Siksha Bhavana Library

Introduction

Rabindranath Tagore’s interest in Science can be reiterated with his great remark One thing is certain, that all-embracing poverty which has overwhelmed our country cannot be removed by working with our hands to the neglect of Science- Rabindranath Tagore, 1925.

Siksha Bhavana Library

In the year 1972, all the science departments, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses, were brought under Siksha-Bhavana, which is now known as Institute of Science. Prof Dipankar Chatterjee, Adhyaksha of Siksha-Bhavana mooted a proposal for a separate Vigyan-Bhavana Library during 1970’s. The library building completed towards the end of 1989 started functioning from April 1990. Eventually, in the year 2014 Siksha-Bhavana library shifted to the new Integrated Science building. Total area of Siksha-Bhavana library is now approx.450 sq. meter. At present library caters to the Faculty members, Research Scholars and Students of both UG and PG for the following 10 departments in addition to Visva-Bharati community in general. The departments are: Department of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Zoology, Botany, Statistics, Computer & System Sciences, Environment Studies, Biotechnology and Integrated Science Education & Research.

The Siksha-Bhavana Library is enabled with a large stack area accommodating around 17,000 books. The books are classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) 23^rd edition with extreme care to the subject matter. Recently purchased books are being updated on a day-to-day basis with details through Library Management Software Koha. The edition and updating activities are in progress. 

Resources

The total number of print books crossed 16,856 during this time apart from considerable increase in the E- resources. To strengthen the print collection of the library Prof. Prasanta Chatterjee, Head, Mathematics and Prof. Pranab Sarkar, Co-ordinator-SAP-Chemistry transferred their project books to the Bhavana Library. The Siksha-Bhavana also subscribes to a large number of English and vernacular magazines and weeklies, apart from academic journals. Four newspapers in English and Bengali languages are subscribed to at the Siksha-Bhavana Library.

Facilities

The Siksha-Bhavana Library has its own Sub-Lan consisting of six (6) terminals, with Network Connection. Three (3) PCs are exclusively earmarked for the users for browsing e-resources. Photocopying facility is also made avaialable. Internet facility is open only for the regular members of the university and library. In additions to the three terminals, users are free to carry their laptops/notebooks/tablets to browse e-resources as library is Wi-Fi enabled so as to support their academic and research activities. 

Services

The Library is open from 9.30 am to 6 pm on all weekdays. The services provided are varied as given below:

• Book borrowing (mainly by Bhavana Students, Research Scholars, Staff and Faculty Members- Fully automated). Now, migrated to the new computerized circulation system through Koha

• Display of New Arrivals (Books, Journals, Newspapers and library e-newsletter).

• Syllabus & old question papers.

• Temporary membership.

• Photocopying Services on demand.

Visva-Bharati Library Network

The Library is part of the Visva-Bharati Library Network and is connected to the Central Library through the campus wide MHRD WiFi. The services that are available to the users through this network are:

• Union catalogue of documents of all libraries in the network (WebOPAC: https://vbu.lsdiscovery.in/home/dashboard),

• Integrated automation through Koha software,

• Access to digital, electronic resources like online journals & databases, e-books, digitized books, theses,

• Information services like Newspaper Clipping, CAS, Scholarship update, New Arrivals, Institutional Repository consisting of syllabuses and question papers, IT-enabled services like access to plagiarism detection software (Urkund: http://www.urkund.com), Single Window Search Engine (Discovery Service: https://vbu.lsdiscovery.in/home/dashboard), Web of Science, JGate+, EndNote etc

• Library Website: Gateway to everything about the Library: https://vblibrarynetwork.in/index.php

• Inter - Library Loan System (DELNET)

• Braille Library Service

• Library Network e-Newsletter

Future Plans

The Library is on the high road of an unwavering growth and expansion. Some of the plans for the immediate future are listed below:

• Development of library collections- books and journals

• More computers for increasing usage of e-resources as well as OPAC search.

• Introduction of in-house binding facilities

• Increasing library service hours for users

• Air-conditioning and captivating interior with more space and fitting furniture for reading area.

• Merging collections of departmental libraries with the Bhavana Library in the light of the comments made by NAAC peer team during their visit in 2015 as there is no need to maintain parallel seminar library as Bhavana Library is here.

The Siksha-Bhavana Library is now crossing its infancy and gradually progressing with a commitment to become a world class Science institute library.