A historian too is classifying his treasure

Delicke

Editor

posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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KOZHIKODE: As the immeasurable riches long hidden inside the vaults of a temple are being unsealed and assessed, a historian based..

KOZHIKODE: As the immeasurable riches long hidden inside the vaults of a temple are being unsealed and assessed, a historian based in Kozhikode is also engaged in something similar, though the treasure is of a different kind. The venue is 'Maitri', the home of eminent historian M G S Narayanan at Malaparamba, near here.
A bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of books more than 5,000 that has come into his personal collection, Narayanan has decided to go in for a classification. He has entrusted four librarians to arrange the books in his home library under the Dewey decimal classification system, the most widely used library classification system in the world.

"Now-a-days, it's really difficult to spot a book. Often, it's time consuming and started affecting my work schedule. So I thought of arranging it more systematically.

Apart from history and archaeology, the MGS' library has books on various topics including Anthropology, Numismatics, Epigraphy, Philosophy, Literature and Arts in languages ranging from Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit, English, German, Russian and Japanese.

At present, the books are being labelled and serial numbers are given. Later, it would be shelved under the Dewey classification system in 10 shelves, four cupboards and two mini shelves. And the whole process of arranging itself costs around Rs 30,000.

"I would like to contribute this collection either to Calicut University or to the Guruvayurappan College, where I studied and taught. It will be easy for them to preserve these books if everything is properly arranged," he says.