Woodburn Library

Woodburn Library, Bogura

Formation	1854 (1854)
Type	Government
Legal status	Institute
Headquarters	Bogura, Bangladesh
Location	R9W9+JQ8, Sheujgari Water Tank Road, Bogura 5800
Region served	Bangladesh
Official language	Bengali
Parent organization	Department of Public Libraries

Woodburn Library, Bogura or Woodburn Government Public Library, Bogura (Bengali: বগুড়া উডবার্ন জেলা সরকারি গ্রন্থাগার) is the public and district library of Bogura. The library started its journey in 1854 in a wooden building in the Station Club area on the banks of the River Karatoya with the help of an English official named Mr. Real.

This old library houses many rare collections, including rare manuscripts of three Sanskrit poems by the 15th century royal poet Shrimad Gyanendra Kumar Bhattacharya. Most of the books in the library are between 50 and 150 years old.

History

This library was first established in 1854. The then Nawab of Bogura, Abdus Sobhan Chowdhury, built the building for this library. In 1908, the then Collector of Bogura and Governor of Bengal, J.N. Gupta, named it after Sir John Woodburn. In 1930, it was damaged in a fire. Then, with the help of Nawab Syed Abdus Sobhan Chowdhury, it was shifted to Edward Park.

The library was damaged in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

After being locked for more than a decade due to various reasons, on March 15, 2014, according to the decision of the Directorate of Public Libraries of the Ministry of Culture, it was merged with the District Government Public Library and named as Woodburn Government Public Library.

Collection

At the time of merger, the Woodburn Government Library had 28,482 books, of which 8,000 were acquired by the Government Public Library. It houses rare manuscripts of three volumes written in Sanskrit by the 15th century royal poet Shrimad Gyanendra Kumar Bhattacharya. Each manuscript is about 1,000 pages long, written with ink and bamboo pen on ancient tula paper. The names of the three volumes are Padma Purana, Govinda Kathamrita and Hiranyakashipu. There are about 8,000 books here, including old stories, novels, essays, journals, reference books, and books in Sanskrit and English.