Osmania University LibraryHyderabad – 500 007

User Awareness Programme on Access to e-Resources held on22nd & 23rd June 2009 at ICSSR-SRC Conference Hall at University Library,

Osmania University, Hyderabad – 500 007.

REPORT

University Library, conducted a Two days workshop on User Awareness Programme on Access to e-Resources under the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium on 22nd and 23rd June 2009, with the collaboration of INFLIBNET Ahmedabad, an IUC of UGC. Workshop started with lighting of traditional lamp followed by prayer song. The first day of the programme was for Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities and second day for Science discipline users.

Honorable Registrar, Prof. Y.C. Venudhar, inaugurated the programme. Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director, INFLIBNET and Mr. Ashok Kumar Rai, Scientist, INFLIBNET were resource persons. Prof S.Sudarshan Rao, Principal, University College of Arts & Social Sciences and Head, Department of Library & Information Sciences, presided the inaugural session.

Inaugural Function on 22 June 2009

There were 350 participants consisting of faculty members, research scholars, students, library professionals of the Osmania University and

neighboring academic and research institutions.

Smt.V.Revathi I/c University Librarian, Osmania University Library and Coordinator of the workshop welcomed the gathering and highlighted the objectives of the Programme. She further added that relevant technologies that are available must be planned for optimum utilization for large benefits, which require intense awareness.

Participants on Inaugural Function on 22 June 2009

She also mentioned that ignorance and non-utilization of such services would deprive the future scholars to gain access to modern technology. The workshop was organized:-

• To increase the access base

• To utilize funds rationally

• To trace the problems in using e-Resources

• To find users opinion about adequacy of available e-Resources

• To enhance the visibility image of the Library

• To improve existing Library services

University Librarian by presenting usage report of the e-Resources stressed the need to organize the programme. She said that awareness is the key to best use of scholarly literature and scholars and faculty to make use of this workshop.

Dr.A.S.Chakravarthy Library Asst. presented a Power Point Presentation about University Library and its services. He showed that e-Journals are accessible from University campus i.e., from O.U. website; faculty and Scholars should use these resources extensively.

Honorable Registrar, Prof. Y.C.Venudhar in his Inaugural address stressed the need for this type of awareness programme. He said the workshop was timely and contemporary relevance. He complimented the Librarian and staff for the efforts taken in conducting this workshop. He requested the faculty and scholars to derive maximum benefit from this programme and said that this workshop would give insight to the participants.

Prof.Y.C.Venudhar, Registrar, O.U. Inaugural Address

Director, INFLIBNET, Dr.Jagdish Arora in his power point presentation explained about INFLIBNET center

current status and future endeavors. He described the various major projects of INFLIBNET. He mentioned about union database of Books, Theses, Current Serials and Serials holdings. He particularly mentioned about IndCat.

Dr.Jagdish Arora, Director, INFLIBNET

He said UGC-INFONET programme consists of two parts. 1. Internet connectivity 2. Providing access to e-Resources. Presently 171 Libraries are accessing to e-Journals. INFLIBNET is extending this benefit by way of associate membership to other colleges.

The e-Journal access is based on IP (Internet Protocol) authentication. It cannot be accessed from other than campus. INFLIBNET is presently working on Shibboleth, then faculty can access e-Journals from their homes. He mentioned about recent initiatives taken by center in developing RSS feed aggregator and INFLIBNET toolbar.

Prof. S.Sudarshan Rao in his Presidential remarks said the whole effort i.e. the basic requirement is awareness. He said that number of journals, bibliographic data bases, which are available to research scholars are to be put to maximum use. He said awareness can be creatable by means of broachers, news letters, email alerts etc. No geographical barriers should be there to access information.

Prof.S.Sudarshan Rao, Presidential Remarks

They should be available 24x7. He stressed the need to develop institutional repositories. He mentioned about lack of awareness about e-Journals. He felt that social sciences journals are not adequate if compared to sciences. Further, many full text articles are not available. He mentioned about challenges of e-Resources to be met by libraries particularly maintaining the archives. Dr.S.Yadagiri proposed vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, professional colleagues and participants in making the programme grand success.

The Programme consists of 2 Technical Sessions on each day and each session is being chaired by eminent resource person. Various publishers representing UGC-INFONET digital library consortium made presentations on their e-Resources accessible to the university Scholars, Faculty etc.

On 22nd June’09 1st session: is being chaired by Dr.M.Koteswara Rao, Librarian, Indira Gandhi Memorial Library, University of Hyderabad, briefed on e-Resources. Then followed presentations by Balani InfoTech’s (Project Muse) and Informatics India Ltd (JCCC)

On 22nd June’09 2nd session: is being chaired by Sri. ABSV. Prasada Rao, Librarian, National Remote

Sensing Center. After brief Introduction followed presentations of, Cambridge University Press, Springer (India) Private Limited, Oxford University Press Blackwell and Taylor and Francis. With this 1st day programme for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences ended.

On 23rd June 09, 3rd session: is being chaired by Sri. P. Diwakar, Head, Library services at CCMB, briefed on e-Resources for scientific research. He said research starts in a Library and end in a Library. He mentioned about DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), where number of high quality journals are available. Then followed the Presentations pertaining to Science by Balani InfoTech (ACS & SIAM), Scifinder Scholar, Chemical Abstract Services and Informatics India Ltd. (JCCC).

On 23rd June’09, Last Session is being chaired by Dr. Veeranjaneyulu, Librarian Achrya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU). He described e-Resources in general and in particular about Agricultural University. Then followed presentations by Blackwell and Taylor and Francis, Springer (India) Private Limited, and Oxford Press.

Valedictory Function:-

The second day last session ended with valedictory Function. Mrs.V.Revathi, University Librarian welcomed the chief Guest Prof.V.Satyanarayana, Dean, Social Sciences, O.U. & Director, ICSSR-SRC and Prof.S.L.Goud, Director (Infrastructure), O.U. to preside over the function and also briefed the highlights of 2 days awareness programme.

Mrs.V.Revathi, Librarian on Valedictory Function

Prof.V.Satyanarayana, Dean, Social Sciences, & Director, ICSSR-SRC, O.U. delivered Valedictory address and highlighted the significance of scholarly publications & Libraries in enhancing the quality of research. He appreciated the Librarian & staff members for conducting User Awareness Programme and also mentioned that User Awareness Programme on access to e-Resources is very useful for the faculty/research scholars /students for their research work.

Prof. S.L.Goud, Director (Infrastructure), O.U. in his presidential remarks said that the Osmania University is going to start online reference library facility which will be available to the Faculty/Research Scholars at Central Facilities Building.

Prof.S.L.Goud Presidential remarksHe also stated that the facility to

refer the digitized documents will be provided through the e-Resources library round the clock.

Dr. A.S.Chakravarthy proposed vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, professional colleagues and participants in making the programme grand success.

Contact:

University LibrarianOsmania University LibraryHyderabad – 500 007.Phone: 040-27090920, Fax: 040-27090920e-Mail: librarian@osmania.ac.in