“Connecting People with People and People to Opportunity”
The British Council is delighted to build on the recent refurbishment of its library in Dhaka and enhance and update its presence in Chittagong by partnering with Chittagong Independent University (CIU) to provide an improved and resourceful library with better accessibility.
The British Council Library has expanded their services into the digital arena by introducing
e-membership facilities and by providing access to on-line information products, a vast collection of over 80,000 e-books and 14,000 e-journals, newspapers and magazines. Members will now be able to gain access to the new e-library from anywhere in the world. In Chittagong, the British Council Library resources, products and activities will be delivered from CIU and will be known as “British Council Library at Chittagong Independent University”. Besides the online offers, there will be over 7,000 books, periodicals and DVDs covering a wide variety of disciplines.
Inauguration ceremony has taken place on Saturday 1 November 2014. Mr Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Honourable State Minister, Ministry of Land has inaugurated the New Library as the Chief Guest. Towhid Samad, Chairman Board of Trustee, Chittagong Independent University is the special guest.
The new collections reflect British Council’s core priority areas of English, Arts, Education and Society and their resources include publications and enriched material on Professional Development skills.
Country Director Brendan McSharry, OBE said: “The opening of our new joint library in Chittagong in partnership with the Chittagong Independent University (CIU) is a fitting marker of the 60th Anniversary of the British Council Library in Bangladesh. Our joint library is bigger and better than before. The new library has more books, digital resources and study space. It provides quick access to global information and gives an opportunity to meet and network together, and participate in a range of interesting talks and exhibitions. Moreover, this more modern library is in the heart of the port city of Chittagong and at a high quality and prestigious institute – CIU. It delivers a range of exciting outreach activities across the Division and region of Chittagong such as reading competitions, professional forums, language clubs and the like which help our members to improve their English communication skills. We have altogether 7 branch libraries with a total of nearly 8,000 members - across Bangladesh and plan to develop more in the partnership where possible. If you are not a member of our library, become one today.”
Ms. Sarwat Reza, Manager, Library said: “Our new Library in Chittagong is beginning its journey with a fresh look, enriched resources and improved services, where we focus on creating opportunity for the young audiences of Bangladesh by providing state-of-the-art access to both physical and digital information, creating active networks and communities of interest, and by supporting our core areas of work in cultural relations – English, Arts, Education and Society’’.
The Library is open from 10am to 6pm Saturday to Thursday.