Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Maintained Research Institutes’ Libraries in India: Towards Digitization and Networking
P. K. Jain · The International Information & Library Review · 2003
The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) was established for development of social science research in India. It provides grants to 27 research institutes and six regional centers in India. These institutes have established close links with scholars in the region through activities such as seminars, workshops, training, and consultancy programs. Some of the institutes are closely associated with national and state level planning development agencies and have thereby strengthened the links between research and policy-making. The present study includes 22 institute libraries and three regional libraries in different Indian states. The study analyses their annual acquisition of books; periodicals; CD-ROMs; annual budgets; computerization; hardware and software; Internet; library network; and interlibrary loan and photocopy facilities available in these libraries. Digitization provides a solution to traditional library problems such as conservation, preservation, multimedia documents, and remote access to information, collection, and storage space. ICSSR institute libraries are replacing conventional storage and network systems with digital systems. The progress is a bit slow. Only a few ICSSR institute libraries are subscribing to electronic journals and having electronic documents. ICSSR institute libraries have started computerized operations and are making vigorous attempts to have digitized collections. However, these libraries are required to understand literature growth and use patterns in the social sciences.