Panjab University library to resume lending books to research scholars

For availing the books from the library, the chairpersons of the respective departments will provide a list of the permitted research scholars to the library

Days after allowing the research scholars to visit campus, Panjab University’s AC Joshi Library will now start lending them books from next week. However, the library will not allow sit-in sessions for now.

The AC Joshi Library building, which is near PU’s Student Centre, houses more than six lakh volumes and has a seating accommodation of 500 readers. (HT FILE)

The decision was taken in a meeting convened by librarian Jivesh Bansal on Saturday.

Bansal said, “Lending facilities will be resumed for those research scholars who are permitted to visit departments. They can take books from the library from next week.”

For now, only those research scholars who have been enrolled for more than three years have been allowed by PU to visit departments and use laboratories. Scholars of the humanities departments can visit only with the permission of their supervisors.

The AC Joshi Library building, which is near PU’s Student Centre, houses more than six lakh volumes and has a seating accommodation of 500 readers. It also has a collection of over 6.4 lakh publications including books, journals, theses/dissertations, rare books, reports, government documents, back files of newspapers, and a prized collection of 1,490 manuscripts.

Last month, the Panjab University Research Scholars Association (PURSA) had demanded accommodation in hostels and access to libraries, saying that their work was suffering since March.

A research scholar, Priya, who is a representative of PURSA, said, “This will help scholars especially of the humanities departments, who can access books from the library. PURSA had also demanded that the library should be reopened for research scholars.”