SECTIONS OF A LIBRARY

INTRODUCTION – LIBRARY

A library is an organized collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical building or room, or a virtual space, or both.

Library like any other organization is broken down into units which are listed and explained below:

i.                   Acquisition,

ii.                 Cataloguing

iii.              Circulation

iv.               Multimedia and Microfilming

 v.                 IT

vi.              Manuscripts,

vii.            Information Resource Centre (IRC) formerly Reference,

viii.         Periodical,

ix.              Serial and U.N. Reports.

i)                   ACQUISITION SECTION: This unit is concerned with the selection and purchase of reading material in what so ever from it may be. Books are accessioned in this section. It keeps a complete and up-to-date record of such books and other reading materials.

ii)                CATALOGUING SECTION: After purchasing, accessioning and labeling of the reading material in the acquisition section, it is sent to the cataloguing section for technical processing. Main responsibility of this section is to classify and catalogue the reading material. The reading material is being classified according to Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. 

iii)              CIRCULATION SECTION: The Circulation Section is the backbone of the Library. It can be said that this section has a unique role for providing the latest information to readers. Furthermore, Circulation Section has introduced computerized system for proper record keeping. Now that computer facility is available, hence it is easy to send defaulter lists/miscellaneous correspondence well in time which providentially will improve in the long run.

iv)              MULTIMEDIA AND MICROFILMING / I.T. SECTION: This is the multimedia and information technology (IT) centre of the library. It has a large number of microfilms and CD-Roms in its collection and read/write facilities of CD’s/DVD’s to fulfill the information needs of researchers students, and other users of the library.

v)                INTERNET LAB UNIT: In order to keep pace with technological advancement especially with the boom in Information Technology, an Internet Lab is incorporated in library services which provide users with access to the World Wide Web. 

vi)              REFERENCE SECTION: The reference section is a separate entity and holds about 22000 precious reference tools, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographical dictionaries, year books, hand books, almanacs, directories, atlases, gazetteers, indexes, quotation books, bibliographies, accession lists, guides, maps, etc. It provides reference service to fulfill the information needs of the teachers, the students and the researchers. It also answers the questions like who is who, what is what, how and where etc. to save the precious time of the users.

vii)           MANUSCRIPTS SECTION: The manuscripts section is a section that contains the original materials which may be consulted within the premises of the section and ordinarily readers are not provided their photocopies. Only those teachers, students and the researchers who are editing manuscripts may get a photocopy as a very special case with the recommendation and permission of the Chairman of the concerned department provided that the required manuscript is found to be in photocopying condition.

viii)        SERIALS / PERIODICALS SECTION: Serials section is the source of current and the latest published information which is very useful in research work. It acquires journals of almost all the subjects. Local newspapers, International newspapers, magazines etc are provided in this section for users.