Annals or Lihrary Science and Documentation 46, 1; lYYY: Y-17.

Information Technology for Library Services at "T Kharagpur

V K J Jeevan Assistant librarian Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur West Bengal 721 302

The Central Library at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is exploring computer and allied technological advances for better oragnisation of information sources and fruitful delivery of information services for almost a decade. The library OPAC of 3 lakh specialised sources is available on campus LAN, ERNET, and Web/ Internet. An electronic library for accessing electronic databases is also set up to offer information on those sources which are not present in the library. Mention is also made about the computer systems available, computerised operations, electronic databases subscribed, and research projects undertaken so far in the library.

INTRODUCTION

Engineering and technical institutions concentrate on applied research and th e results of such research find immediate app lications for the betterment of the society. like qualified research personnel and laboratories , information is another vital element in the trinity which comprises a fruitful applied research set up. Information is essential for any research in various contexts as it informs about the research so far held in a particular field on a particular problem, points out simi lar solutions found for similar problems and unvails the kn ow ledge bas e to serve the current and retrospective information needs of a researcher. Technical Institutions in the country were using manual mea ns for co llecting , process ing , organising and servicing information sources and for delivering different information services. But the spread of comput ers and other information technology gadgets; and their easy affordability by institutions has facilitated libraries and information centres in the country to acquire computer systems for automating information organisations and services.

Vol 46 No I March I l)l)l)

The Indian Institute of Technology (liT) at Khargapur, the first institution in the liT fold , started in 1951 in the erstwhile Hijli Detention Camp . is a trend setter in training , research and consultancy in different branches of technology. It has 18· departments , 5 interdisciplinary centres and 2 alumni funded schools , with about 500 faculty members ; 1500 technical , administrative and support staff ; and 3000 students. All the departments have facilites for B. Tech , M. Tech. , M.S. and PhD. On an average the researchers in the institute publish about 500 papers in refereed journals, and present over 500 papers in various national and international conferences . The collaborative R&D efforts in terms of consu ltancy (120 projects) and sponsored research (50 projects) totalled 17 crores . The institute is also ope rating a Science and Techn ology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) f o r youn g entrepreneurs to develop and test their innovative products .

The Central Library (Cl) of liT, Kharagpur is responsible for satisfying the library and information requirements of the Institute. It has a huge collection of over 3 lakh specialised volumes (books 1.7 lakhs , text books 31 ,000 , bound journals 85 ,000 of 2,000 titles, others 30 ,000 and journals subscribed 835) with an yea rly book addition of 2 ,000 and an annual issue rate of 1 lakh books. Apart from issuing out books and seeking photocopies , the users can also consult the library (500 seats in the different reading halls) and utilise the special faciliti es and services . A weekly bulletin of latest addition of books, and a fornightly bulletin of current arrival list of journals alerts the users about new information sources acquired by the library. Even with increasing budget, the library could continue with all the journal subscriptions due to the exhorbitant price

V K J Jeevan

rise. To provide some relief and not to deprive users of information. an Electronic Library (EL) was set up to provide three types of services. These include searching and downloading references from certain electronic databases, use floppies and CD·s attached with certain books and, vi ew video courses d es igned by Centre Edu ca ti onal Technology (CET) of the Institute. The library is also trying it s hands on using internet for better information services. The home page of the library (http://144 .16.192 .18) prov ides an interfacing for searching the catalogue. A p/reprint server on web for institute's pub lications and an expert database of institut e researchers are under deve lopment.

LIBRARY AUTOMATION

The first computer entered the premises of Ceneral Library in 1987. As details of a huge co ll ection have to be converted into computer readable form, the data was converted at various periods using the facilities prevalent then. Initially data of 1.5lakh documents was convert ed using Unibase and another 1 lakh us ing Unirec. Since search and other support facili ti es offered by the se data ma nage me nt sys tems were p rim iti ve , a com merci al software (hereafter referred as co mm ercia lware) was purchase d. Th e da ta a va il ab le th en in Unibase and Unirec wa s converted into commercialware and the ongoing information about new books is also added to the commercialware . Much headway in these activities was mad e through Library Automation an d

Manpower Project (LAMP) taken up with the help of some research projects offered to Central Library. The library OPAC provides information abo ut over 3 lakh books and ot her reading materials (see fig . 1. 2 and 3) like bound journals , theses , standards , microforms, etc . All library housekeeping operations like acquisition of books, their card printing, circulation etc., are done through this commercia lware. Provis ion is ava ilable to continue most of the operations in manual form too in the event of erratic power supply. All issuable materials were barcoded (th e catalogue data is stored in a separat e file with access ion number field as the key to print barcode labels) and iss ue/ return is done in a user and /staff-fri endly manner with the help of barcode scanners . Tab le 1 gives the computer system resources and table 2 lists the application of computer systems in specific sections/operations of the library.

658.40358 KRO/C

BKI

Kroeber. 0 W Computer based information systems: A managemen t approach . - NY: McMil lan. 1984 XIV.506 P. ISB N: 0-02-366840-7

I.Watson. H.J I!. Title

Fig .1 Record of a book from the OPAC Database

SI Pub Place

Journal of Computer and System Sciences Academic Press San Diego

Library has from Vol.37 Lates t Vol. Histo ry : CO (Continuing)

Iss . I Iss.

Country : USA

Prd. 1988 Prd .

_______ _______ ._ Loose Issues _______________ _

Vol. Issues Supl Period Rvd On Status Member 10 Spl Qty 54 1

2 3

55 1 2 3 1998

Fig.2 Record of a Journal from the OPAC Database

10 Ann Lib Sci Doc

Information Technology for Library Services at liT Kharagpur

USER sea rches for books in the OPAC wi h subject , author, title etc .

___ searches for related journal articles, conference proceedings, etc. in the electronic databases

_ searches OPAC again for th ese information sources

# Make & Date of Purchase

PCl8088,1991 (2 No.)

,., Meteor III, £.

19/10/93

3 HCl,18/04/94 (2 No.)

4 CMC,11 /96

5 HCl (2 No.)

6 HCl (4No.)

7 HCl Infiniti ( 2 No.) 1997

__ not in OPAC, resort to inter library loan/other

resource sharing arrangements

Fig . 3 Information Gathering path of a User

Table 1

System resources at Central Library, liT Kharagpur

Configuration

640 KB RAM, 20MB HDD,5.25" FDD, 1 serial & 1 parallel port

486 OX 50MHz,16MB RAM ,1.05GB HDD,256KB Cache, 5.25" & 3.25" FDD, 150 MB CTD, 16 Bit EISA SCSI-II , 16 Bit Ethernet , 16 terminals, 2 seria l & 1 paralle l port , SCO Unix (4.3.2 ). commercialware

486 OX 33 MHz. 8MB RAM, 240 MB HOD, 256 KB cache, 5.25" & 3.25" FDD, TODD CDR 7000 , SVGA, 2 serial & 1 parallel port, Western Digital network card

Uses

One for back volume database/binding and one in book acquisition section

OPAC & E-Mail Server

One fo r CD-ROM/CCOD services and one for non-book database creation

---- - -

Pentium 100 MHz, 16M B RAM , 2 GB HOD, 3.25" FDD ,256 KB cache

486 DX2, 66 MHz, 16 MB RAM , 5.25" & 3.25" FDD,256 KB cache, SVGA, 540 MB HOD

486 DX2, 66 MHz, 8 MB RAM . 540 MB HDD,5.25" & 3.25"FDD ,256KB cache, SVGA

------Pentium Pro, 166 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 12 GB HOD , 256 KB cache , 5.25" & 3.25" FDD, OAT 2 GB, 32 bit PCI ethernet card, 2 se rial port & 1 parallel port

---- ----------

In house software development

One as library web server and other for Electronic SOl Service

One for current periodicals and three for computerised information services at Electronic library

One to be installed as the new library server and one for CD-ROM networking/ Internet services

contd .

Vol 4() No I M ,u'ch I YI)L) II

VK J Jeevan

#

8

9

Make & Date of Purchase

WiproAcer, 1998 (2 No.)

HCL Infiniti 2000 MLX (10No .)

table 1 (contn.)

Configuration

Pentium 166 Mhz, 32 MB RAM, 1 GB HOD, 256 KB cache, 5.25" & 3.25" FDD, SVGA

Pentium II 266 Mhz, 32 MB RAM 2.1 GB HOD. 3.25"FDD, SVGA, 32x CORD

Table 2

Uses

One for Chairman's Office and one for multimedia services

One for Web access of journals , One for Internet applications in Acquisition , One for Electronic SOl , One for Automation Support, 6 for EL services

Computerised operations at Central Library, liT Kharagpur

# Section Computerised Operations ------- -------------

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Circulat ion

Acquist ion

Book Process (Technical)

Barcode-based issue/return of books , control of fin est reminders/reservati 'ons , database of users, usage statistics genaratioll etc .

Database of books on order, monitoring of vendors . payment control, accessioning etc.

Updation of OPAC, generation of catalogue cards & new arrival list of books

----_._----Reference

Periodica ls (Current Journals)

Back Volumes (Old Journals)

OPAC, database of reference books, ILL requests , research/placement information

Subscription renewals. database of current journals. remin ders, accounting, monitoring of vendors , new addition list of journals

Database of bound periodicals, monitoring of binding, resource sharing/photocopy services

---.-- -- - ----------------Non Book

Electronic Library

SC/ST

TBL (Text Book Library)

Automation

Database of standards, theses, microforms etc .

Informat ion services from CD-ROM & other computer readable databases, database of electronic & video information sources, demos for end-user searching

Database and service of special collection

Database and service of special collection

Upkeep of library server, system support to different above sections, SO l service, HRD & research on computerised information processi ng and se rvices

Ann Lih Sci Doc

Information lecnnology Tor L10rary ~ervlces at III I\.naragpur

ELECTRONIC LIBRARY the library. (Table 3). All valid users can book slots of 1/2 hr. in the Electronic Library (EL) to search and download database records. Emphasis is given to permit users to conduct their searches under the supervision of expert information professional s. They w ere gi ve n weekly demonstration by competent staff to explore the facility. Also laser prints of full text records were provided at request on a nominal charge.

In the current times of information explos ion, it is extremely cumbersome for a single library to acquire and give service of all published materials and this leads to a shift in emphasis towards non­paper information sources . Now a considerable number of bibliographic and full text databases are available on CD-ROM and other storage media in

Table 3

Electronic Databases at Central Library, liT Kharagpur

#

2

3

4

- - -- --_.- ----_. --- - --

Database Year Provider Producer Searchware Coverage Type - - _._----_.- -----

Ei Tech Index

Inspec Index

Inspec

1987-todate

1990-March 1996

1992-1994

Biotech . 1982-Abstracts 1992

Engineering Silver-Platter SPIRS Inf.lnc.

IEEE/IEE UMI Proquest

IEEE/IEE UMI Proquest

Derwent Silver-Platter SPIRS

All Branches Bibliographic of Engineering

Electronics , Full -text Electrical, Computers etc.

Electronics, Bibl iographic Electrical, Physics, Computers etc .

Bio & Life Sc. Bibliographic technology

- - - --- -- ---_._-_.- - ._- - - -.--5

6

7

8

9

ABII Inform

CCOD-PCES

-_ .. _-- - -

CCOD-ECT

CCOD­SBS

CCOD­LS

1989-8/93

199 1-todate

ABI

lSI

--- -----

199 1-todate

199 1-todate

199 1-1998

lSI

lSI

lSI

-_. -

----

UMI Proquest Management, Bibliographic Business, Economics etc.

- ---_ .. _-- -_.- -_ .- - - ---_._-

lSI

----

lSI

lSI

lSI

CCWIN

CCWIN

Physics , Chemistry, Geo Sc.

Bibliographic

All branches Bibliographic of Engineering & Computers

---- - ---- ------ ---

CCWIN

CCWIN

Social Sciences

Bibliographic

LifeSciences Bibliographic

- -- -- - ._-- ----- - -----.----- ---._- - - - - --

Yol 4() No I M arch 1l)l)l) 11

V K J Jeevan

From the databases dealing with current literature, the library has enunciated a new SDI service for its faculty. Thi s involved the preparation of exhaustive research area profil es (RAP s) in a vocabulary supported by the database. The profiles are modified constantly as per th e feedback of the faculty concerned . Monthly output of bibliographic detai ls and abstracts of latest literature on their research area is delivered through e-mail. This has also demonstrated a new medium for inter-institute communication through e-mail.

INTERNET SERVICES

The home page of the library (http://144.16.192.18 o r http:// libweb .iitkgp. ernet.in) describes the various sections and services of the library. The different nodal persons could also be contacted through thi s page . Th e OPAC can a lso b e searched through the page. The different hypertext links will be represented like:

Central Libmry ... .... .... History, Building , Coll ection , Classification etc. Electronic Library ..... .. Electronic Databases/Services, Video films/Services

.. ..... CD-ROM Databases, CCOD Information Services ... Computerised Information Serv ices (HW,SW, Systems) ,

ERNET, OPAC, E-SDI , Gopher, Full Text Database

An expert database of liT researchers is also under development with provision for interact ion through the web page. Another area under testing is facility to access pireprints from ov er 1000 papers published in reputed journals or presented in import ant conferences by re searchers o f liT, Kharagpur. Apart f ro m th ese activ iti es of universa lisi ng access of in -house information through web , the library sections are widely using the various resources on Internet for improving th eir jobs and provid ing better se rvic es (t he acquis ition section started collecting information about latest books from the publishers web pages, the periodical section is testing journal access through web, the reference staff is using Internet! Web as another source for satisfying user queries etc.) The Electronic Library is also equipped with two computers with netscape for users to search and download Internet information.

NETWORKING

The biggest campus among IITs spreading over 1500ha with over 25 departments located at different part s ca nnot be serviced by OPAC term inals at Central Library alone . When the campus LAN (see fig . 4) became operationa l, OPAC was made avai lable through the network . Now more and more users are accessing OPAC from th eir own depal1ments and workplaces .

J4

Provision of such terminals even at student's halls (Hostels) is under consideration. The facility is also available over WAN and INTERNET. The campus users also have Internet access facility for 22 hours (except during 4 to 6 P.M.) . All major sections of the library can be contacted via e-mail.

Sufficient progress is made in making the library's presence felt over Internet. It has the first Indian library gopher configured and registered at the Univ ers ity of Minn eso ta (gopher :!1 library.iitkgp.ernet. in). The library home page is also avai lable (http://144 .16.192.18 or http:// libweb .iitkgp .ernet.in) . Users can even search OPAC from the homepage. It is also pian ned to interface other services with web.

By networking machines, the final aim is to link libra ri es and resources. Th e lib ra ry ha s collaborative arrangements with a lot of other libraries in the co untry to share information sources . The faci lites for inter-library loan and photocopy sharing also exist. With the onset of gadgets li ke high speed scanners, fax etc . and improved communication bandwidth, the library is even in a position to provide these traditional services by electronic means . Networking of CD­ROM databases and fulltext printout over network are demonstrated succesfully and is at the trial stage.

Ann Lih Sci Doc

·. Agriculture

Aero Space Engg.

.• http:// 144.

.. 16.192 .18 . Web Server

r' .,

Information Technology for Library Services at liT Kharagpur

ROC E&EC

I&EM

~~;I Compo . SC. Oeptt .

~=~ .. Civil Engg . · Oeptt.

CAM PUS LAN

Router/ Gateway

r' ~l

--l~m:j

RTC

Acq . Sec.

I i

i I~ Leased LineNSAT

11 Cl ients from outside the capmus accessing

through National and International Networks

Fig A Networking at Centra l Library liT, Kharagpur

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT provided by various agencies of Government of India for its research projects . The completed and o ngoing p rojects are lis ted in table 4 . Th e consistency of there funds justify the competence of the activ ities going on here.

liT Kharagpur library got itself transformed into a functiona l automated library by utilising funds

Vo l 46 No 1 M;u'ch I \)\)l) 15

V K J Jeevan

Table 4

Applied R&D work at Central Libraf}~ liT Kharagpur

II

2

3

4

Project Details

Titl e: Library Automation, Sponsor: MHRD Amount: RS.15 Lakhs, Year: 1991-94 HW/SW: Meteor III with SCO Unix & 8 VT 100 terminals, 2 CD-ROM Drives, 2 486PC, 2 PC XT

Title: Electronic Lib rary Sponsor: MHRD/AICTE Amount: Rs. 10 Lakhs, Year: 1994-96 HW/SW: 486 PC (6 No.) with CD-ROM drives, UPS, Barcode scanners (5 No), HP Laser Prin te r 5S i

Titl e: CD-ROM Networking Sponsor: AICTE Amount: Rs. 8 Lakh s, Year: 1996-98 Status: In progress HW/SW: Processing stage

Titl e: Hypermedia Digital Library Sponsor: ARDB , India Amount: Rs. 7.6 Lakhs , Year: 1997-99 Status: Progressing

Apa rt from fac ilit y development , suffic ient emphas is was given for H RD aspects too. It is one of the fi rst Indian libraries to recruit two computer engineering graduates as system analysts in 1992 to work in tandem with library profess ionals . Most of its staff members are proficient in computerised information handling and services. It has cohosted a training programme for library personnel with Vidyasagar University und er th e ausp ices of NISSAT in 1994.

10

Outcome

Automated all ouse keep ing jobs , OPAC on networks, library gopher, train ing personnel on computerised information handling

Barcoding for issuelreturn ,CD-ROM &computer readable databases (full text and bibliographic ). Laser print facility of full text records

Experimental CD-ROM network tested with Windows work group and Linux, Webserver configured (http :// libweb. iitkgp.ernet.in or http ://144.16.192.18), Web access of OPAC, (Access of CD-ROM databases through campus CD-ROM databases through camp us LAN )

Hypermedia digital library faci lity for Aerospace informat ion process ing , storage and retrieval

CONCLUSION

India's first digital library is recently operational at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. To have more such facil iti es , one has to seriously think abo ut digitization of local contents. Now the concentrating is on such a facility for Aerospace Science and Technology. The OPAC terminals of library are also used by students for e-mail. It is intended to provide more such terminals and also Web terminals for users . Any person concerned

Ann Lih Sci Doc

Information Technology for Library Services at liT Kharagpur

with library software knows the plus and minus of commercialware , and efforts are on to carry out tests on an indigenous software. In the last five years, the libray is regularly in receipt of queries from other institutions on library automation problems . This is being complied as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to be made accesible through the web page for the benefit of other users in need of them. Apart from such consultancy work in library automation, efforts are on for exploring the chances of extending the resources to other technical institutions subject to the provisions of copyright. There is serious discussion on about the resource sharin g among IITs, and this could also extend to the hundreds of engineering colleges and other technical institutions aiming at an Indian " Technology Information Highway ". Despite the technology getting cheaper with its

Vol 46 No 1 March I llYl)

eve ry advance , the information products are becoming dearer and dearer. Perhaps one reason which accounts for this inverse relation is the fact that the information products which have made a mark internationally are being produced in the developed countries where the labour cost is exhorbitant. Only those who can judiciously apply the technology will be able to provide better information services, and that is the lesson that has been gathered in the last decade . As one moves on , more opportunities of an eventful 'cybrarianship' are to be seen.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is dedicated to al l the professionals working at Central Library, liT, Kharagpur, and to ou r users who not only kept our spirits high but also ensured to maintain the quality.

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