The central library of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has been in a bad shape though a big budget allowed for improvements of its present condition.
The library sources said established on 1985, it is a three stored building located behind the monument of liberation war named ‘Sangshaptak’. According to library authorities more than 110,000 books, 14,000 hard bound journals and 22,000 online journals are available in the library.
But during field visit these books are not to useable for reading and research by students. Bound journals and journals are mostly out of date and these do not carry the modern research note. Some allege that the library authorities do not properly use the budget for which reason the latest editions of journals as well as books are uavailable.
Students said that they do not find their reference books in the library yet it has 110,000 books. Anwar Hossain a second year student of Geological Sciences department said, we can’t get proper benefit from the central library.
Only 270 students can study at the library at a time. The total JU students is more than 12000. More than 95% student of the University cannot study there.
There is also a cyber-center on the campus premises and the whole area is covered by Wi-Fi network, but students allege that the Wi-Fi speed is very slow and the cyber centre does not have sufficient desktops for use by students.
The JU administration was to installed ‘koha’ software to digitalize the library last year but the technology is yet not installed.
The director of the library Prof Ajit Kumar Majumdar said they would take immediate step to digitalise the library. – JU Correspondent
