Daniel Poor Memorial Library in Madurai

Facade of the Daniel Poor Memorial Library at The American College in Madurai

Daniel Poor Memorial Library often abbreviated as DPM Library is a College Library of The American College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu in India that officially began its functions on June 28, 1915.

History

Daniel Poor was one of the pioneer missionaries of the American Board who started the American Ceylon Mission in Jaffna in 1816. He was also one of the founders for the American Madura Mission established here in Madurai(then Madura) in the year 1835. Samuel A Morman, the grand daughter of Dr. Daniel Poor was the key person to build the library building by donation $25,000 to the American Board of Missioneries on January 26, 1926^[1]. Between the years 1914-1920, J.A. Sunders worked as its first librarian establishing the college library. 5000 books were accessioned during its first year. The collection was housed in the Main Hall of the college. This building was originally planned for a ground floor that would house a stack room for about 50,000 volumes, a small museum and a teacher’s room. The first floor was to house a Library study room and two lecture rooms. Presently this building houses a stack room, a reference section, a reading room, technical section and a computerized student access catalog system. Stack room at the library houses more than 60,000 volumes.^[2]

Later Developments

The first floor houses the current periodicals, back volumes of periodicals, and a small rare book collection. The only structural addition in the building is the mezzanine floor built during 1987-1988. This facility doubled the space for shelving books and helped expand the reading room space.

Collections

1. ^ http://www.americancollege.edu/Lib_History.aspx
2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=3V_oAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Daniel+Poor+Memorial+Library+in+Madurai%22&dq=%22Daniel+Poor+Memorial+Library+in+Madurai%22&hl=en&ei=kUyjTN_pC8KBlAfqkYy2BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAw