Mumbai University holds librarians' meet to spread word on Mumbai Book Festival

Mumbai, October 24: A special meeting of librarians of colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai was called so that news of the Mumbai Book Festival reaches students, professors and researchers in the colleges. The festival aims to promote the habit of reading and to introduce students, researchers and literature lovers to good books.

The festival will be held from November 24 to 29, 2026, at the university's Kalina campus. More than 600 book stalls will be set up. There will also be literary sessions, programmes for children, cultural programmes and exhibitions on different subjects. It is being organised jointly by the Ministry of Education (Government of India), National Book Trust India, the Maharashtra government, the University of Mumbai and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The University of Mumbai is the knowledge partner of the festival.

The meeting was held by the university's Gyan Srot Kendra. It discussed how to take news of the festival to students, professors and researchers of the colleges. In the first session, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ravindra Kulkarni, National Book Trust India chairman Prof. Milind Marathe and the festival's nodal officer Prof. Valmik Sarwade gave guidance.

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ravindra Kulkarni said that with more than 600 stalls, librarians, professors, students and readers will get a chance to choose good books on different subjects. Along with buying books, people of all ages can also enjoy the literary and cultural programmes. According to him, the festival will help in choosing books needed for college libraries and in kindling a love of reading among students.

National Book Trust India chairman Prof. Milind Marathe said well-known writers and literary figures from different Indian languages will attend the fair. Conversations with authors, literary discussions, symposiums and cultural programmes will be the main attractions. He appealed to college librarians to bring students and professors along to the festival. He also called it a "celebration of knowledge".

In the second session, Dr Nandkishor Motewar, director of the Gyan Srot Kendra, introduced the 'Shodhchakra' platform. He gave a presentation on how useful it is in research management, what its main features are and what it means for researchers.

The Gyan Srot Kendra has so far deposited 13,018 PhD theses in the digital repository 'Shodhganga'. For this reason, the University of Mumbai ranks fifth in the country in depositing PhD theses. This is seen as a sign of the university's commitment to spreading research, exchanging knowledge and providing study resources through open access.

The University of Mumbai is also part of the 'One Nation One Subscription' scheme run through the Education Ministry's INFLIBNET Centre. Under it, the university's students, teachers and researchers have got more than 13,000 research journals from renowned international publishers. This is helping raise the quality of research and provide high-grade study material.

An MoU has also been signed for the 'Shodhchakra' research lifecycle management system. Under it, the university has so far created profiles of more than 2,000 PhD guides and 1,368 PhD researchers. The system will automate the various processes from PhD admission to completion of research, make it easier to manage research information and make research administration more effective.

The University of Mumbai is also part of the 'Shodhgangotri' initiative, which makes available researchers' research proposals and information on possible research topics. This helps in understanding new directions in research, avoiding duplication of work and speeding up research.

These initiatives show the university's commitment to strengthening its research system, giving open access to Indian research literature and bringing academic knowledge from around the world to researchers.

The meeting stressed publicising the book festival in the education sector through direct talks with the librarians of the participating colleges. An appeal was also made to use the festival to build a culture of reading, give students literature in different languages and enrich libraries.