The Universities' Central Library (Burmese: တက္ကသိုလ်များဗဟိုစာကြည့်တိုက်; abbreviated UCL) is an academic library located on the University of Yangon campus in Yangon, Myanmar.[1][2] UCL is Myanmar's biggest academic library and plays a pivotal role in collecting and preserving historical Burmese manuscripts.[3] UCL has the largest collection of traditional manuscripts in the country, including 15,000 palm-leaf manuscripts and 4,000 parabaiks.[1] The library possesses 600,000 books.[4]
In 1929, the Rangoon University Library was established as a research and reference library.[5] During World War II, the library building and rare manuscript collections were destroyed, and the library re-opened in 1952.[1][6] In 1964, the library was renamed the Universities' Central Library.[5] UCL began collecting parabaiks in 1964.[1]
In 1973, a modern replacement building to house the library was designed by Kin Maung Lwin, slated for completion in early 1975.[4] The 1974 U Thant funeral crisis at the university delayed construction, which was finally completed in 1980.[4][5] In 1987, the Yangon University Library was established in UCL's old premises.[1]
Prominent Burmese scholar, Thaw Kaung served as UCL's chief librarian from 1969 to 1997.[7][8]
In 2016, it co-founded the Myanmar Academic Library Consortium to foster collaboration among academic libraries in the country.[9]
.svg){kind=icon} | This article relating to library science or information science is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
