At 8 on Sunday morning, eight students of Aligarh Muslim University’s Women’s College were ready to board a bus to the university’s famous Maulana Azad Library three km away. They waited for half an hour, expecting more students to turn up, but those keen to go to the library were all on time. So they set off at 8.30 am, accompanied by two teachers.
This was the first time, reportedly since the 1960s, that undergraduate students of Women’s College had been allowed access to the Maulana Azad Library. The decision to allow women into the library was taken after a spate of reports in the media criticised AMU's Vice Chancellor Zameeruddin Shah for saying last month that there wasn’t enough space in the library for students of the Women's College.He added that if women were allowed inside, there would be four times the number of men in the already over-crowded library.
The good news
Although it’s good news that students of Women’s College finally have access to the Maulana Azad Library, there's more to this than meets the eye. To being with, access is limited. According to the vice-chancellor’s order of December 3, “...undergraduate students of Women’s College will visit the Maulana Azad Library on every Sunday effective from 7th December, 2014 between 8 am to 11 am.” This obviously didn’t deter the eight women who visited the Library on the first Sunday but Aisha, a second-year student of English literature, said that this isn't the most convenient arrangement. “If I’m up all night studying for exams (which begin next week), it will be difficult to wake up in time to board the 8 am bus,” she said.
It’s not clear from the vice-chancellor’s concise order whether students could visit the library on their own and not as part of a group. Besides, Sundays are also "outing" days for resident students of Women’s College: it's the only day they are allowed to leave the campus. Aisha wondered whether this means that a student could possibly go to the Library at a time they wish, obviously still within the 8 am to 11 am window. It’s also not apparent why this particularly inconvenient time slot has been assigned to Women’s College students.
Although at an early hour, the students who visited the Library are very pleased with the decision and hope that more students would want to go after learning of their experience. The visit started with an introduction by library staff on using online catalogues. Shabnam, a final-year zoology student, said that being allowed in the library made her feel like she too is “part of AMU”. Syyedun Nisa, a mathematics student, echoed her sentiments but said that if books were made available in the Women’s College Library, they could save time spent on travelling to the main library. “I’ll go there again if I need to, not just because I want to,” she said.
Limited access
Not all students are entirely content with the three-hour access once a week but believed that if they voice their objections, “we’ll be told there’s no satisfying us”. The university had argued that although the Maulana Azad Library catalogue is available online, “it is regrettable that the number of demands for books [from Women’s College students] has been minuscule”.
Hopefully, this time around, the university will think of ways to encourage Women’s College students to access the resources of Maulana Azad Library at their own convenience rather than naively (or perhaps deliberately?) expecting all 2,456 of them to turn up at the library entrance at 8 on Sunday mornings.
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This was the first time, reportedly since the 1960s, that undergraduate students of Women’s College had been allowed access to the Maulana Azad Library. The decision to allow women into the library was taken after a spate of reports in the media criticised AMU's Vice Chancellor Zameeruddin Shah for saying last month that there wasn’t enough space in the library for students of the Women's College.He added that if women were allowed inside, there would be four times the number of men in the already over-crowded library.
The good news
Although it’s good news that students of Women’s College finally have access to the Maulana Azad Library, there's more to this than meets the eye. To being with, access is limited. According to the vice-chancellor’s order of December 3, “...undergraduate students of Women’s College will visit the Maulana Azad Library on every Sunday effective from 7th December, 2014 between 8 am to 11 am.” This obviously didn’t deter the eight women who visited the Library on the first Sunday but Aisha, a second-year student of English literature, said that this isn't the most convenient arrangement. “If I’m up all night studying for exams (which begin next week), it will be difficult to wake up in time to board the 8 am bus,” she said.
It’s not clear from the vice-chancellor’s concise order whether students could visit the library on their own and not as part of a group. Besides, Sundays are also "outing" days for resident students of Women’s College: it's the only day they are allowed to leave the campus. Aisha wondered whether this means that a student could possibly go to the Library at a time they wish, obviously still within the 8 am to 11 am window. It’s also not apparent why this particularly inconvenient time slot has been assigned to Women’s College students.
Although at an early hour, the students who visited the Library are very pleased with the decision and hope that more students would want to go after learning of their experience. The visit started with an introduction by library staff on using online catalogues. Shabnam, a final-year zoology student, said that being allowed in the library made her feel like she too is “part of AMU”. Syyedun Nisa, a mathematics student, echoed her sentiments but said that if books were made available in the Women’s College Library, they could save time spent on travelling to the main library. “I’ll go there again if I need to, not just because I want to,” she said.
Limited access
Not all students are entirely content with the three-hour access once a week but believed that if they voice their objections, “we’ll be told there’s no satisfying us”. The university had argued that although the Maulana Azad Library catalogue is available online, “it is regrettable that the number of demands for books [from Women’s College students] has been minuscule”.
Hopefully, this time around, the university will think of ways to encourage Women’s College students to access the resources of Maulana Azad Library at their own convenience rather than naively (or perhaps deliberately?) expecting all 2,456 of them to turn up at the library entrance at 8 on Sunday mornings.