1. International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, January, 2013 ISSN 0975-3486, RNI- RAJBIL- 2009-30097, VOL- IV * ISSUE- 40
Research Paper—Libarary science
A Study of Library Information in the University
Website in the Gujarat State
January,2013 * Dr. Nilesh A. Patel
* Asst. Prof. Dept. of Library and Information Science, Hemchandracharya North Gujarat Uiversity,
Patan.
A B S T R A C T
All the universities in Gujarat are having their own websites. Libraries being an importance part of the university. There
is direct/indirect links to libraries in most of this site. However, the information relating to the library functions and services
is not present in the majority of the websites. All the university websites give priority to the information relating to admission
and examination. The Web OPAC which is the most powerful remote access tool of libraries is also absent in the websites
of most of the universities. No universities have there own library website.
Introduction sities (50%) and INI (78%). Some of the universities
At present we see that most universities, on websites have indirect links to libraries.
their websites, display the information about teaching • Library history and general information about libraries
and learning facilities only as they want good rush of are provided only in 71 percent of the university
the students to their campus. But the media and the websites( State 60% , Deemed 100%,and INI 89%).
appetite of knowledge is so high in modern time, that Deemed universities are better in this regard.
web-sites are expected to provide full information about
the library of the organization also. This information
• The details of membership in the concerned univer
must consist the library services such as access rules, sity library are available only in a few websites (42%).
working hours, services, organization & staff. In mod- The details of membership procedure, Fee structure,
online membership are not available in most of the
ern era we find out that universities have spread more
and more in India. The phases like Open University, universities. Only 19 percent of the universities
formal university, deemed university are there in India. websites are providing detail of membership proce
All these universities have their own websites full of dure.
the information related to the organizations, staff, va- • The total number of collection is provides in the
cancies, strength and facilities. Some minor links are websites of the majority of the universities (35%).
connected to their library services' page. Therefore the However the subject wise details of collection, mate
present study is a genuine attempt to check-out the rial wise collection and special collection are not
included information about the library and library ser- available in most of the websites. The lists of print and
vices on the website of the universities in Gujarat state. e-journals subscribed in the university libraries are
Methodology also not available in most cases. Only 23 percent of
The Study was conducted on the websites of the universities provide list of print journals sub
31 universities, which have their own websites in Gujarat scribed in their libraries through their websites. List
state. The list of universities was taken from the website of e-journals subscribed is provided by 32 percent
of UGC & Gujarat higher education department. The only.
universities are grouped in to 3 - State University, • The information about library function and service
Deemed University and Institute of National Impor- are not provided to all libraries. The information of
tance (INI). Among the 31 universities taken for the working hours of the library is available in 77 percent
study 20 are State Universities, 2 Deemed Universities of the university websites. Only 16 percent universi
and 9 are Institute of National Importance. Each of the ties provided information about library infrastruc
websites of these universities was analyzed using the ture. 26 percent website mention ILL services. 55
pre-structured checklist to know the nature of link and percent site proved library staff information.
coverage of information about libraries in their websites. • The details of the catalogue, classification scheme,
Finding indexing technique and bibliography used are avail
The major findings of the study are as follows. able only in a negligible percent of the websites of
• There is direct link to libraries in the majority of the universities. The percentage is less than 15 percent.
websites of State universities (65%), Deemed univer- • The information about library budget is available only
52 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

2. International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, January, 2013 ISSN 0975-3486, RNI- RAJBIL- 2009-30097, VOL- IV * ISSUE- 40
in 23 percent of the INI websites and 13 percent of the stitute like universities. Though the details of library
state university websites. No Deemed university pro collection are included the majority of the websites, the
vides budget related information. subject-wise and material-wise details of collection are
• The details of library automation, software packages not available. The list of the journals subscribed both
used are available only 45 percent of the websites of print and e-print are also not available in the majority
universities. There was only 9.67 percent of the uni of the websites.
versities are providing web OPAC service/informa The coverage of information about the in-house
tion. There was no site to provide ask-a librarian operation of the libraries is poor in the websites of
services. universities. The availability of web OPAC also is not
Conclusion up to the mark. Ask-a librarian service is also missing.
Majority of the websites of State and Deemed Uni- It can be observed that a separate library website is
versity had direct link to libraries. This shows the im- essential to provide necessary information to the users
portance given to libraries in the higher education in- who wish to get everything about a university library.
R E F E R E N C E
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2. THELWAL (Mike). An intial exploration of the link relationship between UK University website. Aslib Proceeding,
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3. CURTIS (Donnely) and GREENE (Araby). A university-wide, library-based chat service, Reference Service
Review,32,3;2004.p.220-223
4. TURNBOW (Dominique). Et al. Usability testing for web redesign : a UCLA case study. OCLC System and Services ,
21,3;2005.p.226-234
5. WUSTEMAN (Judith). Realising the patenting of web services. OCLC System and Service. 22,1;2006. p.5-9
RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION 53