Global Library on September 30, 2009 With the completion of four years of JGU, the Global Library also complete its four years of existence. In fact, work on the O. P. Jindal Global University Library started much before. I (Library Director) along with two non librarian JGU staff, Jyoti Prusty and Ashish Chittoria; and couple of hundreds volumes and five laptops landed up in the yet-to-be-ready University campus in late July 2009 and started to develop the library. The first floor conference room was the only inhabitable place with a sole air-conditioner which was running on generator power from L&T for about 4-5 hours, which made the makeshift library. There was no food or electricity. Drinking water, sometime was available from JRPL project office, sometime 20 liter Bisleri bottle was purchased from the market would do. Laptops were charged overnight at my home in Sonipat so that we could catalogue the books during the day, using the data cards for internet connectivity. Heavy book parcels were carried on shoulder from the ground floor to the makeshift library through the stair cases by the library staff as no lifts were installed then. Since the computer network was not ready until middle of 2010 the library management system KOHA was installed on a third party server in Bangalore. We used to take the muddy road on the rear of the campus to reach as access from Narela Road side was not ready due to the drain. Soon, Ekta, Minakshi, Pardeep and Dhruv, all fresh library science graduates from Kurukshetra University joined the team, followed by Seema Sagu and Lalita in the following weeks. When other JGU staff moved in, the first floor conference room was occupied by the VC, PRO VC and other faculty. The Library was shifted to another makeshift accommodation on second floor comprising of two classroom. One room was used for the collection and another as the reading room. Library staff occupied a corner in the library. Before the D-day, entire library staff were working till 4 am for several days, to put up the library and make it functional. By September 30, 2009 we had 8500 volumes, organized on borrowed storage system, had established access to all major e-resources, and a library fully automated using an open source internet based library management system was in place. Contrary to general perception, the Library was the only facility which was fully operational in the campus, apart from the four classrooms. We acknowledge the support of the management, and contribution of the library staff in developing the library in such a short period of time, through their enthusiasm, zeal and hard work, who worked in the most difficult conditions, and despite having very little prior experience, achieved there goal. Some of of them are no more with JGU, however, their contribution cannot be ignored. Global Library now has 45000 print volumes, and an array of e-resources. Many have termed it as one of the best in the region. Thank you all for your support and blessings.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:10:07 +0000