In a country where internet connection and its stability is still a distant dream for
many, academic resources during these times are the need of the hour. But is it
available and accessible to everyone? Read on.
While you were gleefully playing in the meadows of a beautiful – carefree life, the
dark clouds of thunderstorm begin hovering all around you; an unwanted spell on a
summery day (read : life). An invited guest in being, the COVID – 19 pandemic
brought along itself the various tokens of ‘love’ for the inhabitants of the house
named ‘Earth’. A full stop was about to be used in the field of education as well
but the hero of online classrooms rescued the same. As the classes progressed (still
progressing), numerous loopholes came into limelight. Be it the aftermath effects
on the health of the students and teacher alike or the fluctuations in internet
connections; the situation got worse with each passing day. However, there existed
a message that each student has sent/ received from fellow batchmates : “Iss book
ka pdf hain kya?”
(Image Credits : DU Beat Archives)
Yes, the unavailability of a common e-library in the University of Delhi (DU) is one of the barriers for students to experience hassle-free learning. Just after the onset of the pandemic, the University of Delhi (DU) had provided the facility of accessing the DU library resources. A notification clearly stated the dos and don’ts to access the library system. It has been more than a year since the pandemic chained individuals in its grip and the library system is still nonfunctional. If someone argues that it’s functional, I who has been a part of the university since November, 2020 hasn’t been told anything about the same nor are my fellow classmates. In these difficult times when stepping out of the house feels like indulging oneself in a war-zone, the absence of an e-library has made it worse for outstation students like me. All of my gratitude to the photocopier of my college who has taken the initiative of delivering the study materials to our doorsteps. But, what about the other students from different colleges who reside in remote areas? What about students who hail from financially unstable backgrounds? Is purchasing study materials possible for everyone? As per my understanding, it is not.
(Image Credits : Pinterest)
“It’s really difficult to search out for e-books of our courses, and other related
references. It’s not readily available anywhere online. In fact, sometimes we need
to wait for our Professors to share it. I feel we need a common e-library where we,
as DU students can easily browse for any eBook and hop on to read!”
– says Sanskriti Thakur, a student of Maitreyi College, Delhi University.
“The unavailability of pdfs of certain books leads me to texting more than twenty
people for the same. It is time-consuming from my end and disturbance at the
receiver’s end. But, I can’t help it. A common e-library was the least that I could
expect from the university which was supposedly my dream since 12th.”
– says Jyotishman Saikia, a student of Ramjas College, Delhi University.
“I am lucky enough to have Professors that provide us with the materials.
However, it doesn’t feel good to keep pestering them at all times. With an e-
library, we could have accessed any book of our choice at any point of time.”
-says Sania Soni, a student of Hindu College, Delhi University.
(Image Credits : Imgur)
Only a handful of books are available online for the students to access it. Most of them are available in the paperback format over the various e-shopping websites. Keeping affordability aside, at times even the paperbacks are not available. Citing a personal experience here, I have undertaken the English paper as my Generic Elective. The pdf format of the book in usage, ‘Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality & Literary Traditions in India’ is filled with typographical errors. Making corrections in a pdf format is a Herculean task for my technologically backward
soul. When I browsed through the shopping websites for the same, it was unavailable. An e-library would have given us the liberty from choosing the various editions with no typographical errors instead of being stuck with only the available one. It’s difficult for the teachers as well to provide students with the required materials in the absence of an e-library. They have to ask publishers for the same; all of which could have been avoided with the availability of an e-library. Both teachers and students are rummaging around for the correct e-book to read through and
prepare oneself.
The University of Delhi (DU) should look into the prospects of making the e-library accessible to its students and teachers alike. This is the minimum we can seek and demand for. Freshers are in need of the most as school to university transition is tiresome coupled up with unavailability of academic resources. Till then , let me ping up another friend inquiring about the pdf of the books required for my core papers.
Read Also:
“Inside the college libraries of Delhi University”
Featured Image Credits : DU Beat Archives
Himasweeta Sarma
himasweeta@gmail.com
The post Hues And Cries for E-Library : DU Version appeared first on DU Beat.