Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai
Roja Muthiah Research library is one of the most updated and relevant cultural institutions, of our times, is located in CPT Campus, Taramani. Research Library exists to provide research material and facilities for the students of South Indian studies in a variety of fields spanning humanities, social sciences, and popular culture.
Its main objectives are to preserve, catalog and expand the collection of Roja Muthiah, who during his lifetime built one of the world’s finest private libraries of Tamil publications. For researchers working in the social, political and cultural history of South India, RMRL with its modern facilities can provide access to valuable source material. The collection covers Tamil heritage and culture, spanning a period of over 150 years.
It has over 1,50,000 books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and rare audio records, that covers fields as diverse as indigenous medicine, and classical, medieval and folk Tamil literature.
It has a veritable collection of Tamil cinema magazines and over 2,000 songbooks. The library has a number of Tamil cinema posters, magazine articles, and promotional literature. It also has a rich holding of oleo-lithographs from Raja Ravi Varma’s workshop. It benefits people working on Tamil film.
With software developed by UNESCO and technology developed by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, a machine-readable catalog was created. The cataloging is done in Tamil for Tamil imprints. This can be viewed by transliterating into any of the desired Indian scripts and Roman scripts. So far, 68,000 titles have been cataloged and over 15,000 microfilmed.
It has facilities like reading room, extensive reference material including encyclopedias and general reference publications, Microfilm reading equipment and more. A large number of periodicals have been microfilmed and this program benefits scholars worldwide. With over 10,000 visitors each year, RMRL is the best resource center for researchers and academics that benefits scholars worldwide.
Official website of Roja Muthiah Research Library: RMRL.IN