Do you agree with this? Library a waste of space: Doctors

Do you agree with this? Library a waste of space: Doctors

KOLKATA: The sprawling new central library on the fifth floor of the Ronald Ross building was affected by the fire that broke out at SSKM Hospital on Monday morning. Doctors and students are, however, asking whether it was really necessary to devote 10,000 sqft of valuable floor space to a facility which is now in the process of being digitized. Few students actually do library work offline since most books are available on the internet, they said.

The authorities argued that it was mandatory under the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations to have the library. But several senior officials and researchers of Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) felt the yet-to-be-inaugurated library will serve no purpose. "It is nothing but a waste of space since students do most of their studying and research online. Barring a few rare books and jour nals -which are being digitized -everything can be accessed on a computer. This space could have been better utilized, but the MCI rules don't permit that," said Pradip Mitra, former director, IPGMER.

He added that an auditorium was also mandatory for every medical college till a few years ago. "When MCI asked for one here, I had argued that since we had several near the hospital, including Rabindra Sadan, we didn't need one. The MCI, of course, was not ready to listen, but the rule was changed later."

According to a senior teacher at IPGMER, attendance at the existing central library on the third floor of the same building has dropped drastically over the years. "It is now down to a trickle since students don't need to visit a library any more.They can access books and journals at the click of a computer key . Most of my students have got important books downloaded in their smartphones. We could easily have put the entire library collection in a smaller space and used the area to add facilities that we really need," he said.

Even though it remains open from 9am to 9pm, less than 50 students visit the library every day, said teachers. "The few who do are actually looking to kill their time between classes.It is rarely for serious academic work," said Diptendra Sarkar, head of the department of breast cancer. Subscription to some foreign journals, however, were restricted to the library, Sarkar said. "These journals are expensive online and can only be accessed at a reasonable cost through collaborations with medical schools abroad. This is the only additional facility that the library offers," he said.

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Regards

Pralhad Jadhav

Senior Manager @ Library

Khaitan & Co

Blog | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/