Students in the Tribhuvan University (TU) constituent colleges who have long been facing problems in accessing required books from their college libraries have good news. The country’s oldest university is setting up an e-library very soon.

If the plan sees the light of the day, problems of library facilities and books in five dozen constituent campuses would be addressed by September. TU has almost completed the task of setting up electronic libraries in many colleges under it.

According to Prahlad Raj Pant, chief at the Division of Planning at TU, computers and other equipment including furniture have already been purchased for 13 constituent colleges in the Valley and funds have been sanctioned for those outside the Valley. “The infrastructure has already been managed and training to library staff will soon begin,” Pant said.

Out of 60 constituent colleges of TU, many of them either don’t have enough books or adequate space and reading-friendly environment. Even if they have books, they are very old. As a result, libraries of several colleges are losing attraction among students. “E-library will be the centre of attraction. Students will get every material they need,” Pant added. He informed that Rs.33.6 million was allocated to launch a project from the Second Higher Secondary Education Project under Library Improvement Programme in the first phase. Under this, each college received ten computers with email and internet facility.  As per the programme, all the constituent colleges outside the Valley will have access to the central library in Kirtipur. After setting up the e-library, we will start unloading all textbooks in soft copies and distribute them to colleges across the country, he informed.

As of now, only the TU Central Library and institutes of medicine, engineering, forestry and agriculture and a few constituent colleges are equipped with e-library while libraries in its constituent colleges are old and traditional ones. Over 250,000 students are studying in the TU constituent colleges and other technical institutes at present.

source:The Kathmandu Post