G B Pant University of Agriculture& Technology Hill Campus Ranichauri, Tehri Garhwal. India

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1 SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIC and NATIONAL LIBRARIES OF INDIA By Dr Neena Singh G B Pant University of Agriculture& Technology Hill Campus Ranichauri, Tehri Garhwal. India Since Vedic times India has rich tradition of learning & knowledge, though there were libraries in ancient and medieval times the concept of libraries developed during the British empire and developed further. Despite the booming progress made in the IT sector the Library and Information Services in the country has not developed much to keep pace with the paradigmatic changes taking place in the society. Reason being that libraries are State Subject coming under the preview of different apex agencies and state government. There has been no common direction or coordination among them. While some libraries particularly the special libraries of Premier Technology and Business Institutes/ schools of National importance like Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT s), The Indian Institutes Management (IIM s) and Research Organizations like DRDO, CSIR are quite advanced, The university and college libraries (With exception to the Central Universities) are still struggling for lack of grants and progressing slow towards automation and digitization. Libraries in India have been categorized as- a) Academic Libraries : Comprising University, College and School libraries. b) Special & Govt Libraries : R & D libraries, specialized libraries of IIT, IIM, Agriculture and Medical Sciences. c) Public Libraries : Comprising State & District Central libraries. d) National Libraries: Science, Agriculture, Medical Sciences. UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Indian Universities constitute one of the largest higher education system in the world with 265 Universities and 13,150 affiliated colleges. Each of these have a library, The traditional or conventional universities & their Libraries are funded by the State Government & partly by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Besides the above there are 41 Agricultural & Veterinary Universities and their libraries funded by the state government and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) The University libraries have large collection and have been slow in automation and digitization process due to lack of funds, absence of action plans or priorities from authorities which have been the major hindrances, however the scenario is fast changing and the authorities are now realizing the need for information sharing through use of Internet/ ICT. Though the computer and communication infrastructure is improving considerably, Lecture held at Fachhochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences, January 10 th,

2 there is acute shortage of competent manpower in the library to take the task of digital repositories. Most libraries have initiated the automation of in-house activates like circulation and OPAC and are in different stages of hosting in the Web. The university libraries funded by UGC are now under the network The UGC-Infonet. The UGC Infonet is presently linking 172 universities in the country for recourse sharing. SPECIAL LIBRARIES Special libraries are catering to the information need of technical institutes like the IIT s, IIM s, the CSIR labs, DRDO etc, besides the Agricultural and Medical Sciences libraries. The libraries of IIT, the IIM s & Indian Institute of Science (IIS) etc are quite advanced as they are institutes of national importance and form elite club of higher education comparable to best in the world. They have generous grants and projects from Govt. bodies (AICTE) and Ministry of Human Resources Development. Their libraries are fully automated under integrated multi-user software that supports all in-house operations. They have already migrated their information sources and services to the web, and have an OPAC & web access to all subscribed journals, besides a well developed CD work station for use of disc s. They are now progressing towards digitization of old volumes of their journals. All IIT s, IIMs REC s are also member of INDEST consortium (Indian National Digital Libraries of Sc. & Tech.) The Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT s) have also developed online courseware. There are 34 Agricultural and 7 Veterinary University libraries in the country. They are in different stages of automation & hosting their OPAC in the web. While some libraries like the G B Pant University of Agriculture& Technology, Kerela Agriculture University, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute have migrated to web access others are still progressing. Agricultural libraries very recently this year came under a Consortia called CERA Consortium for Electronic Resources in Agriculture. Agricultural Libraries face shortage of trained staff for digitization work, besides shortage of grants. The libraries of State Medical Sciences Colleges are also on various stages of automation and digitization. Due to lack of infrastructure and funds they are not well equipped in digital resources. The All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS) and Post graduate Institute of Medical Education & research (PGIMER) which are Institutes of National Importance have liberal grants and their libraries are well equipped with latest technologies. RESEARCH LIBRARIES Research Libraries in India are those attached to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), The Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO), Indian Council of Social Sciences (ICSSR) ; The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The CSIR is the largest public funded R&D Organization having 42 R&D Labs/centers in areas like Chemical Technology, Petroleum, Leather, Building, Road research etc. each of these centers have small libraries catering to their research needs. All libraries of CSIR are under consortium The Consortium for CSIR laboratories for accessing 1200 world wide e-journals for which nodal agency is National Science Library (NSCAIR.) Lecture held at Fachhochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences, January 10 th,

3 Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) has 47 Research labs across the country. The Libraries of DRDO are maintained by DESIDOC (Defense Scientific Documentation Center) which is one of the research labs started in 1958 as Scientific Information Bureau (SIB). DESIDOC provides access to various databases, It is also involved in digitizing research papers of DRDO. Functions as publication wing of DRDO publications/ journals. Conducts short time training and workshops for defense librarians Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) deals with research in Social Sciences in the country. The Libraries of ICSSR are maintained & managed by NASSDOC ( National Social Science Documentation Center) which is one of the Division of ICSSR established in NASSDOC provides Library and Information support to researchers in social sciences working in academics, and industries. It also provides guidance to libraries of ICSSR Regional Centers across the country. The Indian Council of Agriculture research (ICAR) caters to the researches in crop sciences, soils and animal resources in the country. There are 91 Research Centers in the country granted by the ICAR and each of these have small libraries. Unfortunately the ICAR does not have any Documentation Center for Agricultural literature unlike DRDO and CSIR. NATIONAL LIBRARIES The National Library of the country is the Largest Library located at Kolkatta. It is an Institution of National Importance under Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism & Culture. The Library is designated to Collect, Disseminate, and Preserve the printed material concerning the country no matter where it is published. The National Library acts as Referral Center purveying full and accurate knowledge. It functions for Acquisition and Conservation of all significant printed material in the country and foreign material required by the country. It also provides bibliographical and document services of current and retrospective material. National Library under took pilot project Down Memory Lane to digitize rare & brittle books in late It has digitized English books published prior to 1900 & Indian books published before books from have digitized & archived in CD ROMs. Manuscripts of Eminent personalities and, Arabic and Persian manuscript with illustration have been archived. Besides the country has three De facto National Libraries in the country. The IARI Library in Agricultural Sciences, the AIIMS Library in Medical Sciences, the National Science Library ( library of NISCAIR) The IARI Library has earned the distinction of leading Resources of Agricultural Information in Asia and de facto status of NAL of India. It has been regarded the as one of the 10 best Agro biological libraries of the world. Library has 6 Lac Specialized Research publication on Agricultural Sciences, It has an OPAC, access to online journal & the library is partly digitized. Lecture held at Fachhochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences, January 10 th,

4 AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) is one of the premier Institution of Asia established in 1956 as an institution of National Importance. The library of AIIMS is regarded as one of best Medical Sciences libraries in Asia and has earned de facto status of NML of India.The library has collection of more than 2 Lac, which is automated. It has an OPAC, access to online journal and several international databases in medical sciences. National Science Library is housed at NISCAIR, New Delhi. The Library has rich collection of over 2 Lac Science & Technology publications and is offering services at national level. The library has several International online, CD databases & e-journals. It is nodal center for CSIR consortium for e-journals accessible to CSIR Labs. It is also in the process of digitizing its resources. LIBRARY NETWORKS To day networking is one of the most effective ways of sharing resources. The growth of Library Networks in India can be traced to the efforts made during the last four decades on recommendations of the Planning commission to the government towards the need for modernizing of library services. The country has two Major Library Networks and several City Library Networks, i.e. the DEveloping Library NETtwork (DELNET) developed by a Society. INFormation LIBrary NETtwork (INFLIBNET) supported by UGC. INFLIBNET is involved with developing Union databases of Books, Serial holdings, Thesis, Projects. Database provides listing of titles with bibliographical details along with library name. INFLIBNET is also involved with library software development (SOUL) and HRD/ training /workshops was initiated in 1991 and 172 universities are members. INFLIBNET is involved with developing Union databases of Books, Serial holdings, thesis, projects. Database provides listing of titles with bibliographical details along with library name. INFLIBNet is also involved with library software development (SOUL) and HRD/ training /workshops DELNET (Developing Library Network) was established in 1988 by India International Center, later registered as society in DELNET main objective is to promote sharing of resources among libraries Delhi and outside. It is the first operational network in India and has developed online union databases of books, periodical, newspapers, manuscripts, CD Rom, sound /video recording etc. There are several other City Library Networks with have been developed with financial grants from NISSAT, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR). some of which are: MALIBNET Madras Library Network (1993) PUNET Pune Library Network BONET Bombay Library Network MYLISBNET Mysore Library Network (1995) CALIBNET Kolkata Library Network Lecture held at Fachhochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences, January 10 th,

5 DIGITAL LIBRARY INTIATIVES IN INDIA While the concept of DL in developed countries started during 1970 s in India it began in the mid 1990s with advent of ICT in large scale and support by the central Government. Only Sporadic and partial attempts have been made towards digital library initiatives in India. The Initiatives taken by Govt indicates that potential of ICT for developing DL has not been fully realized. While one Govt agency is providing support other is focusing else where without any coordinated efforts. Some of the DL projects going on in the country are; TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE DL (TKDL): Is a collaborative project between NISCAIR, CSIR, ministry of health family welfare etc involving inter disciplinary team. Approximately 11 million pages have already been digitized and achieved. VIDYANIDI : ( Treasure of Knowledge) is Digital Library initiative started in the year 2000 with grants from DSIR to facilitate archiving and accessing doctoral thesis through participation of universities & institutes. This will act as national repository for e-theses. UNIVERSAL DIGITAL LIBRARY: This is a project proposal for Indo-US Science & Tech collaboration, aims to digitize 1 million books in next 3 years, planned to create 10 centers across India for scanning as Scanning centers. It is proposed to meet hardware &software cost from USA and manpower needs from India. OTHER DIGITAL LIBRARY Initiatives: Besides the above projects, digital contents are also being created individually by libraries of IIT s, IIM s IIS, few State Universities like the HAU, G B Pant University. of Argil & Technology. The National Library at Kolkatta, national Science Library. Of Late there is a MISSION to create DL Web Portal of INDIA by office of Principle Advisor to Gov India Ministry of IT, Indian Institute of Science & Carnegie Mellon University (USA) for free access to knowledge. As First step it is proposed to create DL with 1 million books available to every one free over Internet. This portal will become aggregator of all Digital content created by other digital library initiatives in India. The portal would be a Gateway to Indian Digital libraries in science, arts, music, Culture etc and accessible to any one across the world 24x7. NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE COMMISSION National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has been set up by the Prime Minster with the challenging mandate to transform India of the 21st century into a knowledge society. In his inaugural speech for NKC on 2 nd August 2005, referring specially to libraries he said that Public libraries are an extremely important element of the foundation of a knowledge economy. As a part of this process there has been a wide spread agreement on the urgent need to bring reforms in the in the Library and Information services (LIS) sector. Several recommendations for formulating strategies in LIS have been made like setting up a National Commission on Libraries; Prepare national census of all libraries; Revamp LIS Education, Training and Research facilities; Re-assess staffing of libraries ; Promote ICT applications in all libraries and putting the catalogues of all libraries on local, state and national websites with necessary linkages which will enable networking of different types of libraries and setting p a National Repository of Bibliographical records; and Encourage public private partnership in LIS development. Lecture held at Fachhochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences, January 10 th,