Panel formed for transparency in book purchase for public libraries
He said the procurement portal, a repository of all the supply and work orders, will be launched and the platform would receive the requirements of books by the official concerned.
Anna Centenary Library (Maalaimalar)
CHENNAI: In a bid to increase transparency and streamline the procurement process, the Directorate of Public Libraries in Tamil Nadu has constituted a book selection committee comprising field experts.
The Directorate of Public Libraries, which comes under the School Education Department, has established different categories of public libraries from the Connemara public library (State central library), Anna Centenary Library, 32 district central libraries, 1,926 branch, 113 libraries, 1,915 village libraries, 14 mobile libraries and 771 part-time libraries totalling to 4,660 libraries.
A senior official from the School Education Department said the new committee will ensure transparency in every stage of book procurement by making appropriate amendments to the existing procurement policy for purchase of books to libraries.
He said the procurement portal, a repository of all the supply and work orders, will be launched and the platform would receive the requirements of books by the official concerned.
“The data will be scrutinised before purchasing the required books and periodicals,’’ added the senior official .
Accordingly, books and periodicals will be selected by a newly constituted book selection committee based on scientific, social, historical, literary, cultural, and intellectual quests to meet the changing needs of libraries.
“The work order portal will check whether the ordered books are already available in the libraries to reduce the duplicate copies,” he said adding, “As soon as the books are received the invoice and bills will be cross-checked with purchase order such as price and discount rates and it would be forwarded to the stock entry”.
Stating that the stock entry will have all the details of books including the title, author, publisher, vendor, and year of publication, the official said after updating the stock entry the payment process will be initiated.
In addition, the expert committee will also eliminate the shortcomings in procurement of newspapers and periodicals for the public libraries and according to the report of this committee, selected dailies and periodicals will be purchased and supplied to public libraries.
