Library Progress(International). Vol.36(No.2)2016:P.175-189 DOI 10.5958/2320-317X.2016.00015.5
Print version ISSN 0970 1052 Online version ISSN 2320 317X
175
DIGITAL LIBRARY STATUS IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF
J&K (INDIA): A STUDY.
Subrata Deb
University Librarian, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University KATRA, SPO. Kakrial
District: REASI -182320. (J&K) Mob: 9906903950. E-mail: [email protected]
Received on 25 September 2016: Accepted on 30 November 2016
ABSTRACT
To find the status of IT implementations in the digital library in universities
of the Jammu and Kashmir region information was collected through
questionnaire. Analysis of the responses helps understanding the status and
level of digital library implementation by taking right steps within the
existing resources. It will help formulation of recommendations for
establishing, implementing and enhancing existing level of the component
specially in pooling the resources by the universities.
Keywords: Digital Library, Survey,
INTRODUCTION
In order to study the pattern of IT implementations in the universities/university
Level bodies of J&K a survey was conducted using QUESTIONNAIRE method. 11
university level bodies were identified for conducting the study. Out of 11, nine (9) such
Universities/University equivalent organizations responded to the questionnaire.
Educational bodies identified are listed as follow:
Table 1: Universities/Institutions Covered for the study during survey.
S.
No.
UNIVERSITIES/UNIVERSITY EQUIVALENT
ORGANIZATIONS
Inception Year of
Library/Response
received
1. Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri
(BGSBU)
2005
2. Cent Central University of Jammu, Jammu (CUJ) Not Responded to the
survey
3. Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar (CUK) 2009
4. Islamic University Of Science & Technology,
Awantipora (IUST)
Not Responded to the
survey
Subrata Deb
176
METHODLOGY
The responses received were converted into a tabular form as covered in Annexure –I.
From the survey as represented in the table given in the Annexure-I, 40 attributes
identified from which following was found:-
Categories of Institutions: Out of the above, NITS and SMVDU are technical
universities, SKUAST- J and SKUAST-K are two agricultural universities, CUK, UOK ,
UOJ and BGSBU are the traditional universities while SKIMS is specialized in Medical
Sciences. The library in the various educational bodies caters to users ranging from
faculty members, students, scientists/research scholars and staff members for all
organizations, except SKIMS which doesn't support the staff members of the university.
Number of users per annum for NITS is 4000, SKUAST-K 36000, CUK 500, BGBSU
& SMVDU 1500, UOK 4550 while UOJ it is 100-150 users per day.
Media Type: Besides books, CD or DVD collections in the organizations like NIT-S,
SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J, CUK, SKIMS, BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU and UOJ are
respective 200, 1000, NA, 17, 475, 1500, not indicated, 3000+ and 122. NITS, CUK and
BGSBU libraries issue CD/DVD to its users to carry them home. SKUAST-K and
SKUAST-J provide access to such CD/DVDs through CD-Mirror Servers whereas NITS,
BGSBU and SMVDU dump the CD content on the server for providing access to its
users. The survey indicates that barring a few with specific type, all the CD/DVDs can
more or less be accessed seamlessly and effectively.
From the survey it was found that library orientation programs are being carried out by
all the libraries.
5. National Institute of Technology, Srinagar (NITS) 1960
6. Sher - i - Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences,
Srinagar SKIMS
1982
7. Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences
and Technology of Jammu, Jammu (SKUAST-J)
1999
8. Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences
& Technology , Srinagar (SKUAST-K)
1982
9. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra
(SMVDU)
2005
10. University of Jammu, Jammu (UOJ) 1969
11. University of Kashmir, Srinagar (UOK) 1949
DIGITAL LIBRARY STATUS IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF J&K (INDIA): A STUDY.
177
Library automation of all these universities have been done except the CUK which is a
new setup and automation is under process. SKIMS, SMVDU, UOJ are using Libsys
software for their libraries, SOUL software is being used by the SKUASTs, BGSBU, and
CUK. Koha & Virtua VTLS is being used by NITS & UOK respectively.
Use of such software enables catalogue searching or browsing both by author, title or
keywords. Apart from these, Boolean search facility is also available.
Digital Library has been established in all the Libraries except SKUAST-J & UOJ in
their respective subject areas. The Digital Library software being used mainly are DSpace
and GSDL. DSpace software is used by SKUAST-K, UOK and SMVDU whereas GSDL
is being used by BGBSU, UOK and SMVDU. The number of records in digital library is
SKUAST-K 1200, BGSBU 1500, UOK 1000 and SMVDU 3000 respectively. Digital
Libraries of NITS, UOK, SMVDU are equipped with Servers and PCs whereas
SKUAST-K is equipped with Mirror and Blade servers.
The digital library has been developed by library professionals in SKIMS, BGSBSU,
UOK and SMVDU. Infrastructure support has been provided by the networking section
in case of SMVDU and support of IT department in case of SKIMS whereas NITS and
CUK have procured commercial Digital Library software.
The survey also shows that taking advantage of information technology, particularly
internet technology, libraries of NITS and UOK is rendering Virtual Reference Service
whereas other libraries are still continuing with the traditional reference service with
minimal IT implementation.
Libraries of UOK, UOJ are RFID enabled whereas SKIMS and SMVDU libraries are
under consideration and under process of going ahead with RFID technology
implementation of their library. SKUASTK, SKIMS and UOK are CCTV enabled, it is
under progress in SMVDU library.
Infrastructures like servers (server software, file server), OS, and scanners, are
available in BGSBU, UOK,SKUAST-K, and SMVDU. SKUAST-J has only the Digital
Library - software while CUK being a new setup possesses only the server. File server is
not available with NITS and UOJ.
Digital Library server software is available with SKUAST-J, BGSBU and SMVDU,
while BGSBU does not have OCR Software. It is indicated that only UOK has storage
server while rest do not have. NAS mirror is available with NITS, SKUASTJ and UOK,
while CD Server is available with SKUAST-K and SKIMS only.
All the universities are equipped with some or the other networking technology except
NITS.
SKUAST-J is using WLL and is the only user of Cloud technology,
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LAN/WAN/Extranet: SKIMS is using LAN, INTRANET and WAN/Extranet. BGSBU,
SMVDU and UOJ are equipped with LAN and INTRANET while SKUAST-J is the only
user of Cloud technology. UOK uses INTRANET; CUK uses WAN/Extranet while
SKUAST-K uses both LAN, and WAN/Extranet
From the survey with regard to trained manpower it came to fore that with reference to
infrastructure management — UOK is equipped with highest trained Library staff of 30
and 20 other than library staff followed by SKUAST-K with 8 Library staff and 8 others,
BGSBU with 6 and 7 respectively and SMVDU with 2 trained library staff and 1 other
than library staff. Rest of the organizations like NITS, SKUAST-J and CUK have 3, 3, 2
with trained library staff respectively. Further for Digital Library, trained library staff
available are 10 in UOK, 8 or 9 in SKUAST-K and also the computer professionals, 2 in
CUK with 1 other than library staff, BGSBU and SMVDU each with 2 trained Library
staff.
The common mode of informing or sending alert services to users is basically through
e-mail by all the libraries. However, in SKUAST-J alerts from consortia is an additional
mode, phone/display/website in CUK, in BGSBU through RSS Feed, Blog, and letters;
while displaying notices in SMVDU is the additional mode.
For providing Information or reference service, the sequence of the source of
information preferred by majority of the universities such as SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J,
CUK, BGSBU and UOK are:
1. = Books & journals available in Library
2. = databases, digital library available within the Library sources;
3. =Internet; and
4.=ILL/Information Networks/Consortia
However, in case of SKIMS reference service, follows is only the first three steps (i.e. 1,
2, 3) in order whereas it is 1, 2, 4, 3 in case of UOK and SMVDU. UOJ follows a very
different path of ILL first, databases / digital libraries then they look for Internet and
lastly the print resources at last.
With reference to possession of IT skills, talent of Library professionals vis-à-
vis in the organizations as per survey are enumerated are as follows:
Web page authoring: in NITS, BGSBU, SMVDU and UOJ
Bibliographic database creation and management: NIT-S, SKUAST-K, CUK,
BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU and UOJ.
Convert PC /Desktop to Local server that can be accessible through LAN: NIT-
S, SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J, BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU and UOJ
GUI enabled database: SKUAST-K, UOK, SMVDU, UOJ.
DIGITAL LIBRARY STATUS IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF J&K (INDIA): A STUDY.
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Digital Library software Management: SKUAST-K, CUK, BGSBU, UOK,
SMVDU
Institutional repository: NIT-S, SKUAST-K, CUK, BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU
Programming: BGSBU, UOJ
Cloud computing: BGSBU
Co-browsing: SMVDU
eLearning:SKUAST-K, BGSBU and SMVDU
Web 2.0 & Lib 2.0: SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU
Mashup: SKUAST-J
Blogging:. Tweeting, q. Facebook: SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU, UOK, UOJ
RSS Feed: SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU, and UOJ
Moodle: BGSBU
MySQL: NIT-S, SKUAST-K, BGSBU, UOK
MySpace: CUK, BGSBU, and UOJ
Metadata: SKUAST-K, BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU, and UOJ
Webinar and PIM: None
YouTube: SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU, UOK, UOJ
Chat: SKUAST-J, CUK, UOK, SMVDU, and UOJ
VOIP : UOK, SMVDU
SMS: SKUAST-J, UOK, SMVDU
Knowledge Management: SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU, UOK and
SMVDU
Wikipedia: SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU, UOK, and UOJ
However the table indicates that Library of UOJ is using skills like : web
authoring, database creation, GUI and facebook whereas SMVDU is using Webpage
authoring, bibliographic database, converting PC/desktop to local server that is accessible
through LAN, Digital Library software, Institutional Repository, etc.
While classifying libraries of the covered organizations, Universities were asked
to identify themselves mainly with the type of collection it holds.
Following responses from various universities regarding classifying their library
were received through the survey.
Print+ electronic +Intranet: SKIMS
Print+ electronic +Intranet +Virtual: SKUAST-J and UOJ
Print +electronic +Intranet +Virtual +Digital: NIT-S, SKUAST-K, CUK,
BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU
Consortium: From the responses it was found that all of the universities except SKIMs
subscribe to consortium membership. SKUAST-K & SKUAST-J is a member of CeRA;
CUK, UOK, and UOJ are members of UGC-INFONET Consortium. NITS is a member
of INDEST-AICTE. BGSBU is a member of UGC-INFONET and DELNET whereas
SMVDU is a member of INDEST-AICTE, DELNET and UGC-INFONET.
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The main funding bodies for the universities covered in the J&K region is
a. University itself: SKUAST-J, CUK, BGSBU, UOK, SMVDU (mainly SMVDSB
trust), UOJ
b. State: SKUAST-K, SKUAST-J, SKIMS, BGSBU, UOJ
c. National Body (UGC): Except SKUAST-J and SKUAST -K which is funded by
ICAR rest of the organizations like CUK, BGSBU (+NBHM), UOK,
SMVDU(+NBHM), UOJ are funded by UGC.
NITS is funded by UGC alone. CUK and UOK is funded by the University itself.
SKIMS is state-funded university. UOJ and BGSBU is simultaneously funded by the
university itself, state and the UGC, NBHM is also funding BGSBU in addition to the
mentioned three. SMVDU (mainly SMVDSB Trust) and UGC together fund
SMVDU. ICAR and state funds SKUAST- K and SKUAST- J in addition to the itself
for SKUAST-J.
Data analysis shows profound knowledge resources available within the manpower
resources of this region.
DIGITAL LIBRARY STATUS IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF J&K (INDIA): A STUDY.
187
DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THIS RESEARCH.
It is recommended that a consortium be set up for sharing the following resources:
1) Journals subscribed by the University Libraries of J&K enabling and avoiding
duplication of subscription involving majority of Library fund
a) Let all university libraries participate and create holdings of each journal in each
library, share such valuable resources to avoid duplication of subscription.
b) Resources saved can be utilised for procurement of other journals or resources
2) Books: for ILL facility and eBooks and search OPAC implementing federated
search enabling locating availability of books and journals in other universities in
Jammu and Kashmir.
3) e-Reprint service has to be taken up with publishers without violation of copyrights
4) Reference Service: enabling 24x7 service in the state shared by all the participating
universities from their respective locations
5) Collaborate in preparation of Library instructions and sharing them
6) Creation of legal book depository
7) Library manpower development by sharing expert resources pooled together.
8) Various Current Awareness Service and Alerting services
9) SDI services
10) Share new technology implementation of IT and infrastructure of mutual interest in
the region
11) Promote R&D information exchange and sharing
12) Cloud based technology to promote collaboration, and resource sharing at a regional
level and OR at University Grants Commission level i.e. at INFLIBNET level.
CONCLUSION
The study shows that there is a major metamorphosis has taken place over the
years from traditional print media library in terms of IT infrastructure and knowledge
based manpower influenced by IT has started building up in the Libraries of the
Subrata Deb
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Universities or its equivalent institutions of J&K. However, lots are to be done in
connection to manpower development in IT obviously linked to Library and new media
at first and extending to the level of IT orientation in order to think out of box in order to
exploit to the maximum to best use of available resources. This will ultimately lead to a
major metamorphosis in services influenced by information technology.
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