Volume 2 Issue 4 April, 2012
An Innovative Library!!!
There is growing concern that medical students are restricting themselves to examination oriented books rather than reading recommended books and their interest in exploring new books has reached low level in the past decade. Not many are aware that most of the library books in medical colleges cannot be borrowed by students, either they have to be read within library or one should buy a personal copy. Reasons for restricting the borrowing facility are many & that varies from one institution to another. These rules may deprive some students an opportunity to explore the book at their own pace and place. More over students now a days fancy e‐books which will increase drastically in near future and e‐books are easy to use & carry but most libraries do not have any collection of e‐books for free, which may be due to legal issues.
One of the ways to increase student’s interest in exploring books is starting Innovative library practices wherein each department can keep a collection of books, which are largely the books gifted by the department or consultants from various sources like publishers, authors, pharma or a willing consultant’s personal collection of books and wide e‐books collection from all possible sources. These collections can be kept outside the institutional authority but under in‐charge of one voluntary student & a faculty; rules of usage can be designed based on mutual interactions. One such Innovative library practice is being experimented at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical sciences and students are excited. It’s a mutual learning process when we start something new but it does kindle interest among students about books & also attracts talents towards a specialty.
