To mark the 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore (Ravindranath Thakur 1861-1941), the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, had taken upon itself the onerous responsibility, among a myriad of other activities, to compile a check list of books by and on Tagore in diverse languages across the world and preserved in the leading libraries of India. Some of these twenty odd libraries – a list of such libraries is appended to this note – are directly under the Ministry, some are autonomous and some more private though the libraries of the last two categories also enjoy constant support of the public exchequer. Secondly, I have termed it a check list because it does not include all the details considered a must for a bibliography. Rather, the chief concern in preparing the list has been to apprise the readers – lay and scholarly alike – of the location of a particular book in its specific edition. That way by its basic enumeration, it is closer to a Code List for locations. As for arrangement of the compiled check list, it is set out in the following order: Serial number; Title; Author; Imprint or Publication details; Edition; Volume; Subject and Location. Each entry is prefixed with a Serial Number. Then comes the ‘Title’, that is the book details of which are given in that entry. When Tagore is the Author, his literary career encompasses his creative personality as an author, editor, compiler, translator and the like as the case may be. ‘Author’ in the list is indicative of these facets of the poet. For other authors, his / her role is particularly specified. The ‘Imprint’ through its enumeration of place, publisher and year of each publication brings to the fore the depth and width of his reception in the country and abroad. ‘Edition’ has been noted only in respect of subsequent editions. ‘Volume’ or ‘Part’ of a book or series is mentioned only if there happens to be any. ‘Subject’, though not quite aptly, refers mostly to the genre of composition, not the theme. The list of codes for ‘Location’ will provide information on which library to look for the text. A Unique Identification Number (‘UID’) has been ascribed to each book in the check list. The site being an interactive one, facilitates correction / emendation / updates from the both ends to make the list comprehensive and complete. Readers are requested to refer to the UID in any communication regarding entry / entries in the list. Some standard bibliographic abbreviations have been used in this list to indicate following lack of information: [s.l.] Place of publication unknown; [s.n.] Publisher unknown and [n.d.] Date unknown. I, for one, am sure that the list has many lacunae. Particularly private publications have hardly come under our net. Library holdings had also not been exhaustive. We believe, such a project is continual in nature and may become comprehensive, if not complete, only through the cumulative effort of readers of several generations. We look forward to their cooperation earnestly.
Swapan Majumdar Formerly Director : Culture & Cultural Relation and Adhyaksha : Rabindra-Bhavan, Visva-Bharati,Shantiniketan