The cafe, aptly named Cyber-14, will be formally inaugurated in the coming week, while dry-runs have already begun and students can be seen browsing the Internet. Cyber-14 will remain open round-the-clock all seven days of the week, AR Sethi, PU Librarian, stated. The services though are not available for free. Students will have to shell out Rs 24 per hour on the Net and Rs 2 each for sending or receiving e-mail, Sethi stated.

Coming up of the cyber-cafe has been a long drawn process that began last year, university sources said. "I read a newspaper report, saying that cyber cafes would be opened at different points on the national highway. I thought it would be a shame not to have one in the library,'' Sethi stated.

The 24-hour Internet facility is expected to allow easy access to students and research scholars, besides offering exposure on the web, sources point out. "This facility is basically for university students and in case of too many people pouring in, we might insist on them producing I-cards,'' says Shailender Sharma, who runs Cyber-14. " To begin with, there are three terminals, but we plan to install more,'' he adds.

Giving details about Delnet, Sethi explains: "This will allow library users at PU, to know what books are available in all the over 140 member libraries.''

The library also plans to start a wall magazine named Prayaas from August, as "a forum for library users to exhibit their talents.''