The emergence of Hybrid Special Libraries

इस ब्लॉग्स को सृजन करने में आप सभी से सादर सुझाव आमंत्रित हैं , कृपया अपने सुझाव और प्रविष्टियाँ प्रेषित करे , इसका संपूर्ण कार्य क्षेत्र विश्व ज्ञान समुदाय हैं , जो सभी प्रतियोगियों के कॅरिअर निर्माण महत्त्वपूर्ण योगदान देगा ,आप अपने सुझाव इस मेल पत्ते पर भेज सकते हैं - chandrashekhar.malav@yahoo.com

The emergence of Hybrid Special Libraries

P- 15. Special and Research Libraries *

By :malhan v,Paper Coordinator

1. Introduction

At the outset, this module has been designed to highlight several components such as, the concept of different types of libraries, what is hybrid library and special library, development of hybrid library and hybrid special library,  prerequisites of hybrid special library design, elements of hybrid special library design and services of hybrid special library. The topics and sub topics of the module have specially focused on evolution and expansion of hybrid library. The development of hybrid library will depends on the type of institution and rate of development varies from library to library. It has been observed for a decade that there has been a shift to more and more electronic resources, but hybrid library scenario is likely to be around for several more years (Oppenheim & Smithson, 1999).

After reading this module you will be able to:

• Demonstrate your understanding about the evolution, expansion and multi-faceted dimensions of hybrid special library.

• Categorically identify and select several facets and elements before getting started with the design of a hybrid special library.

• Design and develop significant services of hybrid special library as per the users’ information needs.

2. 0 Types of Libraries

A library is organized and maintained by a public body, government, an institution, a corporation, or a private individual. At its core, the mission of any library is to facilitate user access to the resources contained in the library collection; however, the structure of the library differs based upon the unique needs of the patrons and the expectations of the library’s oversight organization.  As libraries have evolved, the concept of information environment has changed dramatically. There are several types of library environments: traditional ones, e.g., academic, public, school, special libraries, archives; and nontraditional ones, known variously as digital, electronic or virtual, and hybrid. 

2.1 Academic Libraries

Academic libraries are the nerve centers of academic institutions and support the information and research needs of their faculty, students and staff; their functions are directly associated with degree granting institutions of higher education. Primarily, these libraries serve two aspects of academic institutions: to support the school’s curriculum and to support the research of faculty and students. Moreover, some academic libraries also provide services to local community by the way of making materials available to local citizens.

The collection of an academic library includes books, periodicals, microforms, software, recordings, electronic formats, and multicultural materials. In the present electronic age, the resources are becoming entirely electronic thus the academic librarian is required to become proficient in searching these resources and teaching users to search these resources (electronic databases). It is also important for the academic librarian to provide proactive information services to the users, for example, developing the topical subject guides for various disciplines starting from Accounting to Women Studies. These guides usually prove to be a starting point of research (for their respective subjects) for the students and faculty. It is also interesting to note that that the websites of many academic libraries (including access to electronic databases, OPAC and subject guides) are available through various mobile modes, such as, smart phones and I-pad. Thus, the academic librarian has to keep up with the vibrant information needs of his/her patrons by being innovative in devising proactive information services.

2.2 School Libraries

Like academic libraries, school libraries serve the students, teachers and administrative staff of their schools. The school library encourages learners to be independent lifelong learners and promotes reading as a foundational skill for learning, personal growth and enjoyment (AASL, 2012). The school library provides informational, reference and recreational materials. Typically, the collection of a school library includes books and other information sources, ranging from the fictional to the documentary and from print to electronic. Moreover, the school library also provides access to online databases (through online hosts) and online reference resources; it serves as a place for students to do independent work, access internet, use computer and research materials. It is also an excellent place for hosting special events such as author visits, book talks, and book fairs.

In many schools, school libraries are staffed by librarians, teacher-librarians, or school library media specialists. The school librarian should be a professionally qualified staff member who would be competent in planning and teaching different information-handling skills to both teachers and students (IFLA, 2006). He is responsible for collection development, circulation and cataloging and also facilitates interlibrary loans, performs inventory and instructs in information literacy skills. The school librarian collaborates with classroom teachers to create independent learning by fostering students' research, information literacy, technology, and critical thinking skills. Thus, to sustain and increase knowledge and skills, the school administration should support for professional development of the school librarian.

2.3 Public Libraries

Unlike an academic or school library, the public library serves the information needs of lay public. Public library provides free and equal access to information to the general public. It is primarily established by state law, supported by taxes, governed by a board and open to all (Rubin, 2004, p. 284). The fundamental services of a public library are: circulation service, reference service, electronic reference service (online, e-mail, phone), reader’s advisory service (also offered by academic library), mobile library service, children’s library service, cataloging, OPAC, interlibrary loan, homework help, development and management of digital resources and periodicals and use of internet. Public Libraries also provide several free services such as providing free internet access, training in use of the Internet, conducting preschool story times (for infants, toddlers) to encourage early literacy, providing quiet study and work areas for students and professionals, or organizing book clubs (also provided in academic library) to encourage appreciation of literature in adults.

In the contemporary times, public libraries are using web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, twitter, social networking sites etc) in various ways; it is enabling the libraries become a part of people’s everyday lives. The public libraries do replicate their traditional fun programs, story times, and reader’s advisory services through blogs and wikis for all age groups. Public librarians also create podcasts, screen casts, or videos of stories in the public domain, which allow children to benefit from story time anytime. Moreover, public librarians also make themselves available to patrons at their point of need by offering synchronous reference services, ranging from providing IM reference for a few hours a day to being part of a 24/7 chat reference cooperative (Farkas, 2007). 

2.4 Special libraries

However, Special libraries tend to contain a smaller, more specialized collection, serve a much narrower discipline or clientele than the other types of library mentioned; they consist of a very small and specialized staff and provide restricted access (not open to public).  They tend to be sponsored by private companies, government agencies, and organizations or associations to serve the specific information needs of their employees and members with the organization’s mission and goals in mind.  Some common types of special libraries often seen include law libraries, government libraries, Engineering libraries, medical libraries, corporate libraries, museum libraries or military libraries

2.5 Digital libraries

Lastly, Digital libraries have emerged as the proliferation of digital technologies has increased. The collections of Digital library are stored in digital formats and are generally made accessible through an online interface that allows the user to search the collection; it maintains procedures to select, organize, make available, and archive the information. They offer a wide variety of collections that are generally accessible online at anytime to anybody worldwide. The mission of most digital libraries is to increase accessibility to information resources. Some digital libraries and online library catalogs allow users to create their own tags to name and find content. Examples of digital libraries include cloud-based digital repositories likeInternet Archive (http://archive.org/index.php)  and Hathi Trust(http://www.hathitrust.org/) , both of which aim to preserve permanent access for researchers, scholars, historians and any other individual with Internet access.

3. 0 What is a special library

Special libraries are diverse and may exist in many types of organizations ranging in size from small operations administered by one person, to large institutions with their own buildings and hundreds of staff members. Special libraries have some the following characteristics: a focus on specialized information resources, usually of a limited subject scope; a focus on a specialized and limited clientele; and the delivery of specialized services to that clientele (Shumaker, 2009). There are three forces which contribute to the continuous growth in the number of special libraries: the rapid increase in the amount of information, continuing development in information technologies and recognition of how important information has become as an essential resource for organizational survival (Rubin, 2004, p.416).

Further, technological advances have transformed the special libraries from a finite collection of books, periodicals stored on shelves and almirahs to an infinite collection of information stored in bits and bytes. The contemporary special librarians use latest advances in computer and telecommunications technology in order to collect, monitor, organize, analyze, evaluate, package and disseminate resources and materials for their parent or client organizations. Today, special librarians have become more proactive than ever, they anticipate the information needs of their patrons and help meet their personal and professional objectives.  Additionally, special librarians also provide value added services. For example, they evaluate the wide variety of online databases available and determine which ones are the best for their users. They also evaluate the information with regards to its timeliness and accuracy (Bender, 2003, p.616). However, special librarians are also facing several challenges such as, scarce resources, defining and promoting their roles and consequent low customer awareness, lack of recognition of the value of special libraries, keeping up with how information is stored and located, copyright issues, the demands of individualized service and poor cooperation from management (Rubin, 2004, p. 418). 

3.1 Definition – Special Library and Hybrid library

ODLIS defines special library as “a library established and funded by a commercial firm, private association, government agency, nonprofit organization or special interest group to meet the information needs of its employees, members or staff in accordance with the organization’s mission and goals (Reitz, 2013). Shumaker (2009) mentions that the special library arose as a distinct type of library because organizations needed units to acquire the specialized information relevant to their activities, organize that information, and provide customized services to get it to the right people at the right time.

The term hybrid library has been used rather loosely in the literature – even as a synonym for digital libraries. It is a concept rather than an actual physical entity. Oppenheim & Smithson (1999) mentions that most libraries are hybrid; they deal with a variety of media and use common cataloguing and classification rules. The hybrid library is a cross-breed which aims to meet the needs of the new learning environment. It occupies both virtual space and physical space, and offers users access to a range of print and electronic resources (Garrod, 1999). Law (2003) mentions that a hybrid library “may be described as a physical library in which seamless, integrated access is provided to all the resources available to that library, irrespective of medium or location – sometimes known as a one-stop shop (p. 231).” He further highlight that hybrid library should provide access to many different types of media and integrate electronic services into a more coherent whole. Thus, the user would be presented with simple and unified access.   Rusbridge (1998) opines that the hybrid library should bring together all four kinds of resources: legacy resources, that is existing nondigital resources; traditional resources, that is, legacy resources which also exist in digitized form; new resources that are born digital; and future resources that will incorporate access methods.

The hybrid library was defined by Pinfield (1998) as a library “on the continuum between the conventional and digital library, where electronic and paper based information sources are used alongside each other.” According to Rusbridge (1998), the hybrid library should be “designed to bring a range of technologies from different sources together in the context of a working library, and also to begin to explore integrated systems and services in both the electronic and print environments.” Thus, it can be easily concluded that hybrid library is a vision than a reality. It is not a fixed product but is a process which involves continual integration. “An important aspect of this integration of electronic resources with the aim of allowing users to access a variety of resources (perhaps simultaneously) through a single user interface (Pinfield, 1999).” No matter how each writer has defined the term ‘hybrid library’, all the writers voice that there is a need for integrated information. A standard interface should facilitate access to all information types. The hybrid library is a step on the road to the digital library, but the road may be a long one and the development of the new form should take account of traditional library collections.

4. Development of Hybrid library and hybrid special library

New information technologies have revolutionized information access and reduced the distinction between the physical library and virtual library and thus enabling the user to get information quickly and conveniently anytime-anywhere-anyplace. The key purpose of any library is to provide a quality service: access to relevant information, computers, information networks and software applications. These technologies are making it possible for libraries to provide a variety of library and information services to clientele. Today’s libraries are a combination of resources that include traditional print materials, but also e-books and e-journals, remote databases and electronic collections provided by outside vendors or developed internally. Such a library is somewhere between the traditional print-based library and the purely electronic library and is sometimes referred to as hybrid library (Rubin, 2004, p.96).

The term ‘hybrid library’ was introduced into general parlance by a call for demonstrator projects by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in March 1997. Five projects were funded: Agora, which is building a standards based broker system; BUILDER, which covers institutional issues; HEADLINE is about information landscapes and the set of resources of interest to the user; HYLIFE is about different client groups and types; MALIBU is about management implications and the development of models (Law, 2003). Further, the name hybrid library is intended to reflect the transitional state of the library, which today can neither be fully print nor fully digital. The hybrid library tries to use the technologies available to bring things together into a library reflecting the best of both worlds (Rusbridge, 1998).

Hybrid libraries are likely to persist for many years. Nonetheless, it is important to gain a solid understanding of digital libraries as they have become more and more prevalent. A digital library (DL) is collection of electronic resources that provides direct / indirect access to a systematically organized collection of digital objects. It is a combination that integrates multimedia databases with a user-friendly interface to provide users with a comprehensive library service.

It was further stated by  Eastwood & Tompson (2001) that Digital libraries can be visualized as consisting of OPACs and computer databases that replaced traditional card catalogues and augmented them with links between records ((e.g. a record for one book on a particular subject could be relationally linked to a list of records for books on that subject).  Greenstein (2000) states that digital libraries “create a digital library service environment, that is, a networked online information space in which users can discover, locate, acquire access to and increasingly, use information” (p. 290-291). Full-fledge digital library is unlikely to happen, especially when there are factors outside the control of libraries. The hybrid library is not only a transitional process to the complete virtual library but also an important stage in information provision (Oppenheim & Smithson, 1999, p. 109).

However, the objective of hybrid library is to support access to both the physical stock as well as the digital materials. The name hybrid library is intended to reflect the transitional state of the library, which today can neither be fully print nor fully digital. The hybrid library tries to use the technologies available to bring things together into a library reflecting the best of both worlds (Rusbridge,1998). In the hybrid library environment, the user should be presented with a coherent picture of what resources are available in paper or electronic format. Moreover, the integrated library system, dealing with a hybrid library collection, also holds document location tools to the print collection; the system essentially should be compatible with the digital collection management system (Eastwood & Tompson, 2001).

Further, Eastwood & Tompson (2001) opined that “almost all special libraries can be considered as supporting local hybrid library architecture. In such a library the collection consists of materials in a variety of paper-based and digital formats, and there is an attempt to provide the users an integrated interface, usually web-based, to locate any item in the collection, irregardless of format.” They further emphasized that several hybrid special libraries have built their digital material collections to supplement their physical collections. More documents every day are becoming available digitally, largely through consortia and initiative collections. Additionally, hybrid special libraries often combine Internet and intranet resources and access. They provide access within and beyond the parent organization and thus make some resources being intranet-only accessible. Pillai (2001) argued that hybrid special library provides appropriate range of heterogeneous information services (both print and electronic) to the user in a consistent and integrated way via a single interface.

Today, libraries are undergoing transformation; one of the most significant changes carried out fast and efficiently was the updation of online public access catalogues (OPACs). Initially, OPACs were just a simple automated catalogue; afterwards they diversified and became available within a library system, and finally they have become accessible through the internet anywhere in the world. In a typical hybrid special library, the search string on the OPAC should result in a list of relevant document regardless of format. Thus, the user would not have to search separately for print or electronic resources. As Pinfield (1998) rightly pointed out that the search results should encourage users to look at the best source for their needs regardless of its format. However, it is also important to consider whether the OPAC of the hybrid special library provides access to information to only affiliate users or to non-affiliate users also. Moreover, the library also has to draw guidelines for ‘how to browse electronic resources’; will it be through access to another library’s content server or will consortium patrons have direct access to all consortium electronic resources (  Elm & Trump, 2001).

5. Prerequisites of Hybrid Special library Design

Many special libraries are currently supporting the ‘hybrid’ setup with the popular notion that ‘the hard copy material will continue to be used, in varying degrees for a very long time.’ They still need to manage with hybrid library collections for substantial amount of time (Eastwood & Tompson 2001). Some of the prerequisites for designing the hybrid special library are:

• The library's collections should be accessible to all its users throughout the campus as well as from home. Emphasis should be on accessibility, not on making all resources available to the public at large.

• Information should be retrieved using the OPAC. Whether the material requested is a book, a movie, a database, graphic image, or an electronic journal, the catalogue should be the place to find it. The capacity and the ability of the catalogue to retrieve all kinds of material should be enlarged (Marcas et.al, 2000).

• The user should be able to access the books, digital copies of physical information resources and other physical information resources in the library’s collections.

• The user should be able to access online information resources which the library is licensed to access on behalf of its users, including full-text databases, union catalogues, indexing and abstracting services; encyclopedias and other reference tools.

• The user should be able to access information resources freely available on the Internet (Pearce, 2000).

6.0 Elements of Hybrid Special Library Design

Leggate (1998) argued that there are a few elements which are to be considered while planning a strategy for hybrid special library design and organization: 

6.1 Configurable entry-level menu for all applications

The library homepage should be the gateway to all digital resources. A hybrid special library should customize its website through simple hypertext menu for several bibliographic and full-text databases. The users should be able to approach entry-level menus with information requirements ranging from the simple to the complex, and with knowledge of subject area or information sources in a subject area varying from minimal to extensive. For example National Library of Medicine enables the user to access the ‘TOXNET’ Database on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health and toxic releases (NLM, 2013). This database facilitate the user to search several of toxicology databases (ChemIDplus, HSDB, TOXLINE etc) through a single search  bar simultaneously; this page also offers additional resources and support pages, See Fig 1.

6.2 Compatible User Interface

A graphical user interface should be adopted by hybrid special library, which uses the windows or web interface formats familiar to many people. The user interface of the library should be straightforward and informative for all levels of computer users. Once users get deeper into the digital services offered, a varying level of service, such as, basic and advance searching can be given. Additionally, users should be provided with easy to understand instructions along with the computer interface. Moreover, it is also recommended that the library should design multidisciplinary user interfaces for different electronic databases. The users may not like to search all the databases of the library and would prefer to be able to choose the most relevant databases. Rather, the users want librarian to choose the most appropriate ones for them.

6.3 Integration

In a hybrid special library, the functional Integration should allow a user  to move from one resource to another without the need to exit one application and then to locate and enter another. For example, while searching king’s Library catalogue http://www.library.sjsu.edu/ (California, USA)  for the search term, ‘Hybrid library’, the results yielded an article from the Journal of the Medical Library Association. This article is hyperlinked from the bibliographic record to the full text. See Fig 2.

6.4 Links between electronic and paper collections

While designing a hybrid special library it is important to have an integrated approach to the organisation of both electronic and paper resources. Many times the outcome of an electronic search is that the reader requires an access to a physical item whether book, photocopy, offprint, manuscript, museum artifact or recording but, sometimes the stock exist only in paper form. A balance therefore has to be struck between the user coming to the library, the paper coming to the user, or an electronic version of the paper coming to the user. To build this model we have to view electronic and paper resources together rather than separately, and adopt a common approach to guiding the user to either. For example, the SJSU’s king library search interface has adopted a common approach to guide the user to either electronic or paper resource for an article in the journal: Scandinavian public library quarterly. The interface points the user to use either electronic version or the paper version of the article. See Fig 3 

6.5 Creation of Common schemes for digital objects

In order to aid seamless searching in a hybrid special library, it is important to develop internal database structure. Common schemes for naming of digital objects have to be established and these schemes should be linked to “protocols for object transmission, metadata and object type classifications” (Lynch and Garcia-Molina, 1995). The standard document-naming scheme would enhance the usage of library collections and would aid resource sharing, linking between different libraries’ integrating library systems and would propagate future developments. 

6.6 Uniform Resource Names / Persistent Identifiers

According to the document naming conventions given by Library of congress, naming the documents are a crucial aspect of design, because it involved the syntax of a name by which a document is referenced. The standards were developed by the Internet Engineering Task force (IETF) for naming conventions, called Uniform resource Name (URN), Uniform Resource Identification and Uniform Resource locators.  URNs were developed with intention to provide a globally unique, location independent identifier that can be used for identification of the resource, and to thus facilitate access to both metadata about it and to the resource itself. One important part of the URN was the Naming Authority (NA), and this authority would have responsibility of maintaining the names in its domain. For URNs to work, it is required that that the institutions should reach consensus on naming conventions (Library of Congress, 2006). There are several real-world practicalities that suggest that this vision of uniform resource name is achievable only in limited fashion. Jantz and Giarlo (2005) argued that there is an approach available today that allow us to get started with the process of providing persistent identifiers, such as, the CNRI Handle.

CNRI Handle: The Handle System (component of Corporation of National Research Initiative) provides efficient, extensible, and secure resolution services for unique and persistent identifiers of digital objects. A digital object may incorporate not only informational elements, i.e., a digitized version of a paper, movie or sound recording, but also the unique identifier of the digital object and other metadata about the digital object. The Handle System includes an open set of protocols, a namespace, and a reference implementation of the protocols. The protocols enable a distributed computer system to store identifiers, known as handles, of arbitrary resources and resolve those handles into the information necessary to locate, access, contact, authenticate, or otherwise make use of the resources (CNRI, 2013). The CNRI Handle syntax is of the following form: prefix/suffix where the prefix (e.g. 1782.3) is assigned by the CNRI Global Registry and thus is globally unique. The suffix can be any user-assigned character string. For example, inRutgers University community repository, a string is chosen with the following syntax: [collection]. [format].[unique-id within RU namespace]. An example, embedded within a URL, is shown below (Jantz & Giarlo, 2005). 

The article is about 2 photographs with captions that appeared in the 'Morning Journal' article, 'Picture from the Hightstown Colony' by A. Litwin.

Moreover, in order to integrate the disparate resources into a hybrid library, it is important to make the catalogue as web accessible and as a common entry point. While designing hybrid library all electronic items should be catalogued in a regular manner just as are the physical items. If an item exists in both paper and electronic form, only one record should be made, containing information about both material types. Moreover, Eastwood & Tompson (2001) argued that “A user of a hybrid library should not recognize a difference in formats, especially when searching for relevant materials. A search string should result in a list of relevant documents regardless of format, as opposed to the user needing to search separately for print or electronic resources.” The list of retrieved articles from a specific search should include links to full-text articles and ‘At THE LIBRARY’ field in order to in indicate if the library holds the paper journal.

However, the technical architecture and linking of different formats should be transparent to the user. For example, thecatalogue of Getty Research Institute (California, USA) vividly gave a feel of ‘seamless searching’ and ‘access’ in the hybrid environment. While searching this catalog with the search term  “web 2.0 libraries”, the search results were books (5), journals (2) and text resources (1) [see left side of Fig 4]. The search results could be narrowed by ‘Refine my results’ options given on the left side of the screen of Fig .4. Some of its facets includes: availability of the item, Collections, Authors, Subjects, Form / Genre and Creation Dates. On the top of Fig 4, you would see that the search results were categorized as: ‘GRI resources’, ‘e-resources’ and ‘all resources’. On clicking the option ‘All resources’, it can be observed that the search results are far more in number than under the option ‘GRI resources’[See Fig 5]. Similarly, on the left side of the screen of Fig 5, the ‘Refine my results’, would give much wider range of the options (such as, availability, collections Authors, Subjects, Form / Genre, format, languages and Creation Dates) and sub-options (such as, under availability, the sub-options are: availability in the library, available online, peer-reviewed journals). The sub-options also included a greater number of search results. For example, sub-options of ‘availability’ includes: ‘availability in the library (2), available online (8099) and Peer-reviewed journals (4197).  

Fig 4

Fig 5

7. Services of Hybrid Special Library

Special library users have a number of different information requirements with respect to their age, stage of career and stage in research process. In a hybrid library system, users have to deal with a combination of old usage habits and the need to acquire new technical skills. Moreover, there are many different generations of users, such as, ‘Net generation’ and older generation. ‘Net generation’ is very comfortable with technology and is the dominant user type in the future; these users expect hybrid digital services to be available all the time, 24/7. Thus, these users (local or remote) expect a high level of information services to be designed and provided. The typical services of hybrid special library would be:

• Books / E-books
• Journals / E journals
• Full text databases
• Bibliographic databases
• Dissertations & theses
• Video lectures 
• Hybrid Reference Services (one-on-one / electronic)
• Electronic Information Services
• Document Delivery Services / E-Document Delivery Services
• End-Users Training Services
• Document Scanning Services
• E-Book Reserve Service
• Interlibrary Loan / E-Interlibrary Loan Services
• Printing Services
• Photocopying Services
• Digitization Services
• Microfilming Services
• Television Services
• Telephone Services
• Faxing Services

8. Functional Hybrid Special Libraries – Indian Scene

The following list of hybrid special libraries is not exhaustive, rather indicative:

1. National Science Library (under the aegis of NISCAIR)http://nsl.niscair.res.in/index.jsp
2. Central Library of IIT Kharagpur (under the aegis of IIT Kharagpur)http://www.library.iitkgp.ernet.in/
3. IIPA Library (under the aegis of IIPA, New Delhi)http://www.iipa.org.in/www/iipalibrary/iipa/home.php
4. Scientific Information and Resource Center library (under the aegis of TIFR)http://www.tifr.res.in/index.php/en/services/scientific-information-resource-center.html
5. Sir Dorabji Tata Memorial Library (under the aegis of TISS)http://library.tiss.edu/
6. Vikram Sarabhai Library (under the aegis of IIM Ahmadabad)http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/library/
7. Central Library of IIT Delhi (under the aegis of IIT Delhi) http://library.iitd.ac.in/
8. ISI-BC Library of ISI Bangalore (under the aegis of ISI Bangalore)http://www.isibang.ac.in/~library/
9. NIO Library (under the aegis of National Institute of Oceanography, Goa)http://www.nio.org/index/option/com_nomenu/task/show/tid/1/sid/12/id/40
10. Bose Intitute Library (under the aegis of Bose Institute, Kolkata)http://bic.boseinst.ernet.in/library.html/

9. Conclusion

The concept of the hybrid library came into being as a result of the changing nature of library collections and refers to a library on the continuum between the conventional and digital library, where electronic and paper-based information sources are used alongside each other (Rusbridge, 1998). The Hybrid library can be viewed as an entity which is reaffirming the library’s traditional roles in an electronic environment. The scientific literature gives a clear indication that special libraries are likely to remain ‘hybrid’ for the foreseeable future. The hybrid special library is a crossbreed and seems to be more versatile and resilient. In order to reasonably implement a functional hybrid special library the information professionals should play a pivotal role in developing a more navigable and tailorable hybrid information environment for the users.

Overall, the hybrid special library has the potential to impact positively on the services delivered by Information professionals. In order to actualize this, the hybrid library should have a flexible management which should instill multi-skilled teams of information professionals who can effectively collaborate on the delivery of resources and services. They should also solicit users’ feedback, and develop user-centric services and keep pace with the evolving technology. Hence, they would be able to maintain the library’s mission in a continually evolving hybrid environment.

10. Summary

This module is an introduction of the hybrid library and hybrid special library. The hybrid library is generally defined as a library in which electronic and print-based sources of information are made available together in an integrated way for consultation by users, local and remote. Primarily, the module traces briefly the origin, growth and development of hybrid special library, more particularly, it examines the evolution of the concept of hybrid special library. It further discusses the prerequisites of hybrid special library design such as, The library's collections should be accessible to all its users anytime anywhere, and the user should be able to access information resources freely available on the Internet. Furthermore, the module covers the basic elements of Hybrid special library design such as, configurable entry-level menu for all applications, compatible user interface, integration, creation of common schemes for digital objects, and uniform resource names. Additionally, it also highlights various services provided by hybrid special library such as, full text databases, hybrid reference services, interlibrary loan, and digitization services. The module ends with the list of certain significant hybrid special libraries of India.

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Eastwood, E. J. & Tompson, S. R. (2001). Digital library services: an overview of the hybrid approach. In The Handbook of Information Management. (8^th edition, pp. 1-43). London: Aslib-IMI.

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IFLA. (March 26, 2006). IFLA/UNESCO school library manifesto: school libraries and resource centers section. Retrieved Jun 30, 2013 fromhttp://archive.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/manifest.htm

Law, D.G (2003). Hybrid Libraries. In . In The International Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. (pp. 230). Third edition. Routledge, Taylor & Francis , London.

Leggate, P. (1998). User access to the hybrid library. In the proceedings of the IATUL’ 98 conference. Retrived Oct 4, 2013 fromhttp://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1432&context=iatul

Library of Congress. (2006). Naming conventions for digital resources. Retrieved 16 August 2013 from http://www.loc.gov/marc/naming.html

Lynch, C. & Garcia-Molina, H. (1995).  Interoperability, scaling, and the digital libraries research agenda: A report on the May 18–19, 1995 IITA Digital Libraries Workshop. Retrieved 16 August 2013 fromhttp://diglib.stanford.edu:8091/diglib/pub/reports/iita-dlw/main.html

Marcas, F. D., Branse, Y., Golan, Y. & Igra, I. (2000). Hybrid library development at the University of Haifa library. Library Review, 49 (4), 165-172.

NLM (2013). National Library of Medicine-Toxicology Data network. Retrieved Aug 7, 2013 from http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/

Oppenheim, C. & Smithson, D. (1999). What is the hybrid library. Journal of Information Science. 25 (2), p. 97-112.

Pearce, J. The challenge of integrated access: the hybrid library system of the future. In the proceedings of VALA 2000 conference. Retrieved Aug 3, 2013 fromhttp://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/nlasp/article/viewArticle/1347/1631.

 Pillai, M. R. (2001). Risk factors associated with migration in digital libraries. In Proceedings of CALIBER (INFLIBNET) 2001. Retrieved Aug 3, 2013 fromhttp://ir.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/handle/1944/99/cali_19.pdf?sequence=1

 Pinfield, S. et. al. (1998). Realizing the Hybrid Library  , DLib Magazine October. Retrieved Jul 13, 2013 from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october98/10pinfield.html

 Pinfield, S. (1999). The Hybrid Library: a view from the UK. Retrieved 20 Jul 2013 from http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/5/0/InetBib.pdf

Reitz, J. M (2013). Special library. In Online dictionary of Library and Information Science. Retrieved Oct 10, 2013 from http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_s.aspx

Rubin, R.E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Rusbridge, C. (1998) ‘Towards the hybrid library’, DLib Magazine July/August. Retrieved Jul 13, 2013 from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july98/rusbridge/07rusbridge.html

Shumaker, D. (2009). Special Libraries. In The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. (pp. 4966-4974). Third Edition. New York: Taylor and Francis, Published online: 09 Dec 2009.

Web links

HEADLINE http://www.headline.ac.uk/

HyLiFe  http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/projects/hylife/

AGORA http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/agora/

BUILDER http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/projects/builder/

MALIBU http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/malibu/ 

Research Library Networks, Consortia and Resource Sharing

इस ब्लॉग्स को सृजन करने में आप सभी से सादर सुझाव आमंत्रित हैं , कृपया अपने सुझाव और प्रविष्टियाँ प्रेषित करे , इसका संपूर्ण कार्य क्षेत्र विश्व ज्ञान समुदाय हैं , जो सभी प्रतियोगियों के कॅरिअर निर्माण महत्त्वपूर्ण योगदान देगा ,आप अपने सुझाव इस मेल पत्ते पर भेज सकते हैं - chandrashekhar.malav@yahoo.com

Research Library Networks, Consortia and Resource Sharing

P- 15. Special and Research Libraries *

By :malhan v,Paper Coordinator

Resource Sharing

Libraries are the service place, where they attempt to use all its resources to achieve its stated objectives, and to provide the best possible services, but this is not possible because of financial crunch facing by them. Not only in India, but also worldwide, libraries are striving hard to provide necessary and relevant information to their users because of limited resources. Hence, they tried to develop agreements for the sharing of materials, information and even human resources.

Kaula (1986) mentions - resource sharing is not a new concept in the field of libraries. The concept that goes by the term ‘library co-operation’ has been in use  all along among those who had been working in libraries or had anything to do with the development of libraries. The term, however, has been replaced by a new coinage ––‘Resource Sharing’–– which sounds more attractive and makes better sense in this age of inflation and budgetary reduction. ‘Library Resources’ is the term that applies to personnel, material, functions or activities available in a library for satisfying the human needs and demands to acquire their desired knowledge (Anonymous, 2005). 

Thus, resource sharing is basically the sharing of various resources among participating libraries on the cooperation basis. Inter-library loan is one of the oldest form of resource sharing in which exchange of documents was done among two or more than two libraries on mutual basis. Centralized cataloguing and union catalogues are the other forms of resource sharing that were prevalent in many of the libraries.

Laxman Rao (2006) has broadly grouped resource-sharing activities [forms] in Indian context into following four categories:

• Inter-library Cooperation
• Document Delivery Service (DDS)
• National Information System in Science and Technology (NISSAT) and National Information Centers (NIC)
• Library Consortia

Inter-library Cooperation is the local cooperation between two or more libraries, which may be formal or informal. Local cooperation has been necessitated due to alarming shortages of financial resources in many institutions. Smaller research and academic organizations are unable to procure information resources to satisfy their users’ needs; in turn, the lack of access to such information has a negative effect on research. A number of industries, colleges and similar research organization can be seen which can not afford to buy a single database because government support to them is limited. Here, coordination can be done on various basis among two or more than two libraries. Best example of this was the NISSAT, which has issued library tickets to many institutions and organizations allowing them access to the library facilities of government or government-sponsored institutions at a nominal charge.

National Information System in Science and Technology or more commonly known as NISSAT,  is developed by National Committee on Science and Technology of India (NCST) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), with support from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for information support facilities for customers engaged in research and academics, promotion of existing information systems and services, introduction of modern information handling tools and techniques, and promotion of cooperation in information access. NISSAT main goal was to establish a bridge between information resource developers and information users in diverse subjects. NISSAT is non-functional now.

National Information Center or NIC with its Sectoral Information Centers (SICs) provides bibliographic, factual, and numeric information as a product to the scientists in the country. Each SIC is supposed to develop information and information sources in a particular or assigned discipline, including micro-disciplines. Preparation of subject bibliographies and union catalogues; Information retrieval on request; Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services; Building information on patents, specifications, and standards; Carrying out surveys, preparation of state of art reports, and scientific and technological forecasting; and Provision of translation, reprographic services, etc. are its functions.

Document delivery is a kind of inter-library loan service, which facilitates delivery of copies of journal articles and book chapters owned at any of the library. It helps to bridge the gap between the have and the have-not libraries. Document delivery is being widely used to facilitate user access to required materials. The primary objective of this service is to economically supplement library stock holdings by accessing material held at other libraries in a timely, efficient and cost effective manner, thus extending the amount of resources available to members of the libraries. But in any case, the copyright should not be violated.

INFLIBNET is the best example of document delivery. It has introduced this service in collaboration with the six universities which act as Document Delivery Centers. These universities are - the University of Hyderabad, Banaras Hindu University, Punjab University, the Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Each of these libraries is supposed to take care of a specified region for document delivery service, but it is not mandatory that it only serve that region. Users are free to use resources from any library. However, these libraries are independent and deal directly with the users. In addition to these six libraries, the INFLIBNET center itself also provides document delivery services to the academic community.

Library Consortia are the agreements of various libraries for subscribing e-resources at economic rates. These will be discussed later in details in this chapter.

Library Networks

Human networking has been in operation since the ages when man understood the limitations of survival as an independent entity. The compulsions of interdependence have given birth to the norms for cooperation in different scenarios. So have they done in the case of libraries which had to fulfill the growing demands of their users and to satisfy the legitimate use of their resources. Further, the introduction of computer networking as an accepted part of the library and information infrastructure has paved the way for automated networking. Networking has a very significant impact on the way in which library and information systems are perceived.

A library network is broadly described as a group of libraries coming together with some agreement of understanding to help each other with a view to satisfying the information needs of their clienteles. National Commission on Libraries & Information Science in its National Programme Document (cited in Jebaraj and Devadoss (2005) defines a network as two or more libraries engaged in a common pattern of information exchange, through communications for some functional purpose.

Meitei and Devi (2006) state that “a library network is broadly describe as a group of libraries coming together with some agreement of understanding to help each other with a view to satisfying the information needs of their users”.

Thus, a library network is the grouping of various libraries with in a particular region or the field, where the basic purpose is to promote resource sharing among member libraries by coordinate efforts for suitable collection development and reduce unnecessary duplication wherever possible. Human Resource Development is also one of the basic purposes in the library network.

1. Need for Library Networks

Jebaraj and Devadoss (2005) have listed following some factors which are responsible for the development of library and information networks in India:

•    The report of the working group of the planning commission on modernization of library services and informatics for the seventh five year plan - 1985-90.

•    The National Policy on Library & Information Systems Document (1986) accepted by the ministry of HRD, Government of India.

•    The report on National Policy on University Libraries prepared by the Association of Indian Universities (1987).

•    The UGC report on Information Systems for Science and Technology under the Department of Science & Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India that has been vigorously promoting an integrated approach to library automation and networking.

Networking has integrated all the library activities e-mail, support reference service through search of databases, exploiting the catalogue of other institutions, participation in inter-library loan (ILL), ordering of books and journals, services by establishing home page, etc. There are various benefits of forming library networks. Important ones based on Vagiswari and Louis (1998) and Jebaraj and Devadoss (2005) are given below:

• Create better resource sharing to reduce costs.
• Speedy delivery of documents.
• Keep abreast of new developments.
• Give access to advice from colleagues with similar problems.
• Create databases for projects, specialists and institutions to provide online information services.
• Improve the efficiency of housekeeping operations.
• Coordinate with other regional, national and international network for exchange of information and documents; and
• Generate new services and also improve the efficiency of existing ones.

2. Development of Library Networks

Library networks seem to be developed first in foreign countries. OCLC is supposed to be the first example of library network that was founded in 1967, which has introduced online shared cataloguing system for libraries in 1971. Interlibrary Loan service was introduced in 1979 and since then has been used for more than 114 million loans among 6,700 libraries around the world. First Search service was introduced as a reference tool in 1991 and is now used by more than 19,246 libraries.

RLG-RLIN was formed by Research Library Group (USA) in the year 1974 for cooperative collection development, preservation, conservation, inter-library loan of the documents. RLG Union Catalogue Database has also been prepared by this network.

Washington Library Network (WLN) is another network of USA that was established in the year 1972. More than 800 institutes are participating and sharing their resources through this network.

Joint Academic Network (JANET) is the network of United Kingdom that was sponsored by Higher and Further Education Funding Council.

EURONET was established by European Economic Community (EEC), Luxembourg in the year 1979. It has generated Special Database of Significance to EEC’s thrust areas of research.

As far as India is concerned, the movement for establishing city and regional-based library networks by NISSAT (National Information System for Science and Technology), a body under Dept of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India was started during 1980s and 1990s to expedite the resource sharing among S&T libraries in order to avoid duplication of acquisition and minimization of cost. NISSAT has provided financial assistance for setting up of these library networks. Consequently, the libraries from both Maharashtra and Gujarat began to focus on cooperative efforts by forming networks in the region, viz. ADINET (Ahmedabad Library Network), PUNENET (Pune Library Network) and BONET (Bombay Library Network). All three being city Library Networks initiated the development of union catalogue of resources available in the member libraries (Ghosh and Jambhekar, 2003).

This movement led to the mushrooming of various city library networks in India, like- CALIBNET (Calcutta Library Network), DELNET (Delhi Library Network which later became Developing Library Network in 2000) etc. (Kaul, 2009). Now, we have many general and specialized library networks throughout the country.

3. Important Library Networks of India

Library networks can be divided into two categories – general network and specialized network. The latter can further be divided into metropolitan network and countrywide networks.

(A) General Networks in India

 These networks are not restricted to library services, rather they are meant for the use of a vast community including library services. Some important general networks are narrated in below given paragraphs.

(1). ENVIS (www.envis.nic.in) 

 ENVIS or Environmental Information System is established by Ministry of Forest and Environment in the year 2002 which became fully operational by 2006. ENVIS is a distributed environmental information network with the mandate of collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination to varying users comprises of decision-makers, researchers, academicians, policy planners, research scientists, etc. The focal point of ENVIS and its network partners laid emphasis on the development of information base by creating comprehensive databases and strengthening information resource repository in the concerned subject areas.

The main objectives of ENVIS include:

• to build a repository and dissemination centre in Environmental Science and Engineering;
• to gear up the modern technologies of acquisitions, processing, storage, retrieval and dissemination of environmental information.
• to support and promote research, development and innovation in environment information technology.

ENVIS has developed a computerized database listing more than 5000 papers. ENVIS has also designated as a National Focal Point (NFP) and a Regional Service Centre (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP for the South Asia sub-region, a global environmental information network which stimulates and supports exchange of information within and between the nations.

(2). ERNET (www.eis.ernet.in):

ERNET is a computer network for academic and research community that was established by ERNET, India which is an autonomous scientific society of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Govt. of India), in the year 1986. ERNET was started with the financial assistance from UNDP (UNESCO) as Dial-up network. It is largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network with point of presence located at the premiere educational and research institutions in major cities of the country.

ERNET has been serving institutions in various sectors, namely- health, agriculture, higher education, schools and science & technology and thus, understands the needs of these knowledge institutions. ERNET India is now well placed to address the complete ICT requirements of these sectors through large turn-key project solutions and consultancy services. All IITs, IISc Bangalore, DOE, Delhi and NCST, Mumbai were connected by 9.6 kbit/s leased line by 1992. It has also been instrumental in giving connectivity to UGC purviewed universities under UGC-INFONET programme.

Its services include communication services such as e-mail, file transfer, remote log on, database access, bulletin board etc. Besides, ERNET has also organized a number of training programmes catering to specific requirements of its user communities from various domains belonging UGC, ICAR, Defence, KVKs, etc.

(3). INDONET (www.indonetglobal.com) 

INDONET is the first commercial computer network that was established by CMC Limited, Hyderabad in 1986. CMC Ltd is renamed in 1989 as Informatics India Ltd  and it is looking its operation. INDONET was set up fulfill the following objectives:

• To create the infrastructure for a network and promote a "network culture" within the country;
• to create a "software library" so that specialized users could afford to use software;
• to provide a platform for developing software and
• to develop in-house expertise in networking and disseminate information to the computing professional arena through training programmes, seminars etc.

The main customer of INDONET is the parent organization CMC itself. The two most important activities carried out by CMC on the network are the maintenance of a Management Information System (MIS) available for each of the departments - marketing, finance and personnel; and OLIMPICS - the spare part inventory management system developed in-house for maintaining an accurate inventory of all spare parts necessary for any maintenance or repair job anywhere in India (Rau and Rao, 1993).

This commercial computer network provides database services such as DIALOG, COMPUSERVE; IP; SHARP to its members.

(4). NICNET (www.nic.ac.in) 

National Information Center Network (NICNET) is a Planning Commission, Govt. of India sponsored nationwide computer and communication network of NIC, which utilizes state-of the art network technologies to provide connectivity to Central Government  Ministries/Departments and all 35 States and 616 Districts of India.

The primary objective of the network is to provide computing and communication infrastructure, to aid planning and monitoring of schemes and decision-making activities in the government. Its services include - bulk file transfer; teleconferencing; full text and bibliographic retrieval services. NICNET utilizes variety of technologies including terrestrial, wireless and VSAT networking to provide connectivity across the country and is now extending to the grassroots level (Anonymous, 2011).

It also acts as a centre for ICMRNIC and MEDLARS in India; and facilitates the access of Chemical Abstracts Database.

(5). SIRNET (www.sirnet.org) 

Scientific and Industrial Research Network was commenced in 1989 by the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), a constituent establishment of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of India.

40 labs and R&D Institutions of CSIR are its members. Scientific communication; leather technology; natural products; food technology; medicinal plants are its fields which it cover. SIRNET is connected to ERNET which, in turns, is linked with the international network UUNET. It also provides access to other international networks like BITNET, CSNET and JANET.

(6). VIDYANET

VIDYANET is a dedicated communication/computer network to meet out the needs of scientists and research workers in the laboratories/institutions of excellence in the country. It is sponsored by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. VIDYANET objectives are to provide rapid means of communication by linking computers at various institutions in India to similar networks outside the country; to stimulate corporate research, the day-to-day exchange of research information and the execution of joint projects and publications.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Indian Institute of Technology (NT), Indian Statistical Institute, and National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi and Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism NT, National Centre for Software Technology, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay are its potential users. Sharing of computer resources and access to remote applications, databases, libraries, etc. are its major activities (Lahiri and Singh 1999).

(7). VIKRAM 

VIKRAM is the packed-switched public data network was developed by the Department of Telecommunications to cover nine cities of the country. Initially, the network was consisted of 8 switching nodes and 12 remote access points with its Network Management Centre at Delhi, while nodes in the four metros, namely- Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and Madras were extended later.

VIKRAM services include-information exchange through e-mail/FTP and Bibliographic Databases.

(B) Specialized Networks

Special library networks are developed giving emphasis on library services and are the meant, especially for library community. Firstly, have a look on metropolitan networks.

(1). ADINET (http://www.alibnet.org/) 

Ahmedabad Library Network or ADINET was established in the year 1994 with the support from NISSAT, DSIR and INFLIBNET, but formally, it was inaugurated in February 1995 (Thakore, 1996) to bring about cooperative mode of working amongst more than 150 libraries and information centers in and around Ahmedabad. Its major aims were to bring cooperation among its regional libraries; to develop databases; to integrate scientific and technical information systems. It also plans to coordinate efforts for suitable collection development and reduce unnecessary duplication wherever possible.

A centralized database of periodicals and databases available in member libraries of Ahmedabad has also been prepared to generate Union Catalogue of Ahmedabad Libraries by this network.

Gujarat institute of Development Research; Gujarat University; Gujarat Vidyapeeth Entrepreneurship Development; Institute of India; Gujarat Cancer Research Institute; Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research Centre and Sardar Patel lnstitute of Public Administration are some of its beneficiary libraries.

(2). BALNET (http://library.bub.ernet.in/sub/balnet.html) 

Bangalore Library Network was established in the year 1995. It is sponsored by JRD Tata Memorial Library. Presently, it has more than 100 Libraries as its member.

(3). BONET

Bombay Library Network (BONET) was established in the year 1994 with the help of NISSAT & NCST to promote cooperation among libraries in Bombay. The aim of BONET is to build a low cost library information system which can possibly be used as a model for future expansion of this service even outside Bombay.

BONET has created a bibliographic database on computers and software technology, union catalogue of journals and other periodicals of the libraries in the region. It is providing online catalogue; online document delivery; information retrieval; inter-library loan; and dissemination of information service to its member libraries. It also offers training related to library computerization and networking, and speed up computerization of Bombay libraries.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre; Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.; lndira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Marathwada Institute of Technology; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and Reserve Bank of India were some of its beneficiary libraries (Ramani, 1996). But this network is non-functional now.

(4). CALIBNET (www.calibnet.org/) 

Calcutta Libraries Network (CALIBNET) was envisaged as a metropolitan network linking some 38 libraries in Calcutta metropolitan area.  It is a Government of India Project that was launched by the National Information Systems for Science and Technology (NISSAT), Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR). It is managed by CALIBNET Society which is established under the West Bengal Government's Societies Registration Act 1961.

It aims to provide the individual libraries and their reading members with cost-effective solutions to their information problems. The project is building access to library & information resources available in the eastern region.

CALIBNET is helping in cataloguing; serials control; acquisitions; circulation to member institutions. Its major services include - CAS; SDI; union catalogue; partial database; editing and retrieval of records; global information; search; full-text document delivery; library automation; and CALIBNET INFO Services. It also provides– On-Demand Information Services; Consultative Service for Library Automation; Manpower Development Opportunities; and Research & Development in IT Applications.

(5). MALIBNET (www.mulibnet.org)

Madras Library Network (MALIBNET) was initially developed by INSDOC and NISSAT in 1993 to connect six major academic institutions. Now, it has many local libraries as its members.

MALIBNET has developed two important databases – one is a Directory Database of Current Serials in Madras covering 30 libraries, and the other is a Contents Database covering articles published in 300 journals available in Madras libraries. They are available for online access to any user but the information is also supplied in CD and hard copy.

(6). MYLIBNET (www.mylibnet.org) 

Mysore Library Network is also a NISSAT sponsored library network that was established during the year 1994. Its prime objectives are to develop software tools; conducting seminar; workshops/training programs; and conducting surveys for libraries.

Mysore city is unique as compared to any other metropolitan city due to the richness in information resources. It is also unique in a way where one can find information on many areas like food science, sericulture, speech & hearing, pharmacy, dentistry, polymer, medicine, archeology, anthropology, Indian languages and engineering at one place (Krishna Rao, 2002). Therefore, Mylibnet network was developed to cater the needs of vast community of different libraries in the city.

Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, being an active member of Mysore City Library Consortium (MCLC), is hosting this network in its premises CFTRI, Mysore and 116 Institutions are its members.

MYLIBNET has also compiled a catalogue MYLIB Database in the year 1996 in the machine-readable form and developed a software package for searching this catalogue either by institution name, journal title or by keywords. Now MYLIBNET is bringing reality to its networking activity by providing Web-enabled facility to its member libraries to modify the union catalogue database online. Besides, e-journals; food patents; CFTRI Library Bulletin; public services are its some of the important services being provided to member libraries.

 MYLIBNET has organized many workshops on multimedia applications in Library and Exhibition of Multimedia Products; and seminar on Bar Code Applications in Library and Demonstration of Bar Code Products; on Internet Concept and Techniques and Live Demonstration of Internet Access over STD Line and training programme on Common Communication Format for the Creation of Databases etc.

(7). PUNENET

 Pune Library Network was developed as a joint programme of the University of Pune, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in the year 1992. It was funded by National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT).

Union catalogue of current periodicals in Pune libraries and information Centers; Catalogues of holding of all member libraries; Publishers and book sellers database; Database on international grants and fellowships in the health sciences; Hard databanks in biotechnology; Union catalogue of books available in British libraries in India are available through PUNENET for its members (Uchale, 2013).

Besides, it was providing access to NICNET and databases available on NICNET e.g., MEDLARS, AIDS database, US patent database; and access to internet and the databases available on internet and Patent information. But this network is non-functional now.

(B) Countrywide Area Network:

These are the networks which have their reach beyond metropolitan cities. Hence, they may be called national networks. Now, have the details on some nationwide/countrywide networks of the country.

(1). BTISNET (www.btisnet.nic.in/) 

BTISNET is a specialized information network that was sponsored by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and established in 1986-87. It has been set up for 10 specialized information centres in genetic engineering-cell culture and virology, plant tissue culture, photosynthesis and plant molecular biology, oncogenes reproduction physiology, cell transformation, nucleic acid and protein sequences, immunology and bio-process engineering.

The important services of BTISNET include - data processing using application software; online communication access; and facsimile facility.

(2). DELNET (www.delnet.nic.in/) 

DELNET was started under the name Delhi Library Network at the India International Centre Library in January 1988 initially with the supports of National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT) and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India.  Subsequently, it was supported by the National Informatics Centre, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India and the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Kaul (2009) states that this network whose journey started as a city based library network in 1988, emerged as a major operational library network not only in India but in South Asia, connecting more than 1597 libraries in 30 States and UTs in India and seven other countries. Now, it is known by the name Developing Library Network.

The main objective of DELNET is to promote sharing of resources among the libraries located in Delhi and beyond. This is done by developing a network of libraries, by storing and disseminating information, offering computerized information services to users and by coordinating efforts for suitable collection development and reducing unnecessary duplication wherever possible. Other objectives were as follow:

• to promote sharing of resources among the libraries in Delhi by developing a network of libraries and collecting, storing and disseminating information through computerized services;
• to undertake scientific research in the area of information science and technology;
• to offer technical guidance to the member libraries;
• to facilitate establishment of referral and/or research centers and maintain a central on-line catalogue of books, serials and non-book materials of all the participating libraries;
• to develop specialized bibliographic databases of books, serials and non-book materials;
• to develop databases of projects, specialists and institutions; and
• to co-ordinate with other regional, national and international networks and libraries for exchange of information and documents through e-mail etc.

DELNET gives membership to various libraries including universities, colleges, government departments and provides technical assistance to them for creating and maintaining the bibliographic databases, serials control, union catalogue preparation, abstracting services, inter-library loan, document transfer/ copying facilities and for accessing local, national and international databases.

It is actively publishing various Union Catalogues of the resources available in member-libraries. Union Catalogue of Books, Union List of Current Periodicals, Union Catalogue of Periodicals, CD-ROM Database, Database of Indian Specialists, Database of Periodical Articles, Union List of Video Recordings, Urdu Manuscripts' Database, Database of Theses and Dissertations, sample databases of language publications using GIST technology and several other databases have already been developed by the DELNET. The data are being updated in these databases and they are growing rapidly. DELNET has also launched two software, namely- DELSIS and DEL-PLUS for library automation purposes at a greatly reduced rates.

DELNET popularity can be seen through its membership growth chart (after Kaul, 2009), which itself tells the story of its popularity where the growth from 26 members in 1992-93 has gone upto 1597 in 2009-10.

Nowadays, it is looking to help the libraries in tapping the tacit knowledge available in their institutions and to contribute for the development of the Knowledge Repositories and networking the knowledge resources. It also want to open shortly the State Centres in different parts of India and also the Regional Centres in order to provide training to the library professionals, promote the usage of network resources and also to help the local libraries in the development of the digital contents.

(3). DESINET (http://www.drdo.desinet) 

Defence Science Information Network (DESINET) is a bibliographic information network for Defence that has been sponsored by DESIDOC, Delhi (Lahiri and Singh, 1989). 51 Laboratories are member of this network.

DESINET is covering only unclassified and technical information. It has close links close links with other similar networks like NICNET for exchange of information on mutually agreed terms. Its major activities focus on scientific, research and defence communities.

(4). INFLIBNET (www.inflibnet.ac.in) 

Information Library Network is an autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi that was established in the year 1988 at Ahemdabad, but starts its functioning in 1991. INFLIBNET Centre has become an independent and autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in May 1996 with the target to network all the Academic Libraries of Higher Education in India for promotion of scholarly communication among academicians and researchers. Now, it has been shifted in its new own campus at Gandhi Nagar – the capital of Gujarat.

INFLIBNET is a computer communication network of universities and R&D libraries and bibliographic information centers throughout the country. UGC purviewed Universities and the colleges along with R&D libraries are its members.

            Karn and Das (2009) have listed its various missions and vision as follows:

-          Leveraging on the latest technology to create a virtual network of people and resources in academic institutions with an aim to provide effective and efficient access to knowledge through perseverance, innovation and collaboration.

-      Providing seamless, reliable and ubiquitous access to scholarly, peer-reviewed electronic resources to the academic community in all educational institution with a focus on services and tools, processes and practices that support its effective use and increase value of this information.

-          Building and strengthening ICT infrastructure in educational institutions with value added services.

-        Developing tools, techniques and procedures for secure and convenient access management enabling users to access information in electronic format from anywhere, anytime.

-         Developing resource selection guides and online tutorials for effective delivery and usage of e-resources.

-         Facilitating creation of open access digital repositories in every educational institution for hosting educational and research contents created by these institutions.

SOUL software is also developed by INFLIBNET. It also trains human resources in the field of information technology by organizing short term courses at many times at Ahemdabad  and other places. UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium that provides access of e-resources including full-text journals, and bibliographic databases is also being executed by INFLIBNET. Annually it also organizes meets where library professionals, information scientists from different universities and institutes participate and discuss the hot topics. Besides, Shodhganga – a reservoir of Indian University Thesis is also being developed by this centre.

Its new initiatives include: Open Source Software R&D, Access Management R&D, Open Access R&D, Web2.0 and Lib2.0 etc.

(5). MANLIBNET (www.manlibnet.in)

Management Libraries Network or MANLIBNET was established in the year 2000 which is in operation through a registered Society in Delhi under Societies Regulation Act of 1860. The fundamental objective of the network is to provide a forum for all the management libraries to share information and ideas for development of libraries and business librarianship.

MANLIBNET also organizes its annual meets at various places to discuss new and latest developments in the field. A quarterly newsletter is also published by the MANLIBNET for member institutions.

(6). RENNIC (www.ren.nic.in)

 Research & Education Network of National Informatics Centre is sponsored by NIC, New Delhi. It was established to promote creation and usage of online databases and to provide online access to various international databases. It also facilitates to setup country wide computer network for the academic and research community sponsoring more than one million potential users through 8000 institution members.

RENNIC provides global computer communication facilities to academic, research and medical institutions through NICNET. It also facilitates openness among academicians and researchers throughout the country.  Its memberships is open to academic,  research, medical institutions which are recognized and funded by UGC, CSIR, MHRD, MHFW, ICMR, AICTE, ICSSR, ICAR, DBT and central & state governments. 

Library Consortia

Library networking paved the way for development of library consortia, but the motive behind library consortia remain the same that is “cooperative arrangement among group or institutions”.

Oxford English Dictionary defines a consortium as “temporary cooperation of a number of powers, companies, etc. for a common purpose. It is an association of similar type of organizations/institutions who are engaged for producing and servicing the common things for providing services for a specific purpose of its users”.

American Heritage Dictionary (3rd ed., 1993) considered the term - “a cooperative arrangement among groups or institutions”. More straightforward description of ‘library consortia’ would be organizations of libraries formed to realize the benefits and opportunities of collaborative activity.

It is a generic term to indicate any group of libraries that are working together towards a common goal, whether to expand cooperation on traditional library services (such as collection development) or electronic information services... It is now used perhaps too broadly, and encompasses everything from formal legal entities to information groups that come together solely to achieve better pricing for purchasing electronic information (Hirshon, 1999).

Thus, a library consortium is a concept that facilitates the libraries to get the benefits of wider access to electronic resources at affordable cost and at the best terms of licenses. Library consortia may vary from being decentralized to highly centralized in nature. The degree of centralization of consortium is the primary factor affecting not only how member institutions interact with one another, but also maintain the relationship with external party (publisher/vendor). More decentralized the consortium, the greater the degree of autonomy each member retains.

1. Salient features of Library Consortia

The salient features of library consortia may be narrated as under.

• They eliminate the different problems faced by the libraries to provide various services to their users. They also meet the thrust of information of the vast people due to rapid growth of population all over the world.
• They cope up with the newly generated knowledge published in different forms, such as, printed and non - printed documents, electronic media on various disciplines, multi-disciplinary and new generated subject areas.
• They collect all the documents published at the national and international level to overcome of the problem of library financial crunch.
• Publishers also find it convenient to negotiate with members through an agent and agent raising individual invoices to all members and single payment to publishers.

2. Benefits of Library Consortia

 There are numerous benefits of library consortia, the most important being the access of electronic resources in minimum subscription. Other benefits (Panchakshari, n.d.) can be as stated below:

• They provide each institution the ability to share resources without sacrificing the individuality of each member library.
• The collections of the consortium libraries enable each member library to support scholarly research for its users.
• Cooperative research and development in application of information technology enhances the service and realizes cost efficiencies.
• Staff development and interaction enhance the quality of services.
• Reduction in cost is achieved, where the consortium acts as an agent for all member libraries and negotiates a purchase price that is lower than that available to individual institution. Hence, end users reap the benefits of more resources than would be available through one library.
• Enhance library services that are provided with an emphasis on access to new electronic resources including databases and services offered through the Internet and World Wide Web.
• Expedite inter-library borrowings at lower cost.

Bansode (2007) adds the following benefits to library consortia:

• Library consortia enrich the educational, intellectual, informational and social aspirations of users through the co-operative provision of superior quality library resources and services made available to the users. Many electronic products, normally out of reach for a single institution, are made available to them.
• Formation of library consortia allows gaining competitive advantage by pooling resources, mutual interests and complementary skills which develop as a result of consortia, bring with them better solutions and help in bridging the gap between information and resource deficient libraries.
• Consortia link libraries into an effective network of cooperative entities that benefit the users. Every library is liable to send their respective holdings to other libraries under a resource sharing program.
• Enable libraries to procure more resources with less finance and ultimately help them to create library beyond four walls.

But we should not forget that consortia are ambitious network of both electronic and non-electronic resources and services. However, mainly they are formed for electronic resource sharing.  Though there are some limitations too, like occasional hike in contribution fee; potential conflict because of bureaucracy culture; level of technology, staff size; budgetary constraints and illegal and unethical use of user authentication etc., but they are not of so much worry in comparison to benefits of consortia and can be tackled easily.

3. Aims and Functions of Library Consortia

The aim of consortia is to achieve what the members of the group cannot achieve individually, and its purpose is sharing of resources, money, and the manpower. Sharing physical resources including books and periodicals amongst members is the main goal. However, the mode of cooperation has gone under transformation with infusion of new information technology from print-based environment to digital environment. The emergence of internet, particularly the World Wide Web (WWW) as a new media [sic] of information delivery triggered proliferation of web-based full-text online resources (Arora and Agarwal, 2004). Hence, we have consortia mainly for subscribing e-resources at affordable cost.

The main functions of library consortium are – collection sharing, electronic content licensing; electronic content loading/presentation; inter-library loan/ document delivery; preservation; training; union lists/shared online catalogue (Dhiman and Rani, 2007); and other such as new forms of scholarly and scientific communication.

Growth and Development of Library Consortia

Library consortia do not have any remarkable history, however, the consortial arrangements basically started in 1930s to cooperate in administering ‘interlibrary loans’ as well as ‘resource sharing’. It is worth noting that the office of Education (US) initiated a nationwide study on the growth of the library consortia, conducted by the System Development Corporation (SDC), aiming in view of providing guidance for libraries that are forming or planning to form the consortia. This study identified 125 library consortia — largely focused on academic libraries, founded during a period from 1931 to 1972. Same study reveals that a significant number of 115— comprising of 92 percent of library consortia had been founded after 1960, a few comprising of 5 in number were established between 1951-61, whereas another 5 consortia had their beginnings before 1950.

Patrick (1972) also noted a similar observation in her introduction to Guidelines for Library Co-operation. But it would be interesting that, despite the continued growth in number of consortia in 1980s, some other factors like development of ‘mega-consortia’ (bibliographic utilities) and integrated library systems (library automation) enhanced the involvement of libraries into consortial activities.

Allen and Hirshon (1998) indicate - “perhaps the most important development for libraries during the current decade has been the move from organizational self-sufficiency to a collaborative survival mode as personified by the growth of library consortia. They emphasized that, IT is now enabling a level of cooperation that is much broader and deeper than ever before”.

As such, new types of library consortia began to flourish during 1990s which exploited the advances in Information Technology.

International Scene

Currently, according an estimate, roughly 215 consortia are operating in U.S alone ranging from large/comprehensive to regional and small consortia. And 50 consortia are operational in European area.

National & State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) E-Resources Consortium is operational in Australia.

China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) consortium is operational in China. 

Arizona University Libraries Consortium (AULC) is a voluntary alliance of six university libraries which are situated in close proximity of Arizona. E-content licensing, inter-library loan and document delivery are its important functions along with collective purchase of electronic resources for member libraries. 

Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) was formed in 1987 as a regional resource sharing organization by 7 universities in Washington DC. It is providing e-resources to students and faculty members of participating universities.

Cape Library Cooperative (CALICO) is the consortium of South Africa which was formed in Cape region in the year 1992. It is promoting information literacy and economic development in the region by providing information to its users in a form they want. Other consortia of South Africa include - ESAL (Eastern Seaboard Association of Libraries), FRELICO (FREe State Libraries and Information Consortium, GAELIC (Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium, SEALS (South Eastern Academic Libraries’ System) and South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLIC).

Consortium of Academic Libraries at Manchester (CALIM) was formed in 1992 by an alliance of five university libraries in the Manchester region of UK. Its main aim is to reduce duplication efforts through a common technical platform, collaboration in the delivery of information and standardization of user services.

New England Law Library Consortium (NELLCO) is the other consortium of UK that was formed by 15 New England Law Libraries in 1983 to enhance research and educational opportunities at law libraries through cooperative collection development and resource sharing. Its primary function is resource sharing, inter-library loan, training of professionals and preparation of union/shared online catalogue for member libraries. Besides, Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL), NESLI, SUPC, London Libraries Consortium, M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries and UK Academic Library Consortia are also there in UK.

Indian scene 

Library cooperation activities in India too can be traced back to 1868 when Whitney Stokes compiled the ‘Catalogue of Manuscripts’ in various parts of India. This was followed by publication of part first of Sanskrit Manuscripts in private libraries of Northwest Province covering Banaras in 1890. During that period “A Catalogue of Sanskrit” was edited by F. Kelhorn. More and more cooperative activities came to light and in 1924, when Motibhai N Amin organized a cooperative venture called“Pustakalaya Sahayak Sahakari Mandal”, to supply books, periodicals and articles to libraries in Gujarat and also the funds and deposits from the libraries were collectively held in a trust.

Slowly libraries in India have come together to know each other’s existence, and have realized the importance and strength of co-existence, which in many ways facilitated the library services. Manpower sharing and training are other important aspects, brought to limelight by library cooperation. Organized communication in the form of conferences and workshops were established among groups of libraries. Further, the well-established Science and Technology Libraries in India act as mentors for the less equipped university and college libraries. As cost of periodicals escalates every year, it is not possible for any individual library to subscribe to many of the science journals. Therefore, the libraries felt – either resorts to cutting down on expensive titles or practice the broad hearted attitude of sharing those journals with neighbours through short-term loan or through duplicating the required articles for their users. This all needed co-operation and sharing of sources among libraries.

Later, library cooperation induced the librarians to work towards establishing well-connected library networks in their regions initially, without a formal commitment towards its organization and collective funding. Many library networks have successfully extended their services to their users, since inter-library loan concept is the foundation for all resource sharing activities. Further, the advent of technology has accelerated this process and the globalization of education and multi-directional research output constantly enforces to disappear the borders between different disciplines.

Further, the new paradigm for ‘seamless integration of disciplines’ posed the multidisciplinary research opportunities, results a great demand for scholarly communications. Changing patterns in publishing industries and phenomenal increase of web-based resources as well as other organizational imperatives, perhaps forced the Indian libraries to move towards a strategic partnership - as a measure of last resort. Therefore, a few consortia have been made in different levels to provide shared web-based electronic resources amongst the research, academic, and technical libraries in India during last decade of 20^th century. Such major include- IITs-BARC-TIFR Co­operation, TIFR Libraries Consortium, ISI-Library Consortia Deals, SNDT Consortia of LISA, FORSA Libraries Consortia, ICAST Consortia, IIM Libraries Consortia, VIC Consortium of ICICI-Knowledge Park, and ISRO Libraries Consortia (Pal and Das, 2008).

It is worth to mention that some of the initiatives listed above could not materialize properly and beyond their success. Still there was a belief that the consortia initiatives will have bright future, and hoping to have more members to participate. Therefore, newer initiatives were continued. Consequently, two big consortia - Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology (INDEST) Consortium in 2003 and UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium in 2004 respectively were launched for centrally-funded technical institutions (IITs, IISc, IIMs, IIITs, etc.) and universities. Both are setting a new culture of electronic access and browsing in academic institutions. Other library consortia like Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Consortium, CeRA (Consortium of e-Resources in Agriculture), Health Science Library and Information Network (HELINET) Consortium and are also existing well.