E-Resources Consortia: An Urgent Need for College.. 9th Convention PLANNER 2014 E-resources Consortia: An Urgent Need for College Libraries in Cachar District: A Case Study Jayanti Chakravorty Abstract College education in India, as of now, is facing pressures of increased enrollment, changing educa- tional policies and the challenging task of imparting higher education to a vast human resource potential in the age group of 14 to 24, enabling them to participate in 21st Century global knowledge race. Simultaneous to this situation, unprecedented change in information scenario, current trends in electronic publishing, advanced technologies facilitating faster information access, concept of globalization of knowledge have altogether made the information environment more complex. Higher education aims to achieve a comprehensive and well-rounded development in the life of the students. This is not possible through formal, limited-time class lectures alone; exposure to a vast collection of books and educational resources is needed for that. So, a well-equipped library is an essential component of the higher education structure. To what extent our college libraries are prepared to cope up with the changed information environment or remaining relevant towards augmenting higher educational process is an issue of serious thought. This paper presents a survey report on the college libraries of Cachar District in Assam. The study shows that most of the libraries, under survey, suffer from inadequacy of library holdings, budgetary crunch, non availability of ICT Tools and poor infrastructure. To overcome this situation and to make the library services relevant to the institutional goals, it is necessary that the college libraries become well-equipped and more responsive to users’ need, and in doing so, formation of E-Resource Consortia is probably the most viable solution. Keywords: College Libraries, E-Resources, Library Consortia 1. Introduction of decades, it has assumed a pro-active role in re- sponse to nation’s expectations, because the con- Higher Education Academic Libraries are now in- tribution of knowledge workers towards economic creasingly called upon for their contribution to in- growth and international competitiveness is becom- stitutional mission and goals. With changing eco- ing more and more vivid. nomic and political scenario, quality of higher edu- cation becomes the focus of national importance In India, Universities are normally vested with the the world over. In India, Higher education is consid- responsibility of Post-graduate teaching, affiliating ered a vital national resource and for the last couple Undergraduate Colleges, holdings examinations and awarding Degrees. Undergraduate teaching is mainly 9th Convention PLANNER-2014 Dibrugarh University, Assam, September 25-27, 2014 done by colleges and these colleges play the piv- © INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar - 51 - 9th Convention PLANNER 2014 E-Resources Consortia: An Urgent Need for College.. otal role in Indian higher education system. As of the library itself. The library staff can help them com- ow, the college education in India is facing pres- plete their projects. sures of increased enrollment, changing educational Some of the undergraduate Degree Colleges in In- policies and the challenging task of imparting higher dia possess adequate facilities along with a good ducation to its vast human resource potential in the library system; but majority of the colleges suffer age group of 14 to 24, enabling them to participate from inadequacy of funds, non-availability of proper in the 21st century global knowledge race. Simulta- infrastructure, absence of a good library system and neous to this situation, unprecedented change in non-availability of ICT tools. So, to what extent our information scenario, current trends in electronic college libraries are prepared to cope up with the publishing, advanced technologies facilitating faster changed socio-economic-educational scenario and information access, concept of globalization of information environment is an issue of serious knowledge have altogether made the information thought. environment more complex, as it had never been. A Case Study was conducted to evaluate the pre- Higher education aims to achieve a comprehensive vailing Library System in the undergraduate degree development in the life of the students. This is not colleges, affiliated to Assam University and situ- possible through formal, limited-time class lectures ated in the District of Cachar. India is a vast country alone; exposure to a vast collection of books and with a mighty population. Socio-economic and aca- educational resources is needed for that and the demic growth has not been uniform throughout the institutional library alone can serve such purpose. country. The disparity in growth and advancement Moreover, a library can introduce the students to is more vivid in the country’s north-eastern region, the cultural, historical and intellectual heritage of due to its remote location, inaccessible hilly terrains the country. Formal education can, therefore, be and geographical isolation. The target area of the conducted effectively and efficiently only with well- Case Study is situated in this region. Out of 18 col- equipped libraries. Quality education is impossible leges under study, 11 colleges have come up only in without quality library collection. the last couple of decades and these are mostly lo- India being still in developing phase, majority of the cated in rural areas. So, there are considerable dis- Indian students comes from poor and mediocre fami- parity in the outlay, infrastructure, student enroll- lies. They may find it difficult to prepare their les- ment and academic performance of the colleges and sons at home. For such students, library is a much services offered by their libraries. required boon. They can study at the library and The Study shows that, most of the college libraries take home the books. Borrowing books is not only have inadequate holdings and majority of them suf- convenient but also helps students save expenses fer from budgetary crunch. A few of the colleges are on costly books. Most of the courses have project getting grants from UGC under various plans and works included in the course curriculum. Here the are registered with N-List programmed of library could be of immense help for the students. INFLIBNET. ‘To overcome the limitations of physi- They can get the references or literature needed in cal ownership, libraries may supplement their col- - 52 - E-Resources Consortia: An Urgent Need for College.. 9th Convention PLANNER 2014 lections through Inter-Library Loan and Document be defined as ‘any electronic product that delivers a Supply Services’.[1] But the libraries under study collection of data, be it text referring to full text bases, seem to show any interest in DDS and ILL. As men- electronic journals, image collections, other multi- tioned earlier, a qualitative shift has been occurring media products and numerical, graphical or time in academic libraries as an outcome of the electronic based, as a commodity available title that has been revolution. Resultantly, there is a rapid change in published’.[4] collection development and management of librar- 2.2. Types of E-Resources ies compared to a decade back. College libraries are therefore, required to redesign their collection de- Some of the commonly used types of e-resources velopment and management policies on priority ba- are: sis. In India, ‘libraries are moving slowly from print E-journals to electronic media. Libraries faced with declining E-books budgets and high cost of journals are not able to Full-text databases purchase all publications and materials that their users generally expect to have. The escalating price Indexing and abstracting databases of the rapidly growing numbers of electronic jour- Reference databases nals and databases has forced the librarians to think (Seminar papers, dictionaries, manuals, direc- alternative option to subscribe e-resources.’[2] tories, guidebooks, encyclopedia etc.) Statistical, numerical and graphical databases Most of the college libraries in the study area are E-photographs and E-images still functioning in the traditional style and many of E-audio-video them have no Computer installation or Internet con- nectivity. So to upgrade their library service, to re- The resources may be available in the form of online main relevant with the changing higher academic resource or may be available in the form of CD ROM, scenario and to effectively help the undergraduate Diskettes and other portable devices. students, the college libraries in Cachar District are 2.3. Advantages of E-Resources supposed to urgently redesign their library service, E-Resources are becoming an increasingly impor- acquire ICT Tools and devices, form an E-Resource Con- sortia, introduce Union Catalogue and implement Open tant component of the collection building activities of libraries. Recent developments in the field of in- Access System in their respective libraries. formation communication technology have brought 2. E-Resources in a number of new techniques and other related standards for document creation and delivery 2.1. Definition mechanism. To cope up with the rapid generation of ‘Electronic Resources refer to that material that re- information and knowledge, academic libraries are quire computer access, whether through a personal gradually shifting towards e- resources for their col- computer, mainframe