A Model for Scientific amp; Technical Information Consortium: Case Study of CSIR

Abstract

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 having its office at Anusandhan Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi and is the one of the largest13; government funded R amp; D organization in India with a chain of 38 laboratories spread across the country (Appendix 1). CSIR has about 5,000 active researchers (3,000 of them are PhDs/MTechs) who are actively supported by 11,000 technical officers and 5,000 administrative and other supporting staff and has been responsible for pioneering research in all aspects of scientific amp; industrial research covering broadly Chemical, Physical, Biological, Information, Environmental and Engineering Sciences and Technologies. CSIRx2019;s research output in terms of publication compares well with the leading scientific institutions such as IISc, Bangalore, TIFR, Mumbai and IITs. Councilx2019;s innovation and core competency in knowledge development is functionally access dependent to latest development in S amp; T by its scientists and technical officers.13; Most of the laboratories have well established library or documentation centers. Apart from document sources like books, standards, technical reports, conference proceedings and patents, the scholarly journals are a major sources of R amp; D information. CSIR spends annually about Rs. 25.00 crores for journal subscription alone. Put together, all the 38 labs of CSIR subscribe to as many as13; 3,356 foreign research and scholarly journal titles annually at a cost of about Rs. 25 crores. As some of the laboratories are inter disciplinary in nature, some13; of the titles tend to be subscribed by more than one laboratory. However, the unique number of titles being subscribed by these laboratories is around 2500.13; These print editions collections create an annual depository of 5,000,000 plus printed articles spread across the labs in stand-alone manner. Most of the library13; and information centers of CSIR are well equipped with good IT infrastructure with network facility and high speed Internet connectivity