The document discusses a case study of digital collections in college libraries in Howrah District, West Bengal. It found that while many libraries lack permanent staff, some have begun automating services using local software. A few colleges have subscribed to e-resources through UGC initiatives. Recommendations include increasing budgets for digital resources, training staff, and evaluating user feedback to better meet information needs.

1. Building Digital Collections: A Case Study of College Libraries in Howrah District, West Bengal Ms. Sarama Das Librarian Gokhale Memorial Girl’s College;Kolkata & Mr.Srijib Kr. Patra; Asstt. Librarian, Manbhum mahavidyalaya; Purulia, W.B.

2. Contents Introduction Scope and Limitations Objectives of the Study Methodology & Findings of the Study UGC and Higher Education & Role of West Bengal College Service Commission E-Resources UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium Recent Developments Further Suggestions Conclusions

3. Introduction Majority of the college libraries in Howrah District have no permanent trained staff to look after the library and in some cases, library clerk is the In-Charge of the library. In spite of all these problems these colleges have started automation of the library by using local library software. Some colleges have taken initiative to subscribe to the e-resources with help of UGC and MHRD.

4. Scope and Limitations The scope of the study is limited to survey of existing LIS infrastructure in 15 college libraries in Howrah District, in order to fulfill the academic needs of users. It focuses on the present situation and services available in all college libraries in Howrah District, West Bengal.It focuses on the digital resources and services available in all 16 Degree College Libraries of Howrah Dist.

5. Howrah

6. Objectives of the Study To assess the number of computers and other related infrastructure available at all the college libraries in Howrah District, West Bengal To find out the status of library automation in all the college libraries in Howrah District, West Bengal To know the adequacy of availability of library staff to manage the information resources To find out the availability of Internet facility at all the college libraries in Howrah District, West Bengal To suggest suitable suggestions and recommendations to improve the e-resource acquisition for the benefit of users.

7. Methodology Questionnaire Survey over telephone

8. Findings of the Study

9. Sl. No. College Name No. of Books & Journals in Library (Approx.) No. of Computer In library No. of Computer In College Present status of library automation (Retro conversion) Software used No. of Professional & non professional Staff Internet facility 1 Bagnan College (Bagnan Block) 30,000+20 3 15 Nil Nil 1 (PT) +6 Library and others 2 Bijoy Krishna Girls’ College (Howrah Sadar 42,000+1 12 26 50% Local 1 + 4 Library and others 3 Dinabandhu Institution (Shibpur) 40,000+5 4 40 25% LIBSYS 1 + 4 Library and others 4 Lalbaba College (Bally) 27,000+10 2 20 Yet not started Local 1 + 2 In other place 5 Narasingha Dutta College (Howrah) 36,000+1 2 14 80% Local 1 + 3 Library and others 6 Joypur Panchanan Roy College (Amta II Block) 7,276+6 0 17 Nil Nil 1 (Clerk) Principal’s Room 7 Jagannath Kishore College 2 8 Local Partly (Only book database) 2 (part-time) 4 Individual Dept. 8 Mahatma Gandhi College 3 5 Local Partly (Only book database 1 (Permanent) 2 (part-time) Principal’s Room

10. Internet facility No. of Professional & non professional Staff Software used Present status of lib.automation (Retro conversion) No. of Computer In College No. of Computer In library No. of Books & Jour in Lib.(Approx.) College Name Sl. No. Library and others 1 + 2 Local Yet not started 8 1 9000+0 Gangadharpur Mahavidyamandir 10 Library and others 1 + 2 Local Nil 55 1 21000+6 Ramsaday College (Amta I Block) 9 Principal’s Room 1 + 2 (casual) Local Just have started 15 1 15000+7 Puras Kanpur Haridas Nandi Mahavidyalaya (Kanpur) 8 Principal’s Room 2 + 4 WINISIS 66% 15 1 18,000+6 Prabhu Jagatbandhu College (Andul) 7 Principal’s Room 0 + 1(Clerk) Nil Nil 17 0 7,276+6 Joypur Panchanan Roy College (Amta II Block) 6

11. Library and others 0 + 2 Local Uptodate 17 4 7200+3 Dr. Kanailal Bhattacharya College 11 Library and others 2 + 3 (casual) Migrated to KOHA Uptodate 230 11 45000+110 Ramkrishna Vidyamandir (belur) 12 Library and others 1 (Part time) + 3 Local (VLIS) 70% 10. 3 20,000+10 Shyampur Sidheswari Mahavidyalaya (Shyampur Block) 13 Internet facility No. of Professional & non professional Staff Software used Present status of library automation (Retro conversion) No. of Computer In College No. of Computer In library No. of Books & Jour in Library (Approx.) College Name Sl. No. Library and others 1+ 5 WINISIS 85% 40 4 33000+ 10 Uluberia College 15 Other places 1 + 1 Local 50% 18 1 16,000+12 Sovarani Girls College 14

12. UGC and Higher Education The University Grant Commission (UGC) is a statutory organization established by an act of parliament in 1956 for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education

13. UGC and Higher Education (Cont.) In the last Xth five years plan (2002-2007) the enrollment rate has gone up to 6% to 10% In the current XIth five years plan (2007-2011) it is proposed to raise upto 15%. Already 30 new central universities, 8 new IITs, 20 new IIITs and 7 new IIMs and several high grade medical colleges would be established in each district of the country

14. Role of West Bengal College Service Commission To prepare merit panels of candidates eligible for recruitment to the posts of Librarian /Asst. librarian and Lecturer in different subjects/disciplines in the Degree Colleges affiliated to Calcutta University, Burdwan University, North Bengal University, Kalyani University and Vidyasagar University. To recommend candidates for appointment to fill in the vacant posts of Lecturer and Librarian/Asst. librarian

15. What is e-resource? Electronic resources refers to those material that require computer access, and that may either be locally mounted or accessed remotely via the internet.

16. Advantages of e-resources Technical support is available electronically and via telephone E-Resource are available 24X7 Remote access to authorized users Platform independent Stable and durable URLs for electronic journals Training/instruction alternatives for limited port resources No limits to fair use of information (e.g. printing, emailing) Adequate system response (speed, downtimes, etc.) Assurance of easy and permanent access to archival electronic material

17. N-LIST Project: Access to E-resources to College Libraries Cross subscription to e-resources subscribed by the two Consortia. INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and UGC-INFONET resources for technical institutions. Access to selected e-resources to Colleges.

18. Electronic Journal Databases 2,154 Total 1940 + 1 USA MathSciNet (Bibliographic Database) 11 1982 + 1.420 USA Wilson Omnifile 10 Ten years 29 U.K. Royal Society of Chemistry 9 1996 + 206 U.K. Oxford University Press 8 Vol. 1 + 46 U.K. Institute of Physics 7 2007 + 150 India Indian Journal.com 6 1966 + 1 India Economic and Political Weekly 5 Five years 240 U.K. Cambridge University Press 4 Ten years 33 USA Annual Reviews 3 Five years 10 USA American Physical Society 2 Five years 18 USA American Institute of Physics 1 Access to Back files No. of Journals Publishing Country Electronic Journals databases Sl.No.

19. Electronic Books Databases 297 51,746 Total 1 3,500 USA NetLibrary (open access books) 5 44 936 USA NetLibrary 4 1 902 U.K. Oxford Scholarship 3 1 1,308 USA Myilibrary-McGraw Hill 2 250 45,100 USA ERbrary 1 No. of Publishers No. of E-Books Publishing Country E-resources/Publishers of Electronic Books Sl.No.

20. Further Suggestions National Knowledge Commission should take initiatives along with UGC to look after the college libraries for up gradation Concern institutional authority should be positive minded for up gradation of the library. Library staff should be positive minded to upgrade the college library. Budgetary resources should be increased gradually for strengthening digital resources in libraries. Authorities must allocate suitable/adequate grant for library modernization. Authorities must establish Internet search facility in the library for the esteem users

21. Further Suggestions (Cont.) Library staff must regularly organize user awareness and training programmes With the increasing influx of electronic resources into libraries, the user orientation programmes should be implemented More computer terminals should be installed in libraries for facilitating easy and quicker access of information to users There must be a provision for proper evaluation of the users feedback Library staffs should introduce Open Access ("Free to Read" and download) full-text books and journal sites like Pubmed Central, DOAJ, etc to users. Finally, the library should conduct regular feedback to evaluate and assessments to determine the effectiveness of the digital resources in meeting information needs of the users.

22. Conclusions The goal of the libraries is to provide an effective combination of print, non-print and electronic resources, and the integration of the use of these-resources in support of teaching, learning and research at the University. Electronic resources, however, pose challenges not encountered with the acquisitions of traditional library materials, such as access, interface, and technical support and licensing. The libraries therefore need to formulate a separate electronic resources collection development policy to address these issues.

23. Thank you Have a nice Day