kolhapur the shivaji university library will soon offer more than 100 ebooks in the popular marathi fiction and nonfiction categories across the university campus in an attempt to cultivate the reading habit among students the books will be made available on university intranet separate computers for reading the electronic version of the book also will be made available university librarian namita khot said we have tieup with mehta publishing house for providing the books the facility will be launched simultaneously with the inauguration of the new library building on the campus soon the books are from the popular fiction and nonfiction categories in marathi language the university has observed that students refer to only academic books at most of the times khot said adding that initiatives such as these are necessary to cultivate the light reading habit almost every student these days own a smart phone with internet and wifi connectivity since the university has good internet intranet and wifi facility we can capitalize on it by making books available on the intranet from where students can read them on their mobiles or tablets she said khot told toi that the scheme will cost almost rs 2 lakh for the books and only mehta publishing house from pune had approached them with the idea we are open for student centric initiatives if other publishers too have same kind of book availability we are very much open for hearing from them said khot the university will also buy an academic database of books at a cost of around rs 60 lakh the database will have the book record of over 2000 books and will be helpful for postgraduate students she said these two initiatives will be financed from the university grants commissions general development funds said khot kavita mali a pg student said that it is one of the attempts that no educational institution has attempted and it can help students get to know about marathi literature the university already has a book club which was started by students themselves a year ago and has over 100 members