THE GOONERATNE MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Viharagala Estate, Haputale, Sri Lanka
Contacts: Postal: The Librarian, Gooneratne Memorial Library.
Viharagala Estate Bungalow, Koslanda/Beragala Road, Nikapotha P.O, Sri Lanka
Email: yasmine Gooneratne <yasminegooneratne723@gmail.com>
Note to the Researcher: This is not a Lending Library, and no items may be removed. Its focus is on areas relating to Sri Lanka, but the range of its holdings goes far beyond that. While all books are listed alphabetically A – Z by their titles and/or their authors’ surnames, they are also catalogued under the Dewey Decimal Classification system as follows:
000 – 099 GENERAL WORKS
100 – 199 PHILOSOPHY and PYCHOLOGY
200 – 299 RELIGION
300 – 399 SOCIAL SCIENCES
400 – 499 LANGUAGE
500 – 599 NATURAL SCIENCES and MATHEMATICS
600 – 699 TECHNOLOGY
700 – 799 THE ARTS
800 – 899 LITERATURE AND RHETORIC
900 – 999 HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY and GEOGRAPHY
FIND THE BOOK YOU WANT!
If you are looking for a particular book, keep the above system in mind while you search first in the alphabetically arranged list of authors’ surnames. For example, This Inscrutable Englishman, a book co-written by Brendon Gooneratne and Yasmine Gooneratne about the life and career of Sir John D’Oyly a 19th century civil servant whose diplomacy helped bring about the fall of the ancient kingdom of Kandy. would certainly be listed with books by all authors whose surname begins with the letter G. Can’t find it there? Search the same list for alphabetically arranged book titles and you may find it among books the titles of which begin with the letter T (This Inscrutable Englishman). But as a researcher, you may require more than a list. You’d like to know, for instance, what brought D’Oyly to Sri Lanka, and why he never went back to England. Why was the baronetcy he ultimately received from the British Crown he served with such fidelity delivered with seeming reluctance, and delayed so long? Why has this retiring and seemingly inoffensive personality become such a subject of controversy among our own local historians of the period? Now look at the library catalogue: although this is still under preparation, you should find the book has been assigned a call number, in the 900 + category, since links connect it not only to Sri Lanka’s colonial/postcolonial HISTORY but to the general practice of writing BIOGRAPHY. Now your adventure begins!
If your further reading of list and catalogue indicates that the Library might assist your research with information unavailable elsewhere, don’t hesitate to email the Librarian. He/she will tell you whether, when, and under what safety conditions visitors are likely to be admitted to the Library (hopefully, by mid-2022).
The Library will provide you with a desk, a quiet, peaceful atmosphere and cotton gloves for use when you handle library materials. If you can email to the Librarian a short list of works which you want to examine in some detail, requiring more than a morning or an afternoon’s study, the books on your Must-Read list could, with sufficient notice, even be awaiting your arrival. The Librarian could, on request, arrange access to a photocopier.
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
The varied interests of members of the Gooneratne family and the generosity of donors worldwide have added several special collections that enhance the Library’s holdings and increase its usefulness. These include the following:
1000 – 1099 CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
1100 – 1199 COOKERY
1200 — 1299 CRICKET
1300 — 1399 FINE ARTS
1400 – 1499 JANE AUSTEN
1500 — 1599 MYTH AND LEGEND
1600 — 1699 NEEDLEWORK & OTHER HANDCRAFTS
1700 — 1799 POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE
1800 — 1899 THEATRE & FILM
1900 — 1999 TRANSPORT
2000 — 2099 WILD LIFE
3000 — 3099 WRITING & EDITING
Separate lists of works available for reference in these areas are presently being compiled.
Contact the Librarian for information.
