INDEST-AICTE Consortium: A decade of service for engineering, science and technology community of the country

The article discusses various consortia operating in India, the inception of INDEST-AICTE Consortium, objectives, administrative structure, membership, services, and activities of INDEST-AICTE Consortium. It also discusses the selection of e-resources, review of e-resources, license agreement with publishers, fair use, usage analysis of various e-resources, economics of expenditure, research output of core members, archival access of e-resources for the core as well as other member of the consortium and future plan for the consortium

Computer skills set of librarians in Nigeria: Confronting the stereotype

Despite the importance of information and communication technologies to the present day information delivery, most reports and studies ascribe low computer literacy to librarians in Nigeria. The present research sought to reexamine computer skills of librarians in Nigeria. Questionnaire was used to collect data for this research. One hundred and eighty four librarians participated in the study. Results show an improved computer literacy level for librarians in the study when compared to results obtained in previous studies. On a self-assessment basis, computer literacy for the various facets of computer and software use ranges from 60% to 98% literacy levels. Although the findings of the research show an improvement over previous studies’ levels, there is still need to ensure that every librarian in the country is equipped with all necessary information and communication technology skills to enable the individual function effectively in the present age

Creating universal resource locator links on library computers desktop: A panacea for students’ underutilization of subscribed electronic databases in academic institutions in Nigeria

This study is a 3-week experiment using Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) Digital Library and clients as study area and population respectively. Having observed the problem of students and researchers underutilization of electronic databases subscribed by academic institutions in Nigeria, the research was aimed at testing students and researchers approach to a new method that may enhance usage of subscribed electronic databases and recommend it if positive. Dummy links, representing some of the Universal Resource Locators (URLs) of the databases subscribed by MOUAU were created as the desktop page of ten computers in the digital library. Designed purposively, a click on the dummy links referred clients to the librarian. The record of clients who reported to the Digital Librarian as a result of the dummy upload request was collated. Apart from finding that, gender, level of study and purpose of visit are electronic database utilization variables, the study reveals that creating URL links on desktop pages would effectively sensitize and increase students’ utilisation of the various electronic databases subscribed by individual Nigerian academic institutions. The experiment’s result show that URL links would effectively introduce subscribed electronic databases to students and researchers much better than any other means

Refocusing attention on institutional and collective responsibility for an effective consortia model

Access to content through consortia approach is becoming prevalent in libraries. This paper discusses the status of consortia in India and portrays the challenges of e-resources access and describes how the changing landscape of libraries, information products offered by publishers and emergence of e-learning environment is influencing consortia. The article concludes that we need to focus on more effective consortia models for just in place delivery of content for greater user convenience. In order to enhance their usage, the consortia resources must be in alignment with institutional thrust areas of work and users’ information requirements for work performance

Bradford’s zones and productivity of journals in psychology doctoral theses

Bradford’s law of scattering is based on the principle that every scientific field is related, however remotely, to everyother field. One hundred and forty one Ph.D. theses accepted in the field of psychology for the award of doctoral degreeswere analysed to identify the Bradford’s zones and productivity of journals cited in the theses. The productivity of citedjournals is measured after dividing the journals into four equal groups. The average rate of productivity of journals in thefirst group is 254 articles, whereas it has considerably gone down to 10.73 articles in the fourth group. The journaldistribution as per the Bradford’s law reveals the ratio as 17:46:358 in psychology, dispersion of journal titles in psychologydoes not satisfy the Bradford’s Law of Scattering