IIT Kharagpur becomes India's first university to get ISO Certification

Kolkata: Central Library at IIT Kharagpur has received ISO 9001:2015 Certification thereby becoming the first library in the country to have this certification.

According to a senior professor at the institute, the two unique innovations introduced in the library in recent times have given its library an edge. The National Digital Library of India (NDLI) commissioned by the Ministry of Human Resource and Developed by IIT Kharagpur has democratised the face of education in India. This online digital treasure-trove has already been able to bring in as many as 1.26 crore books, journals, periodicals and research materials from nearly 100 leading institutions across the country and the world at one's fingertips.

IIT Kharagpur also released the mobile app in April 2017 giving one who has a smartphone the opportunity to access the collection anytime and from anywhere in India.

An innovative "Reading Lounge" established at the Central Library recently has advanced facilities like video conferencing, conducting presentation and e-book readers for accessing e-books, computers with sophisticated touch screen monitors etc.

Commenting on the new feather in IIT KGP's cap, Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said: "We are trying to develop more innovations by taking suggestions from students and others on how we can utilise this in the best possible manner and create more special features like the Lounge, NDL, etc."

The Central Library at the premier institute is one of the largest and finest technical libraries in Asia. It has been catering to the needs of the 10,000 students who are undergraduates, postgraduates, research scholars, 700 faculty members and more than 1,000 staff members of the 19 departments, 9 centres, 12 schools and 15 research facilities of the Institute.