Fr. Verstraeten Central Library of St. Xavier’s College plays a pivotal role in the teaching-learning process of the College. It is the fulcrum of all academic activities of all UG & PG coursesand research studies. The Library has a rich collection of around 69,000 books, old and rare books, valuable reference books, journals, educational CDs/DVDs and innumerable e-books, e-journals, and other resources for the use of its members.
Nobel Laureate Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore once mentioning the significance of libraries said,
Until December 2008, St. Xavier’s College had various departmental lending libraries and reading rooms namely:
All these departmental libraries and the book bank got merged into one integrated centralized library since January 16, 2009. This got christened as Fr. Verstraeten Central Library in July 2015.
With the introduction of centralised library, the readers are given access to library documents, books and periodicals irrespective of their departments. The new centralized system provides open-access, where the readers find out their required books from the library shelves.
Thanks to UGC funding in 2008, after it had declared St. Xavier’s as a Centre with Potential for Excellence (CPE) in May 2006 and the College became the first autonomous college in West Bengal in July 2006, the Central Library organized the retro-conversion of all the books and classified them under the scheme of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), Sear’s list of Subject Headings and Anglo-American Cataloguing scheme.
The entire database of the library was initially kept in LIBSYS-4.0 which has now been converted to KOHA open source Integrated Library Software (ILS), with the latest version 16.05.
All the books in the library are now catalogued, bar-coded and RFID tagged for easy circulation and better security.
Assistant Director: Rev. Joseph Kulandai, S.J. [Contact No. 22551106]
Professor in Charge: Dr. Amitava Roy
Librarian: Dr. Chinmay Mukhopadhyay [Contact No. 22551251]
Library Staff
Library Commitee
Library Purchase Commitee
Ground Floor
1st Floor
Sections | Timings |
---|---|
Reference Section | 7.00 am – 7.30 pm [Mon-Fri] 9.00 am – 6.00 pm [Sat] |
Lending Section | 9.00 am – 6.00 pm |
Reprography | 9.00 am – 4.00 pm [Mon-Fri] |
E-Resource Access Centre | 9.00 am – 5.00 pm |
E-Book Library | 9.00 am – 7.00 pm [Mon-Fri] 9.00 am – 6.00 pm [Sat] |
Library Office | 9.00 am – 6.00 pm [Mon-Fri] 9.00 am – 2.30 pm [Sat] |
The membership of the Library is open to Fathers, faculty members, research scholars, students and support staff of the College. The outside research scholars, eminent persons of the society, retired faculty members and staff members, and alumni/nae members of the College are also eligible for getting membership subject to the approval of the College authority.
Sl.No. | Patron Category | No. of Items | Loan Period |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Fathers | 10 Books | 30 Days |
2. | Faculty Members | 8 Books | 30 Days |
3. | Students | 4 Books | 14 Days |
4. | Research Scholars | 8 Books | 30 Days |
5. | Support Staff | 3 Books | 30 Days |
The Central Library of the College has well-equipped and spacious reading room facility with seating capacity of 250 (two hundred and fifty) users. The reference books, periodicals and current awareness sections also function from reading room for reader’s convenience. Some rare collections of the College are displayed in the reading room.
The book bank facility is provided only to students belonging to economically challenged groups and communities. Besides regular library facilities, they can issue at most four books from book-bank for a full semester. The textbooks are mainly emphasized for this section, though very few common reference books may also be lent out.
Books and journals relating to different competitive examinations like IAS, Career / Service Oriented programs and other documents related to the subjects are available for consultation in the library.
Books and e-books relating to UGC CSIR NET / SET ( JRF & LS ) are available in the library.
he Ready-Reference Tools relating to general reference consultation are available in the Reading Room. The following categories of Ready Reference Tools are generally available:
One internet-facilitated computer is directly connected with the photocopy machine for taking print out of any online and also offline materials.
CD-ROM databases, CDs/ DVDs for both borrowing and reading room reference.
The newly added resources to library (books, journals, CDs etc.) are displayed for 7 days in the Reading Room.
Students and faculty members can place requisition for a book that is not available in the library. The requisition should be given in the Demand Book Register available from the concerned library staff and through the Web OPAC facility. Book Download Book Requisition Form.
Thanks to generous donations of books by the Provincial Governments and European missionaries during the last two centuries, the Central Library holds a golden treasury of very old and rare documents. Since these documentary heritage is continuously decaying with time the college initiated a project for preservation and conservation of these rare documents with the full financial support from UNESCO, New Delhi in 2006. Under the collaborative project, selected rare documents from the College library have been recovered, preserved and digitized. The oldest collection dates back to AD 1632. As part of the project, a set of 4 DVDs containing some of the digitized documents and rare paintings was published. All these documents are preserved with much care in Goethals Library.
Fr. Verstraeten Central Library E-Resource Centre for Advanced Studies and Research is a newly developed state-of-the-art E-Resource Library. The fifty-seater facility includes St. Xavier�s Central Library E-Book System for accessing e-resources via college intranet with the help of tabs, smart phones, and other devices. This is available for the researchers and advanced learners of Academic fraternity of St. Xavier�s College.
The Library provides IT facilities to enable readers to consult our electronic resources, catalogues, and image collections, to make use of word-processing and spreadsheet software, and for general internet and e-mail access.
RFID enabled self circulation KIOSK is available for library users .
The Verstraeten Central Library of the college has a well-equipped and spacious reading room with seating capacity of 180 people. The catalogue system of the library is housed in the reading room (OPAC-Online Public Access Catalogue). The reference, periodical and current awareness sections also function from reading room for reader’s convenience. Some rare collections of the college are displayed in the reading room.
The book borrowing facility is available only for the Fathers, faculty members, current students and staff members of the college. Student can borrow at most four books and faculty members can borrow at most eight books depending on the availability of the same in the library, at a time fourteen days for student and thirty days for Faculty members, which are further renewable at most once in fourteen days slot for students and thirty days slot for faculty members. A delay in return is charged by Rs.3/- (Rupees three only) per day per book.
Fr. Verstraeten Central Library implement Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enable KIOSK, this latest technology used to automate book handling process including check-out, inventory maintenance. The technology would allow the readers to utilise the service of self ‘issue’ and ‘reissue’ books without standing in queue.
When books were borrowed, an acknowledgement slip would be generated, giving details of the book issued and the ‘date of return’ of the books. Using the kiosk one could also check their account status -books in their accounts and pending overdue charges.
Fr. Verstraeten Central Library provides last year semester question papers to the students.
The book bank facility is available for the students belonging to non-creamy layer of the society. Besides regular library facilities, they can issue at most three books from book-bank at most for a full semester. The text books are mainly emphasized for this section, though very few common reference books may also be lent out.
The reprographic facilities are available in Central Library for the students and faculty members, at a very nominal rate of Rs.1/- per A4 size impression (for photocopy) and Rs.2/- only per A4 size page (for print out). One internet-facilitated computer is directly connected with the photocopy machine for taking print out of any online and also offline material as well. This section remains open from 9.00 AM to 4.00 PM on Monday to Friday, and 9.00AM to 12.30PM on Saturday. The photocopy section is for library books only. The class notes, outside papers and outside books are strictly not to be photocopied here.
The Information Desk is one of the many specialized services offered by the St. Xavier’s college Fr. Verstraeten Central Library Reception. It is located on the Ground floor near the entrance of the Library. It serves as a central information point in the Library.
Library users can download forms like Library clearance form, Book requisition from (for faculty members only), Book Bank form etc, from the Library website.
Contact Numbers
Librarian: 033-22551-251
Library Office: 033-22551-238
Library Entrance: 033-22551-241
Library Lending: 033-22551-247 / 253
Library Reading: 033-22551252 / 255
Contact E-Mail: librarian@sxccal.edu
Address: 30, Park St, Mullick Bazar, Taltala, Kolkata, West Bengal 700016