Re-Engineering Library and Information Services through e-Resources for Academic Excellence: A Study of Selected NITs in India

Abstract

In present IT era, almost all the sectors of the society are transformed. Academic institutes have also yet to escape from transforming traditional systems into ultra-modern facilities. Library and Information Centres have improvised their infrastructure and services. They have adopted several modern techniques and transformed them into Digital Libraries/ Modern Libraries. For academic excellence in Research Education in IITs, IIMS NITs, IISERs, etc., they procure e-Resources and make them available to their Users, especially to Faculty members, Research Scholars, and Research project holders. There are 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) in India. Some are very old and have all infrastructure at the level next to IITs. A research study of selected fully equipped 15 NITs was done, and the data was collected from different sources and Questionnaires. All 15 NITs are well-equipped for research studies and have required e-Resources for various subject areas. e-Resources comprise different types of resources accessible within the campus and remote access. The questionnaire was shared with all the 15 NITs Librarians/ staff to collect the data and from other sources. As per the survey, all the selected NITs have 100% facilities and infrastructure like Internet facilities (LAN+ Wi Fi), Operating systems, Library Management Software, membership of e Shodh Sindhu (ESS) Consortium, subscription to Important e-Resources, features of the e-Resources, problems being faced in subscribing e-Resources, selection criteria of e-Resources, availability of budget, utilization of budget, availability of technical staff. It has also been studied that all the NITs have almost common issues, joint problems, standard facilities, and expected benefits.