• District Library of Kamrup (Metro) will undergo a complete overhaul in its library services in the coming months
• Authorities are set to introduce e-books and e-journals in the library
• Official website of the library will soon display an online catalogue of available books
• Till now, 3,500 books have already been added to the digital catalogue .
• Officials will also introduce motivational programmes
• They also aim to take the library to the community and to increase young members
District library will undergo a complete overhaul in the coming months with the authorities planning to introduce digitisation of books and motivational programmes
Now bookworms will be able to access and issue e-books and e-journals from the District Library of Guwahati. Established in 1955, the District Library of Kamrup (Metro) will undergo a complete overhaul in the coming months, informed officials.
In a first, the authorities are set to introduce a digital system where members will get a chance to issue e-books and e-journals. This is a part of the plan for the upcoming renovations which are soon to take place at the library situated at Dighalipukhuri.
Further, authorities said that the official website of the library will soon display an online catalogue of available books. This will help readers to be able to browse through the book titles available, sitting in the comfort of their homes. Till now, 3,500 books have already been added to the digital catalogue.
This apart, students and other library visitors will also be allowed to bring their own books to the library to read. There will be a separate section dedicated for this and this new feature will be called “own book reading section.”
“This feature will be introduced keeping in mind the students who do not have access to studying places, especially during examination time. They will be able to bring their books as well as laptops to study,” informed Krishna Bordoloi, the librarian.
She added that they are in the process of procuring additional computers in order to establish a cyber centre in the renovated library.
“Here bona fide members will be able to avail the internet facility for 45 minutes,” said Bordoloi.
Additionally, with a view to expand its horizons, the District Library is planning to initiate motivational programmes. This will include classes for spoken English and personality development among others. The officials of the Directorate of library services have tied up with the British Council library for the same.
“For instance, we will appoint a teacher to conduct classes for spoken English and the British Council library will provide us with all the study material free of cost,” Balen Kalita, assistant librarian, informed G Plus.
Currently, the library consists of a reading section, issue section, science & technology section and general reading section. Apart from this, it has a separate room dedicated for the differently-abled visitors.
The place boasts of a rich collection of over 47,000 books of different genres apart from journals and magazines on a wide range of topics.
Taking the library to the community level
In another new plan, officials are deliberating on taking the library to the community level. “We want to inculcate the reading habit among children and include more members of the community as part of the readers’ tribe,” said Bordoloi.
She added that the motive behind the initiative is to increase the number of children as members of the District Library.
Assistant librarian, Jaya Choudhury, is hopeful that the impending modifications will bring about a positive change and will bolster the overall image of the library.
Further, Choudhury who has been associated with the library since 1991 informed G Plus that contrary to the popular belief, the inflow of registered members has not decreased over the years and has remained almost steady.
At a time when information related to any topic under the sun is available online, the district library has still retained its glory with the officials claiming that they haven’t seen a decline in book borrowing over the years.
“We have maintained a good number of members over the years and new members have also increased during some years,” said an official.
As per the official records, the district library has a total of 39,682 registered members as on March 31 2018. Further, the library added 422 new members in 2015, 445 in 2016 and 419 in 2017.
Elaborating on the new facilities to be provided at the library, Balen Kalita informed that the modifications aim to modernise the already existing sections.
“We will be witnessing some structural changes in the library. For instance, the issue section will be shifted to the front and the reference section will be moved to the back. Overall, the building will remain the same from the outside while the modifications will be conducted only on the inside,” said Kalita.
He further added that, at present, the ceiling of the library is very high, giving rise to a lot of distance between the floor and the ceiling. It will now be reduced to incorporate a new floor in between.
