Ravenshaw students interact with a library official in the varsity. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, July 29: Shortage of textbooks at Ravenshaw University library has led to resentment among students.

Though there are over 2.5 lakh books in the library, most of them are old and have not been replaced. There are many books, which are not being used due to change in the syllabus that was implemented at the varsity last year.

“There are no qualitative books — which is creating problems for us. Besides, there is no adequate stock of books for students of various departments for which we have to wait for 15 days to get a book issued from the library,” said Sabyasachi Mohapatra, a third-year political science student.

Sabyasachi said there was an acute shortage of books of foreign authors and it was not practically possible for students at the graduate level to purchase the books — which are relatively costlier.

The students alleged that though air conditioners had been installed in the library, they got out of order every month. “There is a shortage of text as well as reference books, while the reading room can only accommodate hardly 50 students. We are facing problems as one can only issue books on particular days earmarked for each department,” said Ronali Nayak, a second-year economics student.

Authorities of Ravenshaw University also admitted the shortage of textbooks and said steps were being taken to resolve the problems.

Besides, efforts are on for complete automation of the existing library at the university.

“We have received a grant of Rs 8.50 lakh for the automation at the library from the University Grants Commission — which will be completed shortly,” said chairman of the library committee P.K. Mohapatra.

Mohapatra said the automation would be helpful in saving time of the students, who can easily know the status and availability of books in the library instead of physically visiting there.

A university official said the UGC had sanctioned Rs 1 crore for procurement of books, while Rs 25 lakh was released last year and Rs 15 lakh sanctioned this year.

“The total grants sanctioned are not adequate and we have asked the state government to provide monetary assistance to procure more books to tide over the situation,” Mohapatra said.

Apart from this, the second phase of the ongoing modernisation of the library is on where nearly 100 students can browse through their textbooks.

“At present, open access has been made at Kanika Library, where students can browse over 5,000 rare books, 120 journals, 20,000 reference books and 10,000 bound volumes at the varsity library,” said director of the Ravenshaw Knowledge Centre C. Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy said the modernisation of the Kanika Library was done in 2011, while process of having a reference section with fully air-conditioned facility was being made at the library.