LIBRARIES-ROBBED-OF-BOOKS-AT-CALICUT-UNIVERSITY Calicut University is facing a strange situation - hundreds of books getting lost from its libraries each year due to rampant book lifting and borrowers not returning their lot. As many as 1,261 books were reported missing in the latest audit report. Taking serious note of the issue, the state government's local fund audit wing has asked the varsity to recover the loss incurred from the persons involved. Library authorities said that the scale of book lifting and non-return could be bigger if the figures from the varsity's main CHMK central library, which has around 1.2 lakh books, are included. The university - which conducted a stock verification after eight years in 2014 - is in the process of consolidating the figures. CHMK library had installed CCTV cameras inside the library last year as a deterrent. "A major issue in libraries of the varsity run self- financing institutions is that the most librarians are employed on temporary basis that make it difficult to hold them accountable for the loss," said university librarian Dr Abdul Azeez T A. The institute of engineering and technology (IET) within the varsity campus has lost 703 books while the university teacher education centre (UTEC), Kaniyambetta has lost 236 books. As many as 152 books are missing from the department of lifelong learning. The reasons were the same as mentioned above. "Only the central library has CCTV monitoring and mesh windows. Other libraries are vulnerable to book lifting. Even more worrisome is the menace of students tearing away the pages from reference books. Also, there is the issue of books issued in the name of teachers which they keep in custody or some that get misplaced. These are then transferred to the name of other teachers when they retire," an assistant librarian said. The university librarian said that as per new UGC regulations, a figure of five (missing) per 1,000 transactions - including issue, consultations and reference - can be treated as reasonable. "Though there are technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) to protect library assets, it is not cost effective to be implemented in all libraries," an official said. As many as 1261 books have been reported to be lost from its libraries in a latest audit report. Taking a serious note of the issue, the state government's local fund audit wing has asked the varsity to fix the responsibility for the issue and recover the loss incurred from the persons involved. Library authorities say that the scale of book lifting and non-return of books could be bigger if the figures from the varsity's main CHMK Central Library, which has around 1.2 lakh books are included. The university which conducted a stock verification after eight years in 2014 is in the process of consolidating the figures of the examination. THE CHMK library had installed CCTV cameras inside the library last year to curb the practice of book lifting and tearing of pages of books. "A major issue in libraries of the varsity run self- financing institutions is that the most of the librarians are employed on temporary basis which make it difficult to hold them accountable for the losses," Dr. Abdul Azeez T A, University Librarian said. The institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in the varsity campus has lost 703 books while University Teacher Education Centre (UTEC), Kaniyambetta has lost 236 books. As many as 152 books are missing from the department of lifelong learning. Sources at the varsity central library said that book lifting by students and non- return of books were the main reasons for the missing of large number of books. "Only the central library has CCTV monitoring and mesh windows installed. The other libraries are vulnerable to book lifting. Even more worrisome is the menace of students tearing away of pages from reference books. Also there is the issue of books issued in the name of teachers which they keep in their custody or gets misplaced and which are then transferred to the name of other teachers when they retire," an assistant librarian said. University librarian said that as per the new UGC regulations, missing of five books per 1000 transactions, including issue, consultations and reference, can be considered as reasonable missing. "Though there are technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to protect library assets, it is not cost effective to be implemented in al libraries due to the expense involved," an official said. REFLINK: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/Libraries-robbed-of-books-... 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