The New Nation - Internet Edition

Faisal Hossain

When the idea was floated about 20 years ago (in October, 1989) among the students and teachers of the Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering Department, there were more skeptics than believers. Yet, the protagonist - Dr. Md. Delawer Hossain, Professor of Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering, Rajshahi University- continued toying with the idea of seting up a library with voluntary contribution. When it began, the library was housed in a makeshift cupboard containing only a dozen books and five hundred taka. Today, the rental library set up with Dr. Hossain's visionary initiative boasts of 1225 text books in a dedicated library with an average annual revenue generation of 12 thousand taka. This revenue is used to procure an additional 40-50 text books each year. This is how it all began.

Textbooks at the university level are never in sufficient quantity for our students. Anyone who has completed a university degree would know that, these books, mostly writen by foreign authors and expensive publishers, can cost more than the annual living expenses of a student Realizing this dilemma, Dr. Hossain floated the idea of a rental library, where students could 'rent' textbooks against a nominal annual fee. The rent would be funneled to a money pot that would be used to buy more books at the end of the year. If every student became members of this library, then sufficient revenue could be generated to increase access of textbooks among students.

Apathy and resistance to the idea of becoming a voluntary member of 'yet another' scheme was widespread in the beginning. 'Why care to pay 30 Taka a year when we have the R.U Central library?' was the student response invariably. Dr. Hossain recalls that, "back then, students would rather spend 30 Taka on 'adda', 'chai' and photocopying 'chotha' (i.e. notes prepared for writing exams) than on something that most thought would never be used".

Yet, the journey was not abandoned. In December 1989, there were only 16 books and 2,935 Taka of which Tk. 2000 was obtained as grant from the Chairman of the Department of Applied Physics and Electronic Engineering. The rest came from student fees and personal donations. As students of this department began to realize that the library guaranteed access to many textbooks against a nominal fee (much cheaper than photocopying the whole book), they started to become regular paying members of the rental library. Subscription grew steadily.

Revenue generation was not much during the initial years, but it was enough to ensure the purchase new text books each year. As most of the 200 students (50 per batch) of the Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering Department became members, revenue generation started to rise quickly, often exceeding ten thousand taka.

The notorious session jam that had 5-6 batches of student's progress simultaneously didn't hurt the subscription either. In the figure below, the impressive growth of revenue from students is shown for this now-popular rental library. In between then and today, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and various independent donors have also helped the library to grow beyond expectations. In this regard, the annual book drive organized by the MIT (Massachusets Institute of Technology) Bangladesh Student Association (BSA) is noteworthy. The MIT-BSA has donated around 100 books from funds of the MIT student foundation.

The UGC grant has also allowed the purchase of 432 books so far. All of this was orchestrated with the enterprising spirit of Dr. Hossain who would often go out of the way to solicit book donations from various sources.

Looking back twenty years, Dr. Hossain has much satisfaction with the implementation of the rental library. He believes the concept's success is analogous to the Grameen Bank. But it is the feedback of the Departmental academic commitee and the students that demonstrates the value of the concept in improving student learning.

"Today more than 90% of the books of our rental library are in circulation among member students at any given time", said the Seminar Library Assistance, Mrs. Farida Begum with pride. "If there was circulation any less than that, we would have a hard time housing all the books we have! In fact, we now need to place an order for 6 more wall-bookshelves to house the upcoming books".

Similarly, student Mr. Atiar Rahman, now a newly recruited lecturer of the Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering Department says, "The rental library has been a very valuable asset for us. Our students hardly need to access the ill-equipped R.U central library as they get all their textbooks here. Today, each student member can rent 5 books at a time. Students from other departments often envy our access, which helps particularly before exam times."

We hope that other Departments and Universities in Bangladesh will take of this noble concept of a rental library and take the initiative to set up one of their own for the welfare of our students. Interested persons should contact Dr. Hossain at ninigorki@yahoo.com for information on ways to procure books cost-effectively.

Annual revenue generation of the Rental Library.

Rental Library of Applied Physics and Electronics Engineering Department, Rajshahi University.