Centre For Digital Library & Documentation
Jadavpur University Library was started along with the establishment of the University in 1955 in order to cater the academic and research needs of the faculty, research scholars, students, officers and non-teaching staff. Since then, the University Library has gone from strength to strength to live up to the expectations of its immediate clientele. It is one of the best-equipped libraries in the country.
The University is proud of its library system, which comprises the Central Library, Salt Lake Campus Library, 36 Departmental Libraries under the Faculty of Arts, Science, Engineering and Technology, and about 23 Libraries attached with the Schools and Centres for studies under the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies Law and Management. The Central Library of Jadavpur University is one of the central facilities used by all types of members of this University and also by the scholars of other institutions.
Old and Rare Collection
A considerable part of the Library’s collection consists of gifts from individuals and institutions.The gift collections contain a good stock of old materials valuable for research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The largest book donation having been from:
Centre for Digital Library and Documentation
The Centre for Digital Library and Documentation was initiated in September 2003, under the UPE programme of UGC. A Learning Resource Centre was set-up with sixty nodes to cater digital services to the different categories of users. The following services are being provided from the Centre.
Accessible Library for Persons with Disabilities
The Accessible Library for Persons with Disabilities was inaugurated on 5th September 2018 at the ground floor of the Central Library of Jadavpur University. The Accessible Library has about 150 users.
The Accessible Library has audio books, Braille books, pdf documents and accessible e-books/e-texts. There are four computers for the students to access the e-resources in the Accessible Library. They also access e-books from Sugam Pustakalaya, Bookshare and Jstor. The Accessible Library uses Jaws Professional, NVDA, MAGIC 14, OPEN BOOK 9 and Read (Braille) software to access the e-resources. They also access e-books from Sugam Pustakalaya, Bookshare, Jstor, Project Muse and RNIB Bookshare.
The Accessible Library has purchased 35 Braille books from Lalbihari Shah Braille Academia and 14 Braille books from Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys’ Academy, Narendrapur. Apart from that 18 volumes of Rabindra Rachanabali in Braille were presented to this Library by the Society for the Visually Handicapped. The Accessible Library has embossed Braille books on their own. It also provides mail services to the students in the same manner.
At present the Accessible Library has been upgraded with the support from Rotary Club of Belur and Rotary Club of Danville San Ramon (USA). A new Reading Room along with new equipments like Index Basic Braille Embosser with cabinet, Canon Image Runner 2425, Go Vision aid 2410LED, Portable Digital Magnifier, Actto Earphone and headphone, Daisy Player Saksham EVO-E11, Vision Aid International P11AU, Braille eMotion have been set up. The Sparsh software (which facilitates the conversion of text into Braille for reading on Braille displays, note takers, or embossers) has been installed.
The Centre for Digital Library and Documentation which is housed at the 1st floor of the Central Library is also used by the visually impaired students. Two computers of the Digital library are installed with NVDA audio software which help them to access the e-resources of the Central Library.
