Chittagong public library in bad shape

CHITTAGONG NEWS

dent of mass communication and journalism at the University of Chittagong.

Abbas said every year they send a list of books including those in demand to the Dhaka based central committee of public libraries that decides the number and kinds of books to be sent.

"Some books are selected from the list and sent to us," he said adding that it is very difficult to fulfil the demand of all users.

Md Noor Hossain Talukder, director (joint secretary) of the Central Public Library in Dhaka, said "We select some books from the list. Some books are also selected by the central committee. We provide funds for the most of the books readers demand."

But Abbas said the fund is not adequate. "We get a very small fund from the committee. After paying newspaper bills, no money is usually left for buying books," he said.

An official requesting anonymity said, "During load shedding, we have to sit idle in the dark, as we do not have any alternate power generator."

Some people get inside the building masquerading as readers, and steal books taking the chance of power outage, he said adding that the library had a 15-volume collection of documents on the country's Liberation War, 13 volumes of which went missing.

After the incident the authorities of the library said they would take actions against the personnel who are supposed to look after the library's collection, for negligence in duty, but no action has been taken yet, he said.

Four employees of the library are also now on deputation in Dhaka. They however take salaries from the Chittagong Public Library. As a result, the library is largely understaffed now with 10 class III and class IV 

posts remaining vacant.

"We face many problems due to a shortage of employees," said Abbas.

The library also has only one photocopy machine, which is currently out of order. As a result, readers cannot photocopy books. The authorities also do not allow any user to take any book outside the library.