Annals or Lihrary Science and Documentation 46, 1; lYYY: Y-17 .

Information Technology for Library Services at "T

V K J Jeevan Assistant librarian Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur 721 302

The Central Library at Indian Institute of The Indian Institute of Technology (liT) at Technology, Kharagpur is exploring computer and Khargapur, the first institution in the liT fold, started allied technological advances for better in 1951 in the erstwhile Detention Camp. is a oragnisation of information sources and fruitful trend setter in training, research and consultancy delivery of information services for almost a in different branches of technology. It has 18· decade. The library OPAC of 3 lakh specialised departments, 5 interdisciplinary centres and 2 sources is available on campus LAN, ERNET, and alumni funded schools, with about 500 faculty Web/Internet. An electronic library for accessing members; 1500 technical, administrative and electronic databases is also set up to offer support staff; and 3000 students. All the information on those sources which are not present departments have facilites for B. Tech , M. Tech. , in th e library. Mention is also made about the M.S. and PhD. On an average the researchers in computer systems available, computerised the institute publish about 500 papers in refereed operations, electronic databases subscribed, and journals, and present over 500 papers in various research projects undertaken so far in the library. national and international conferences . The collaborative R&D efforts in terms of consultancy INTRODUCTION (120 projects) and sponsored research (50 projects) totalled 17 crores. The institute is also Engineering and technical institutions concentrate operating a Science and Technology on applied research and th e results of such Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) f o r youn g research find immediate applications for the entrepreneurs to develop and test their innovative betterment of the society. like qualified research products. personnel and laboratories, information is another vital element in the trinity which comprises a fruitful The Central Library (Cl) of liT, Kharagpur is applied research set up. Information is essential responsible for satisfying the library and for any research in various contexts as it informs information requirements of the Institute. It has a about the research so far held in a particular field huge collection of over 3 lakh specialised volumes on a particular problem, points out similar solutions (books 1.7 lakhs, text books 31 ,000, bound found for similar problems and unvails the journals 85 ,000 of 2,000 titles, others 30,000 and kn owledge bas e to serve the current and journals subscribed 835) with an yearly book retrospective information needs of a researcher. addition of 2,000 and an annual issue rate of 1 Technical Institutions in the country were using lakh books. Apart from issuing out books and manual means for collecting , process ing , seeking photocopies, the users can also consult organising and servicing information sources and the library (500 seats in the different reading halls) for delivering different information services. But th e and utilise the special faciliti es and services. A spread of comput ers and other information weekly bulletin of latest addition of books, and a technology gadgets; and their easy affordability by fornightly bulletin of current arrival list of journals institutions has facilitated libraries and information alerts the users about new information sources centres in the country to acquire computer systems acquired by the library. Even with increasing for automating information organisations and budget, the library could continue with all th e services. journal subscriptions due to the exhorbitant price

Vol 46 No I March Il)l)l) V K J Jeevan

ris e. To provide some reli ef and not to deprive Manpower Project (LAMP) taken up with the help users of information. an El ectronic Library (EL) was of some research projects offered to Central set up to provide thre e types of services. These Library. The library OPAC provides information include searching and downloading references about over 3 lakh books and ot her reading from certain electronic databases, use floppies and materials (see fig . 1. 2 and 3) like bound journals , CD·s attached with certain books and, vi ew video theses, standards, microforms, etc . All li brary courses d es igned by Centre Educati onal housekeeping operations like acquisition of books, Technology (CET) of the Institute. Th e library is th eir card printing, circulati on etc., are done through also trying it s hands on usin g int ernet for better this commercialware. Provision is available to information services. The home page of th e library continue most of the operations in manual form (http://144.16.192 .18) prov ides an interfa ci ng for too in the event of erratic power supply. All issuable searching the catalogue. A p/reprint server on web materials were barcoded (th e catalogue data is for institute's publications and an expert database stored in a separat e file with accession number of in stitute researchers are under development. field as the key to print barcode labels) and iss ue/ return is done in a user and /staff-friendly manner LIBRARY AUTOMATION with the help of barcode scanners . Table 1 gives the computer system resources and table 2 lists The first computer entered the premis es of Ceneral the application of computer systems in specific Library in 1987. As details of a huge co ll ection sections/operations of the library. have to be converted into computer readable form, the data was converted at various periods using th e facilities prevalent then. Initially data of 1.5lakh BKI documents was converted using Unibase and 658.40358 Kroeber. 0 W another 1 lakh us in g Unirec. Since search and KRO/C Computer based information other support faciliti es offered by these data systems: A management approach. ma nageme nt sy stems were p rim itive , a - NY: McMillan. 1984 commercial software (hereafter referred as XIV.506 P. ISB N: 0-02-366840-7 commercialware) was purchased. The data a va il ab le th en in Unibase and Unirec was I.Watson. H.J I!. Title convert ed into commercialware and the ongoing informati on about new books is also added to th e Fig .1 Record of a book from th e OPAC commercialware. Much headway in these activities Database was made through Library Automation and

SI Journal of Computer and System Sciences Pu b Academic Press Place San Diego Country: USA

Library has from Vol. 37 Iss. I Prd. 1988 Latest Vol. Iss. Prd. History : CO (Continuing) ______._ Loose Issues ______

Vol. Issues Supl Period Rvd On Status Member 10 Spl Qty 54 1 2 3 55 1 2 3 1998

Fig.2 Record of a Journal from the OPAC Database

10 Ann Lib Sci Doc Information Technology for Library Services at liT Kharagpur

USER searches for books in th e OPAC wi h subject, author, title etc.

___ searches for related jo urnal articles, conference proceedings, etc. in th e electronic databases

_ searches OPAC again for th ese in formation sources __ not in OPAC, resort to inter library loan/other resource sharing arrangements

Fig . 3 Information Gathering path of a User

Table 1

System resources at Central Library, liT Kharagpur

# Make & Date of Configuration Uses Purchase

PCl8088,1991 640 KB RAM, 20MB HDD,5.25" One for back volume database/binding (2 No.) FDD, 1 serial & 1 parallel port and one in book acquisition section ,., £. Meteo r III, 486 OX 50MHz,16MB RAM ,1.05GB OPAC & E-Mail Server 19/10/93 HDD,256KB Cache, 5.25" & 3.25" FDD, 150 MB CTD, 16 Bit EISA SCSI-II , 16 Bit Ethernet, 16 terminals, 2 serial & 1 parallel port, SCO Unix (4.3.2 ). commercialware

3 HCl,18/04/94 486 OX 33 MHz. 8MB RAM , 240 MB One fo r CD-ROM/CCOD services and (2 No.) HOD, 256 KB cache, 5.25" & 3.25" one for non-book database creation FDD , TODD CDR 7000, SVGA, 2 serial & 1 parallel port, Western Digital network card ------4 CMC,11 /96 Pentium 100 MHz, 16M B RAM , 2 In house software development GB HOD , 3.25" FDD ,256 KB cache

5 HCl (2 No.) 486 DX2, 66 MHz, 16 MB RAM , One as library web server 5.25" & 3.25" FDD ,256 KB cache, and other for Electronic SOl Service SVGA, 540 MB HOD

6 HCl (4No.) 486 DX2, 66 MHz, 8 MB RAM . 540 One for current periodicals MB HDD,5.25" & 3.25"FDD,256KB and three for computerised cache , SVGA information services at Electronic library ------7 HCl Infiniti Pentium Pro, 166 MHz, 128 MB One to be in stalled as ( 2 No.) 1997 RAM , 12 GB HOD , 256 KB cache, the new library server 5.25" & 3.25" FDD , OAT 2 GB, 32 and one for CD -ROM networking/ bit PCI ethernet card, 2 se rial Internet services port & 1 parallel port ------contd.

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table 1 (contn.)

# Make & Date of Configuration Uses Purchase

8 WiproAcer, Pentium 166 Mhz, 32 MB RAM, 1 GB One for Chairman's Office 1998 (2 No.) HOD, 256 KB cache, 5.25" & 3.25" and one for multimedia services FDD, SVGA

9 HCL Infiniti 2000 Pentium II 266 Mhz, 32 MB RAM One for Web access of journals, One MLX (10No.) 2.1 GB HOD. 3.25"FDD, SVGA, 32x for Internet applications in Acquisition , CORD One for Electronic SOl, One for Automation Support, 6 for EL services

Table 2

Computerised operations at Central Library, liT Kharagpur

# Section Computerised Operations ------

Circulat ion Barcode-based issue/return of books, control of fin est reminders/reservati'ons, database of users, usage statistics genaratioll etc.

2 Acquistion Database of books on order, monitoring of vendors. payment control, accessioning etc.

3 Book Process (Technical) Updation of OPAC, generation of catalogue cards & new arrival list of books ----_._---- 4 Reference OPAC, database of reference books, ILL requests, research/placement information

5 Periodicals Subscription renewals. database of current journals. (Current Journals) reminders, accounti ng, monitoring of vendors, new addition list of journals

6 Back Volumes Database of bound periodicals, monitoring of (Old Journals) binding, resource sharing/photocopy services ---.------7 Non Book Database of standards, theses, microforms etc.

8 Electronic Library Informatio n services from CD-ROM & other computer readable databases, database of electronic & video information sources, demos for end-user searching

9 SC/ST Database and service of special collection

10 TBL (Text Book Library) Database and service of special collection

11 Automation Upkeep of library server, system support to different above sections, SO l service, HRD & research on computerised information processing and se rvices

12 Ann Lih Sci Doc Information lecnnology Tor L10rary ~ervlces at III I\.naragpur

ELECTRONIC LIBRARY the library. (Table 3). All valid users can book slots of 1/2 hr. in the Electronic Library (EL) to search In the current times of information explosion, it is and download database record s. Emphasis is extremely cumbersome for a single library to given to permit users to conduct their searches acquire and give service of all published materials under the supervision of expert information and this leads to a shift in emphasis towards non­ professionals. They w ere give n weekly paper information sources. Now a considerabl e demonstration by competent staff to explore the number of bibliographic and full text databases are facility. Also laser prints of full text records were avail abl e on CD-ROM and other storage media in provided at request on a nominal charg e.

Table 3

Electronic Databases at Central Library, liT Kharagpur

------_.- ----_. ------# Database Year Provider Producer Searchware Coverage Type - - _._----_.------Ei Tech 1987- Engineering Silver-Platter SPIRS All Branches Bibliographic Index todate Inf.lnc. of Engineering

2 Inspec 1990- IEEE/IEE UMI Proquest El ectronics, Full-text Index March Electrical, 1996 Computers etc.

3 Inspec 1992- IEEE/IEE UMI Proquest Electronics, Bibliographic 1994 El ectrical, Physics, Computers etc.

4 Biotech. 1982- Derwent Silver-Platter SPIRS Bio & Life Sc. Bibli ographic Abstracts 1992 technology ------_._-_.- - ._- - - -.-- 5 ABII 1989- ABI UMI Proquest Manage ment , Bibliographic Inform 8/93 Business, Economics etc. -_. - - ---_.. _-- -_.- -_ .------_._- 6 CCOD- 1991- lSI lSI CCWIN Physics, Bibliographic PCES todate Chemistry, Geo Sc. -_ .. _------7 CCOD- 1991- lSI lSI CCWIN All branches Bibliographic ECT todate of Engineering & Computers ------8 CCOD­ 1991- lSI lSI CCWIN Social Bibliographic SBS todate Sciences

9 CCOD­ 1991- lSI lSI CCWIN LifeSciences Bibliographic LS 1998 ------._------.------._------

Yol 4() No I M arch 1l)l)l) 11 V K J Jeevan

From th e databases dealing with current literature, INTERNET SERVICES the library has en unciated a new SDI service for its faculty. This involved the preparation of The home page of the library (http://144.16.192.18 exhaustive research area profil es (RAP s) in a or http:// libweb.iitkgp. ernet.in) describes the vocabulary supported by the database. The profiles various sections and services of the library. Th e are modified constantly as per th e feedback of the different nodal persons could also be contacted faculty co nc ern ed . Monthly output of bibliog raphic through this page. Th e OPAC can a lso b e details and abstracts of latest literature on their searched through the page. The different hypertext research area is delive red through e-mail. This ha s links will be represented like: also demonstrated a new medium for inter-institute communication through e-mail.

Central Libmry ...... History, Building , Collection , Classification etc. El ectronic Library ...... Electronic Databases/Services, Vid eo films/Services ...... CD-ROM Databases, CCOD Information Services ... Computerised Information Serv ices (HW,SW, Systems) , ERNET, OPAC, E-SDI , Gopher, Full Text Database

An expert database of liT researchers is also under Provision of such terminals even at student's halls development with provision for interaction through (Hostels) is under consideration. The facility is also the web page. Another area under testing is facility available over WAN and INTERNET. The campus to access pireprints from over 1000 papers users also have Internet access facility for 22 hours published in reputed journals or presented in (except during 4 to 6 P.M.) . All major sections of impo rt ant conferences by re searc hers of liT, the library can be contacted vi a e- mail. Kharagpur. Apart fro m th ese activ ities of universalisi ng access of in -house information Sufficient progress is made in making the library's through web, th e library sections are widely using presence felt over Internet. It has th e first Indian the various resources on Internet for improving library gopher configured and registered at th e th eir jobs and providing better se rvices (t he Univers ity of Minnesota (gopher:!1 acquisiti on section started collecting information library.iitkgp.ernet. in ). The library home page is about latest books from the publishers web pages, also available (http://144.16.192.18 or http:// the periodical section is testing journ al access libweb.iitkgp.ernet.in) . Users can even search through web, th e reference staff is using Intern et! OPAC from the homepage. It is also pian ned to Web as another source for satisfying user queries interface oth er services with web. etc.) The Electronic Library is also equipped with two computers with netscape for users to search By networking machines, th e final aim is to link and download Internet informati on. libra ri es and resources. Th e libra ry has collaborative arrangements with a lot of other NETWORKING libraries in the country to share information sources. The facilites for inter-library loa n and The biggest campus among IITs spreading over photocopy sharing also exist. With the onset of 1500ha with over 25 departments located at gadgets li ke high speed scanners, fax etc . and different part s cannot be serviced by OPAC improved communication bandwidth, the library is terminals at Central Library alone. When the even in a position to provide these traditional campus LAN (see fig . 4) became operational, services by electronic means. Networking of CD­ OPAC was made available through the network . ROM databases and fulltext printout over network Now more and more users are accessing OPAC are demonstrated succesfully and is at the trial from their own depal1ments and workplaces. stage.

J4 An n Lih Sci Doc Information Technology for Library Services at liT Kharagpur

·. Agri culture ROC E&EC RTC

I&EM

Aero Acq . Sec. Space ~~;I Compo ~=~. C ivil Engg.· . SC. Oeptt. Oeptt. Engg.

CAMPUS LAN

.• http:// 144. .. 16.192 .18 . Router/ Gateway Web Serv er

r' ., r' ~ l --l~m:j I i

i I ~ Leas ed LineNSAT 11 Cl ients from outside the capmus accessing through National and International Networks

Fig A Networking at Central Library liT, Kharagpur

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT provided by various agencies of Government of India for its research projects. The completed and liT Kharagpur library got itself transform ed into a o ngoing p rojects are listed in table 4 . The functional automated li brary by utilising funds consistency of there funds justify the competence of the activities going on here.

Vo l 46 No 1 M;u'ch I \)\)l) 15 V K J Jeevan

Table 4

Applied R&D work at Central Libraf}~ liT Kharagpur

II Project Details Outc ome

Titl e: Library Automation, Automated all ouse keeping jobs , OPAC on networks, Sponsor: MHRD library gopher, train ing personnel on computerised Amount: RS.15 Lakhs, information handling Year: 1991-94 HW/SW: Meteor III with SCO Unix & 8 VT 100 terminals, 2 CD-ROM Drives, 2 486PC, 2 PC XT

2 Title: Electronic Lib rary Barcoding for issuelreturn,CD-ROM &computer readable Sponsor: MHRD/AICTE databases (full text and bibliographic ). Laser print Amount: Rs. 10 Lakh s, facility of full text records Ye ar: 1994-96 HW/SW: 486 PC (6 No.) with CD-ROM drives, UPS, Barc ode scanners (5 No), HP Laser Prin te r 5S i

3 Titl e: CD-ROM Networkin g Experimental CD-ROM network tested with Windows work Sponsor: AICTE group and Linux, Webserver configured (http:// li bweb. Amount: Rs. 8 La kh s, iitkgp.ern et.in or http://144.16.192.18 ), Web access Year: 1996-98 of OPAC, (Access of CD -ROM databases through campus Status: In prog ress CD-ROM databases through campus LAN ) HW/SW: Processi ng stage

4 Titl e: Hypermedia Digital Library Hypermedia digital library facility for Aerospace Sponso r: ARDB, India inform at ion processing, storage and retrieval Am ou nt: Rs. 7.6 Lakhs , Ye ar: 1997-99 Statu s: Progressing

Apa rt from fac ility developme nt , sufficient CONCLUSION emphasis was given for H RD aspects too. It is one of the fi rst Indian libraries to recruit two computer India's first digital library is recently opera tional at engineering graduates as system analysts in 1992 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. To have to work in tand em with library professionals. Most more such faciliti es , one has to seriously think of its staff members are proficient in computeri sed about digitization of local contents. Now the information handling and services. It has cohosted concentrating is on such a facility for Aerospace a training programme for library personnel with Science and Technology. The OPAC terminals of und er the auspices of library are also used by students for e-mail. It is NISSAT in 1994. intended to provide more such terminals and also Web terminals for users. Any person concerned

10 Ann Lih Sci Doc Information Technology for Library Services at liT Kharagpur with library software knows the plus and minus of every advance, the information products are commercialware, and efforts are on to carry out becoming dearer and dearer. Perhaps one reason tests on an indigenous software. In the last five which accounts for this inverse relation is th e fact years, the libray is regularly in receipt of queries that the information products which have made a from other institutions on library automation mark internationally are being produced in the problems. This is being complied as Frequently developed countries where the labour cost is Asked Questions (FAQs) to be made accesible exhorbitant. Only those who can judiciously apply through the web page for the benefit of other users the technology will be able to provide better in need of them. Apart from such consultancy work information services, and that is the lesson that in library automation, efforts are on for exploring has been gathered in the last decade. As one the chances of extending the resources to other moves on, more opportunities of an eventful technical institutions subject to the provisions of 'cybrarianship' are to be seen. copyright. There is serious discussion on about the resource sharin g among IITs, and this could ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS also extend to the hundreds of engineering colleges and other technical institutions aiming at This paper is dedicated to all the professionals an Indian " Technology Information Highway ". working at Central Library, liT, Kharagpur, and to Despite the technology getting cheaper with its ou r users who not only kept our spirits high but also ensured to maintain the quality.

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