Source : Hindustan Times
To strike the aforementioned balance, the library is not only expanding on the digital platform with its ongoing digitisation of over five lakhs books, journals, manuscripts and e-books, but will also have a new reading hall with a capacity of 130 students.
The prominent Jayakar Library at the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will complete 60 years of existence on Monday, and is all set to embrace the balance of the new and old.
“This library building is about to complete 60 years and it symbolises years of intellectual discourses that these walls have harboured among the students and scholars. And with the illustrious past, we are looking into a promising future and digitisation is what ensures that. With our collection of printed and handwritten books, and rare manuscripts, all that is in process of being available on the digital platform, we are evolving and striving to maintain the balance of new and old,” said Aparna Rajendra, director of the Jayakar Library.
To strike the aforementioned balance, the library is not only expanding on the digital platform with its ongoing digitisation of over five lakhs books, journals, manuscripts and e-books, but will also have a new reading hall with a capacity of 130 students. The director revealed that although the library has almost 4,000 members including students, faculty and staff, the seating space is only for 650, and work to address the space crunch issue is underway.
Established in 1950, this library, now spread across six floors, had in fact started in a small room. Later, on November 27, 1957 it was shifted to its current location and was named after Dr MR Jayakar, the first vice-chancellor of the university.
In addition to that, talks to unveil the music library is also afloat. After years of work on the music library, the director revealed that it has almost reached completion. This music library with a collection of over 300 CDs of songs, gramophone records, and even videos, is to provide both ‘harmonious discourse’ and ‘relaxation’ to the students as well as other users, she said.
“The work has been on, like setting up of the sound-proof room with advanced equipment, digitising the bulk of CDs we have, especially of classical music, and also creating a back-up of it. The software for this music library will be similar to that of an e-catalogue used in the rest of the library, and will be user-friendly to allow easy browsing of both audio-video content. So, a student can access a particular song or video by having typed the name of the artist or the raaga. With the vast collection, it is taking time to back-up and once all this is sorted out, we will hopefully open the music library on the 60th anniversary,” she added.
Currently, the library boasts a rare collection of letters of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, NK Kelkar, in addition to 4,439 rare manuscripts and 4,500 handwritten books. Besides this, it also comprises over 4,80,000 printed books and thesis, and around 8,800 research papers.
Wealth of knowledge
E-journals: Over 16,000
E-books: Over 8,000
Printed books and thesis : Over 4,80,000
Handwritten books: 4,500
Printed journals: Over 200
Research papers: 8,800
Manuscripts: 4,439
Thesis on Shodhganga: 7,094
Audio-visual talks: 2,700
Users
Faculty: 523
Administrative staff: 667
PG students: 2,562
Research students: 274
Institutional members: 81
