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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 319
Role and Contribution of government funded Digital Library
Consortia in India: A study
Subir Kumar Narula
Chief Librarian
Prem Institute of Medical Sciences, Panipat (Haryana), India
e-mail: bobby72narula@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
This survey-based study carried out to make assessment and evaluation of major Indian Digital Library Consortia. The major
government.-funded Digital Library Consortia (DLC) are playing decisive role in the National Information Policy. The role and
contribution of government-funded DLC is elaborated in depth to compare them with International counterparts. All the government
Universities, Research agencies; Technical and Academic Institutions are the active units of a huge network of networks. The shared
e-journals and e-content greatly contributing to economical mode of resource sharing and co-operation. It is an evolutionary record of
library co-operation from Library networking to Digital library consortium. Being a developing country, Indian Library Consortia
greatly contributing to the universal goal for preservation of digital knowledge. The advent of consortia has enabled cross
repositories search by harvesting metadata at national as well as international level.
KEYWORDS:
Digital Library Consortia, Digital Library, Institutional Repository, Library Co-operation, Resource sharing.
INTRODUCTION:
The information is like the basic cell that constitute huge body of learned society, And all the constituent parts are well connected and
co-ordinated. Without latest and up-to-date information, society is lame and deprived. It is the need of the hour to exchange of ideas
or information crossing all the boundaries of language, creed or nationality. The credit goes to IT revolution, advancement in
information & Communication technology. And specially with the advent of internet (WWW) and huge storage devices encouraged
to digital media to dominate the traditional means of Knowledge Management. The Maximum utilization of digital platform with
open source agreement made possible to create a global village. Institutional Repositories covering all sphere of life are preserving,
exchanging the valuable research data worldwide. The smart network of networks is the platform of digital knowledge management
and free flow of shared data. And specially Open Source software movement geared up the proliferation of Digital Libraries
worldwide.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
1. To enlist all government funded and private Sector Digital Library Consortia;
2. To assess the coverage of all govt. funded Digital library consortia at national as well as international coverage;
3. To evaluate & make comparison among the resources and memberships offered by govt. funded DLC;
4. To assess the level and degree of Resource Sharing among the member agencies and institutions;
5. To assess the contribution and positive role played by the major govt. funded Digital Library Consortia in the process of
national information policy.
DIGITAL LIBRARY (DEFINITION):
“Digital Libraries are organised collection of digital information. They combine the structuring and gathering of information, which
libraries are archives have always done, with the digital representation that computers have made possible”- (M. Lesk, 1997)
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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 320
“Controlled collection of information bearing objects (IBOs) that are in digital form and that may be organised, accessed, evaluated
and used by means of heterogeneous and extensible set of distributed services that are supported by digital technology”-(Terence R.
Smith, 1997)
“A system providing a community of users with coherent access to a large, organised repository of digital information and knowledge.
The digital library is not just one entity, but multiple sources seamlessly integrated”-(Clifford Lynch, 1995)
According to Digital Library Federation (DLF, USA)-“Digital libraries are organisations that provide the resources including the
specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of and ensure the
persistence over time of collection of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community
or set of communities”.
DIGITAL LIBRARY CONSORTIUM (DEFINITION):
“Library Consortium is a group of libraries who partner to coordinate activities, share resources and combine expertise”- Wikipedia
Consortium is a Latin word, meaning ‘partnership, association or society’ and derives from consors ‘partner’, itself from con-
‘together’ and sors ‘fate’, meaning owner of means or comrade (Singh & Rao, 2008). A consortia is an association of two or more
individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a
common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal. (Singh & Rao, 2008).
(Hirshon, 1999) defines library consortia ‘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 entitles to information groups
that come together solely to achieve better pricing for purchasing electronic information’.
THE OBJECTIVES OF LIBRARY CONSORTIA:
1. To reduce repetition of efforts; 2. To curb rising costs of journals; 3. In order to match with the international standards of resource
sharing; 4. To remove licensing issues among the members; 5. To get well informed and up-to-date with international tie ups.
ADVANTAGES OF THE DIGITAL LIBRARY CONSORTIUM:
1. To get able to participate and mutually sharing of resources;
2. the economical method of journal subscription than traditional method;
3. the availability of sophisticated and more digital library services than conventional method;
4. the more faster delivery of digital library services;
5. the better execution of Copy Right Laws than before;
6. the best way of preserving digital content.
LIMITATIONS OF DIGITAL LIBRARY CONSORTIUM:
1. The wastage of labour, money and time in journal selection process;
2. The non-reliability of telecommunication means;
3. The complexity of Copy Right issues;
4. A huge initial investments in the establishment of digital library consortium;
5. The confusion and hesitation to participate;
6. Lack of printed copy of content
DIGITAL LIBRARY MOVEMENT:
It all started with the formal project of Digital Library. In 1994, a joint initiative taken by National Science Foundation (NSF); Dept.
Of Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in US,
and top 6 universities were assigned the job of investigation and development of digital library with the success of phase-I, in 1998 the
phase-II was started, which gave accent to the Digital Library Movement. The landmark projects like Mercury at CMU; Core at
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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 321
Cornell University; Tulip and Envision at Cornell Institute of Digital Collection; Yale University Open Book Project; Networked
Digital Library of Theses and Dissertation (NDLTD) and many more were the huge success in this direction. Simultaneously, Digital
Library Movement took momentum in other leading countries like UK, Canada, Germany, Australia and also India.
DIGITAL LIBRARY MOVEMENT IN INDIA:
It was started with the library co-operation and resource sharing in traditional libraries at local level. There were started a large
number of local area networks at various Metropolitan areas in India like DELNET in Delhi; BONET in Bombay; CALIBNET in
Calcatta; PUNET in Pune; MALIBNET in Madras and so on. The first library network established in Mysore, a small city in 1995
with only 16 Institutional members.
The National Commission on libraries and Information Science’s national programme for year 1975 defines a network as “Two or
more libraries or other organisations engaged in a common pattern of Information exchange through communication for some
functional purpose. A network usually consists of a formal arrangement whereby materials , Information and services provided by a
variety of libraries and other organisations are available to all potential users. Library may be different jurisdiction but must agree to
serve one another on the same basis as each serves its own constituents. Computers and telecommunication may be among tools for
facilitating communication among them. It is now best economical way of sharing digital collections for member Institutions, which
is contributed by external sources like- Commercial Publishers, Scholarly Societies, University Presses, aggregators and individuals
etc.
MAJOR LIBRARY NETWORKS IN INDIA:
1. INFLIBNET Centre:- Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) centre (established in 1992, and an example of
Specialized Network) is an autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of UGC involved in creating infrastructure for sharing
of Library & Information Resources and services among academic and research institutes. It promotes automation of
libraries, develop standards, creates Union catalogue of serials. Thesis, books, monographs and non-book materials provide
access to bibliographic information sources, creates database of projects, institutions & specialists.
2. DELNET:-It is an example of Metropolitan Area Network. DELNET (Developing Library Network) was started a project of
the India International Centre in 1988 with initial financial support of National Information System in Science and
Technology (NISSAT), presently DELNET activities are supported by NIC (National Informatics Centre) of the Planning
Commission, Govt. Of India. DELNET gives membership to various libraries including Universities, Colleges, Govt. Depts.
and provide technical assistance to them for creating and maintaining the bibliographic databases, serials control, union
catalogue preparations, abstracting services, ILL, document transfer/coping facilitations and for accessing local, national and
international databases. It has also created inter-library software such as DELSEARCH, DEL-Dos etc. For library
networking databases creation and database access using different platforms.
3. MANLIBNET:- Management Libraries Network was born in 2000. The network is not an on-line network like DELNET,
INFLIBNET and so on. This is to provide a forum for all the management libraries to share information and ideas for
development of libraries and business librarianship.
4. ADINET:-ADINET (Ahmedabad Network) is an example of Metropolitan Area Network. It was registered as a society in
1994. And was sponsored by National Information System for Science & Technology (NISSAT),Dept. of Science and
Industrial Research, Govt. Of India. It promotes sharing of resources and disseminate information among member libraries
by networking them and creating a centralised Union Catalogue of their holdings.
Many other national as well as state level library networks have also been developing including NICNET (National
Informatics Centres Network, which is an example of General networks in India), INDONET (Data Network, which is also a
general network), ERNET 1986 (Educational and Resources Network, which is an example of Specialized Network),
CALIBNET 1992(Calcutta Library Network, and an example of Metropolitan Area Network) etc.
HISTORY:
It’s all started initially with the task of preserving culture & heritage of India in mid 1990s. India became de-facto signatory
of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on cultural Diversity in 2001. ShodhGanga, ShodhGangotri and IR @Inflibnet, are
IRs to provide Open Access journals to faculty and researchers. IndCat is a Union Catalogue of various library resources
VIDWAN is a Subject expert database and Info-Portal is a subject Gateway of Indian Scholarly Internet Resources etc. The
current digital library initiatives of India, are-
