Can you imagine a University which has stopped investing in books? As illogical as it might sound, the students of JNU worry about their University’s BR Ambedkar Central Library, as the authorities have brought down the library budget from Rs 8 crores to Rs 1.7 crores.
The decision was announced at the Library Committee Meeting held at the campus, chaired by Rector I. The JNUSU also said that the administration had decided to stop auto-renewal of several e-journals and subscriptions, which would hamper academics.
“JNU administration said that UGC has stopped funds for library and has asked university to generate internal revenue — a euphemism for privatisation. When members of library and JNUSU representatives raised questions on how such drastic cuts have happened and why the university is not taking measures to ensure funds are available, the Financial Officer said they don’t have the authority to do so as the budgeting format has been changed by UGC, where money is sent for specific heads and inter-transfer of funds from one head to another is not possible,” JNUSU President N Sai Balaji was quoted as saying.
“Due to the library fund cut now, the auto renewal of e-journals, e-subscriptions like Jstor, Sage and others are not going to be renewed, meaning a closure of research in JNU from January. Rather than finding ways to keep these subscriptions alive, the Rector, Librarian and others have openly asked the officials to communicate the same to publishers,” he further said.
