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Dr. R.C. Dhere Center for Cultural Studies

Background Story

Dr. Ramachandra Chintaman Dhere from Pune was a renowned and one of the pioneers of Folk Historic Researchers in Maharashtra. As his volume of research was huge and keen, his personal collection was of nearly 30,000 reference books excluding magazines, manuscripts, and other research papers. After the demise of this eminent scholar, there was a question of the maintenance of his huge collection.
Family members were of course there to take care of this; but then it would not be easy to provide these references to future scholars. The detailed discussion happened and the family members decided to convert that collection into a reference library. The first step was to form a trust to take responsibility of that library officially and many other research related activities. Then formed a trust named – ‘Dr. R. C. Dhere Center for Cultural Studies.’ Elder daughter of Dr. Dhere, a renowned writer and poet Dr. Aruna Dhere became the president of this trust.

Journey of a new library

Starting a new library was a real task. First step was to take a proper count of available books. There were magazines, manuscripts, research journals, research papers, books written by Dr. Dhere, books edited by Dr. Dhere, subject specific reference material etc. We decided to start from general reference book counting. Which means to make a list of available books with every detail such as price, pages, publisher, publication year etc. We met several former and current librarians to learn the documentation and indexing processes. In 2017, we started basic indexing for the library in Dr. Dhere’s home only. It completed in 2020 with a huge number of 30,000 books. Covid made us to pause.
After covid, we shifted to a new library space. Meanwhile, we made a list of possible subject categories for the collection. With the help of a group of 10 people, we started basic subject wise categorisation of these books. Completing this work in nearly six months, we made a final list for major categories for the library collection. Sub – categories were decided later. By completing this phase, we again met library specialist and discussed for a suitable software. Now, we have developed a customised software for our library with specific subject wise categories and sub – categories in it. After deleting duplicates, miscellaneous, and donating some of the collections to subject specific institutions, we finally have a collection of 15,000 pure reference books available.

Importance of library collection in academic world

Dr. R. C. Dhere Center for Cultural Studies is expanding the horizons of research to the various levels. This reference collection maintained by the centre is useful for every cultural history researcher. It covers all the aspects of Indian Studies. It has temple references, monument references, region specific references, ritual based references and the list will go on. Not only cultural but political and social aspect of the Indian diaspora will also be covered in this collection. Such as Reports of Prarthana samaj sabha, annals of Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, research paper series by P. K. Gode, books by Gopinath Kaviraj, Loksahitya by Rabindranath Tagore, books by Gopal Krushna Gokhale, Mahadev Govind Ranade etc.
Feminism in India has a different approach. We have a wide variety of books written by the women and for the women including songs, riddles, biographies, autobiographies, and documents on contemporary status of women etc. most importantly.
Researcher with holistic approach will feel the benefit of this collection by finding every detail reference for the research topic. As culture covers every aspect of human life, so is this collection.

Journey of a new library

We have a huge collection of 30,000 reference books available in the library. There are books on variety of subjects covering almost every field of cultural studies and it is an ideal reference library for theoretical research. We also have some rare books which are only available in this library.
We have a well-maintained library set-up which includes:
  • 1. A spacious reading hall with good ventilation 
  • 2. Power backup and lavatory
  • 3. Well-trained staff and fast & efficient functioning
  • 4. User-friendly library catalogue 
  • 5. Inexpensive and reasonable memberships
  • 6. CCTV surveillance
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