Library

ABOUT US

The Mar Thoma Residential School Library was constituted in 1974 alongside the Mar Thoma Residential School and was shifted to the new building in 1994. The Library spans into two sub-spaces to address the needs of its users which go by the titles Junior Library and Main Library. The Junior Library is for students from Standard I to Standard IV and the Assistant Librarian is in charge of the Junior Library with the Librarian overseeing the proceedings. The Main Library is for students from Standard V to Standard XII and the Librarian is in charge of the Main Library. The Library was systematically re-organised in 1999 by the Librarian, Ms. Baizel George, with the expert guidance and support of experienced Library Consultants. The services of the Library has been automated in 2005 using an integrated Library management Software for Windows – LIBSOFT Solutions Server version 4.1.

The Mar Thoma Residential School Library has remained an integral part of the institution catering to the requirements of the students and staff of the school. The mission and vision of the school library are as follows:

To provide every individual an opportunity to make the best use of reading material available in the form of books, periodicals, journals, newspapers and other non-book materials
To help teachers of the institution in the preparation of their instructional courses and to keep abreast current developments in different subject areas
To lend a hand in acquisition, processing, storage and retrieval of publications related to the various academic endeavors of the institution
To provide timely and accurate information to its users

Technical Organization of Library Collection

The arrangement of documents in the library is according to Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), devised by Melvil Dewey and follows Anglo American Cataloguing Rules (AACR-2). The Library Catalogue which was once kept accessible to the public in the physical form of card catalogue but now as a digital OPAC so that users can locate books available at the library.

Library Advisory Committee

We have an active Library Advisory Committee to formulate suggestions for the improvement of the library and formulate library policies and objectives.

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.
-Anna Quindlen

Resources

The Main Library stands tall with a collection of about 20000 books and has subscriptions to various academic journals and periodicals as well as popular Newspapers in both English and Malayalam. We also have a collection of about 6000 books and subscriptions to several periodicals in our Junior Library. Our Library follows a book selection policy strictly to make the best use of the available budget in meeting the reader’s requirement. Open access system is practiced wherein users can go directly to the shelves and browse, which helps in their search to a great extent and also to come across related books useful for them. The library also has a good collection of back volumes of the journals as we are intent on the idea of archiving.

Information Literacy Programme

Information literacy is knowing when, and why you need information, where to find it and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner. As part of information literacy programme we are conducting Library orientation and user education programme for our students. Library orientation is to introduce users to facilities and resources in the library, to develop library skills, to make students into independent users and learners in the library. User education is one of the important services of the library each year for new entrants into the School library, which includes:

How to use the library
How to locate a particular book
Preparation of library notes, Shelf arrangements, Classification, Cataloguing etc.

Previous Question Papers

Previous Question Papers of both Terminal Examinations of all classes as well as Scholarship Examinations (Std I to Std VIII) are collected during examination and archived for the benefit of users in the Library. Links to scanned copies of these question papers are available on the Library website.