LIBRARY

The library at The American College began officially on June, 28, 1915 when the first book was accessioned. Between the years 1914-1920, Mr. A.J. Saunders worked as its first librarian establishing the college library.5000 books were accessioned during its first year. The collection was housed in the Main Hall of the college.

Mrs. Samuel A Morman, the granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Poor, made the library building possible by a gift of $ 25, 000.00 to the American Board. On January 26, 1926 the corner stone was laid for a library building. Daniel Poor was one of the pioneer missionaries of the American Board who started the American Ceylon Mission in Jaffna in 1816.He was also one of the founders for the American Madura Mission in the year 1835. This building was originally planned for a ground floor that would house a stack room for about 50,000 volumes, a small museum and a teacher’s room. The first floor was to house a Library study room and two lecture rooms. Today this building house on the ground floor a stack room for over 60,000 volumes, a reference section, a reading room, technical section and a computer facility. The first floor houses the current periodical, back volumes of periodicals, and a small rare book collection. The only structural addition in the building is the mezzanine floor built during 1987-1988. This facility doubled the space for shelving books and helped expand the reading room space.

“Provides services to a variety of clientele diverse in skills, expectations and creates an atmosphere of trust, support and encouragement among all members in the American College”.

“To provide the collections, services and physical environment to satisfy intellectual curiosity and information needs of the users in the American College”.

All American College faculty, students, and staff are eligible to borrow from the Library.

The major two parts of the DPM library is General Library and Digital Library. DPM Library consists of ten sections such as:

• Section I: Wicket Gate, Luggage Counter, Circulation Counter, Suggestion Box.
• Section II: Reference Hall consists of Reference Materials, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Reserve Books, and Tamil Agarathees.
• Section III: Technical Section and Server Cabin.
• Section IV: OPAC, Card catalogue Cabin, New arrivals, Competitive exam collections, Atlas, Maps, and Exam Question Papers (between the reference hall and reading area).
• Section V: Study area, Stack behind the reading area (Ground Floor and Mezzanine Floor), Reference Stack consists of different volumes.
• Section VI: Digital Library
• Section VII: Rare books, Back Volumes, Archives (Palm Manuscripts, Medieval Weaponry) 
• Section VIII: Periodical Section and OPAC Terminal
• Section IX: Study area, Card Catalogue cabin, Numismatics
• Section X:      General Collection Stacks.