GUWAHATI, April 18 ? Only a number of Assamese books can be covered by the National Bibliography, compiled, edited and published by the Central Reference Library, Kolkata, since 1958. The Bibliography has the records of the books published in 15 Indian languages, including English. Other than Assamese, books published in NE languages could not be listed by the Central Reference Library (CRL) in the Bibliography. Disclosing this, K K Kochukosky, Librarian, CRL, told The Assam Tribune during his visit to the State in connection with the five-day workshop on preparation of bibliographies in NE Indian Languages, held between March 18 and 22 at the Gauhati University (GU) Department of Library and Information Science, that this made the NE Indian languages lose the opportunity to preserve their titles for future.
This has also made them miss the scope for world-wide publicity to their titles, making thus all their exercises for wider publicity and recognition futile, he said. Sri Kochukosky attributed this situation to three factors ? failure of the NE publishers to send their publications to the National Library, Kolkata under the Delivery of Books Act, 1954, absence of persons in the CRL who are well versed to deal with the problem and existence of quite a good number of languages in the NE States. The number of languages in NE States is such that every State of the region has more than half-a-dozen languages, he said. He also admitted that the situation concerning the publications in other languages like English, Telegu, Oriya, Hindi, Punjabi, etc, is also not that hopeful.
To tackle the problem the Union Department of Culture held several meetings with the publishers? bodies, like the Federation of Publishers and the All India Publishers? Association, on the issue. These organisations usually complain that the cost of book production is very high and they can not afford seven free copies under different Acts. Under the Delivery of Books Act, a publisher is to deposit four copies of the titles free-of-cost, one each to the National Library, Kolkata, Konnemara Public Library, Chennai, State Central Library, Mumbai and the Delhi Public Library, Delhi.
Besides, a publisher is to deposit two copies of each of his publications free-of-cost to his/her respective State Government under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 and one copy of each of the publications for copy right, Sri Kochukosky said. The publishers also complain of a very high postal tariff arguing that books weighing more than 100 grams require postal charges more than their production cost.
Moreover, it is also argued by the publishers that cases are there that only a few copies of high cost books are published. Sending a number of free copies to the authorities concerned may affect the economy of the publishers. The Union department of Culture is actively considering their complaints and has been contemplating amendment of the Delivery of Books Act to restrict the number of free copies to three or four and making it obligatory on the part of the recipient library to bear the postal charges. The draft of the amendment is being prepared.
In addition to these, a heavy penalty clause is also being included in the draft to discipline the earring publishers. But, unless the publishers feel themselves duty-bound to send their titles to the National Library no positive result can be expected. this will of course require a frequent interaction between the National Library authorities and the publishers, Sri Kochukosky said. The CRL, however, chalked out a different course of action for the NE States. With a view to training the professionals from this area, the CRL organised the workshop-cum-training programme mentioned above, in collaboration with the GU Department of Library and Information Science. This was aimed at enabling the NE professionals to compile bibliographies in their respective languages so that these can in the long run be included in the National Bibliography, Sri Kockukosky said.
In all eleven professionals from the States of Arunachal, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura took part in the programme, inaugurated by Dr Annada Charan Bhagawati, former Vice-Chancellor, Arunachal University. This was the first programme of its type organised by the CRL since its inception. It is significant to note here that only one representative from NE India is there in CRL. He is assistant Editor Karuna Kanta Deka. The CRL also published NE India : A Select Bibliography, synchronising with the workshop with a view to presenting a model before the participants. This is the first published bibliography of NE India, covering seven NE States and Sikkim.