VietNamNet Bridge – The survey conducted at the three biggest universities specializing in social science training in late 2011 showed that schools do not pay much attention to upgrading libraries simply because of the lack of money.

Vietnamese universities’ libraries found as “having no soul”

The three surveyed schools included the Academy for Journalism and Communication, the Hanoi University of Education, and the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanity.

Vietnamese universities’ libraries found as “having no soul”

The Academy for Journalism and Communication is the leading school in its field in Vietnam with 1500 full time training students. However, the school has only 450 million dong to spend on its libraries.

Do Thuy Hang, Head of the Information & Library Division of the school, said the sum of money is too small which forces the officers here to think twice before deciding to buy books. How many to buy and where to buy have always been the big questions for the officers.

Hang went on to say she also has to think about what publishing houses to choose. For example, the Thong Tan (press) Publishing House always offers diversified books, but the printing quality of the books is always lower than that of the Hanoi National Publishing House, which means that the books of Thong Tan would not be durable.

When asked about the numbers of book copies, Hang said the school prioritizes to buy the books to be used as the basic materials for students, about 50 sets of books for every kind. Meanwhile, the school would buy only one copy of dictionary, because the books are always the most expensive.

Especially, the students of the journalism school, who would become journalists, do not have many opportunities to read newspapers at the school, because the school only orders some copies for every newspaper.

The Hanoi University of Education, the biggest pedagogical school in Vietnam, which provides teachers to all the provinces and cities, every year spends 300-500 million dong to upgrade its libraries.

According to Nguyen Thi Hong Trang, Deputy Director of the school’s Information and Library Center, there are some 350,000 kinds of books, in both Vietnamese and foreign languages, at the libraries.

Trang admitted that the school does not intend to buy foreign journals and books because they are too expensive, though she knows that they are useful to lecturers and students as well.

“The modest sum of money is not enough to develop the material sources and upgrade libraries,” Trang said.

Meanwhile, Ngo Thi Hong from the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanity said the information & library center of the school now has some 100,000 books.

However, she said the books have to serve the students from three schools, which are also the members of the Hanoi National University, including the University for Social Sciences and Humanity, University of Education and University of Natural Sciences.

The University of Social Sciences and Humanity only has an area of 1200 square meters to contain such numerous copies of books. As a result, many books are put on the staircase, under the bad preservation conditions.

The high number of books and the small library may make people worried that there would be not enough seats for students at the library, especially when it opens until 6.30 pm only.

However, no need to worry about the seats for students at libraries. Students do not intend to go to libraries every day, and they only go there when preparing for exams.

Meanwhile, the library of the journalism school which covers an area of 3000 square meter has been used for different purposes. Sometimes it is used as a classroom or serves seminars.

Van Chung