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Linking Young Minds Together
     Volume 1 Issue 13 | November 5, 2006 |


  
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Spotlight

Library in a private university-AIUB

Arif Ashraf Nayan

The library of American International University- Bangladesh(AIUB) is as glittering as its campus that surrounds the Banani Kemal Ataturk Avenue area. The most interesting thing about the AIUB library is that unlike other universities students do not climb stairs to go to the library. However, they have to go underground. Dear readers, please do not think that the library is connected with some sort of underground cult but as a matter of fact the library is situated in the basement of campus 1 and 5. The atmosphere is surreal and very peaceful inside with stacks of books everywhere and there is the ever-smiling library assistants to help students and faculty. I wish that the parents of the students would come sometimes to visit the library. It will be a good experience for them as they will find their children diligently working inside the library. I personally feel that not only AIUB library, but every library has a magic of its own. When you enter a library you have a feeling of inner peace and serenity. You will find students studying with their heads near the tables and eyes glued to the books. Ah! What a lovely sight? Well, this is a common sight inside AIUB library.

The AIUB library can boast of of around 20,000 books along with journals, periodicals, magazines and encyclopedias that cover more than 80 areas of academic discipline. AIUB and technology are blended together and to prove this unique feature, AIUB library has state-of-the-art modern facilities within the library starting from bar code scanner to intelligent interactive library information system. The AIUB IT department designed the library information system. With this system a student can browse through the online book database system and can easily search and locate their desired books. Moreover, the library contains a huge multimedia collection of audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs and power point slides on various academic topics which the students can use for reference purpose. Other facilities like scanning and photocopy are also provided within the library. The students can borrow one book at a time for three days excepting the academic
textbooks, here the bar code on the student's identity card serves as library card. The shelves are well organized and labeled, which make it comfortable for the students to browse through the isle.

M.Sadiquz Zaman the assistant librarian of AIUB stated that he loves his job and is very happy that the students of AIUB give a lot of effort for their library and self study. He also mentioned that group study is discouraged in the library as it becomes noisy and disturbing to the other students. AIUB has separate study area where 300 students can be accommodated, the study room has computer with internet facility so the students can download and print study materials at a very nominal price. The library has a sitting capacity of around 500 students. Therefore, 800 students can be accommodated together for self and group study purpose.

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