Debub University Libraries

The present Debub University main Library & Documentation Service situated in Awassa Agricultural College Campus was established before twenty years as an attachment to the then Awassa Junior Agricultural College, & which is due to shift to the new Debub University's Main Campus, has gone through various development processes consequent upon the growth and expansion of the parent institutions at different times. It had been also, a case in point here, part of the Addis Ababa University libraries system for many years and not until only some recent years back that it has been established as a self-contained unit of the present ACA and later DU. Libraries in each colleges have their own decentralized administrative system.

Departments in the Library

The library is broadly divided into public service and support service divisions within which the following departments are organized

· Reference service
· Acquisitions
· Documentation
· Cataloguing & Classification
· Periodicals
· Circulation

Resources and Collections

Currently the library houses large number of volumes of materials in different form. It utilizes DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification scheme) and AACR (Anglo-American cataloguing Rules) for organizing the resources. For easier access & literature search the catalogue is sometimes assisted by a computerized database using micro CDS-ISIS software.

Every fiscal year acquisition of library materials is administered through institutional budget allotted for that purpose. In fact, gift from individuals, governmental and non-governmental organizations also form an important part of the existing total library holding. In this connection mention should be made of about the fact that most of the serial publication collection is secured through donations from individuals, donor agencies and similar educational & research institutions home and overseas.
As accession register is not maintained and no inventory of the library's holdings has been done lately, the figures indicated here under are rough estimates after the status report (Feb. 2000) compiled three years back.

      No.     Item                     Qty.             Remark             
      1.  Book (in title)            31,614       All generalities are 
                                                  included here         
      2.  Periodicals & Scientific 
          Journals (in number)       29,930                            
      3.  Documents                  16,500                            
      4.  Microfilms                  2,400                             
      5.  Bibliographical & 
          full-text CD-ROM              63                              
      6.  Audio Cassettes                 6                             
      7.  Atlases & Maps                 22                            
      8.  Thesis                        560                             
             

Services

The whole University Community; students, academic & administrative staff as well as researchers coming from other institutions are the beneficiaries of the library's service. The library also stays open for 15 hours a day and seven days a week.
The basic library services to both students and staff are:

· Provision of orientation on library use and reference services
· Loan of reserved books for spot reading and overnight use by students
· Fifteen days loan of book to senior students
· Loan of textbooks to students for a semester
· Loan of textbooks and other books to academic staff for a semester
· Loan of current and unbound periodicals to staff for one or two days, respectively
· Provision of Internet service for staff and researchers
· Xerox services for both students and staff
· Binding service

Staffs

Currently, the Main Library & Documentation Service is run by a very small staff size. The main library in Awassa campus has about 50 staffs and out of which one a bachelor in library science, two diploma and the other supportive staffs with various level training in librarianship.