Thanjavur has a culture of education. It is home to the Saraswati Mahal Library which dates back to the end of the 16th century and contains over 30,000 rare manuscripts. It has now been fully computerized. There are many other libraries including The Central Library, Thanjavur. Currently, Thanjavur has four universities including Tamil University and several colleges including the Thanjavur Medical College and . There are also many research centres, including the Paddy Processing Research Centre (Now Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology) and Soil and Water Research Centre and also have Agricultural college and research institute.