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Relevance of E-Resources under N-List Programme

Geeta Rani, Asstt. Librarian, D.A.V College for Girls, Yamuna Nagar ABSTRACT In this era of ICT, e-resources have become a boon for knowledge, research and educational institutions. An e-resource which is describe as knowledge acquiring tool which is accessible through the electronic device such as computer or mobile or any electronic product that delivers a collection of data, be it text referring to full text bases, electronic journals and other multimedia products. Under the guidance of University Grant Commission, a major National programme was started in 1991 which is known as INFLIBNET an autonomous interuniversity centre of the UGC of India. The Project entitled “National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content(N-List)”, being jointly executed by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium, INFLIBNET Centre and the INDEST-AICTE Consortium, IIT Delhi provides Cross-subscription to e-resources subscribed by the two Consortia i.e. subscription to INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and UGC-INFONET resources for technical institutions and Access to selected e-resources to colleges. This paper is an attempt to reveals the current status of e-resources and the utility of n-list of an educational institution in India. Keywords E-resources, N-list, UGC-INFONET, Library, ICT INTRODUCTION Information Technology has brought the drastic change in today’s information seeking environment. To fulfill the user’s expectations in electronic era, various publishers are providing e-books and e-journals to the libraries and information centre online. The emergence of internet, particularly the WWW as a new media of information delivery triggered proliferation of web based full-text online resources. The internet and electronic publishing have changed the role of libraries all over the world in providing access of e-resources to the users. There is a shift in the process of resource sharing from traditional collection (print collection) to digital collection so that they can cope with the information technology. The availability of large number of information products in e-format, their benefits, ease of access and varied user demands forced libraries to adopt the consortium approach. This approach has emerged as a model for libraries in order to effective use of e-sources. However, educational institutions in India are facing acute shortage

of funds to subscribe to international scholarly e-resources and universities are not exceptions. Information explosion, shrinking library budget, emergence of internet and exponential rise in prices of r-resources has forced libraries to adopt consortium based subscription to e-resources. In the words of Allen Kent “the success and survival of libraries will much depend on how much and to what extent the libraries cooperate with each other in future”. Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science (ODLIS) defines Library Consortia as “an association of independent Libraries and/ or Library system established by formal agreement usually for the purpose of sharing. Membership may be restricted to a specific geographical region, type of Library (Public, Academic, and Special) or subject specialization.” After getting independence in 1947, the national government of India constituted the University Education Committee in 1948 under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishanan. The Committee proposed many suggestions for the development and progress of higher education in the country. One of them was to give extension and empowerment to University Education Commission as University Grants Commission, which was established in Delhi in 1953. Since then UGC has been working as autonomous organization and doing well for the development of colleges, universities and their libraries in progress and development of college and university libraries in our country. At the time of independence when UGC started its working there was 20 Universities and 500 colleges. Since then the number of universities and colleges have increased. It is important to note that in 2014-15 there are 46 Central universities, 329 State Universities, 207 Private universities. In addition, there are 8268 colleges included in the section 2(F) and 12(B) of the UGC Act 1956, 487 Autonomous colleges and 172 colleges have declared with potential for excellence fewer than 70 universities. In the information Communication Technology era, the look of libraries has changed now. With the help of ICT various in-house activities which were carried out manually in libraries with much of pain and strain now are being carried out smoothly and effectively. So, ICT changed the concept of store house of knowledge.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To find out the e-resources available under N-List programme of INFLIBNET.

2. To create awareness among the readers (students, teachers and research scholars) regarding e-resources.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This study is mainly based on secondary sources such as books research articles, journals, web-portals and internet etc. N-List web portal, INFLIBNET web portal, UGC web portal and other websites visited to get information related to e-resources. Further various e-journals and other articles are reviewed. Various books and magazines are also reviewed. Some information from proceedings have also been taken MAJOR LIBRARY CONSORTIA IN INDIA In this era, with the growth of information technology, most of documents are available in electronic format. Publication is moving rapidly into the digital age. Electronic resources are e-books, e-newspapers, databases, bibliographic databases etc. Online access of information basically includes the access of e-journals and e-books and the bibliographic databases. Various library consortia’s are the following

1. UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium funded by INFLIBNET.

2. INDEST-AICTE Consortium funded by MHRD/IIT, Delhi.

3. NKRC E-Journal Consortium(CSIR/DST) funded by NISCAIR.

4. DAE Consortium funded by Department of Atomic Energy.

5. MCIT Library Consortium funded by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

6. IIM Consortium funded by IIMs. 7. DRDO Consortium funded by DESISOC. 8. FORSA Consortium funded by Indian Institute of

Astrophysics. 9. RGUHS-HELINET Consortium funded by Rajiv

Gandhi University of Health Science. 10. DeLCON Consortium funded by Department of

Biotechnology(DBT). 11. ERMED Consortium funded by National Medical

Library. 12. Consortium for E-Resources in Agriculture(CeRA)

funded by Indian council of Agriculture(ICAR). 13. N-LIST Consortium funded by INFLIBNET

Centre.

INFORMATION AND LIBRARY NETWORK (INFLIBNET) INFLIBNET is the major programme towards modernization of libraries and information centre in the country with the application of computers and communication technologies. Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre is an autonomous Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India. It is a major National Programme initiated by the UGC in March 1991 with its Head Quarters at Gujarat University Campus, Ahmadabad. Initially started as a project under the IUCAA, it became an independent Inter-University Centre in June 1996. INFLIBNET is involved in modernizing university libraries in India and connecting them as well as information centre in the country through a nation-wide high speed data network using the state-of-art technologies for the optimum utilization of information. INFLIBNET is set out to be a major player in promoting scholarly communication among academicians and researchers in India. The University Grant commission(UGC) in its attempt to establish networking has taken the initiatives and decided to develop a network of academic libraries to effectively manage and administer the resources of these libraries and provide efficient library services to a large number of users, using modern computer and communication technologies. INFLIBNET provided financial assistance to a large number of university libraries to modernize their operations using computer technology. This network provides reliable access to document collection of libraries i.e., union catalogues and worldwide bibliographic information. The development, managing and updating of union databases is one of its major activities. For these activities regarding databases, this network has set up a Database Research & Development Group. It also has developed user friendly software, the SOUL based on GUI for the use of automation of in house operations of the libraries. It also constituted a task force of experts to maintain consistency and quality in databases prepared by it and by the libraries. It brought out also a document as User Manual for guiding the users. To enhance the skills of the staff of university libraries for implementation of various programmes of this network, some training courses have also been conducted. Thus we see that this network is a very useful network for the academicians such as professors, teachers, researchers, scholars and students who are working in their colleges and universities of the country.

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OBJECTIVES OF INFLIBNET The main objective of Inflibnet is to connect as a computer network of the libraries of all universities, colleges and research institutions of the country. The other important aims are as follows:

1. To make a national network programme of all the libraries of universities, colleges, research institutions and documentation/information centre.

2. To enhance the efficiencies and expertise of these libraries and documentation/information centre.

3. To make work easier all the work was computerize in the working systems, arrangement and services of these institutions by adopting a standard among them.

4. To provide updated information to the users living at every place of the country about books, periodicals, and other reading materials.

5. To prepare databases of experts, research institutions and programmes to give online information services. So that work can be up-to-dated.

6. To provide document delivery service by establishing resource centre in the libraries accomplished for documentation services.

7. To do maximum use of information sources by the programmes in the libraries, such as cooperative cataloguing, inter library loan, etc.

8. To encourage for cooperation among the libraries, documentation and information centre of the country.

MAJOR FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE INFLIBNET CENTRE

1. Establish proxy servers and associated authentication mechanism for colleges to enable them to access e-resources directly from publisher's site;

2. Provide full text access to electronic resources subscribed for educational institutions through proxy servers after establishing authenticity of users;

3. Identify gaps in resources and infrastructure and make attempts to fill in those gaps so as to deliver effective and efficient services;

4. Generate alerting services from subscribed e-resources deploying technological tools for content delivery.

5. Setup computer laboratories consisting of 10-20 Internet -enabled PCs to facilitate walk-in users to access subscribed e-resources;

6. Impart awareness and training programmes for colleges and institutions; and

7. Collect and analyze usage statistics of e-resources and find trends of usage in different subject disciplines.

N-LIST The Project entitled "National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST)", being jointly executed by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium, INFLIBNET Centre and the INDEST-AICTE Consortium, IIT Delhi provides for i) cross-subscription to e-resources subscribed by the two Consortia, i.e. subscription to INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and UGCINFONET resources for technical institutions; and ii) access to selected e-resources to colleges. Keeping in view the requirements of academic community in higher education, N-List provides access to e-resources in different disciplines to the higher education like universities and colleges and other beneficiary institutions through server(s) installed at the INFLIBNET Centre. The Project entitled "National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST)", being jointly executed by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the Mission on Education through ICT which was launched in May 2010 with multi-fold objectives. The authorized users from colleges can now access e-resources and download articles required by them directly from the publisher's website once they are duly authenticated as authorized users through servers deployed at the INFLIBNET Centre. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF N-LIST

1. Access to scholarly information for all educational institutions.

2. Bridging digital divide and moving towards a information-rich society.

3. Provide access to subscription-based scholarly information (e-books and e-journals) to all educational institution.

4. Provide access to scholarly content available in open access through subject portals and subject gateways.

5. Host scholarly content generate indigenously in digital format in open digital repositories.

COMPONENTS OF N-LIST The project has four distinct components.

1. To subscribe and provide access to selected UGC-INFONET e-resources to technical institutions (IITs, IISc, IISERs and NITs) and monitor its usage.

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2. To subscribe and provide access to selected INDEST e-resources to selected universities and monitor its usage.

3. To subscribe and provide access to selected e-resources to 6,000 Govt. / Govt.-aided colleges and monitor its usage.

4. To act as a Monitoring Agency for colleges and evaluate, promote, impart training and monitor all activities involved in the process of providing effective and efficient access to e-resources to colleges.

CURRENT STATUS OF N-LIST Total number of registrations: (4702) Number of 12B/2F Colleges: (3082) Number of Non-aided Colleges: (1175) Number of 12B/2f and Non-aided Colleges: (4270) TRAINING AND SUPPORT The INFLIBNET Centre conducts awareness and training programmes in various universities to generate awareness regarding availability of e-resources to colleges under the N-LIST Project. Besides, universities are also being encouraged to conduct awareness training programmes for its affiliated colleges. Besides, N-LIST website host online tutorials, user guide and spoken tutorials for e-resources covered under the project. ADVANTAGES OF N-LIST

1. Any-time availability of desired knowledge at appropriate levels of comprehension to all for self paced learning.

2. Providing e-Learning support to every higher education institution for technology assisted learning.

3. Facilitating development and deployment of ultra low cost physical tool kits for science students to encourage project and design based learning complementary to the e-learning.

4. Systematically building a huge database of the capabilities of every individual human resource over a period of time,

5. Use e-learning as an effort multiplier for providing access, quality and equality in the sphere of providing education to every learner in the country.

6. Provide for connectivity & access devices, content generation, personalization & mentoring, testing & certification and encouragement of talent.

7. Providing e-books & e-journals, utilizing the repository of contents generated so far and the automation of evaluation processes. Creating a high impact brand for e-Journals in leading disciplines with a provision for good incentive-based payment to the researchers publishing their high quality papers in these Journals.

8. Bringing efforts of different interested agencies working in the field of e-learning under one umbrella and establishing logical linkages between various activities.

9. Capacity building in this sphere and utilizing dormant capacities of various organizations. Creating infrastructural facilities for long term utilization and making sustained efforts for content generation & connectivity including access devices production.

10. Spreading Digital Literacy for teacher empowerment and encouraging teachers to be available on the net to guide the learners.

11. Launching a national movement for content and question generation.

12. Development of GIS (Geographical Information System) based resource inventory as a knowledge base (for subjects and skills where ever possible / feasible) for educational and planning purposes.

13. Improving teachers’ training and course curriculum. 14. Providing Digital/Information Literacy for teacher

empowerment. 15. Platform for sharing of ideas and techniques and

pooling of knowledge resources. 16. Standardization & Quality Assurance of e-Content. 17. Deriving lessons from our ancient knowledge base. 18. Effective utilization of intellectual resources,

minimizing wastage of time in scouting for opportunities or desired items of knowledge appropriate to the requirement.

AVAILABILITY OF E-RESOURCES E-resources mainly includes E-Journals and E-Books of various subjects like physics, chemistry etc. which are very beneficial for readers (students, staff, researchers). These resources are available to various colleges providing facilities to students.

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Availability of E-Resources to colleges through N-LIST E-Journals(Full Text) American Institute of Physics(18 Titles) http://journals.aip.org/ American Physical Society(10 Titles) http://publish.aps.org/browse.html Annual Reviews(33 Titles) http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/ Cambridge University Press(224 Titles) http://journals.cambridge.org/ Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) (1 Title) http://www.epw.in/ Indian Journals(180+Titles) http://www.indianjournals.com/ Institute of Physics(46 Titles) http://iopscience.iop.org/ JSTOR(2500+ Titles) http://www.jstor.org/ Oxford University Press(206 titles) http://www.oxfordjournals.org Royal Society of Chemistry(29 Titles) http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/ H.W.Wilson(3000+ Titles) http://search.ebscohost.com

E-Books Cambridge Books online(1800 Titles) http://ebooks.cambridge.org E-library(8300+Titles) http://site.ebrary.com/lib/inflibnet EBSCoHost-Net Library(936 titles) http://search.ebscohost.com Hindustan Book Agency(65+Titles) http://portal.igpublish.com/iglibrary Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS) Books (382+Titles)

http://portal.igpublish.com/iglibrary

Oxford Scholarship(1402+Titles) http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/ Springer eBooks(2300 Titles) http://link.springer.com. Sage Publications EBooks(1000 Titles) http://knowledge.sagepub.com. Taylor Francis eBooks(1800 Titles) http://www.tandfebooks.com. Myilibrary-Mcgarw Hill(1124 Titles) http://lib.myilibrary.com/

Availability of e-journals in the subject of library science and library and Information Science under N-List

Publishers

Library Science

(15 Titles)

Library and Information

Science (153 Titles)

American Institute of Physics - - American Physical Society - - Annual Reviews - - Cambridge University Press - - H W Wilson - 142 Indian Journals 03 - Institute of Physics - - JSTOR 12 10 Oxford University Press - 01 Royal Society of Chemistry - - There are currently 15 journals of Library Science having 03 Titles of Indian Journals and 12 Titles of JSTOR along with 153 Journals of Library and Information Science having 142 titles of H W Wilson, 10 titles of JSTOR and 01 title of Oxford University Press. UTILITY OF N-LIST FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS All colleges covered under section 12B/2F of UGC Act and Non Aided Colleges (except Agriculture, Engineering,

Management , Medical, Pharmacy, dentistry and Nursing ) can access to electronic resources subscribed by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library consortium as well as few selected e-resources that were found most appropriate for colleges including e-journals and e-books. These resources include more than 6000+ e-journals and 97,000 + e-books. About 100 universities covered under the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium can now access Web of Science. Technical Institutions like IITs, IISc, IISERs and selected NITs (i.e. core members of the INDEST-AICTE consortium) can now access selected re-sources namely Annual reviews, Taylor Francis. CONCLUSION Inflibnet - Nlist will be really useful for researches and students; community. But there is no E-journals in specific subject areas like computer science, management studies etc. If it includes all areas then all readers will be benefitted. Colleges in rural areas are still not aware of this facility. As it is a known fact that the remotest and backward areas are still unaware about N-List. So Govt. should spread awareness in those parts of the country through seminars and conferences to make them to provide a good library environment in those areas. Regional languages and books of Indian publishers should be included in N-List so that Indian students can be benefitted by it because it has a very nominal charges i.e. it is cost effective. In various colleges, the faculty members and students can access N-List. In universities

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too Research Scholars also get benefit through it. Although N-List covers all the disciplines viz Pure Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities including Linguistic and Languages, besides this N-List help the scholars and researchers to find the websites for e-journal and e-books. However, the INFLIBNET Centre has been conducting much awareness and training programmes in various universities to generate awareness regarding availability of e-resources to colleges the N-List Project. In a nutshell, the N-List is really a good resource of knowledge. REFERENCES

[1] Ahmad, Naved, Basha, Imtiaz, Nishat (2012). Use of UGC-Infonet Consortia by the Research Scholars at University of Delhi: A Survey. Library Philosophy and practice (e-journal). Paper 713. Available at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ llbphilprac/713paper713.(Accessed on September 12, 2013)

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