English & Foreign Languages University (Hyderabad)

The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, was founded in 1958 as the Central Institute of English (CIE). Giving shape to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s (India’s first Prime Minister) vision to set up an institution to impart quality training in English for teachers, the mandate of the University is to advance and disseminate “instructional, research and extension facilities in the teaching of English and foreign languages and literatures in India” as well as “to take appropriate measures for interdisciplinary studies and research in literary and cultural studies, and to develop critical intercultural understanding of civilizations.”

In addition to regular teacher training programmes, CIE set benchmarks through its various conferences, refresher courses, and syllabus design ventures. During this time, the Institute also initiated indigenous English education programmes by producing school textbooks and later radio lessons.

Gradually the Institute extended the scope of its goals, viz. to improve the standard of teaching of English; to undertake relevant research; and, to introduce foreign languages. It was therefore renamed the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) in 1972 with the addition of three major foreign languages – German, Russian and French.

The Library was established as an independent unit in 1958. The main objective of the Library is to collect, organize and disseminate information of books, journals, theses and other related documents relevant to the academic and research needs of the University. To realize this objective, the library through a well-defined book acquisition policy procures reading materials, organizes these materials on the shelves, and provides access to these materials through Online Public Access Catalogues (OPAC) placed in the main hall of the library.

The Library is a resource centre for academic and research activities in the areas of language teaching, linguistics, and literatures in English and foreign languages. A state-of-the-art library, it supports the academic work at the university by providing both print and digital resources. The entire collection of 1, 67,000 books and back volumes have been automated and the same can be accessed with the help of OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) within the library. The library has digitized the entire EFL-University theses collection and the full text of theses can be accessed within the campus.