Shri Sayajirao Gaikwad, Maharaja of Baroda: the prime promoter of public libraries

Abstract

Maharaja Sayajirao III, Gaikwad of Baroda (1863-1939) was inspired by the progress of American public libraries during his visits to this country. He invited William Alanson Borden (1853-1931) to provide similar library services for his own people. Borden went to Baroda in 1910 and founded the first public library system in the world. And the University of the Panjab at Lahore invited Asa Don Dickinson in 1915 to organize its University Library on modern American lines. These two pioneering American librarians became the architects of the Indian library edifice. They set the path for the progress of the Indian library movement. Many other American educator-librarians contributed toward this great cultural renaissance. The publications issued in this series are not treatises systematically organized and methodically arranged. They are just a collection of scattered thoughts, disjointed ideas, notes, memoranda, extracts, and quotations, etc. on "America's Library Promotional Heritage in Asia" (ALPHA). And they include speeches, addresses, papers, and talks. The general theme is the Indo-American Library Cooperation, or America's Contribution to the Development of Library Service in South Asia.