The Libraries serve as the intellectual, cultural and social center for the Institute and the Community. The Library, Documentation and Information Science Division comprise:

Central Library at Kolkata,

ISIDC Library, Delhi

ISIBC Library, Bangalore

ISICC Library, Chennai

ISI North Eastern Centre Library, Tezpur and

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Memorial Museum and Archives, Kolkata

The Division is perhaps the most important central facility of the Institute.

Central Library, Kolkata

The Central Library occupies a unique place in academic and research activities of the Institute. The Central Library moved to its present location in 1978, and it occupies 5 floors (60000sq.ft) of a ten-storied building at Calcutta. The Central Library seeks to:

Meet the informational, educational, recreational, and cultural interests and needs of the user community by providing timely access to print and non-print resources appropriate to those needs.

Encourage and facilitate reading, literacy and lifelong learning by supplying resources in a variety of formats designed to interest, inform, and enlighten.

Protect the public's right to know by providing equal access to information needed for informed and effective daily living, decision making, problem solving and thoughtful participation in civic/community affairs.

Provide the highest quality service and to organize and display the collection for easy, open access by all.

Maintain publication exchange programme of the Institute with regional, international, national, and foreign institutions and organizations.

Continue to function as the Eastern Regional Library of the National Board of Higher Mathematics [NBHM], Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India since 1989.

Over the years, the Central Library has attained the distinction of being one of the richest libraries in India in the areas of mathematics, statistics, economics, theoretical computer science and related areas. The Central Library, since its inception has been providing a variety of library and information services to its users. The services presently being provided include;

Collection Development: The Library maintains an excellent collection of books, journals, reports, rare and special collection, government publications, data-books, theses and other documents/ materials in print and electronic formats. The total collection of the library stands at around 390660.

Circulation and Membership: Annually; average 900 readers use the library for a short period. Currently the total number of regular member is 3499.

Web-OPAC

Lending/Document Delivery Service

Inter-library loan

Publication Exchange Programme: The library maintains the publication exchange programme of 'Sankhya - the Indian Journal of Statistics' with 10 national and 25 international institutions/organizations.

Current Awareness Service

Self-Photocopying Service

Plagiarism Checking Service

Electronic Document Delivery Service

Online Full-Text Access to Journals/ Database: The library has online access to about 5569+ full-text journals.

Reprographic & Photographic Service

Documentation Service: A searchable bibliographic database has been prepared on scientific contributions made by the ISI scientists on all subject fields since 1934. The entries are currently being subjected to editing.

General Enquiry Assistance & Consultation Service.

Special Initiatives:

Consortia arrangements

Preservation and conservation

Institutional Repository (IR)

Digital Libraries

The Central Library has a well-defined collection development policy and uses multi-prolonged strategies to develop and enrich its collection. It purchases published material on a regular basis by going through a variety of book selection tools. Its collection of institutional reports/ papers is developed primarily through networking at the local, regional, national and international levels. Along with these channels, the library also receives relevant material as gifts from individual scholars/ researchers and organizations from time to time.The thrust subject areas over the last few years have been Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science, Social Science, Sociology, Statistical Quality Control & Operations Research, Economics etc. The collection is primarily in the English language. Present collection consists of:

Books: 118917

e-Books (Perpetual Access): 9816

Gift and Exchange Documents: 27609

Reports & Records:37075+ CD: 239

Full-text e-Journals: 10000+

Electronic Resources including Databases: 42400+

Bound Volume Journals: 84190

CD-ROM/DVD: 952

Thesis: 451

M Tech Dissertation CDs : 390

Reprints: 32000 [Closed]

General Reading (Workers' Circulating Library):40200

P.C. Mahalanobis Personal Collection: If the wealth of an Academic Institute lies beyond the depth of its coffers into the richness of its scholarship, then Professor P.C. Mahalanobis, Founder Director is a major benefactor to the Central Library. During his lifetime, he donated many books and journals to the Central Library. However, after his death in 1972, the Central Library took possession of his remaining personal collection of nearly 4000+ books and periodicals on statistics, mathematics, economics and literature. The collection is housed in Special Collections, on the third floor of the Library building.

W.A. Shewhart Personal Collection: Dr W A Shewhart personal collection was offered as a gift to the Indian Statistical Institute, and the Governing Body and Council of the Institute accepted the offer in 1965. The Shewhart collection, which constitutes a special wing of the Central Library of the Institute contains in all 3060 volumes, including 112 reprints of Dr. Shewhart's scientific papers, lecture notes, popular talks and copies of his books. The collection bears testimony to his diverse intellectual interests, extensive reading habits and monumental contributions to scientific thinking and application. The collection is housed in Special Collections, on the third floor of the Library building

Circulation is the most popular service of any Library. ISI Library lends or issues the books to its users according to their entitlement. The Library has a provision of book reservations for its readers. Search the ISI WEB-OPAC to locate materials in the library.

Ground Floor

Reprography and Photography Unit

1^st Floor

Books [Computer Science, Library & Information Science, Economics, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Life Science, Anthropology, Engineering etc.)

Reference Collection

PC Mahalanobis Collection

2^nd Floor

Journals [Bound Volumes and Current Issues]

Books [Psychology, Languages, Literatures and History]

3^rd Floor

Reports & Records, Census, Statistical data sources

Russian Collection (Closed)

Shewhart's Collection

Workers' Circulating Library

4^th Floor

Centre for Research on Micro Census Data

Books [Computer Science (prior to 2010] and Social Science (prior to 2000]