Established in 1896, the library is a repository of century-old publications, wherein lie some of the most respected works and collections in the history of the country.Hundreds of books had been found to be surplus in the libraries of Haileybury College (where civil servants of the Indian Civil Service were trained in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire) and these were sent to the Madras Government, which in turn handed them over to the Madras Museum.The entire complex now boasts buildings that reflect architectural unity, even while demonstrating the various stages of Indo-Saracenic development, from Gothic-neo-Byzantine to Rajput Mughal and Southern Hindu Deccani.[5] The new building, which was added to the library in 1973, has a vast collection of books, a much sought-after textbook section, a periodicals hall, a reference room, a video room, an entire floor for books from the Indian languages, a Braille Library and an IAS study centre.Apart from this a good number of publications and periodicals of UN and its specialized organs and Asian Development Bank were also received.