Document Delivery Service through Nucssi: A Case Study of Mahatma Gandhi University Library

The convergence of a number of factors such as increase in prices, frequent devaluations of the Indian Rupee and increasing dependence on foreign sources for publications have rendered the research libraries in India incapable to provide effective information service to research scholars. To tackle this problem, the Mahatma Gandhi University library has been providing a document delivery service to the research scholars by obtaining photocopies of articles from 42 institutions from among 227 institutions listed as Document Supply Centres in National Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials(NUCSSI). This article evaluates performance of these institutions with respect to document supply service and tries to present the trends prevailing in the country. The study revealed that most of the research libraries the country have not taken Document Delivery Service (DDS) as a mission as have done the libraries in UK and USA. The study stresses the need for a uniform procedure and recommends to set standards for providing DDS.