The authorities of Dhaka University (DU) are going to inaugurate an e-library at its Business Faculty soonest that will enable its teachers, researchers and students getting world class academic recourses just a click away, university sources said.
"All kinds of technical procedures of the e-library have already been completed to launch it for the users," Faculty Dean Prof Dr Shibli Rubayat-uI-Islam told The Daily Observer.
With a view to establishing the library, Robi Axiata Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the DU authorities on July 10 last year over funding at the e-library. The telecom company has already equipped the e-library with PCs, WiFi connections and other necessary facilities under the agreement.
Robi Axiata is financing the project while Dell, Orion Group and Logic Software are also helping the project as co-financers, the professor said adding that the library will facilitate the students and teachers of the university accessing the globally renowned university e-libraries.
Faculty sources at the DU said the 12 thousand square feet long library
spanned from the west to east at the faculty's second floor. The areas are being closed inside patterned glass boxes. The main colour scheme has been decided to be white in colour to maximize light inside the library.
The library was decorated with teachers' lounge, two teachers' meeting rooms, students' reading room, students' discussion room, MPhil and PhD students' room, server room, journal section room, browsing section, photocopy and painting section, waiting room and a cafeteria.
Business Faculty Dean also said the teachers, researchers and students of the university's Business Faculty will be able to read books and journals
available at the e-library of DU and other 35 renowned libraries of the world. He, however, said that all the students of the university besides Business Faculty will get facilities to use the e-library with some preconditions.
Prof Rubayat also said Magnetic ID cards will be provided to the library members after getting the recommendation from the department's Chairman of the corresponding faculty. By using the ID cards, the members will be able to read the books and journals of the library.
It will, he said, also give them the information whether their required books or journals are available at the library in hard copy and soft copy.
A business faculty student Sharif Ahmed said it will help the users to get books which are being provided to the students of the Harvard and Oxford Universities that will help them to get more knowledge.
Hailing the initiative, Social Faculty Dean Prof Dr Farid Uddin Ahmed, said, "The library will help the students to get worldwide facilities that will contribute to make the Bangladesh a digital one and also help to push the Dhaka University in the world ranking.
DU VC Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique expressed his satisfaction over the digital initiative.