Center of Excellence in Higher Education
The First Private University in Bangladesh

Library

About the Library

North South University (NSU) Library grew over the years since 1992 and now has become one of the best university libraries in the country. This is the first fully automated university library in the country using Bi-lingual Library Management Software, developed by NSU Library, which supports MARC-21, web-based online lending and receiving, browsing databases of books, a-v materials, journals, newspapers and magazines, searching full-text online books and journals, creating institutional repositories, tracking circulation system, maintain RFID self check and book drop records, auto email alert services etc. Its online databases provide full access to all users, facilitates navigation and reservation of books from distant work-stations through its own website http://library.northsouth.edu. The users can also check their borrowing status, renew issued resources and can reserve three books at a time for 48 hours through the library website. This is the only university library in Bangladesh where the Library of Congress Classification System is being used to organize and arrange books, reports, journals and other resources.

The library has introduced state-of-the-art technology Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Based Library Management System to automate library operation and management for the first time in the country in December 2012, financed by the World Bank and the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh under the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP). Now the library users themselves can issue and return books using Self-Check and Book-Drop machines. They can also track the books on shelves using tracking machines.

 

          

            RFID Based Self Check Machine                                           Detection Gate


Resources

A total of around 49,500 books, reports and bound journals, over 40,000 online e-books, 36,000 online journals, 1,890 CD ROM books and databases, 226 DVDs and videos, 159 audio-cassettes and a good numbers of other resources of the library cover liberal arts, pure sciences, social sciences, law and commerce, particularly business, management, marketing, finance, economics, computer science and engineering, telecommunication, electrical engineering, environmental studies, English language and literature, history and culture, psychology, architecture, sociology, pharmacy, public health, biotechnology, biochemistry etc. In addition to these collections, the library subscribes print issues of 46 foreign and 19 local journals, 18 foreign and 22 local magazines, two foreign dailies and almost all leading national dailies of Bangladesh.

The NSU library is the pioneer of subscribing online journals and MyAthens in the country. It started subscription to online journals with JSTOR, IEEE, ACM Digital library and 39 titles of online journals in various disciplines for the first time in 2002. After that the other libraries started subscription to online journals in Bangladesh. It has also started subscription to e-resource databases, namely, EconLit, AHEAD and Global Development Finance in 1998. Now, the library has access to over 36,000 titles of full-text online research journals in various disciplines from 52 agencies and publishers, namely, ACM, JSTOR, IEEE, EBSCO Host, Emerald, Blackwell-Synergy, Wiley Inter-science, Springer, Oxford University Press, University of Chicago Press, Cambridge University Press, Nature and Palgrave Macmillan, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Royal Society, American Institute of Physics, Oxford Scholarship Online, HINARI, OARE, AGORA, WIPO, SPIE Digital Library, ASCE Research Library, ASABE Technical Library, UN Data Portals etc. online journals databases and over 40,000 online books from Emerald, Taylor & Francis , Project MUSE, De Gruyter LIS collection, Agropedia, HINARI, OARE. AGORA etc. online e-books databases.

All registered members of NSU library get access to online journals and e-books databases from inside and outside campus through Internet. Recently the library has introduced Knimbus (federated search) facility to search all subscribed online resources and books from a single platform.

 

Repositories

The NSU library started developing its online journals and books repositories in 2003. These repositories cover books and articles written by teachers, students and researchers of NSU and full-text articles of 160 online subscribed journals from 2002 to date. The numbers of articles and books of these repositories are increasing day by day. To explore repositories please visit http://library.northsouth.edu.

Cyber and Audio-Visual Center

It maintains a cyber and audio-visual center equipped with 50 brand computers with Wi-Fi and broadband Internet connection. In addition to this, the library is donned with 30 computers in its various floors to use online resources for supporting courses. All students, faculty members and staff members of the university can browse, download and print materials from these computers. The audio visual unit is also equipped with TV, VCD, VCR, DVD, multi-media projector and other audio-visual equipments.

Sections    

At present, the library maintains 12 different sections, namely, arts and social sciences, applied sciences and engineering, bio-medical sciences, reference, periodicals, cyber & audio-visuals, newspaper archive, study hall, faculty corner, Chinese books, acquisition & processing, and library administration to provide better services to its users.

Members     

All students, teachers, BOT members, officers, teaching assistants, research assistants and faculty assistants are entitled to become the library member.

Services     

Currently, the library provides lending, reference, readers' guidance, internet, reading, news clipping, database searching and printing, CD writing, audio-visual, current awareness, SDI and reprography services to its users. The Wi-Fi and broadband internet connection of the library building help the library users to access online resources easily.

Service Hours

NSU library maintains 7 days a working week. It is open, Sunday through Thursday, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday. On Friday, it is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a Jumma prayer break from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and maintains single shift from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the semester break. It remains closed on public holidays and other dates announced by the university authorities.

Floor Area and Capacity

The library consists of six floors with over 70,000 sq.ft. area at the south-east side of the NSU campus at Bashundhara, Dhaka. It can accommodate over 1,200 students at a time in its well-furbished reading rooms. On an average 2,000 users use the library everyday.

Orientation and Training

The library arranges orientation program every semester for the new students to demonstrate how to use the university library systems and services effectively.

The library also offers a 14-week training program titled 'Certificate Course in Digital & Online Librarianship' for those who are interested to know how to use the Internet resources in higher education and research, and how to design and maintain website, and set up online digital libraries. The faculty members and students of NSU may also enroll in this training course.

 

URL of Online Journals and Books
http://library.northsouth.edu/OnlineJournals.php and
http://library.northsouth.edu/OnlineBooks.php