The Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis on March 16 inaugurated a Digital Resource Centre, Closed Circuit TV and Campus wide Online Catalogue at Maulana Azad Library of the Aligarh Muslim University.
Addressing the function, Prof. Abdul Azis said the new building of the Central Library equipped with internet facility will be constructed at a cost of Rs. Five Crore to provide better space for students, researchers and faculty members. He said that the University is planning digital classrooms in the next two years and urged the faculty members to make this University a centre of excellence and help regain the glory of this historic institution.
Professor N. Laxman Rao of the Osmania University, Hyderabad said on this occasion that this is the first university library in India which opens from 8 O’clock morning to 2 O’clock night. He said this library has created a history to install CCTV to maintain the functioning of the library.
Earlier, Professor Shabahat Husain, Librarian-in-charge, Maulana Azad Library said the digital resources have now become an essential part of library collection. He said we have installed 10 systems to begin with in order to access to the digital resources loaded on to a high power server.
Prof. Shabahat said Maulana Azad Library has an ‘On-line Catalogue’ for the past few years but its usability was restricted to the library premises only. Using the server of the Computer Centre, a link has been created on the internet to enable faculty members and students to access the on-line catalogue from anywhere in the campus.
He said the modern CCTV installed in the Library not only gives the pictures of the different areas of the Library but also has facilities of recording and infrared photography. The present system of CCTV is also a boon for the security of the invaluable collection of manuscripts, as in case of any intrusion in odd hours, the system will send messages to three authorised persons. He said another important task ahead is the digitisation of about 16000 manuscripts and about 5000 rare books in different languages.