The collection comprises documents covering a wide range of subjects, larger part of which is in English, although an important part of it covers literature in Bengali, Hindi and a sizeable part in French, German, Irish and other European languages.
There are over 44 000 books on various disciplines including Social Sciences, Arts, Literature and History. There are old and interesting collections of biographical works, philosophy and religion.
The main collection is made up of Subject Reference Books, General Reference Books and Fiction.
The library also has a Book Bank facility.
In addition to the book collection, the library subscribes to about 72 periodicals, both Indian and foreign - back volumes of about 15 of which are bound and preserved - and 5 newspapers. A CD-ROM collection comprising both educational CDs as well as entertaining VCDs and DVDs is also being built up. The library currently has about 150 CDS.
The Loreto College Library is open to users 6 days a week from 8 am to 5 pm. On holidays too the library is open for a few hours. As it is an open access library, readers may browse through the collections themselves.
Both lending and reference documents are arranged in the numerical sequence of the Dewey Decimal Classification system, which in the past two years has been updated to the 21st edition.
Membership is open to all staff members, students, retired faculty and nuns of the Community.
Search for a book is facilitated by two catalogues, viz., Name and Classified as well as the OPAC which is in the process of being built up.
There are 4 computers for the users, dedicated to provide information through CD-ROMs and the Internet. Members are allowed to use the Internet for research purposes from 8.30 am to 4 pm., Monday to Saturday. CDROMs are for consultation purpose in the library. Special headphones facilitate listening to them.
Photo copying facility is also available.
A collection of Newspaper clippings is being maintained.
There is a library orientation programme for the freshers every year. Also an Information literacy programme is being developed to make user education much more meaningful. Besides, a set of rules and guide lines is available in the library which are referred to from time to time in order to ensure the smooth running of the library.
The library staff are always available for any assistance required.
What is going on
Computerization of the library with integrated software LibSys, with the view that users would now be able to use the facility of an Open Public Access Catalogue to locate and access materials available in the library and also issue and returns books through Bar Coded Library Tickets.
