COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF DEVELOPING READING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS IN UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Dr. B.M.N. College of Home Science is situated in a central suburb of Mumbai and caters to the undergraduate education of women students from across class, linguistic, religious backgrounds. The vision of the institute is “Empowerment of Women through Quality in Education” and the library’s collection incorporates representative materials in a wide variety of formats covering a broad range of interest to support the vision. It was observed that a large number of women students admitted into the college had problems with fluency in English language and communication skills, as they had done their secondary education in vernacular medium. This led to problems in academic and co curricular performances. The library in collaboration with the English Department decided to work on a strategy to improve their overall academic and co curricular performance by providing remediation. This has led to establishing a sizeable collection to improve and enhance communication skills, fluency in English language of such students. The present study looks at the collection development practice followed library in order to help develop reading, fluency and presentation skills and thus augment the present day teaching – learning process. The paper will discuss the need for the collection, process of collection, use and evaluation of the collection developed for the purpose of developing and improving reading and presentation skills of the student