Academic Library

1. ACADEMIC LIBRARY
Unit 1

2. Introduction
• Academic libraries are institutional libraries which
cater to the needs of academic community for
supplementing the study and research programmes
of the institution and help conserve and disseminate
knowledge.
• Academic libraries include school, college, university
and research libraries.
• Academic libraries do not exist by themselves; they
exist to serve the objectives of the education system
of which they form a part.

3. Objectives
• The primary objectives of any academic institution
are –
– Support implementation of objectives of parent
institution;
– Supplement the curriculum taught in the institution to
which it is attached;
– Expansion of ideas and dissemination of knowledge with
the help of interpretation, research and publication;
– Dissemination of knowledge through teaching and
extension services;
– Conservation and preservation of knowledge.

4. School Libraries
• Children are the users.
• The collections include text books, graded and
simplified reading materials, adventure and travel
books, biographies, fiction, maps, charts, globe and
other material in print or audio visual form that
inculcate reading habits among children.
• The school libraries, besides offering routine book
issuing facility, offer other services such as library
hours, story telling hours, conduct of debates on
current topics, film shows and cultivation of reading
habits among students.

5. School Libraries
• Functions –
– Makes available to the students, books and allied reading
material relevant to the courses;
– Makes available the books and documents required by
faculty members in preparation of their instructional
courses;
– Promotes the proper use of the reading material available
in the stock;
– Trains the students in making use of the library properly
and derive full advantage out of it, integrating the library
with the educational courses.

6. College Libraries
• Adolescents and youth are the users.
• The collections include text books, periodicals and
serials needed for the curricula, reference and rare
books required for special studies, general books for
making the students book conscious and materials
needed for faculty members.
• The college libraries, besides offering routine book
issuing facility, renders additional services such as
introduction to library and its services, reader’s
advisory service, lending service, bibliographic
service, access to Internet, career guidance etc.

7. College Libraries
• Functions –
– Makes available to the students, books and allied reading material
relevant to the courses;
– Makes available the books and documents required by faculty members
in preparation of their instructional courses;
– Promotes the proper use of the reading material available in the stock;
– Trains the students in making use of the library properly and derive full
advantage out of it, integrating the library with the educational courses;
– To assist the teaching staff in the pursuit of higher studies and research
and support them with relevant literature and information on the
subject.
• Finances –
– Grants from UGC;
– Grants from Central and State governments;
– Endowments and donations; and
– Internal resources collected through subscription fees, fines, sale of
publications, etc.

8. University Libraries
• The postgraduate level students and researchers are the
users.
• The collections have wider scope as they include, besides the
prescribed text books, classics, special and rare book
collections, major reference books which are highly priced,
complete sets and files of academic and scholarly journals,
government publications, union catalogues, bibliographies,
dissertations and theses, etc., and provide access to electronic
publications on CD – ROMs or online.
• University libraries offer a wide variety of services that include
reference, current awareness, selective dissemination of
information, bibliographic, documentation, lending and inter
library loan, news paper clippings, network based services
such as access to Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC),
Internet and consortia based services, etc.

9. University Libraries
• Objectives –
– The objectives of university are to -
• seek and cultivate new knowledge, to engage vigorously in pursuit
of truth, and to work towards new discoveries;
• provide intellectual managerial leadership in all walks of life and
imbibe the people with a sense of social purpose;
• strive and promote equality and social justice and to reduce social
cultural difference through diffusion of education;
• guide research workers in all the areas of universe of knowledge
and to disseminate the research results for the benefit of mankind.
• Functions –
– Conservational Function
– Transmissional Function
– Promotional Function
– Developmental Function
– Proactional Function
– Revolutional Function

10. University Libraries
• Finances –
– Grants from UGC;
– Grants from Central and State governments;
– Grants allocated from the university budget;
– Endowments and donations; and
– Internal resources collected through subscription fees, fines, sale of
publications, etc.
• Services –
– Reference service;
– Current Awareness and SDI;
– Lending and inter library loan;
– Newspaper clippings;
– Reprography;
– User education and information literacy;
– Internet access and assistance in searching the websites; and
– Access to e-journals through e-journals consortia.