Being a Church Missionary college, the aim of the college is to impart quality education that promotes sound learning, builds characters and inculcates moral values among students. Carrying forward a legacy of nearly 159 years, the college makes continuous efforts to strike a balance between tradition and modernity. The Central Library is a place of pride for the College with a collection of more than 45000 books, some of which are very rare and some invaluable CMS documents. The Central Library was first automated in the year 2009 and at present it is partially automated. The Integrated Library Management System (ILMS) used by the library is KOHA which is an Open Source Software. We are using the latest oldstable customized version available in CLOUD and it is maintained by the BENGAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, Kolkata. At present there are approximately 16500 number of documents present in the database of the library and the database is available in the website (http://www.spcmcl.blacal.in) under the head “OPAC”.
ABOUT OUR LIBRARY
Library Committee
The administrative set up of the library consists of a librarian, a library assistant, and two general duty attendants. There is a Library Committee consisting of the librarian as coordinator and other teacher members nominated by the Teachers’ Council to oversee and control the activities concerning the library.
Modernization
Library has undertaken a programme of modernization to make it more user- friendly. Installation of computers is a first step in this regard. We have got quotation for SOUL (2.0 version) software which is designed and developed by the UGC – INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar. It is proposed to offer fully computerized library service. There are 14000 number of books entered into the database of the library till date. Four Volume “Dewey Decimal Classification” 22nd edition (latest edition) has been procured with an aim at putting updated classification number on the documents for specific classification of the documents on the different micro-subjects. The College Library is a member of NLIST Programme of the UGC – INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar for the purpose of accessing the electronic resources. Under this programme we have the access to 97000 + Titles of Electronic Books (Full Text Downloadable) and 6000 + Electronic Journals (Full Text Downloadable).
Future plans
Plans are afoot to add a new floor to the two-storied office-cum-administrative building for library use so as to provide improved service. When completed, the seating capacity of the existing reading hall will increase. Encouraged by the receipt of the Central Grant from the National Archives, we have planned to apply for another grant to the National Mission for Manuscripts for the digital preservation of our 13 volumes of hand written manuscripts. We have further plans to create a journal section and also to create another separate section with CMS collection named after Revd. James Long .
Contribution of Prof. Nisith Ranjan Roy towards his alma mater
An alumnus, an eminent historian of the 20th century, Prof. Nisith Ranjan Ray got his basic lesson on History from this college and served as a teacher of this institution for more then 20 years up to the year 1968. The library received tremendous boost during his stint in the college as an honorary librarian. He left the college in 1968 and joined the Department of History, Calcutta University. Thereafter he became Secretary & Curator, Victoria Memorial. After his retirement, he became Director, Institute of Historical Studies, Calcutta; Member, Advisory Committee of W.B Government State Archives, State Archeology and Rabindra Bhavana, Santiniketan; Secretary, Society for the Preservation of Archival Materials and Monuments of Calcutta. Distinguished teacher and research worker Prof. Ray has a number of works on various aspects of Indian history and widely acclaimed by contemporary historians. Man of such a stature worked in our library as an Honorary Librarian for more than ten years, while teaching here, is a matter of great pride for all of us. Contribution of such a scholar in management and collection of valuable documents is felt even today in every sphere of the library.
