VietNamNet Bridge - University students are required to spend appropriate time on self-study, but few students have the habit of going to the library.

The libraries of the HCMC University of Social Sciences & Humanities, HCMC University of Natural Sciences and Agriculture & Forestry University are believed to be the most modern school libraries in Vietnam. However, they are usually deserted because students don’t have the habit of going to the library.

Ngo Thi Yen, a student of the HCMC University of Natural Sciences, said she rarely goes because she can find documents she needs on internet.

“Why do you still have to go to library if you can stay at home and look for information with your laptop?” she said. 

“The knowledge we have to prepare for the exams can be found in textbooks and documents provided by lecturers,” she explained.

University students are required to spend appropriate time on self-study, but few students have the habit of going to the library.

Meanwhile, a student from the HCMC University of Social Sciences & Humanity said she would go to library to borrow books when she has to prepare for exams.

In fact, libraries, to some extent, are useful for many students. They go there to access internet for free, play games or watch films. Some of them go to library just to enjoy the fresh air in hot days as there is no air-conditioner in their dormitory rooms. Others go there to sleep, or gossip, because libraries’ large space can be a wonderful place for meetings.

“The cool air in library and free internet attract students who come to entertain themselves and surf on the internet,” said Do Thi Loi, deputy director of the HCMC Agriculture and Forestry.

A librarian in HCMC noted that students do not read books for knowledge. They only rush to go to library if they have exams tomorrow. 

“The students borrow books so that they can crib documents at the exams,” she said. “And they would disappear after the exams finish."

According to Hoang Thi Thuc, director of the HCMC National University’s Library, the number of students coming to read books has decreased sharply in the last three years, from 400,000 in 2013 to 300,000 in 2015. The number of documents lent has also decreased by 50 percent, from 500,000 in 2012 to 250,000 in 2015.

Meanwhile, she can see the considerable increase in the number of document downloads, from 100,000 in 2009 to 185,000 in 2014. The figure was four times higher in 2015 with 420,000 downloads.

At the HCMC University of Natural Sciences, 120 people registered to use internet documents in the 2011-2012 academic year, while the figure rose to 79, mostly lecturers, in 2012-2013. Later, as students also can register to use online documents, the figure increased to 2,300 in 2014-2015.


NLD