Dhaka University Central Library

The University of Dhaka Library is the largest and most important research library in Bangladesh, founded in 1921 alongside the university itself, in the same year that teaching began with 877 students. The institution was modelled on the Oxford college system with students living on campus. Today the holdings exceed 600,000 volumes, plus manuscripts in Bengali, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian, microfilm and a growing digital archive. The reading rooms are primarily reserved for students and researchers, but occasional tours explain the building's history and its role in the 1952 Language Movement, which began just next door.