When the Library Became More Than a Library
There are two ways to enter a library: to look for a book, or to look for an answer.
During 2025–26, our students did both.
But this time, they were not simply coming to the Library to read, borrow or prepare. They were coming to think, explore, connect and demonstrate what they had learned.
The Library became the setting for a series of Open Book Tests (OBTs) conducted across a remarkable range of subjects. And somewhere between the bookshelves and the examination papers, something important happened—the Library began to look less like a support facility and more like an extension of the classroom.
An Open Book Test is, after all, not a test of how much a student can remember.
It is a test of how well a student can think with knowledge.
Students had to locate relevant information, interpret it, connect concepts and apply what they found. The book was not a shortcut to the answer; it was a partner in the learning process.
Across the year, the Library hosted OBTs in subjects ranging from Universal Human Values and E-TAN Club, Community Mapping and Literary Expression and Activities to Discrete Time Signal Processing, Microprocessors and Microcontrollers, Natural Language Processing, Management Information System, Mobile Communication, Environment and Technology, Data Structures and Algorithms, Digital Communication, AI DS II and CAI.
The initiative brought together faculty members including Dr. Vaqar Ansari, Mr. Paul Fernandes, NSS Officer, Dr. Anjana Ranjan, Ms. Madhuri Sonule, Ms. Valentina Rani Basker, Dr. Vandana Patil, Mr. Rajkumar Shende, Ms. Preethi Colaco, Ms. Mercy Rebonica, Dr. Vaishali Jadhav, Ms. Amrita Mathur and Dr. Joanne Gomes.
More Than an Examination
What makes these sessions significant is not simply the number of OBTs conducted. It is the learning philosophy behind them.
In a world where information is only a search away, education cannot stop at remembering information. Students need to know where to look, what to trust, how to interpret it and how to use it meaningfully.
That is where the Library finds its true relevance.
Every Open Book Test was an opportunity for students to experience the Library differently—not as a silent room filled with books, but as a living academic space where knowledge could be discovered and applied.
For the faculty, it was an opportunity to bring assessment closer to real-world learning.
For the students, it was an opportunity to replace the anxiety of “What if I don't remember?” with the confidence of “I know how to find my way to the answer.”
And for the Library, it was a reaffirmation of a larger purpose:
A great academic library does not simply provide access to knowledge. It teaches learners how to navigate it.
The Open Book Tests of 2025–26 were therefore not just examinations conducted in the Library.
They were a glimpse of what learning beyond the classroom can look like.
Because sometimes, the most powerful thing a library can give a student is not an answer—but the confidence to find one.
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