Organizational Structure:
The Library presently housed in a temporary premises has the following functional units:
Property Counter
Members entering the library are advised to keep their personal belongings bags, umbrellas, overcoats, books and other printed materials including photocopies in the property counter (shelves with pigeon holes). They shall also then record the particulars in the Visitors Register placed on the desk at the nearby security point.
External Reading Room
Students who want to bring in their personal copies of textbooks are welcome to do so by-passing the Property Counter (books only, and no other belongings) and study in the external reading room close to the entrance to the library.
OPAC: The Catalogue
The entire stock of the library is fully computerized and anyone looking for a conventional cabinet of catalogue cards would be disappointed. OPAC Online Public Access Catalogue provided on a couple of computer terminals replaces the traditional card catalogue. It is quite simple in operation: Just type the term by which you want to make the search name of author, title, subject or any key word and enter. You are lead to the screen listing books with all relevant pieces of information title, author, call number and accession number. If necessary, double-clicking at a particular item would give further details about the book including the number of copies and their status (availability). A member of the library staff would always be ready to assist you in this if and when necessary.
The Central Counter
Once a visitor crosses the above three points, he is in front of a large multi-purpose or multi-functional counter. That happens to be the temporary arrangement made until the library gets shifted to its own permanent location.
Now this is an Enquiry Counter or Help Desk. As the name indicates, derive the services of the staff at the counter for answers relating to any query on library or reference related matters.
This is the Circulation Counter. Any member eligible to draw a book on loan has to get the books issued here and the one to be returned has also to be brought to this very counter.
Need any guidance to the various units in the library Periodicals, photocopying, internet, stack room, reading rooms etc? Staff at the counter would be pleased to assist you.
For any services like reference, documentation, bibliography and the like, just ask the staff member on duty here.
Students Reading
The main library reading hall primarily intended for accommodating the student members of the library is quite large and spacious and initially just 102 seats have been provided with ample room for adding a good many more.
Staff Reading
To enable the members of faculty and other staff members to keep themselves aloof from any possible detractions and disturbances and to fully concentrate on their reference work, a separate staff reading room with just two and half dozen seats has been arranged. Members of staff can draw books from the stack room and have a calm and quite serious reading in this exclusive room.
Stack Room
The main book storage area where the entire collections of books are arranged on open double-faced book racks in classified sequence following the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. A brief outline of the class numbers relevant to this library is appended. Each book has a unique Call Number (given on the tag of the spine of the book) comprising a Class Number (the number denoting the subject, Eg: 611 Human Anatomy) and a Book Number (giving the first three letters of the authors name, Eg: GRA Henry GRAY). This book number when necessary is further amplified by extra digits to individualise each book and make the number really unique (Eg:
A small area of the stack room is separated from the main rows of book racks where a few closed cupboards have been placed: They contain the reference books dictionaries, encyclopaediae, yearbooks etc.
The stack room is just adjacent to the students reading with a glazed partition and the access to it is open. Moreover, the library staff would always be there for any assistance.
Periodicals Rooms
There are two rooms for periodicals one for display and reading of current periodicals and the other where bound volumes of journals are shelved. Current issues of all journals will be on display while the back numbers of the volume/year would be available in the respective pigeon holes in the periodicals room where sufficient tables and chairs have also been provided. Necessary facilities have been arranged in the room for bound volumes so that search, reference and reading of the back volumes can be carried out in the same room only.
Internet Access
A dozen computer terminals have been earmarked and placed in a separate room for the members to access internet for online search of information relevant to study and other purposes. It can be used for a limited period at any given point of time on priority that would be fixed by the library staff.
Digital Library
In an effort to keep pace with the tremendous speed at which the IT field grows, the library has acquired the latest version of the Digital Library System where CD/DVDs are mirror imaged and stored facilitating complete digital content management and retrieval through the network. This is a system where initially up to 1000 CDs can be mirror imaged and each CD can be used simultaneously by 256 users in a large network. The library already has a collection of over a hundred CDs in various specialities of Medicine stored in this system and their contents can be searched and used on designated terminals in the library.
MEDLINE: The on-line database of the National Library of Medicine (US)
The library being a subscriber to MEDLINE, it holds a collection of its back volumes from 1966 to 2005 which can be made use of for making all kinds of searches. Abstracts of all papers in medical sciences published world over during the above period can be accessed within seconds and the relevant ones can be selected. This off-line search can be made on selected terminals within the library only and would soon be made available to the departments.
Reprographic services
Photocopying facilities are available in the library, subject to copy right restrictions, at a nominal cost of Re.1/- per page between 10.00 and 17.00 hrs on all working days of the library.
