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Calcutta University (CU) Cuts Reading Time At University Libraries

By sachiv1, Section Education
Posted on Thu May 31, 2007 at 02:41:34 AM EST

The Calcutta University (CU) has come under the scanner for its decision to reduce library hours of the university's departmental libraries. According to the authorities, this would help save electricity and not be much trouble for the actually interested reader.

But, the decision to slash library timings has created a major ruckus in the student and teacher fraternity of the city. While the CU authorities feel it was the only option they could resort to, students feel that the decision is not a wise one.

CU departments
While the timings for central library of CU remains unaltered, the timing of departmental libraries have been slashed by an hour. There are 40 departmental libraries under CU.
The new timing of the departmental libraries is from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm, while it used to be from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm. The timing of the central library continues to be from 10:30 am to 8 pm.

Libraries outside the university
At a time when CU has slashed down the library timings, other universities have maintained a stable timing for their libraries. Libraries at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, University of Delhi, Mumbai University, Central Institute of Foreign Languages (CIEFL) at Hyderabad are all accessible way past midnight. Even the National Library in Kolkata remains open till 8 pm.

Studentspeak
Abhirup Dam, a second semester student at CIEFL, told Newsline: "The library is kept open till 10 pm. But it remains open way past midnight during examinations. The library opens at 9 am everyday. We are free to access it whenever we find the time."

Sourav Kumar Mishra, an alumni of the same institute, told Newsline: "We used to sit in the library for hours after midnight. It is very unfair on students that CU has reduced the library timing till 5:30 pm. After attending classes till 5 pm, when will these students access the library?"

Echoing the same sentiment, Debaditya Banerjee, a second-year student of JNU, said: "We usually visit the library after our classes. If the library is closed by 6 pm, it would cause great inconvenience."

Atanu Mondol, a final-year student of psychology at CU, said: "There are students who visit libraries frequently. How could the authorities not think about them? Instead, the decision to reduce library timing was based on the attitude of students who don't use the library. Instead of promoting healthy reading habits, CU is killing our morale."

Authority speak
The decision was taken after a survey was conducted to see whether students use the departmental libraries. "The libraries remain empty everyday after 4 pm. Hence we had to take the decision of cutting down on the hours," said Soumitra Sarkar, CU librarian.

The library committee had conducted the survey last week. The committee is prepared to place its decision before the Syndicate for final approval.
The library timing has been reduced at a time when the university was trying to increase the required attendance percentage. "If students attend classes, they will not be able to access the library for research or reference work. If they do, they will miss out on the lectures and their attendance will automatically come down," said a senior professor of a renowned Kolkata college on condition of anonymity.

(Source - Indian Express, 31/05/07)

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