Materials required for a good History Library

Some of the essential materials required for a good history library are as follows:

History library should contain useful audio-visual aids required for teaching of history. The educational pictures, charts, maps, posters about history be displayed on the walls of library room.

In history library there should be a good collection of history books.

The history teacher should be responsible for making a wide selection of books for the library. These books should be of the following types:

1.  Text-Books:

A number of good text-books on various periods of Indian History as also history of the world and history of other important countries must be made available in the library. It is also very important to note that keeping in view in the excavations indifferent parts of our country and also in other parts of the world and because of rapidly changing human life in the modem age, new and revised editions of standard text-books should continually be purchased for the school library, with a view to supply up-to-date knowledge and information to teachers and students.

2. Reference Materials:

These include reference books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, yearbooks, biographies, atlases, bibliographies, directories, old manu­scripts, old coins and other excavated material, Govt. Gazetteers and the like.

3. Literary Materials:

These include biographies autobiographies, fiction, folklore, short-stories, and travel books, books of adventure, her stories, romance, drama and poetry. This type of material provides reading for enjoyment and pleasure.

4. Source Materials:

These include source books, manuscripts, original accounts of travellers and contemporary historian diaries, proclamations, original letters and dispatches of king’s governors and viceroys, treaties, old monuments, historical buildings, sites, old tools, weapons, amours, coins etc.

In addition to the book resources (stated earlier) a good history library be supplemented by periodical, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines etc. This material can be easily and inexpensively used as teaching aid in the teaching of history.

Collateral and supplementary reading is an essential part of history programme. In this subject must collect a lot of information about various facts and movements after consulting many books and periodicals, besides their text-books for solving problems, doing assignments and participating is discussions etc. For this purpose library resources can furnish a rich supply of books, periodicals and pamphlets for collateral reading. Text-book material must be supplemented by additional reference reading.

It is, therefore, that students should be encouraged to read widely on topics of their own interest, both for the sake of information and entertainment. For this purpose they should be guided how to select, read and make use to the knowledge thus obtained. In this way they will be able to form good reading habits along with power study procedures. Students should be encouraged to take notes and to keep a regular record of their reading.