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Status of Collection in Agricultural Libraries of North India with an Overview of the Trend in Acquisition


Affiliations
1 Central Library, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 181102, India
2 Department of Library and Information Science, The University of Kashmir, Srinagar - 190006, India
     

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Purpose: This paper is an attempt to explore the status of collection in Agricultural libraries of North India and assess the impact of the advent of Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) on acquisition. Design/Methodology/Approach: A questionnaire was used as data collection tool to collect data from the University Librarians. Telephonic interaction and e-mail correspondence was also used to clear doubts, remove ambiguities and obtain data from the respondents. Findings: The majority of the agricultural libraries in north India have a sound collection of information resources in print form, which may continue to act as a source of attraction for users in future for a long time to come. Yet the acquisition of information resources in print form across the studied libraries continues at routine pace, and as such the advent of e-resources seems to have not yet had any prominent impact on acquisition of resources in print form. E-Books have not yet been fully incorporated into the library collection and the e-journal collection 'CeRA' seems to meet the needs of users, as no additional e-journals are seen to be subscribed. Research Limitations: Only seven agricultural libraries have been taken as a sample. Moreover, the work is confined to only 2 aspects i.e. current status and the impact of EIRs on acquisition of information resources. Other aspects like that of collection development; storage and accommodation; preservation; library functionality and library services need to be studied as well. Originality/Value - This is the first work of its nature in north India and the findings should help librarians to decide on print and electronic forms of information resources that need to be acquired.

Keywords

Agricultural Libraries, Electronic Information Resources (EIRs), Impact of EIRs, Northern India, Status of Collection.
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About The Authors

Nazir Ahmad Bhat
Central Library, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 181102
India

The author has started his carrier as Library and Information Assistant in All India Radio (Prasar Bharati) in the year 1995 and is currently working as Assistant Librarian in Central Library of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) since 2005. Mr. Nazir is a Science Graduate from the University of Kashmir and has attained Masters Degree in the discipline of Library and Information Science from the same University. He has also got his M.Phil in the said discipline and is presently pursuing his PhD from the University of Kashmir. The author has ten publications to his credit (6 research articles in peer reviewed journals and 4 in proceedings of international/national conferences). Mr. Bhat has also designed and developed a soft solution for indexing, retrieval and alerting of journal articles available in print only format with MS Access as back and Visual Basics as front end. The author has also designed and developed the Institutional Repository at SKUAST-K, using DSpace open source digital library software of MIT for the purpose.

Shabir Ahmad Ganai
Department of Library and Information Science, The University of Kashmir, Srinagar - 190006
India


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  • Status of Collection in Agricultural Libraries of North India with an Overview of the Trend in Acquisition

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Authors

Nazir Ahmad Bhat
Central Library, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 181102, India
Shabir Ahmad Ganai
Department of Library and Information Science, The University of Kashmir, Srinagar - 190006, India

Abstract


Purpose: This paper is an attempt to explore the status of collection in Agricultural libraries of North India and assess the impact of the advent of Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) on acquisition. Design/Methodology/Approach: A questionnaire was used as data collection tool to collect data from the University Librarians. Telephonic interaction and e-mail correspondence was also used to clear doubts, remove ambiguities and obtain data from the respondents. Findings: The majority of the agricultural libraries in north India have a sound collection of information resources in print form, which may continue to act as a source of attraction for users in future for a long time to come. Yet the acquisition of information resources in print form across the studied libraries continues at routine pace, and as such the advent of e-resources seems to have not yet had any prominent impact on acquisition of resources in print form. E-Books have not yet been fully incorporated into the library collection and the e-journal collection 'CeRA' seems to meet the needs of users, as no additional e-journals are seen to be subscribed. Research Limitations: Only seven agricultural libraries have been taken as a sample. Moreover, the work is confined to only 2 aspects i.e. current status and the impact of EIRs on acquisition of information resources. Other aspects like that of collection development; storage and accommodation; preservation; library functionality and library services need to be studied as well. Originality/Value - This is the first work of its nature in north India and the findings should help librarians to decide on print and electronic forms of information resources that need to be acquired.

Keywords


Agricultural Libraries, Electronic Information Resources (EIRs), Impact of EIRs, Northern India, Status of Collection.

References