An overview of Electronic Resources (E-Resources) of National Library, India and its implications

1. An overview of Electronic Resources (E-Resources) of National Library, India and its implications By- Deepshikha Pathak Library and Information Assistant & Partha Sarathi Das Assistant Library and Information Officer National Library, India

2. Theme of the paper The present paper mainly highlights the need of introduction of electronic resources in the National Library, India, describes its existing electronic resources, future plans and assess the frequency of use of e-resources by the reader with respect to the use of Electronic resources by the heterogonous users of the National Library and to identity the barriers that hinders the use of e- resources.

3. Introduction Information technology has left an incredible impact in our profession right from automating the library services to Collection Development Policy. In this context, The National Knowledge Commission in its qualitative and quantitative guidelines for Collection Development states that “All libraries must maintain a well-rounded core collection, including reference material to satisfy the regular needs of its user community. These may be supplemented through networks, e-resources, etc, to achieve better qualitative and quantitative standards.” and “In the case of the National Library and other national level libraries, the collections should be as comprehensive as possible.” In compliance of the guidelines and feeling the pulse of heterogeneous users, National Library too has introduced the E- resources for its users.

4. Operational definitions used Operational definitions used in the paper is : • E-books • E-journals • E-Reference collection • Heterogeneous users of the National Library

5. National Library and Modernization To being with, the National Library has undergone developmental transformation in phase-wise manner. National Library has come a long way from serving its readers with traditional methods of giving readers’ service to modern day method of service, in the form of manual browsing of catalogue to web-opac catalogue. Going with the modern day trend of Digital Library, we can proudly say that The National Library houses not only Rarest of the Rare Documents but also it has expanded its collection base to envelope Electronic Resources also. The advent of ICT has been a boon because it offers an opportunity to provide increasingly valuable and effective services for users and as such when one visits National Library, one can find oneself in the midst of Hybrid Library Environment.

6. Need for Hybrid Library Environment in the National Library • Advancements in digital technology and increasing application of this technology in libraries have brought in a revolutionary paradigm shift in all types of libraries; National Library is not an exception. • The acquisition policy of the National Library seeks to integrate traditional print resources with electronic resources to provide seamless access to information resources which support blended learning. • As a public library, the National Library supports a heterogeneous user groups that ranges from students, scholars, researchers, teachers, professionals who uses these e-resources as their supplementary resource base in addition to their print resources.

7. E-Books Coverage

8. E-journal Coverage

9. REFERENCE E-COLLECTION BOUQUET Reference e-collection bouquet.doc

10. Survey : Objectives Objectives : • To know the awareness of e-resources among the users of National Library • To study the degree of utilization of e-journals by the users of the National Library • To determine the level of satisfaction of the users of e-resources • To measure the effectiveness of the e-resource

11. Survey : Methodology To collect data, a questionnaire was designed with questions of demographic characteristics, source of information, ease of Information Retrieval computer skills, frequency of use, preference of e-resources, awareness of e-resources and need of use-orientation programme. Besides questionnaire method, observation and interview method were also adopted.

12. Data Analysis Awareness of E-Resources : It is observed from the study that : • about 54% of the users came to know about e-resources through National Library website • 42% of the respondents gained access of the e-resources through our Library Officers & Staff members.

13. Contd… Frequently used e-resources : It is observed that the access of the e-resource collection is well balanced in both their formats while E-reference collection need to be popularized among the users of National Library.

14. Contd… Frequency of use of e-resources : The frequency of e-resources used by the respondents as revealed from the analysis is that : a. mostly daily (36%) ; b. several times a week (28%) ; c. once a week(20%) ; d. when they desire (16%). However, most of the users are in the process of making e- resources as their integral part of information source.

15. Contd.. Ease of Information Retrieval& User Education: 50% of the respondents are capable of finding their desired information, while 50% of the users are facing difficulties of some sort in retrieving their desired information. 62% of the respondents expressed their desire to arrange some kind of User Education/ Orientation Programs by the National Library to increase their confidence in using these e-resources.

16. Contd… Frequently Used E-Journals : Jstor is often the mostly used e-journals, followed by Oxford University Press and then Cambridge University Press. The rate of use of e-resources has been a success on experimental base in the first phase.

17. Recommendations The questionnaire has recorded some specific suggestions from our esteemed users which could be considered by the National Library in decision making process: • Some users feel that there is a need to increase the bandwidth so as to increase the speed of upload/download • Most of the users prefer that the facility of e-resource access should be open in Saturdays, Sundays and other holidays. • There should be necessary arrangements for resource sharing with libraries. • There should be a IT trained staff in the Main Reading Room for helping the users in case of difficulty. • Users have suggested introducing subscription of MLA International Bibliography, IEEE journals, Literature Online (LION) as a part of E-resource

18. Conclusion Understanding today’s user’s need of information sources is no doubt a challenge and it poses a more challenge for heterogeneous users. There are plethora of information sources a users can use but the bottom line is that how Library and Information center can make themselves “User Technocracy Information Source”. National Library, where one can find the combination of heterogeneous readers as well as the concept of Hybrid Library has been able to prove itself as “User Technocracy Information Source” by way of introducing E-Resources in experimental phase and is reaping quite a success. It is pertinent to mention that E-resources are being provided by many Library and Information Centers across India, but the offering of E-resources by the National Library, itself provides a distinct benchmark as it the epitome of Traditional-cum-Digital Library. As a part of continuous development and its endeavor to make National Library “User Technocracy Information Sources”, a separate E-resource Centre will soon be set up in the coming year. Let’s hope that the opening of this new E-resource Center will be able to provide perspective reader’s service to its ever increasing readers.

19. Acknowledgement The authors are grateful to Prof. Swapan Chakravorty, Director-General, National Library for providing the facilities and thankfully acknowledge Shri Asesh Kr Ghatak, Library and Information Officer for critically going through the manuscript and all the Library Staff of Bhasa Bhavan Reading Room, National Library for their assistance and support in collecting the data.

20. THANK YOU