Expatriate Bangladeshi 2000

Linking Individuals, Regions, Ideas, and Actions

Donated Periodicals for Libraries in Bangladesh

Background:

Transferring scientific and technological knowledge from the industrially advanced countries to Bangladesh is one of the ways non-resident Bangladeshis can aid the process of development.  The advent of the Internet makes it easy to do this electronically.  However, access to the Internet in Bangladesh is very limited and there is still great reliance on traditional sources such as books and magazines for gathering new scientific and technological knowledge..  

Funding constraints does not permit the Libraries of public institutions like Dhaka University (DU) and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to subscribe to premiere magazines and journals published in the west.  On the other hand, premiere scientific and technical journals regularly gather dust in the offices and homes of many non-residents.  If a logistic could thus be developed whereby the journals and magazines could be sent on a regular basis to libraries in Bangladesh at costs that were reasonable and affordable, a great many students in Bangladesh would have exposure to important trends and developments in their fields of expertise.

Initial Inquiry:

Mr. Muhammad Sayeedur Rahman is a Unix System Administrator with Kentucky's Governor's Office for Technology.  He did his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology and graduate studies at the City University of New York.  Mr. Rahman currently subscribed to a number of trade publications addressing various aspects of information technology and expressed his willingness to donate them to the libraries of DU and BUET.  On January 25, 2001 he posted his proposal in several on-line forums including EB2000 and ALOCHONA.

Mr. Rahman immediately received several responses from other IT professionals located in different parts of the United States who wanted to join in his efforts.  Encouraged by their response, he explored different methods for transporting the magazines to Bangladesh.  

• The Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC was his first port of call.  He contacted the Press Minister and asked if he was willing to use his diplomatic bag to carry the magazines.  Unfortunately, the discussion was not very productive and the option for using Embassy Officials had to be immediately ruled out.
• Mr. Rahman's call to Bangladesh Biman was slightly more productive.  The rate of $2/Kg offered by Biiman's Cargo agent was very reasonable.  The magazines could be shipped in just three days.  The only caveat was that the magazines had to be cleared through customs at the Dhaka Airport.
• US Postal Service was Mr. Rahman's final point of exploration.  The cheapest option he found was the use of "M-Bags" (Direct sacks of printed matter to a single foreign  addressee), which takes 4-6 weeks to deliver through surface mail.  A shipment weighing 11lbs would cost around $19; a 25lb shipment around $38.

Response from DU and BUET:

Both DU and BUET Librarians were very pleased to receive Mr. Rahman's proposal for donating IT magazines and journals to their respective libraries.  They indicated that the collection in their libraries were very poor and the donated magazines would be extremely helpful to their students.  Following was the response from Md. Nurul Huda, Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Dhaka University:

From: Huda [mailto:nhuda@du.bangla.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 3:31 AM
To: Muhammad.Rahman@mail.state.ky.us
Subject: Donation of Magazines and Journals


Dear Muhammad Sayeedur Rahman,
 
Assalamualaikum,
You sent an E-mail to the Registrar of Dhaka University informing that you
subscribe a number of latest IT Magazines and Journals and want to donate
them for the University. He forwarded the E-mail to the Computer Science
Department. Our Department is not so rich with Journals and Magazines that
could be very helpful for our research students. We cordially want to
accept your donation of those materials, specially IT magazines and
Journals. Please send those to the following address.
 
Chairman,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Dhaka,
Dhaka 1000.
Bangladesh.
 
 
For any further information please feel free to contact me at my E-mail
address ( nhuda@du.bangla.net <mailto:nhuda@du.bangla.net> ). Thank you very
much for your contribution to our Department.
 
 
Md. Nurul Huda
Lecturer,
Department of Computer Science,
Univesity of Dhaka.

The encouraging responses from the DU and BUET Librarians prompted Mr. Rahman to send in an initial batch of magazine on February 16.  Still, he kept searching for a more permanent arrangement.

Setting up the Logistics

Captain Kamal Mahmood, Chief of Flight Operations, Bangladesh Biman, joined EB2000 while it was still in its infancy.  During the 1980s, he was routinely collecting academic journals from different parts of the world and providing them to departmental libraries in Dhaka University.  When he received Mr. Mohammad Sayeedur Rahman's proposal through the EB2000 network, he immediately volunteered his services to arrange for their shipments.

The remaining logistical requirement was to collect the magazines and deliver them to the Librarians at the DU and BUET Libraries.  Mr. Tanvir Chowdhury, Managing Director of Global Amitech and co-founder of EB2000, graciously came forward to offer his help.  He agreed to collect the magazines from Captain Kamal Mahmood and periodically hand them over to BUET and DU Librarians.

Thus on March 19, 2000, nearly two months after he originally floated his proposal, Mr. Rahman's idea for sending donated magazines for the students of DU and BUET, was set in motion.

Contact Information

For further information on how you can send your donated periodicals to the DU and BUET libraries, please contact:

Muhammad S. Rahman

Unix System Administrator 

Commonwealth Of Kentucky 

Governor's Office for Technology 

Server Administration Branch 

101 Cold Harbor Drive 

Frankfort, KY - 40601, USA 

Phone: (502) 564-8722

Email: rahman500@hotmail.com

[ Home ] [ Ontime Strategy ] [ ICT Policy ] [ Computer Procurement Initiative ] [ Entrepreneurs Network ] [ Periodicals for Libraries ]

Send mail to info@eb2000.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1999 Expatriate Bangladeshi 2000, Inc.
Last modified: September 27, 2006

Site hosted by SJ Innovation; technical & strategic assistance by  .