Nearly 3 months after police crackdown, one Jamia library reopens for students

Jamia Millia Islamia's Dr. Zakir Husain Library, which was damaged in alleged police action in the university on December 15 last year, was reopened for students after nearly three months on Wednesday.

The library is fully functional now, the varsity said.

Dr Zakir Husain Library, the central library of Jamia, was reopened after extensive renovation and face lifting, university PRO Ahmad Azeem said.

"With a seating capacity of nearly 800, consisting of a reading hall, research floor, reference and periodical section and a well-equipped digital resource centre, comprising 150 computers, the library resumed all its services today.

"The textbook and research sections of the library remain open till midnight and witness huge footfall," he said.

Azeem said effort has been made to provide better facilities to students by installing LED lights and bringing new and comfortable chairs.

"Despite (all) odds, the library has been able to utilise its budgetary allocation completely and renew its subscription to electronic databases," he said.

The period of three months when the library was closed was utilised to migrate library management software to an open source software from a commercial one for more effective integration and discovery of resources, he added.

After a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act near Jamia turned violent on December 15, police personnel entered the university to nab "outsiders" who had entered the campus to hide.

In an estimate submitted to the Human Resource Development Ministry, the Jamia administration said the university suffered damages worth Rs 2.66 crore to its property due to the police barging inside the campus without permission.

The universities two libraries, not far from each other, were where the majority of the damage happened.

The damage occurred to CCTV cameras, which were allegedly broken, tubelights, AC units, doors, glass windows and library tables.

The old library remains closed.