Vivekananda College, a dynamic and empowering educational institution for young women seeking an undergraduate degree in the Arts, Humanities, Commerce and Social Sciences and postgraduate degree in Hindi and Sanskrit is the cutting edge knowledge hub of East Delhi which attracts students from all over the country. It fosters and inculcates vibrant exchange of ideas. The college ignites the minds of young students to facilitate their all round development and help them in their intellectual growth.

College Library was also set up in Gandhi Nagar, Delhi as the parent institution was in that area itself. Acquisition of books started in August 1970 and approximately 3000 books were acquired in the financial year 1970 -1971. In the next financial year (1971 - 1972) approximately 2000 books were acquired by the library. Slowly and steadily the library kept growing. The library had four to five staff members to run it. There were two reading halls, very small rooms for the library staff to facilitate the library services like processing of books and their binding etc. The librarian room was demarcated by partitioning the library staff room through book racks. The circulation counter was in the verandah with a wooden partition. The library used to subscribe to 4 - 5 newspapers and approximately ten periodicals. In the beginning Mr. Jagdish (Professional Assistant) worked as the librarian and developed the library. Later Mr. Jain was appointed as the college librarian.

In 1971 library received a grant with the name of ‘Pustak Nidhi’ to purchase books for the library. In 1975 another grant from UGC for purchasing textbooks to help the needy students. The grant was named as a ‘Book Bank’ grant.The books purchased through these grants were issued to the students for one complete academic year.

The library shifted to its present premises at the Vivek Vihar in 1980 under the direction of then Librarian (Dr.Anuradha Gupta). Here the library was spread over three floors. Two floors were used for stacking of books and reading area for the students and the third floor was for the books of the Book Bank scheme. Number of library staff kept increasing from time to time to cater the needs of the users. It was now able to render better services to its patrons in terms of an ideal library.

A xerox machine was installed in the library in 1984-1985 to provide photocopy service to the users. In 1987 a budget head ‘Library Amenities’ was created to finance the extra facilities or services to the patrons and to improve the atmospherics of the library. Some new journals were also subscribed by the library. Library also keeps receiving books donated/Gifted by faculty, scholars, ex-students and other institutions which makes our collection rich.

First computer in the library was purchased in 1997 to help in the office work of the library. Library also started an internship programme in the same year for the library science graduate students to give them exposure to the library and to gain working experience of a college library.

In the financial year 1999 - 2000 two thousand (2000) unserviceable and obsolete books were sold to Khadi Gram Udyog for recycling. The library initiated the use of software CDS/ISIS. It was a software to maintain bibliographic records of the library books. Later on in 2001, Libsys Software was procured and installed in the library to automate it. Retroconversion of data was completed through outsourcing the data entry. In 2004 the catalogue was fully computerized and complete stock verification was also done through the library management software. With time more computers were purchased by the library as per need. Various other paraphernalia ( e.g. Printers, Scanner etc.) were also purchased. In 2005 CCTV cameras were installed in the library for its safety and security.

In 2007 e-resources were made available to the users through Delhi University Library System. The internet connection was available in only one computer of the library to access these e-resources. These e-resources were available in the college premises only. In 2008 library successfully organized a one day regional seminar on the topic ‘Reorientation of college library services in the electronic era’.

Dr. Anuradha Gupta superannuated in Jan. 2010 with a very successful tenure of 35 years. Till the appointment of a new librarian, Ms. Veena Sharma (Professional Assistant) officiated as the college librarian. A new computer server was purchased by her and Library Management Software ‘Libsys’ was also updated. Ms. Rajni Jindal joined as the college librarian in June 2010.

In 2011 Library conducted Random stock verification in order to clear audit objections. The librarian suggested to the library committee to transfer the less used and out of curriculum books to the ‘Book Bank’ was approved by the library committee which led to a better collection of Book Bank and the number of books being issued under the scheme increased tremendously. To deal with the problems faced by the faculty regarding re-issuance of textbooks and other reference books to be used for regular teaching learning process, the library committee decided to issue some books to the faculty for one complete semester after their undertaking.

Library was renovated in 2012 and void areas were covered to increase the seating capacity and the stack area. A space was demarcated as ‘Faculty Lounge’ for comfortable sitting of the college faculty and also to access e-resources. The reference section was also shifted to the third floor of the library. Library also signed an MoU with NList so as to facilitate remote access to e-resources to the patrons. Unserviceable and obsolete books were displayed to the students and sold in Rs.1/- each as per the direction of the college GB. The initiative was quite successful. Approximately eleven hundred (1100) books were sold through it.

In 2013 MoU was signed with DELNET for providing Interlibrary Loan service and access to more e-resources. A workshop was organized in collaboration with DULS to explain the patrons' methodology to access e-resources. In-house Software was developed to keep a record of library footfall. A library website (​​https://sites.google.com/site/libraryvivekanandcollege/) was also developed, designed and hosted in the same year, converting the library into library 2.0. The library collection was segregated into various categories and highlighted by different coloured tapes for easy identification. The textbooks were highlighted by Red colour tape for the convenient access to them.

In 2014 complete library stock verification was completed and the report was approved by GB. As the semester system was implemented by the University, the library decided to issue the book bank books for the semester. That is now the book bank scheme was opened twice as per the semester. As a part of ICT initiatives a library Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/vivekanandacollegelibrary) was created to publicise and market the library, its collection and services. It was also used to disseminate library notices etc as well as to provide Current Awareness Service. The library projector was used to run the various awareness presentations (eg. Election Awareness Programme, Clean India Mission, Use of e-resources and How to use OPAC etc.)

In 2016 library setup ‘Helen Keller’ Unit to help visually challenged students. Library also got membership of the Braille Library of DULS. Library also started creating ‘Table of Contents’ of subscribed print journals for Current Awareness Service. This was being sent through mail and also uploaded on the library website for wider reach. Faculty lounge and reference sections were air-conditioned.

In 2017 NAAC Team visited the library and appreciated all the efforts of providing various innovative services including the ICT implementation for new services. Library also procured ID and password to access plagiarism software ‘Urkund’ from DULS. It helped in providing the plagiarism report of the research articles of faculty as well as to check the students’ assignments and projects. Delhi Public Library organised a camp in the college for membership registration of their library. It was available free of cost. Library also started creating pdf of book cover along with its content page and was uploaded on the website for ease of checking the books as the library catalogue was also available on the library website in pdf format. Print feedback form of the library was changed into an online feedback form. It is mandatory for final year students. It helps the library in being aware of the problems faced by the patrons in its collection and services. The data so collected is analysed and action is taken to improve the library. Library Management Software Libsys was migrated to the new version. Ms Rajni Jindal (librarian) proceeded on study leave to pursue Ph.D and Ms.Veena Sharma (Professional Assistant) officiated as the librarian. In 2019 a new server computer was purchased and from time to time obsolete desktops were replaced for smooth functioning of the library.

In 2020 Ms Rajni Jindal rejoined the library after completing her Ph.D. During the pandemic times the library started to facilitate various online services, which included registration of all the academic community of the college in NList. Library also made them aware of various authentic open access e-resources and faculty was supported to get registered in DULS to get remote access of their e-resources, which were earlier available in the college premises only. Fine on overdue books was waived off to deal with the corona situation. Complete stock verification of library books was done this year. All the new students of first year were registered online to access the college library. The library website was updated and new information was added to it. Library also started to support the faculty by live streaming their webinars and various college events on its facebook page.

In 2021 library launched its own Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vivekananda_lib/), Twitter (​​https://twitter.com/Vivekananda_Lib) and created a Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxCObY_J78ZTJdgm_BniMmw/videos ). These were used to disseminate information about the library and various e-resources accessible for undergraduate students. It also organized virtual Orientation programmes for all the students and the recordings were uploaded on its Youtube channel. Recordings of NList demonstrations as well as a virtual library tour was also uploaded on Youtube. The facility is open for all the departments and committee convenors also to get their event recording uploaded on the Youtube channel. QR codes have been generated of the various social media tools, website and other information services for the quick access of the same. Biometric has been installed for check-in and check-out of the books. Library has also rolled out an internship for college students to write contents for its various social media platforms.

Presently Library has 65,725 books and subscribes to forty seven (47) periodicals including ten (10) newspapers. The library staff continuously strive to improve their professional skills by attending various capacity building workshops and trainings. With limited human resources, the library is striving to facilitate more, better and innovative online information services to satisfy the needs of the patrons and also to fulfill the five laws of Dr.S.R.Ranganathan, the father of library science.

“We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.”

― John Lubbock