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

DIGITAL LIBRARY STATUS IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF J&K (): A STUDY.

Subrata Deb University Librarian, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University KATRA, SPO. Kakrial District: -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 and 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. UNIVERSITIES/UNIVERSITY EQUIVALENT Inception Year of ORGANIZATIONS Library/Response No. received 1. Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, 2005 (BGSBU)

Cent2. Central , Jammu (CUJ) Not Responded to the survey

3. Central University of Kashmir, (CUK) 2009

4. Islamic University Of Science & Technology, Not Responded to the (IUST) survey

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5. N ational Institute of Technology, Srinagar (NITS) 1960

6. Sher - i - Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, 1982 Srinagar SKIMS

7. Sher -e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences 1999 and Technology of Jammu, Jammu (SKUAST-J)

8. Sher -e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences 1982 & Technology , Srinagar (SKUAST-K)

9. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra 2005 (SMVDU)

10. University of Jammu, Jammu (UOJ) 1969

11. University of Kashmir, Srinagar (UOK) 1949

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.

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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 — 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.

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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.

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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

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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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