2019 (1725) and \u2018History of the Royal Society by Sprat (1734)\u2019. The Oldest journal volume is the Philosophical Transactions of 1794, and the oldest almanac available is for the year 1767. The library also has Greenwich Astronomical Observations made since 1765. Some of the titles of journals like Phil. Mag. Starting from vol. 1 dated 1876, and continuous run of Proc. Roy. Soc. London from 1831 to 1898 is also part of the collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The library was the custodian of many valuable manuscripts, handwritten documents, and sketches by earlier directors. There are 60 volumes of handwritten and written observational data by N.R. Pogson who was the director of Madras observatory between the years 1860 to 1890. These volumes are in good condition and the handwritten tables of data are legible even now. Ms Cherry Armstrong, who is the great-great-granddaughter of Pogson and herhusband Mr Martin visited Kodaikanal Observatory in the year 2006, February and saw and admired the library\u2019s display of a collection of Pogson\u2019s manuscripts and the invaluable data volumes. They also donated many old photographs of Norman Pogson from the family collection to IIA archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Another valuable volume titled \u201cKala Sankalita\u201d, written by Lt Col John Warren (1825), then acting director of Madras Observatory, presenting a collection of Memoirs on the various modes of the division of time in South India, usually intelligible to the Europeans, was also a proud possession of the library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year the collection of the library grew to include books & journals bought, received on gratis and those publications received on exchange. The major collection of the library is in the field of astronomy & astrophysics. The library has around twenty books published in the 18th century. Astrophysical Journal, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Pacific, and the journal ‘Observatory’ are available from volume one. To continue the tradition of having a complete set of important journals, Prof Bappu, when he was the director of the observatory, took special care to subscribe to those titles without a gap. For many years this procedure of subscribing to some titles without any discontinuity was followed in Bangalore too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The library was also receiving a number of publications in the form of research papers, reports, bulletins, charts, and atlases from many countries, their observatories, and astronomy departments of various universities, mostly on exchange. These were arranged according to the countries in alphabetical sequence in the high rising wooden shelves. The wooden shelves accommodating the volumes are numbered in sequence as shelf tags. There are registers maintained as catalogues that have handwritten entries of titles along with their location on the shelf aided with shelf tags. Many volumes of the observatory publications contain catalogues and important observational data. They are bound as full volumes, which are still referred to when they are not accessible from ADS digitally. The catalogue cabinet containing index cards was created to index the details of books available in the library. These cards are arranged alphabetically by author and title. It was told that this card index was initiated and consulted by Mary Evershed, wife of John Evershed who was the director of the observatory. Those days, the library was maintained by one of the staff members as an additional duty. They were aware of the importance of providing easy access to library materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Vagiswari joined Kodaikanal Library in the year 1974, the first librarian with professional library qualifications to take charge of the library.  She had introduced the system of classifying books for better organization and arrangement on the shelves. She had also trained her semi-skilled colleagues to manage the library in organizing the library books and journals. Acquisition of Books and Journals was not an easy task for a library situated in a remote area. Kodaikanal, even today, does not have bookshops supplying scientific literature. Books and journals were sourced mainly from Madras. One of the leading booksellers in southern India was K. Krishnamurthy <\/sup>& co., a bookshop in Madrasestablished in the year 1944. The proprietor Mr Krishnamurthywould deliver a cartful of books at regular intervals to the observatory library for approval by scientists before the final purchase is made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procuring foreign publications directly seems to have been difficult due to cumbersome procedures, hence the library ordered books and journals through the same vendor as he was the preferred agent for several years. K. Krishnamurthy & Co. rendered valuable service till the library shifted to Bangalore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special mention must be made of Manickam while describing the caretakers of this heritage library. Manickam retired from the army and joined the library during the Directorship of A.K. Das in the 1950s. He was an important asset to the library, helping the scientists and students during his 20 years of service. He was punctual, impeccably dressed in white, and walked straight. He had a prodigious memory and could pull out an obscure publication from the shelf without any difficulty. He had a penchant for recognising the titles of observatory publications in foreign languages as well other than English. In the absence of a trained hand, he was most helpful to all the users. His sense of humour and ability to relate stories kept everyone in good spirits. One cannot forget his valuable help when 75% of the library was shifted from Kodaikanal to Bangalore in 1976. Every box was neatly packed, numbered and labelled. All the books arrived with no loss or damage. Another episode of the exodus of library material, this time from Kodaikanal to Bangalore was carried out smoothly under the guidance of Vagiswari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 When the library material was shifted from Kodaikanal, it was a natural choice to retain the old volumes and manuscripts in this library, especially those published before the 20th<\/sup> century, as the temperature and humidity are very conducive for the archival materials. There are some celestial maps and charts published in the 19th<\/sup> century that were also kept in special wooden racks in the Kodaikanal library as some of them are considered rare and original. Only those rare volumes and manuscripts which required conservative intervention were shifted to Bangalore in 2008 when a physical archive was set up in Bangalore for better care and administrative maintenance. Kodaikanal library continues to be an extension of Bangalore library, with most of the collection qualifying as archival resources now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus of the library building remains important and serves as a host to many events, including the visits of dignitaries, venue for conferences & meetings, and group photographs.  All the dignitaries are given a grand tour of the library and its historical resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This library has a blend of old and new resources useful for researchers and students, which is unique. It will be a challenge for the institute to maintain its uniqueness, especially to safeguard the building and the interiors as the years pass by. With the help of agencies like UNESCO, it will be worthwhile to seek the \u2018heritage tag\u2019 for the library along with other buildings in the observatory. This may help towards maintaining the \u2018tag\u2019 and get assistance from the government for additional funds.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgment: We would like to thank Dr Arumugam, Librarian of IIA and other library staff for their timely help in sharing the material required for writing this article digitally from IIA archives and Ms Kasturi Bai from Kodaikanal library for sending photographs of the Kodaikanal library. We also thank Prof Kameswara Rao for reading the manuscript meticulously and giving us valuable suggestions and editorial corrections.  We are thankful to Ms Cherry Armstrong, the great-great-grand-daughter of N.R.Pogson, who provided us with some valuable photographs and also shared her impression of the Kodaikanal library when she had visited it in the year 2006. We are also thankful to Mr K Srinivasamurthy, son of K Krishnamurthy for sharing his memories of the Kodaikanal library through e-mail.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kameswara Rao, N., Vagiswari, A., and Christina Birdie, Charles Michie Smith – founder of the Kodaikanal (Solar Physics) Observatory and beginnings of physical astronomy in India, <\/strong>Current Sci., vol. 106, no. 3, 10 February 2014, pp.447-467<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christina Birdie, Blending New with Old \u2013 A heritage library re-lived, proc. of International Conference on ‘Library Space and Content Management for Networked Society (IC.LISCOM-2014), 18-20 Oct. 2014 at DVK Central Library, Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kochhar, R.K., Madras and Kodaikanal Observatories: A brief history, Resonance, August 2002, pp.16-28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India Meteorological Dept., Pune, Report on the administration of the meteorological dept. of the govt. of India, 1930-31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administrative reports of the Madras and Kodaikanal observatories for the years 1929-46, 1948-49<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christina<\/strong> joined IIA as an assistant librarian and after 36 years of service retired as the librarian in 2014. She has a PhD in Library and Information Science. She was a key player in introducing many services in the IIA library to make it one of the premier state-of-the-art Astronomy libraries in India. She has organized and established the archives at IIA and was a member of many national and international committees in coordinating library activities and has received many international professional awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.Vagiswari <\/strong>joined the IIA library in 1974 and worked as an assistant librarian and later as a librarian for 30 years. She has a masters and a PhD in library and information sciences. She was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship in 1988. After retirement, she continued as a consultant in a DST project. Her main interests are in the field of history of Astronomy in India and the Madras and Kodaikanal observatories<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christina Birdie & A. Vagiswari Special Archival Collection of resources in the library of Kodaikanal Observatory Library inherited the priceless copy of \u2018Astronomia Nova\u2019 by Kepler dating back to 1609. The volume is leather-bound with 650 pages of Latin text, calculations, tables of observations, and woodcut diagrams of planetary orbits. Very little is known about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[49,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3281,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions\/3281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}