Booking funds for the National Library
The National Library has not had sufficient employees in vital posts for the last ten years," said Salma Islam, deputy director of Directorate of archives and National Library
Bishawjit Das
The National Library could not publish its yearly national bibliography for the last nine years for what the authorities called shortage of staff. Publishing the yearly bibliography is one of the major tasks of the National Library in any country. It brings national print materials to readers both at home and abroad. The work of the National Library, established in 1973, is to collect books from all over the country, compile them, publish and keep references. "But it did not have adequate employees to carry out the task for the last nine years," said Salma Islam, deputy director of Directorate of Archives and National Library. "The work of bibliographers is highly technical. Three bibliographers and the chief bibliographer retired at the same time and the library has no-one to take care of their responsibilities right now. We could not fill the vacancies until now because of a government embargo," said Salma. The National Library has a collection of five lakh books and journals and has access to 55 newspapers and 180 magazines. "Any reader can use the library paying a yearly fee of Tk 15. Researchers need a recommendation letter from their institutes to study here," said S Khan, bibliographer of the National Library. "The readers of the library cannot take books home. It is open from 9:00am to 4:00pm." Khan said the authorities are planning to extend the study time up to 10:00pm. The National Library that has an average of 50 readers in the reading section is the only organisation that enjoys the copyright act, receives books from all publishers of Bangladesh and has a yearly fund of Tk 25 lakh to purchase books and journals. "The National Library is the knowledge store for any nation. It is to provide the list of books for the nation for any need," said Sabira Manir, a researcher. The library does not have any relevant ordinance or act to follow even about 30 years after its inception. The library has no advisory council to help it function smoothly. The Directorate of National Archives and National Library should have 82 employees, whereas it has only 59. As a result, the library fails to keep references, publish the bibliography regularly and provide its readers with adequate facilities.
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