In a first of its kind effort to use e-learning tools in university libraries in the State, Bangalore University has procured e-books, worth about Rs. 1 crore, from Springer Publishers, which has published works of many Nobel prize-winners.
As many as 15,472 rare e-books can be now assessed by students and teachers of the university at the click of a mouse. They can read them at a convenient time as they can download them onto their laptops or personal computers. The e-books belong to these disciplines — behaviour science, life sciences, business and economics, chemistry and material sciences, computer science, mathematics, physics and astronomy, humanities, social science, and law. While 2,770 e-books were published in 2010, 12,702 were published between 2005 and 2009.
Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev said that e-books will help research scholars, teachers and students to access quality books published by authors of international repute. He said that private colleges, which have been the institutional members of the university library, can also access these e-books. “So far, only the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Science have procured these e-books in the State,” said P.V. Konnur, University Librarian.
Mr. Konnur said that those having university library membership can access these books through computers installed either in the library or through any other computer within the university campus. Also, the members can access and download these books from their personal computers or laptops from any location if they are given “remote- accessible” software by the university with individual user name and password.
