Paper Presented during International Conference on What’s next in libraries? Trends, Space, and partnerships held during January 21-23, 2015 at NIT Silchar, Assam. It is being jointly organized by NIT Silchar, in association with its USA partner the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1. Prospects of the application of Smart
Phones in Academic Libraries of
Assam: a case study of the Degree
General Colleges of Cachar district
by
Dr. Sarita Bhattacharjee
&
Dr Tuhina Choudhury (Deb Roy)

2. Smart Phone
• It is a cellular telephonic device
• It has more advanced computing capability and
connectivity.
• It offers the ability to receive and send e-mail.
• It has media player, digital camera and also Qwerty
keyboard
• It has a GPS navigation unit
• It has touch screen, web browsing, Wi-Fi apps, motion
sensor
• It has constant internet connectivity allowing users to
have unlimited services available at their fingertips.

3. Smart Phone application in library
and information services
(QR Codes) Quick Response codes

4. Objectives:
i) To identify the services rendered by the
libraries
ii) To ascertain frequency of visits to library
iii) To assess user’s awareness of library
services
iv)To find for what purposes students use
smart phones.

5. v) To make a decision on the users’ opinion
about provision of library services through
smart phones.
vi) To identify the services that could be
delivered through smart phones.

6. Sl.No Name of the Colleges Year of establishment Status
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Gurucharan College
Cachar College
Women’s College
Radhamadhab College
Janata College
M.C.D.College
Nehru College
West Silchar College
Silchar College
J.N.Singh College
Lalit Jain Commerce College
S.M. Dev College
Fakir Uddin Ali Ahmed Degree College
M.K.Dey College
S.R.College
Anchalik Degree College
1935
1960
1963
1971
1964
1972
1965
1985
1994
1998
1996
1995
2006
1992
1992
1990
Provincialized
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
Private
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
-Do-
Colleges in Cachar District

7. Sl.No Frequency of
Visit
Students Teachers
Number Percentage Number Percentage
1 Every Day 71 77.17 32 64
2 Twice in a
week
11 11.95 10 20
3 Once a week 8 8.69 5 10
4 Never 2 2.17 3 6
Total 92 50
Frequency of library visit

8. Purposes of visiting the library (Students)
Purpose of visit to Library No. of
respondents
Percentage
1 Borrow Books 92 100
2 Find and read material required for their
Course
87 94.56
3 Get Library material for self improvement 71 77.17
4 Find material for publishing an article/paper 8 8.69
5 Get some reading material Xeroxed 89 96.73
6 Complete assignment with own books 12 13.04
7 Casual visit(Newspaper reading, periodicals
etc)
65 70.65
8 For recreational reading 73 79.34
9 For passing time 21 22.82

9. Purposes of visiting the library (Teachers)
Purposes of visit No. of respondents Percentage
1 Preparing class notes 35 70
2 To borrow books 47 94
3 To find materials for publishing an
article/paper/book
25 50
4 To get some reading material xeroxed 42 84
5 To consult the question banks 49 98
6 To read for self improvement 29 58
7 To find articles/books relevant to
their research topic
22 44
8 For recreational reading 18 36
9 To read newspaper/periodicals 31 62
10 Surfing the internet 23 46
11 To access e-resources 8 16

10. Sl. No Library services No of respondents Percentage
1 Circulation 16 100
2 Internet 7 43.75
3 Reference Service 10 62.5
4 Book Bank 7 43.75
5 Reprography 9 56.25
6 Current Awareness service 8 50
7 On Line searching 7 43.75
8 Access to e-resources 7 43.75
9 Newspaper clipping 10 62.5
10 Current Content 9 56.25
Services provided by the libraries

11. Option Students Teachers
Number Percentage Number Percentage
Fully aware 63 68.47 39 78
Partially
aware
27 29.34 9 18
Not aware 2 2.17 2 4
92 50
User’s awareness of the library services

12. Purposes of using smart phones Students Teachers
Number % Number %
1 Entertainments (e.g.
games,video etc.)
67 77.9 38 76
2 Communications
(emails,voicecall,sms)
82 95.34 44 88
3 Social Networks (e.g. Facebook,
Twitter, Whatsapp)
86 100 42 84
4 Browsing the Internet 78 90.69 39 78
5 Reading e-books or printed
materials
12 13.95 25 50
6 Taking photographs 61 70.93 12 24
Purposes of using smart phones

13. Willingness of availing the services through smart phones
Library services Students Teachers
Number % Number %
1 Access to library website for
library information
72 78.26 48 96
2 Access to e-books 55 59.78 42 84
3 Information about recent arrivals 82 89.13 47 94
4 Receive text alerts by text
messages
84 91.3 40 80
5 Access to e-journals 33 35.86 44 88
6 Access to OPAC 45 48.91 46 92
7 Access to library database 77 83.69 38 76

14. Suggestions
• Librarians must put their best efforts to digitize their collections for the
greater benefit of the society as a whole.
• As students are addicted to smart phones so attempts should be made to
provide the library services through smart phone.
• A detailed survey of user needs and expectation should be conducted before
introducing Smart Phone applications in library services.
• Skill development of library staff must be ensured for such application.
• Users’ orientation programme should be organized for making the users
aware of the library services. They should also be educated on the proper use of
smart phone for library services.

15. •Text messaging services can be used to experiment the
application of smart phone to provide library services.
• Individual library webpage should be created in order to
facilitate the users to get the access to information they require
through smart phone.
• Telecommunication infrastructures should be put in place for
efficient and effective communication between library users and
staff.

16. Thank You