Creation of Book Bank

Objective

‘Book Bank Facility is one of the support systems which help financially backward students in the University. Book Bank is a very effective and affordable resource to enlighten students from all backgrounds to access adequate books required for a curriculum. With this objective of making books readily accessible to all students, especially the economically weaker section of people The Assam Kaziranga University has been undertaking this initiative to donate the books of the book bank to the EW meritorious students for them to use in a particular semester.

The context

We at The Assam Kaziranga University have created a Book Bank in the KU library which consists of books that were once used as full-time curriculum books but due to a change of syllabus in the programs, such books have become partially obsolete. Henceforth such books are given to meritorious students who are willing to take these books as reference books or can use these books partiallyin a particular semester. This practice has greatly benefitted the students who are needy, deserving, and meritorious. This facility is rendered along with the commencement of the course according to the exhaustive list that is prepared beforehand, including the complete syllabus for the year.

The Practice

To roll out the book bank scheme in a seamless, hassle-free manner, a set of rules are set down each year before the session begins. These can be summarised as-

• The book bank facility is provided every year to 15 % of students from each semester across each school on the basis of the annual income of the parents which varies each year and is decided by the management.
• Depending on the availability of books priority is givento the students who have fared better in the previous semester.
• The students are expected to return the books back within a week after the completion of the end-semester exams.
• The over-due fees are kept very minimum which is Rs. 5 per book per day.
• For damage or loss of books by the student, he/she is expected to pay the price of the same or provide a new book.

Abiding by these rules the facility is run on the premises of the KU Library and one designated person is deployed to do the record-keeping and issuing and maintenance of the books.

Problems encountered and resources required

Implementation of any scheme comes with its own hurdles and obstacles and this is no less. While creating of book bank the first task was to segregate the books according to the revised syllabus of each school of KU which has less reference to the current syllabus. After that finding out the students who could avail of this facility was a task. Since 15% of the students were eligible the list had to be prepared accordingly. And lastly, the awareness that was required to be created amongst the students that such a scheme was available for them to take. Implementation of an SMS system from the KU Library is to be chalked out immediately for easy implementation of the same.