When libraries go zzz…

ZLibrary has been a saviour to Zoya Hussain for the last few years Hussain is pursuing a Masters degree in Convergent Journalism at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi and used the shadow library for personal and academic books ldquoI am also a working journalistrdquo says the 23yearold ldquooften referring to research papers for my news reportsrdquo She covers sociopolitical issues and her current role is to write explainers for a websiteHussain is just one of many students who have been using shadow libraries to download books articles and research papers This content may be hard to find elsewhere for a number of reasons Paywalls copyright controls or other barriers placed by original ownersKaish Mohammed Shaikh and Aroon DeeplsquoOnline databases of content that is normally obscured or not readily accessiblersquo is Wikipediarsquos description of such a library with 108 million ebooks and around 89 million articles ZLibrary could be one of the worldrsquos largest The other popular ones are Library Genesis LibGen and SciHubLast week ZLibraryrsquos four URLs were blocked in India after corporate law book publisher Taxmann took action when 10 of its titles were found on it without authorisationAmal Ghosh who is pursuing a Masterrsquos degree in Germany says that his professors encourage students to refer to shadow librariesThe hardest blow has been dealt to the student community Hussain states that teachers often recommend books which arenrsquot pocketfriendly Stating an example she says ldquoA teacher suggested a journalism book that costs around R3000rdquo This is why they flock to such sites ldquoAs a student I canrsquot afford such expensive books so I download them from ZLibraryrdquo However she mentions the book was not mandatory but recommended for reference by professorsBuying multiple books was also a problem for Taiba Mohammed who is pursuing a Masters in Journalism and Communication in Mumbai ldquoPer semester every subject has four to five booksrdquo says the 22yearold adding there are at least five subjects per semester Within the books professors recommend only a few sections or chapters for reference ldquoIt doesnrsquot make sense to pay for so many books only to go through fragments that too just oncerdquo says MohammedDelhibased student Zoya Hussain was using shadow sites over the last four years to download books for leisure reading and more recently to access academic materialEven academicians empathise ldquoBanning these platforms may disadvantage students who need access to high quality research but cannot afford these journals and booksrdquo says a 30yearold professor from a private university in Bengaluru She worries that this may result in shoddy and inaccurate output or worse plagiarism among the students because they canrsquot access multiple sources for referenceAmal Ghosh who is studying Modern Indian Studies from the University of Goumlttingen in Germany says his professors openly recommend shadow libraries ldquoThey understand that it is not possible to keep paying for multiple research papersrdquo says the 23yearoldMost colleges and universities in India subscribe to the relevant journals which students can access ldquoMy college has only subscribed to a few specific ones so we resort to such sitesrdquo shrugs Hussain She needed access to Sage Journalrsquos website which hosts all the material published by the leading independent academic publisher but her college did not subscribe to itBesides the value of the content its format also made ZLibrary popular among students ldquoThe research papers came in different formats which I could read on my Kindle mobile phone or any other devicerdquo says Hussain Variety in format is crucial for those with visual disabilities points out Kaish Mohammed Shaikh who teaches at Aryabhatta College in New Delhi The PDF format of research papers or books incorporates the TexttoSpeech feature says the 30yearoldManju Naika Chief Library Officer at the central library at IITBombay points out that creation of research papers and academic books costs time and money ldquoMaking copyrighted material available for free may benefit students but hurts the ecosystem that creates such resourcesrdquo he says adding IITB subscribes to ldquoall major journals databases and other electronic resources It also has a good budget for purchasing books andor electronic books as neededrdquo Students can access more than 20000 journals ldquoIIT Bombay doesnrsquot encourage students to source academic material illegally and always encourages them to use authentic resources and under fair userdquo says Professor Sudarshan S Deputy Director Academic and Infrastructural AffairsHowever a student confessed that he did rely on shadow libraries and that some professors suggested them A fair pricing mechanism could be the solution believes Sudarshan adding that ldquomost books are also published regionally as lowcost paperback editionsrdquoDelhibased tech journalist Dhruv Bhutani opines that banning such sites will do more harm than good ldquoPiracy is illegalrdquo says the 31yearold ldquobut the paths to access academic work are incredibly userhostile Such works should cater knowledge but at the moment they only cater profits Itrsquos unfortunate that the power lies with corporations in this case the publishing industry which decides on how much academic works costrdquoAroon Deep the Chennaibased journalist who broke the story about ZLibrary being blocked says it isnrsquot the first shadow library to be banned in India There have been lawsuits against LibGen and SciHub tooA concrete solution Deep proposes is the One Nation One Subscription model ldquoThe government should pay for access to research articles journals and other academic material from around the world and citizens pay a reasonable recurring price to subscribe to themrdquo he suggests admitting that this is too much to expect from the Indian government Another alternative would be changing VPNs to access these sites to which Bhutani comments ldquoPeople have managed and will always manage to search for alternative access to what they needhelliprdquo