The Central Library of IIT Kharagpur started in a small room of the Institute old Building (Shahid Bhavan) in the year 1951, and moved to its present premises in 1956. Since then, it has grown in size and content to take the present shape. With the developments in computers, microelectronics and communication technologies, the behavioral characteristics of the information seekers have been changing rapidly and the library is trying its best to adapt with the technological advancement. For the last six decades, the library has been the lifeline of the academic activities of the Institute. It is no exaggeration to state that the Central Library of IIT Kharagpur is one of the largest and finest technical libraries in Asia. It has been catering to the needs of our students of undergraduates, postgraduates, research scholar, faculty members and staff members of the 19 departments, 14 centers, 12 schools and 11 research facilities.

The Library is well equipped with modem facilities and resources (print and electronic) in the forms of CDROMs, DVD-ROM, online databases, micro-documents, video cassettes, books, journals, patents, standards, theses, reports, etc. It has also developed a full-fledged Digital Library equipped with necessary modem equipment in order to provide various digital mode Library services. Digital Library section of the Central Library has developed an institutional digital repository using open source software DSpace, which preserve the institute's intellectual output for campus wide access and digital preservation for the posterity.

Library Collection (print and e-resources): The Library is having a collection of more than 3.5 Lakh documents, subscribing about 100+ print journals, and providing access to over 26,000+ online full- text journals and several abstracting databases. Besides, there are 135,000+ e-books. The collection consists of Books, Back-volumes of Periodicals, Theses, Conference Proceedings, Standards, Reports, Microforms, and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Databases and Audiovisual materials. The Library has two buildings, the Main Building and the Annex Building. Books, Theses and Standards are kept in the Main Building. Current Periodicals, Bound Journals, CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Databases and lecture of various video courses are kept in the Annexe Building