indigenous knowledge web resources in …...ayurveda research. tkdl, ayush research portal and dhara...

International Journal of Digital Library Services

1 | III JJJ OOO DDD LLL SSS

VVVooolll... 222,,, JJJuuulllyyy --- SSSeeepppttteeemmmbbbeeerrr,,, 222000111222,,, IIIssssssuuueee---333 wwwwwwwww...iiijjjooodddlllsss...iiinnn (((IIISSSSSSNNN:::222222555000---111111444222)))

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE WEB RESOURCES IN INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AYURVEDIC RESOURCES

AJAY B. KHATRI Librarian,

S.R.C., Ayurved College, Chikhli, Dist. Buldana (M.S.) India

[email protected]

&

DR. VAISHALI G. CHOUKHANDE HOD, Library Information Sciences,

Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati,

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Indian government has taken initiative to preserve the Indian indigenous knowledge of medicinal and health care. Ayurveda is one of them. Today Ayurveda is getting name and fame worldwide. From some

years Indian government has taken step by establishing AYUSH department. As the government put the faith on the AYUSH department, it is working very nicely. AYUSH establish some database portal for the access of Ayurveda research. TKDL, AYUSH research portal and DHARA are examples of them. The present paper is

based on the features, facilities, structure and content of research portals and databases.

Introduction: In the 21st century we are living in information technology era.

Everybody among us directly or indirectly is the user of information technology and internet. The internet has brought out an unprecedented revaluation in the capacity to access and dissemination of information. Information has never before so accessible. The technology advancement is increasing day by day. These advancement and changing trends have put forward new challenges before Library and information science professionals. Today we are living in digital world and tremendous growth & diversification of knowledge have emerged with multidisciplinary subjects. Information has been identified as one of the vital resources needed for the success in almost every major human endeavour. Collection, organization and dissemination of information with




economy and efficiency dampened on the skills and expertise of the librarians. Information is needed in all aspects of society and in all disciplines. Users demand information up-to-date and quickly. The demands of information users and researchers are increasing day-by-day. Old technologies of information exchange are being replaced by new technologies and methods. In this age internet become an essential medium for information exchange and with its helps to maintain scholarly communication anyone can communicate his/her information with others anywhere in the world. The World Wide Web offers a great wealth of information, as well as the opportunity for people to express themselves and exchange ideas. The Internet is used increasingly for

has changes worldwide. So the librarian, who was the keeper of books, is now the provider of information and learning opportunities. Indigenous Knowledge:

The world online encyclopedia Wikipedia described Indigenous Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK),

traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and local knowledge generally refer to the long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities

The African department of United Nations Environment Programme

(local) community accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment. This definition encompasses all forms of knowledge technologies, know-how skills, practices and beliefs that enable the community to achieve stable livelihoods in their environment. A number of terms are used interchangeably to refer to the concept of IK, including Traditional Knowledge (TK), Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK), Local Knowledge (LK) and Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS).

IK is unique to every culture and society and it is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals. IK is considered a part of the local knowledge in the sense that it is rooted in a particular community and situated within broader cultural traditions. It is a set of experiences generated by people living




Ayurveda " is the knowledge for long life.

Ayurvedic medicine is a Hindu system of traditional medicine native to India and a form of alternative medicine. The earliest literature on Indian medical practice appeared during the Vedic period in India. Ayurveda , the science of life, prevention and longevity is the oldest and most holistic medical system available on the planet today. It was placed in written form over 5,000 years ago in India, it was said to be a world medicine dealing with both body and the spirit. Before the advent of writing, the ancient wisdom of this healing system was a part of the spiritual tradition of the Sanatana Dharma (Universal Religion), or Vedic Religion. VedaVyasa, the famous sage, shaktavesha avatar of Vishnu, put into writing the complete knowledge of Ayurveda, along with the more directly spiritual insights of self realization into a body of scriptural literature called the Vedas and the Vedic literatures.

There were originally four main books of spirituality, which included among other topics, health, astrology, spiritual business, government, army, poetry and spiritual living and behavior. These books are known as the four Vedas; Rik, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. These texts still contain the original and complete knowledge of this Ayurvedic world medicine, that Ayurveda is known today as the only complete medical system still in existence.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: The objective of the study was to highlight the importance, features,

structure, content and facilities of the portal.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY: The scope of the study was based on the research portals of Ayurveda i.e.

AYUSH, DHARA and TKDL.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Literature search was adopted to study the research portals of Ayurveda.

The research portals i.e AYUSH, DHARA and TKDL were downloaded to study the features, links, structure and contents.




AYUSH RESEARCH PORTAL AYUSH Research portal is meant for dissemination of Research findings

in the domain of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Yoga & Naturopathy, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy researchers and allied faculties. Main aim of the portal is to provide access to the research findings, which is arranged in organized fashion and preempt duplication of work to encourage interdisciplinary research and generate evidence for wider acceptance of these systems worldwide.

Snapshot 1: Home page of AYUSH Research Portal

The Portal has been developed by Central Council for Research in

Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS), and the content is being provided by all AYUSH Research councils, Drug standardization laboratories, and National Institutes. AYUSH Research Portal accessible through www.ayushportal.ap.nic.in. Links to the research finding is the main aim of the portal, which provides information under the headings:

1. Standard Treatment Guidelines 2. Preventive promotive health 3. Preclinical and Clinical Studies 4. Literary and Fundamental Research

5. Drug standardization 6. Local health traditions 7. Drug monographs 8. Formulary of India and other formularies 9. References from Classical text books and




10. Plant monographs.

The information is categorized as per individual AYUSH medical systems against standard set of Medical conditions, which is based on WHO disease classification ICD-10, and navigation is provided according to ICPC's (International Classification of Primary Care) in 17 disease categories.

The Portal provides the relevant indigenous name of the medical conditions pertaining to each medical system, which further adds to clarity. The users can browse from a dashboard which provides access to all the categories with visually clear buttons meant for the purpose. On selection of the displayed results, the user gets information in the form of an abstract and full text of the article.

The portal is categorization of Clinical Research work into Grade A,B,C

Evaluation or Traditional. The portal content development is a three tier exercise involving rigorous

collaborative content uploading and editing process to ensure high quality content.

The portal provides AYUSH terminological names for every article search after selecting body system and disease name.

Table no. 1. : Total number of articles by AYUSH terminologies and by Research

The total collection of portal is 10751 articles which can classify as 5605 on ayurveda, 1569 on yoga and naturopathy, 1031 about Unani, 626 for Siddha and 1920 for Homoeopathy. The majority of the collection means 52% of the collection is held on Ayurveda. All the collection is classify under research

Terminologies

Research

Ayurveda Yoga and Naturopathy

Unani Siddha Homoeopathy Total

Clinical 1266 969 127 77 533 2972 Pre- Clinical 1153 198 46 71 72 1540 Drug 2380 0 564 222 329 3495 Fundamental 663 208 286 209 1012 2378 Total 5605 1569 1031 626 1920 10751




types a) Clinical research (2972 articles) b) Pre-clinical research (1540 articles) c) Drug research (3495 articles) and d) Fundamental (2378 articles) DHARA: r Ayurveda Research

published in the field of Ayurveda. It is a free accessible portal. free flow of information on research in Ayurveda. It is an offshoot of a collaborative imitative between central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Science (CCRAS), New Delhi, The ayurveda Trust, Coimbatore and Switzerland Medical Academy (SAMA), Switzerland. The objective behind this collaboration is to analyses and systematic reviews of research conducted in Ayurveda. It was realized that systematic access to published research on Ayurveda was a prerequisite to explore the feasibility of meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Such a resource was not available and hence the task of building a data that will allow systematic access to published research in Ayurveda was taken by AVTAR (Ayurveda Trust Institute for Advanced Research), the research wing of Ayurveda Trust with financial assistance from CCRAS. DHARA includes any research that published on Ayurveda research journal that meet basic editorial standards, which mean journal should have an independent editorial board and accept articles for publication only after internal editorial review and external pre review. DHARA has indexed research articles on Ayurveda that have been published in more than 4227 journals worldwide. Total no of indexed articles are 53225(As per data last accessed on 13 June 2012). The publication that

been taken to exclude. DHARA displays bibliographical information about total collection on homepage of the portal and provide break up of article titles, abstracts and full text access whether they are free or paid. Year wise index to published articles is also provided. Link to the list of authors and journals with alphabetical format is also give. DHARA provides search facility by simple and advanced (Boolean search). Regular user of DHARA can use search fields tags to control their search parameters. Users can make limit his/her search by




DHARA web resource has been designed keeping in mind familiarly to the users with popular database and indexing service. The main features of DHARA are

Wild keyword search option Advanced search with Boolean operation Search field tags Limiting search with controlled vocabulary Journal area and author area for listing keyword search and alphabetical

search

DHARA does not provide full version of article directly. It provides links to full text. The link can be seen below the abstract. Full text access may be free or paid as per the research journal policies. A Unique identification number is given to every entry known as DHARA ID.

Snapshot no.2: Home page of DHARA portal




TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library) Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is known as TKDL. The project of

TKDL is a result of collaborative efforts by Council of Scientific and industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of science and technology and Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family welfare. This project is implemented at CSIR. For the successful creation of the project TKDL the knowledgeable team like traditional medicine experts from each field (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha), patent examiners, Information Technology experts, scientist and technical experts devote their important efforts. TKDL involves documentation of the traditional knowledge available in public domain in the form of existing literature related to Ayurveda, Unani & Siddha and Yoga in digital form in five international languages (English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish).

This is a representative database containing 1200 formulations selected from various classical texts of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha systems of medicine. 500 formulations from Ayurveda, 500 formulations from Unani and 200 Siddha formulations are readily available.

The selected formulation has made use of about 291 plants as ingredients besides ingredients of animal or mineral origin. These formulations are in turn used to treat 186 diseases. This is a searchable database which can be started by clicking on the Ayurveda, Unani or Siddha icons on the homepage.

Simple Search: Different search terms including Keywords, Diseases and IPC Codes can be used with the operator 'OR' (the use of operator 'AND' is not supported). The corresponding menu lists all the search terms available in this database and can be used to select the appropriate search term.

Terms to be searched may be entered or selected from corresponding help menus.

Single or multiple search terms may be entered. Multiple search terms may be searched using operator OR. To search using local names with Keyword Help, tick the check

box labelled 'with local name'. Advance Search:

This option allows search using several search terms such as Keywords, Disease, IPC Code, Bibliography and Title, each individually specified. All these terms can be selected from appropriate help menus.




Snapshotno.3: Home page of TKDL

Conclusion: Indigenous knowledge like medicinal and health care specially an Ayurveda has long successful historical background. Today we find that Ayurveda the Indian Medicinal literature and knowledge is getting famous worldwide. But because of some negligence and lacunas for not having proper and systematic access to this literature, it feels that the ayurveda community has lagged behind but Indian government took care of this and formed AYUSH under the department of Ministry of Health and Family welfare. AYUSH shows their successful working capacity to preserve indigenous knowledge by forming and funding to such types of research databases. It seems that these databases will perform a great role in the development of new researches in the field of ayurveda and put a boost speed and encouragement in the young

will do come true. May be India will be at the top position in the field of medicinal and health care researches by the mean of Ayurveda.




References:

1. Indian Journal of Traditional

Knowledge Vol. 5(1), pp. 60-63. 2. Manohar P. Ram, Eranezhath Sujith S., Mahapatra Anita, Manohar

Sujithra R, April- June 2012 , Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Vol

3, Issue 2, Page no. 97-101. 3.

-18. 4. Accessed on 10 June 2012 http://ayush.ap.nic.in/ 5. Accessed on 12 June 2012 http://dharaonline.org/Home 6. Accessed on 11 June 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge 7. Accessed on 15 June 2012

http://www.floridavediccollege.edu/ayurveda/history.htm 8. Accessed on 13 June 2012

http://www.tkdl.res.in/tkdl/langdefault/common/Home.asp?GL=Eng 9. Accessed on 11 June 2012 http://www.unep.org/ik/ 10.

Prkashan page no. 1-28. 11. Prasanna K Samal, Anubha Shah, Sushil C Tiwari & Devendra K

linkages with bioresource conservation and socio-economic development Indian Journal of Traditional

Knowledge ISSN: 0975-1068 Vol. 3(1), , pp. 12-26. 12. Eastern Uganda, Anthony Egeru, April-June 2012 Role of Indigenous

Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation: A Case study of the Teso Sub- , Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, Vol. 11 Issue no. 2, ISSN: 0975-1068, Page no. 217-224.

13. Sharma, T., 2pustak Bhandar, page no. 26-61.

14. John S.S., July-Sept. 2010, Indian Journal of Traditional

Knowledge, Vol. 09 Issue no. 3, ISSN: 0975-1068, Page no. 443-447.




15. Ong H C, ruzzalila B N & Milow P., July-Sept. 2011 knowledge of medicinal plants among the Malay villagers in Kampung

Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, Vol. 10 Issue no. 3, ISSN: 0975-1068, Page no. 460-465.

16. Wedson Medeiros Silva Souto, Raynner Rilke Duarte Barboza, Jose da Silva Mourao & Romulo Romeu Nobrega Alves, April-June 2012 Traditional Knowledge of Sertanejos about Zootherapeutic practices

Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, Vol. 11 Issue no. 2, ISSN: 0975-1068, Page no. 259-263.




MAPPING OF E-INFORMATION LITERACY IN DR.BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR MARATHWADA UNIVERSITY

DR.M. D. GOLWAL Librarian

Nya.Tatasaheb Athalye Arts, Yed. S. R. Sapre Commerce & Vid. D. Pitre Science College

Deorukh 415804, Ratnagiri.

[email protected],

&

DR. A. A. VAISHNAV Retd. Professor & Head

Department of Library & Information Science Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University,

Aurangabad 431003, [Maharashtra]

&

DR. S. S. SONWANE Assistant Professor

Department of Library & Information Science Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University,

Aurangabad 431003, [Maharashtra]

ABSTRACT

The objective of the present paper is to highlight the concept of Literacy, Information Literacy, E-Information Literacy and to specify objectives, hypothesis, limitations, methodology, analysis and findings of

the study.

Keywords: - Literacy, Information Literacy, E-Information Literacy, BAMU, ACRL & ALA

1. INTRODUCTION

The greatest challenge for society in the 21st century is to keep pace with the knowledge and technological expertise necessary for finding, applying and evaluating information. It is acknowledged that we live in an information-rich




society where the amount of information in the world is presently doubling every three years. Therefore it is necessity of 21st century to include information literacy (IL) in education.

The information society calls for all people to become information literate which means that they should not only be able to recognize when information is needed but also be able to identify, locate, evaluate and use effectively information needed for decision making or fulfilling different goals. IL is increasingly important in the present context of the information explosion and related uncertainties about its authenticity, validity, and reliability.

In 21st century, IL has become a crucial issue for the political, economic, social & cultural development in all countries. IL is global phenomenon today. It is information gap that divides the nations & the citizens of a nation into rich & poor. It is information literacy that helps in closing this gap.

2. DEFINITIONAL ANALYSIS

Information - information is data that has given shape. It may be considered as processed data. Thus, information is data plus the meaning, which has to be a result of human action (Seetharama, 1999).

Literacy - literacy involves the ability to use language in its written form: a literate person is able to read, write and understand his or her native language and expresses a simple thought in writing (Bawden, 2001).

Information Literacy - Information Literacy is an understanding and set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed, have the ability to locate, evaluate, use effectively the needed information and create information within cultural and social context (ACRL,2004; ALA, 1989; CILIP, 2005; UNESCO, 2003; Karisiddappa and Kavita, 2005).

E-Information Literacy - Electronic information literacy refers to literacy activities (such as reading, writing, and research) that are delivered, supported, accessed, or assessed through computers or other electronic means rather than paper (Martin & Rader, 2003).

BAMU - Marathwada University established in August 1958 was renamed in 1994 as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University




(BAMU) is located at Aurangabad. The jurisdiction of BAMU is Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed & Osmanbad districts.

3. E-INFORMATION LITERACY

The term information literacy achieved its current prominence within the library community with the advent of the information explosion. An information environment characterized by an exponentional increase in information that is freely available over the internet, along with the rapid development of information technologies that facilitate the access and dissemination of this information (Grafstein, 2007).

Zurkowski (the President of the US Information Industry Association), in a submission to the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, to identify people trained in the application of information resources to their work (Joint, 2005; Jagtarsingh, 2008).

The idea of information literacy, which emerged with the advent of information technologies in the early 1970s, has grown, taken shape and strengthened to become recognized as the critical literacy for the 21st century.

etter able to exploit information resources (Bruce, 2002).

E-Literacy and Information Literacy are different but mutually compatible concepts with validity within specific contexts. Most librarians work within hybrid library environments, and may feel that e-Literacy is a single medium concept and as a practical tool for promoting the use of their mixed medium information service it is less useful than Information Literacy (Joint, 2005).

Electronic information literacy refers to literacy activities (such as reading, writing, and research) that are delivered, supported, accessed, or assessed through computers or other electronic means rather than paper ; is awareness, skills, understandings and reflective-evaluative approaches that are necessary for an individual to operate comfortably in an information rich and IT-supported environment (Martin and Radar, 2003); ability to search retrieves, organize, employ, and evaluate information derived from electronic information




resources (Fortier, 1998); to encompass the combined literacy skills which relate to IT literacy as well as information literacy skills and concomitant creation of new information (Beatty and Mountifield, 2005).

4. AIMS & OBJECTIVES

Present study has been undertaken with a view.

To study the extent of Information Literacy in PG & Research Students of the Science Departments in BAMU, with special emphasis on the E-Information Literacy.

5. HYPOTHESIS

Awareness of use of Internet is prominent amongst the PG & Research Students in Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad.

6. SCOPE & LIMITATION

The present study is limited to PG as well as Research students of Science faculty in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. The main focus of this study is to identify the needs & requirements of users in general & to know e-resources. While teachers of all faculties including science faculty, PG & Research students of other faculties have been excluded from the present study.

7. METHODOLOGY

Present study has used survey method. This method plays a significant

the most effective and sensitive instruments of research survey research can

7.1 Data collection

To know the needs of students covered, a structured questionnaire was designed and factual questions, opinion questions were asked. The researcher has distributed 360 questionnaires to PG & research Scholars, 312




questionnaires duly filled returned by students i.e. the response rate was 86.66%.

8. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

The data collected was analyzed & findings were noted as follows:

1. It was found that that majority i.e. 85.90% respondents are fluent in use of computer.

Table No. 8.1 Frequency of Using Computer

Frequency No. of Users Daily 195 Once in a week 68 Once in a month 41 Once in a while 8 Total 312

2. It can be noted from table 8.1 that majority 62.50% respondents using computer daily, while 37.50% respondents were using computer rarely i.e. either weekly, once in a month or once in a while.

Fig No. 8.1 Frequency of using Internet




3. It can be revealed from figure 8.1 that majority 60.58% respondents using internet daily, while 39.42% respondents were using internet rarely i.e. either 2 3 time or once in week or occasionally. This proves the

(Hypothesis No.1).

Table No. 8.2 Time Spent on Internet

Time Spent No. of Users Less than 1 hour a week 12 2 4 hours a week 28 5 6 hours a week 28 7 9 hours a week 28 More than 10 hours a week 28 Total 312

4. It can be noted from Table 8.2 that majority 50.32% respondents spend 7 9 hours a week on Internet, while 49.68% respondents were spent less

than 1 hour, 2 4 hours, 5 6 hours & more than 10 hours in a week Awareness of Internet use is

(Hypothesis No.1).

Fig No. 8.2 Place of Accessing Internet

5. In this question users were allowed to select more than one option therefore the percentage is more than 100%. It can be revealed from




figure 8.2 that majority i.e. 69.55% & 59.94% respondents accessing internet at UGC INFONET Center & Department respectively.

Fig No. 8.3 Experience of Internet Use

6. It can be revealed from figure 8.3 that majority 47.12% students having under 1 year experience, while 23.72% students having over 1 year experience of using Internet.

Fig No. 8.4 Satisfaction level of using Internet

7. It can be noted from figure 8.4 that majority i.e. 34.94% students were least satisfied, while 28.21% students were fully satisfied. Remaining 23.71% students partially & 13.14% students says no comment.




Table No. 8.3 Internet Skills of Users

Internet Skills No. of Users Excellent 126 Very Good 74 Good 53 Fair 44 Poor 15

8. It can be noted from Table 8.3 that 40.38% & 23.72% students were having Excellent & Very Good Internet skills respectively. This proves

Awareness of (Hypothesis No.1).

Table No. 8.4 Purpose of Browsing Internet

Purpose No. of Users E-mail 279 E-resources 191 OPAC 146

9. In this question users were allowed to select more than one option therefore the percentage is more than 100%. It is observed from Table 8.4 that 89.42% & 61.22% students browsing internet for the purpose of E-mail & E- Awareness

(Hypothesis No.1).

Figure No 8.5 Purpose of Using E-mail

292

191

146

304

168

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

ContactColleagues

SubjectForum

ContactEditors

Chatting Req ofInformation




10. In this question users were allowed to select more than one option therefore the percentage is more than 100%. It can be noted from figure 8.5 that 97.44% & 93.59% respondents using e-mail service for chatting & contact colleagues.

Fig No. 8.6 Use of Search Engines

11. It can be revealed from figure 8.6 that 99.36% users are using search engines, expect 0.64% i.e. only 2 students are not using search engines.

(Hypothesis No.1).

Fig No. 8.7 Searching for articles

12. In this question users were allowed to select multiple options therefore the percentage is more than 100%. It can be noted from figure 8.7 that majority of the users search articles with the help of keywords i.e. 71.15,




Remaining 66.34% & 63.78% users search articles by Author & Journal Title. While 45.19% & 44.23% of the users searching articles with the help of Subject heading, Abstracts and Author respectively.

Table No. 8.5 Preferable Format for Downloading

Preferable Format No. of Users PDF 279 HTML 191 DOC 146 RTF 81

13. In this question users were allowed to select multiple options therefore the percentage is more than 100%. It can be resolved from Table 8.5 that

downloading document. HTML format is used by 61.22% users & 46.79% of users used DOC type. While RTF format is used by only 25.96% of users.

9. CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that, in digital era users must have the knowledge of

REFERENCES:

ACRL, 2004. "Information literacy competency standards for higher education." Accessed September 2, 2012. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standards guidelines. htm.

ALA, 1989. American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy Final Report. Chicago: American Library Association.

Bawden, D. 2001. "Information and digital literacy's: a review of concepts." Journal of Documentation. 57(2): 218-259.

Beatty, Susan and Mountifield, Hester 2005. "Collaboration in an information commons: Key elements for successful support of e-literacy." Journal of eLiteracy. 2: 232-248.

Bruce, C.S. 2002. "Information literacy as a catalyst for educational change: a background paper." White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the




U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. Accessed September 5, 2012. http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconf&meet/papers/bruce-fullpaper.pdf.

CILIP, 2005. "Information Literacy: Definition" CILIP, London. Faust, Judith 2001. Teaching information literacy in 50 minutes a week:

The CSUH experience. Journal of Southern Academic and Special Librarianship.

Fortier, John D. 1998. "Information and Technology Literacy." West Indies.

Grafstein, Ann 2007. Information literacy and Technology: An examination of some issues. Portal: Libraries and the Academy. 7(1): 51-64.

Jagtarsingh 2008. "Sense-making: Information literacy for lifelong learning and knowledge management." DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology. 28(2): 13-17.

Joint, Nicholas 2005. eLiteracy or Information Literacy: Which concept should we prefer? Library Review. 54(9): 505-507.

Kane, Sally 2009. E-Document. Accessed on September 10, 2012. http://legalcareers.about.com/od/glossary/g/E-documents.htm.

Karisiddappa, C.R. and Iqbalahmad, Umarfaruk Rajgoli, 2005. Need for Information Literacy activities in the changing higher education environment in India. In Madhusudhan M. (Ed). 51st All India Library Conference of Indian Library Association on Libraries, Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. Kurukshetra.

Kasyap, M M 1969. Planning of survey. Library Herald. 2(1&2): 195-199.

Martin, A. and Rader, H. 2003. Information and IT Literacy: enabling learning in the 21st century. London: Facet.

Seetharama, S. 1999. "Information management: Tools and techniques." In: National Workshop on Information Management including ISO 9000 QMS, held at Documentation Research and Training Centre, Bangalore.

UNESCO, 2003. The Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society. UNESCO: Paris.




USE OF E-JOURNALS BY IIT DELHI AND DELHI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY USERS

DR. FAIZUL NISHA (DESIDOC, DRDO)

Email: [email protected]

&

DR. NAUSHAD ALI P.M (Chairman and Associate Professor, DLIS, AMU, Aligarh)

Email:[email protected]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper seeks to examine the use of e-journals by the users of IIT Delhi, and Delhi University.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Survey research was conducted to access e-journal use among IIT Delhi, and Delhi University users. In survey research questionnaire is widely used to gather data on the particular problem. The questionnaires were administered personally among the users of IIT Delhi, and Delhi University.

Findings: From this survey it was found that most of the users are aware of e-journals and they are not only using them for building and updating their knowledge but also for collecting relevant material for their study and research purpose as information can be acquired expeditiously through e-journals.

The main aim of consulting these journals is for retrieving information regarding research, publishing papers, assignments, presentations, seminars, and largely to update their own knowledge. However, this study also reveals several inherent problems especially with the use of e-journals e.g. Slow downloading as revealed by maximum IIT Delhi and Delhi University users. Other mechanical deficits like non-availability of a particular issue, lack of training and limited access to terminals are also present while using e-journals.

Limitations: The present study consists only e-journal users of IIT Delhi, and Delhi University. The geographical coverage is restricted to Delhi .The




responses have been taken from users and the data has been collected during the months of March-May 2011 only.

Practical Implications: The problem is selected by the investigator to understand the use of e-journals by IIT Delhi, and Delhi University users so that libraries can make further improvement in their e-journal services depending upon the results and suggestions.

Originality/Value: The paper provides suggestions derived from the analysis of data which in turn will help to enhance the use of e-journal services and fulfill the needs and requirements of users in the libraries of IIT Delhi, and Delhi University.

Article Type: Research Paper

Keywords: E-Journals, IIT, Delhi, Delhi University, Library, Use.

1. Introduction

The web has influenced the developments of new modes of scholarly communication including various discussion forum, websites and home pages. Although these channels are gaining popularity for communicating and exchanging research results, yet the scholarly journal is regarded as the most preferred medium. The peer review process and archiving of research results for long term availability have helped the scholarly journal to attain a firm position. Due to digital publishing technologies and Internet, the scholarly journals have undergone many changes. The digital technology raised to the give birth the electronic form of journal or e-journal. Apart from publishers, the availability of electronic versions of journals on World Wide Web, led to the emergence of new and modern e-journal service providers. From bibliographic to full text articles and the citation linking across journals has been another landmark. The digital publication has also curtailed time lag between article submission and its publication.

The e-journal is being called by various synonymous terms like online journal, paperless journal, and virtual journal. A journal can be called as e-journal, if its contents are produced and stored in electronic form, and if these contents can be scanned in a database and retrieved online, it can be called as




online journal. Some experts regard e-journal as the one that is produced, published, and distributed nationally and internationally through some electronic network like internet. (Lancaster, 1995)

2. E-Journals at IIT Delhi, and Delhi University

The IIT Delhi has started subscribing to e-journals from the year 1997. It gets access to over 12,000 full-text electronic journals and 6 bibliographic databases from a number of publishers and aggregators through the INDEST AICTE Consortium. The INDEST AICTE Web Site (indest.iitd.ac.in or http://paniit.iitd.ac.in/indest) hosts search and browse interfaces to locate these journals and their URLs.

Delhi University Library System has started subscribing to e-journals from the year 2004. It subscribes to a large number of e-databases including reference sources, full text sources and bibliographic databases and these can be accessed through its website. It is being made available through campus network in the university campus and can also be accessed in the colleges. It subscribes to 30 high value databases covering all the subjects taught through out the university. Around 5,000 e-journals are accessible to users. In addition to this 24 databases (20 full text and 4 bibliographic) are accessible through UGC-INFONET Digital library Consortium. Important open access e-resources are regularly culled out and listed on the DULS website for access. (Rajesh and Jindal 2009)

3. Review of Related Literature

Various studies have been carried out on the use of E-Journals in India and abroad. The literature reviewed in this article has taken since 2007 in chronological order.

E-Journals awareness and use among research scholars of Central Science Library; University of Delhi has been accessed by Ali and Nisha (2011). Findings of the study clearly reveal that more than 60 per cent of users in the Central Science Library are using e-journals weekly for the purpose of research. Print journals are consulted by the majority of users compared with e-journals. Keyword is the most popular search method for searching e-journals among research scholars, whereas the date of publication carries the least percentage




among all the options. However, if is found that slow downloading of PDF files is the major problem that would discourage users while using e-journals.

scholarly

how the increase in number of electronic journals available to academic scholars at Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia (CBUC) has changed their information-seeking or consulting behaviour, with respect to 1) the amount and diversity of sources they read; 2) strategies they use to keep up-to-date in their fields; 3) use of personalized information services. The results revealed that by having greater and easier access to e-journals, scholars accessing the CBUC read more articles from more disciplines. Scholars would prefer a simpler library interface to search for online content. Due to the complexity of finding article content, they use web search tools like Google and Google Scholar to get to what they need faster. The authors of this study believe research should be

complexity.

Use of e-journals by doctoral research scholars of Goa has been measured by Chirra and Madhusudhan (2009). The study reveals that Hundred percent (96) of the respondents are aware of the e-journals and access the UGC Infonet Digital Library Consortium through GUL and IC website. Majority of users (98 percent) use UGC-Infonet e-journals for their research work (thesis). The most common problem faced by the respondents is that there is difficulty in accessing full text and a majority (95 percent) of the respondents replied that more journals are needed.

Tenopir et al., (2009) seek to examine how faculty members in Science, Technology, Medicine and Social Sciences from 1977 to the present in a university locate, obtain, read, and use scholarly articles and how this has changed with the widespread availability of electronic journals and journal alternatives. The paper finds that the average number of readings per year per science faculty member continues to increase, while the average time spent per reading is decreasing.




Kaur and Verma (2009) aims to describe the use of electronic resources and services provided at the central library of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. It has been found that usage of e-journals is increasing; this is due to awareness among the users about the library e-resources and services. Owing to an easy access available at various places in the institute, users are accessing these resources at hostels and departments more as compared to the library. The users coming to library have decreased.

Trivedi and Joshi (2009) seek to examine the use of e-journals by the health care professionals of HMPCME and that of print journals which can be availed at the behest of library at Pramukhswami Medical College (PSMC), Karamsad, Gujarat-India. From this survey it was found that most of the research scholars i.e. (Doctors, Physicians, Medical officers, Interns, Post Graduate students, Residents) are referring to e-journals, as well as print journals from their departmental library as well as computer center in the central library. The main aim of consulting these journals is for retrieving information regarding research, dissertation, presentations, seminars, lectures, treatment protocols for unusual cases and journal clubs etc and largely to update their own knowledge. However, this study also reveals several inherent problems especially with the use of e-journals e.g. Computer illiteracy, lack of computer training, inability of retrieving particular/relevant health based information via various advanced databases like MD-Consult, EBSCO, ProQuest, Science Direct etc. Other mechanical deficits like slow downloading, slow connectivity, and subjective strain to eyes are also present while using e-journals.

Madhusudhan (2008) has focused on the use of UGC-Infonet e-journals by research scholars and students. The main aim is to identify the needs and requirements of users in general and to know the use of UGC-Infonet Library and Information Science e-journals in the University of Delhi by research scholars and students of DLIS in particular. The study shows that e-journals perform an increasingly important role in research at DLIS. Not only current e-journals are required, but research scholars and students need to be provided the use of significant electronic back runs as well. There is an ever increasing demand for subscriptions of more e-journal titles in LIS. There appears to be some need for academics to be provided with training in using e-journals. The area where the greatest need for training is around managing references.




Moghaddam, and Talawar (2008) investigated the use of scholarly e-journals at the Indian Institute of Science. The results of the survey reflect a growing interest in electronic journals among users at the IISc. The results showed a growing interest in electronic journals among the users at IISc. Electronic journals were mostly used for research needs and PDF was the most preferred format. The fact that users have free access to electronic journals at all hours from their own computers seems to be the most appealing feature.

Nisha, Ali and Ara (2008) examined the use of the INDEST-AICTE consortium of MHRD and UGC-INFONET consortium of INFLIBNET by users of IIT Delhi and Delhi University. The results have indicated that majority of users are aware about INDEST and UGC-INFONET consortia at IIT Delhi and Delhi University. Most of users access INDEST and UGC-INFONET consortia through e-databases. Slow downloading; lack of maintenance, lack of training, lack of infrastructure and language etc. are the major problems that would discourage users for accessing resources on INDEST and UGC-INFONET.

A citation analysis of research articles from scholarly electronic journals published in 2000-2006 has been examined by Bhat and Sampath Kumar (2008). The analysis focused on the extent to which scholars are using web-based sources in scholarly electronic journals. Results of the study shows that 81.49% of articles published in selected 9 electronic journals during 2000-2006 have web references. Out of 25,730 references 56.54 % of references are print journal references and 43.52% of them are web references. The majority of articles having web references are found in ARIADANE (93.24%) which ranks first, followed by Cybermetrics: International Journal of Scientometrics, Informetrics, and Bibliometrics (89.47%) and D-LIB Magazine (89.19%). It can be observed from the study that comparatively more number of articles (81.05%) published during the years 2000-2006 have web references.

Instanbul University faculty was surveyed by Dilek-Kayaoglu (2008) to examine their use of electronic journals. The results of this study confirm that almost two-thirds of the respondents stated they were very frequent users of e-journals, a majority of whom were from health science, while just 22 percent of the respondents indicated that they were very frequent users of printed journals. 72.5 percent of the respondents supported the transition from print to e- only




journals. The major barriers to use e-journals were the lack of sufficient subscriptions in their discipline is particularly noteworthy and clearly indicates that the library should increase the number of e-journal subscriptions.

Borrego et al., (2007) surveyed the use of print and e-journals and found that more than 95 percent of the respondents are aware of the e-journals. Electronic journals are used exclusively or predominantly by 52 percent of the respondents. 76 percent of the respondents prefer the electronic format over the printed format when both formats are accessible. 53.6 percent of the respondents consult e-journals for both research and teaching.

-journals via Library Portals: The

various literature and experiences about access to electronic journals via web pages has been reviewed by Amir Raza (2007). The major aim of this study, is designing a special portal for free electronic journals for Shahid Chamran University Ahwaz University on the basis of the attitudes of graduate students of this university about these journals. Data collecting tools were literature review, Checklist, questionnaire and Yahoo search engine. The study indicates that graduate students of Shahid Chamran university of Ahvaz have little familiarity with free electronic journals of their special course and their use of these journals is in low level. Chi-Square Test cleared that there is no significant difference among using full time and part time graduate students of Shahid Chamran university of Ahvaz of free electronic journals. In this study, by Webometrics method, highly cited free electronic journals were assigned. By this method, 63 highly cited free electronic journals were determined. Finally, by Microsoft Frontpage, that is a special software for designing web pages, primary version of special portal of free electronic journals for Shahid Chamran university of Ahvaz was designed and created. Free electronic journals of each university course will be accessible from this portal.

4. Objectives

1. To identify the awareness of e-journals and the purpose behind using them.

2. To ascertain priority in search techniques and find out the most popular search technique among users in providing frequent access to e-




journals. 3. To understand barriers that would discourage users in using e-journals 4. To suggest the ways and means for the effective use of the same.

5. Methodology

A survey was conducted to access e-journal use among IIT Delhi, and Delhi University users. As noted, the present investigators wanted to know, through a systematic opinion survey, to what extent the user community in IIT Delhi and Delhi University avail and access e-journals. The study utilized a descriptive survey method and employed a questionnaire as the data collection instrument. The questionnaire consisted of multiple-choice questions requiring one or more answers. The questionnaires were administered personally among the users. A total of 150 questionnaires were administered in the month of February 2011 among the users of IIT Delhi library, 150 questionnaires were administered in Delhi University library users. Out of which 120 filled in questionnaires are collected back from library users at IIT Delhi, and 125 from Delhi University Library users respectively. 20 questionnaires from IIT Delhi library users and 25 questionnaires from Delhi University library users were rejected due to incomplete response. Finally 100 questionnaires from IIT Delhi and 100 from Delhi University were furnished and used for data analysis.

6. Data Analysis and Interpretation

The data which are collected from IIT Delhi, and Delhi University through various data collection techniques have been organized, analysed, compared, consolidated, tabulated and interpreted by using tables and percentages and a simple method of calculation to verify the validity of results and in the light of above data, useful findings and conclusions have been arrived at. On the basis of the responses received through questionnaires the data is analysed and interpreted, in the following sections:




Table-1

Awareness of E-Journals

S.No. Awareness

IIT (Delhi) N=100

Delhi University N=100

1

Yes 95 (95%) 60 (60%)

2 No 5 (5%) 40 (40%)

E-

have realized the value of e-journals because of their cost-effectiveness and multiple advantages. In responavailability of electronic journals at your institute; 95 respondents (95 percent) from IIT Delhi and 60 respondents (60 percent) from Delhi University responded positively and acclaimed that they are fully aware of the electronic journals whereas the remaining 5 (5 percent) respondents in IIT Delhi, and 40 (40 percent) in Delhi University said that they are not aware of the facility.

The response on the awareness of e-journals shows that IIT Delhi users are more aware than Delhi University users. Very few respondents in IIT Delhi have found to be unfamiliar with e-journals. However, in Delhi University 40 percent users are unaware.

The overall analysis indicates that the aggregate e-journals awareness by Delhi University user community as a whole needs to be further enhanced. Proper awareness programmes would help Delhi University users to know about e-journals and their proper use.

Table- 2

Purpose of using E-journals

S.No. Purpose IIT (Delhi) N=100


1

For research (thesis/dissertation/project work) 63 (63%) 50 (50%)

2 Publishing articles 40 (40%) 25(25%)

3

For keeping up-to-date subject information 35 (35%) 20(20%)




4

Finding relevant information in the area of specialization 30(30%) 15 (15%)

5

Preparing assignment and seminar presentation 33 (33%) 7 (7%)

(Multiple responses were permitted)

E-journals are used for variety of reasons. Five reasons were listed against which respondents were allowed to choose more than one reason for using e-journals. (Table-2 and Fig-1)

The intention here was to know the purpose of using e-journals by the respondents.

The major reasons for participants in this study used the e-journals were in support of their research in IIT Delhi (63 percent). 40 percent use e-journals for publishing articles, 35 percent consult them for keeping up-to-date their subject information, 30 percent use e-journals for finding relevant information in the area of specialization, and 33 percent users prefer to use e-journals for preparing assignments and seminar presentation.

In Delhi University, half of the users tending to use e-journals for research purpose, followed by 25 percent for publishing articles, 20 percent for keeping up-to-date their subject information, 15 percent users use e-journals for finding relevant information in the area of specialization, 7 percent consult e-journals in order to prepare assignments and seminar presentation.

Majority of users in IIT Delhi, and Delhi University use e-journals for research purpose. Least percent of users in IIT Delhi i.e. 33 percent use e-journals for finding relevant information in the area of specialization while use of e-journals in Delhi University library for preparing assignments and seminar presentation is found quite negligible, i.e. 7 percent.

This study discloses that the overall view of the purpose of use of e-journals for research by the library users of IIT Delhi, and Delhi University because of their currency of articles and rich content. This finding is supported by recent studies conducted by number of scholars (such as Ali and Nisha , 2011; Madhusudhan, 2008;Dilek-Kayaoglu, 2008).




Table-3

Use of Search Strategy

S.No.

Search Strategy

IIT (Delhi) N=100


1

Keyword 50(50%) 43(43%)

2

Subject 27(27%) 25(25%)

3

Author 42(42%) 40(40%)

4

Date of Publication 15(15%) 12(12%)

5

Journal Title 35(35%) 31(31%)

6

Abstract 30(30%) 32(32%)

(Multiple Responses were permitted.)

Since the purpose of use of search strategy varies from person to person, the respondents were asked to express their opinions on specific use of various search options. The answers to which are depicted in table 3 (fig 2).

As indicated in table 3, there is a good spread of use of all search options among the respondents of IIT Delhi, and Delhi University. However, the most

Delhi, and 43 percent respondents in Delhi University. The second most

Fig: 1 Purpose of E-Journals Use For research (thesis/dissertation/project work)

Publishing articles

For keeping up-to-date subjectinformation

Finding relevantinformation in thearea ofspecializationPreparingassignment andseminarpresentation




n

Delhi, and 32 percent in Delhi University.

15 percent in IIT Delhi, and 12 percent in Delhi University respectively.

The overall analysis indicated that there is a good spread of use of

obtain an increased amount of relevant information by searching through it. This strategy in searching correspond with other studies which shows that because of the increasing level of searching competency users are searching the online journals more.( Ali and Nisha , 2011; Madhusudan.2008, Stanford E-Journal user study, 2002a, b)

Table- 4

Use of Advance Search Strategy

Search Facilities

IIT (Delhi) N=100


Never Some times Often Never Some

times Often

Boolean operators

10 (10%)

45 (45%)

48 (48%)

18 (18%)

40 (40%)

50 (50%)

Truncation 12 (12%)

35 (35%)

45 (45%)

28 (28%)

38 (38%)

44 (44%)

Phrases 20 (20%)

32 (32%)

33 (33%)

22 (22%)

27 (27%)

28 (28%)

Fig: 2 Use of Search Strategy

KeywordSubjectAuthorDate of PublicationJournal TitleAbstract




Field searching 60 (40%)

30 (39%)

20 (20%)

29 (29%)

25 (45%)

42 (42%)

Wild Cards 20 (20%)

23 (23%)

15 (15%)

30 (30%)

32 (23%)

25 (25%)


Relative use of various search strategies for locating electronic information is one of the vital aspects of the study. The respondents, therefore, were asked to express their views as to what extent they make use of various advance search strategies. The choices provided by the questionnaire are presented in table 4.

It is understood from the table that 10 percent of IIT Delhi users never used Boolean operators followed by 18percent users in Delhi University , 45percent used Boolean operators sometimes in IIT Delhi followed by 40 percent in Delhi University 48 percent of the users of IIT Delhi often used Boolean operators in comparison to 50 percent of Delhi University users.

In case of truncation 12 percent users of IIT Delhi never used this search facility while in Delhi University 28 percent of users are using the same type. 35 percent users of IIT Delhi sometimes used truncation followed by 38 percent in Delhi University, 45 percent IIT Delhi users and 44 percent of them in Delhi University used the facility often.

Regarding phrase search, 20 percent of IIT Delhi and 22 percent of Delhi University users never used phrase search. 32 percent of IIT Delhi users used phrase search sometimes as compared to 27 percent of Delhi University users. 33 percent of IIT Delhi respondents and 28 percent users of Delhi University use this facility often.

Field searching is never used by 40 percent of IIT Delhi users and 29 percent of Delhi University users. 39 percent users sometimes tend to use field searching in IIT Delhi followed by 45percent in Delhi University and 20 percent often used in IIT Delhi followed by 42 percent in Delhi University.

Among the total respondents, 20 percent IIT Delhi users and 30 percent of Delhi University users never used wild cards, while 23 percent of IIT Delhi and Delhi University users used this facility sometimes. Rest 15 percent IIT




Delhi users followed by 25 percent of Delhi University users often used this facility.

This signifies that there is a great tendency among users of IIT Delhi and Delhi University towards the usage of Boolean Search followed by truncation.

Table-5

Barriers in using E-Journals

S.No. Barriers

IIT (Delhi) N=100


1

Unfamiliar to e-journals 5 (5%) 30 (30%)

2

Lack of training/Guidance 20 (20%) 48 (48%)

3

Non-availability of a particular issue

27 (27%) 40 (40%)

4

Lack of terminals 6 (6%) 27 (27%)

5

Language 8(8%) 12 (12%)

6

Slow downloading 42 (42%) 53 (53%)


Even though e-journals are a very important source of information, users unusually face number of obstacles while browsing through them. Here, an attempt is made to find these obstacles. views relating to such problems are presented in table 5 for analysis.

It is revealed from the views of majority of respondents that the most common problem is that of slow downloading in IIT Delhi i.e. 42 percent users faced it. Whereas only 5 percent answered they are unfamiliar to e-journals. About 20 percent of users find it difficult to access e-journals due to the lack of training/guidance. Concurrently 27 percent users viewed non-availability of a particular issue as a hindrance, only 6 percent users stated lack of terminals as a barrier, 8 percent users are of the view that they get articles in languages other than English which made it difficult to use the relevant information.




However in Delhi University too the most common problem faced by respondents is slow downloading (53 percent).

Moreover 30 percent Delhi University library users are unfamiliar to e-journals and 48 percent reported that due to insufficient time and training, they cannot make use of e-journals efficiently. 40 percent users are faced with non-availability of a particular issue. 27 percent respondents in Delhi University state limited access to terminals a barrier in using e-journals. Only 12 percent users in Delhi University admit language as a hindrance while accessing e-journals.

As cleared from the analysis, majority of users face slow downloading problem while accessing full text articles in Delhi University (53 percent) and IIT Delhi (42 percent) library. Bandwidths should be sought so as to provide faster access that will save much of the users time and be a source of motivation to use e-journals. This finding is supported by recent studies conducted by number of Indian Scholars, (such as Trivedi and Joshi, 2008 Raza and Upadhyay, 2006; Kumbar, Hadagali and S.P.; 2006).

Table-6

Methods to make E-Journals facility efficient

S. No. Frequency

IIT (Delhi) N=100


1 Training Programmes 40 (40%) 60(60%) 2 Cooperation from staff 27 (27%) 43 (43%) 3 Uninterrupted power supply 20 (20%) 55(55%) 4 Informal Discussion 17(17%) 15(15%)

(Multiple responses were permitted)

In order to make e-journals facility more effective and efficient, respondents are asked to indicate various ways and means for the same.

The response in table 6 reveals that 40 percent respondents in IIT Delhi and 60 percent of them in Delhi University are in favour of training programmes. Many of them are of the view that cooperation from the library staff will play an important role in using e-journals revealing 27 percent in




IIT Delhi, and 43 percent in Delhi University. Somewhat 20 percent respondents in IIT Delhi and 55 percent of them in Delhi University opined uninterrupted power supply as a major factor making e-journals facility efficient. Few respondents i.e. 17 percent in IIT Delhi and 15 percent in Delhi University wish the informal discussion for the effective use of the same.

It is interesting to observe that the respondents in IIT Delhi and Delhi University claimed that training programmes and uninterrupted power supply would enhance e-journals use. Studies carried out by Indian authors have also cited training programmes as one of the major tool for making e-journals facility fruitful and effective. (Chirra and Madhusudhan, 2009).

7. Findings of Study

Major findings of the study are:

1. The response on awareness of e-journals shows that in IIT Delhi library (95 percent) users are more aware than Delhi University (60 percent) library users (Table- 1)

2. E-Journals are basically used for research purpose in IIT Delhi (63 percent), and Delhi University (50 percent) followed by publishing articles (40 percent in IIT Delhi and 25 percent in Delhi University). (Table- 2)

3. The search methods reveal that more than 50 percent of respondents in IIT Delhi and and 43 percent of them in Delhi University laid strongest

carrying the least favour among the respondents. Respondents in IIT Delhi and Delhi University are more inclined towards searching through keywords and author. (Table- 3).

4.

among respondents in IIT Delhi, and Delhi University. (Table- 4) 5. The major obstacle in using e-journals is slow downloading of full text

articles as revealed by more than 40 percent of IIT Delhi and 53 percent Delhi University users. The problem is maximum in Delhi University followed by IIT Delhi. This finding clearly indicates that current online




access to e-journals does not meet the expectations of the respondents. (Table -5)

6. About 40 percent of respondents in IIT Delhi and more than half, i.e. es

would enhance e-journals use. (Table- 6)

8. Suggestions Based on the results of the study, a number of suggestions applicable to

both institutes can be made:

1. Libraries should create digital database of e-journals subscribed by them through Digital Library Software to enable users to search full text journal articles of various publishers by subject, keywords and topic.

2. It is also suggested that users in IIT Delhi, and Delhi University must

amount of relevant information obtained, and using keywords alone will not produce the correct level of specificity. They should be equally familiar to the other search option.

3. Users of three libraries should be taught about the advanced search strategies to make e-journals easily accessible and must learn to use to wild card characters to perform an all inclusive search.

4. Bandwidths should be sought by three libraries so as to provide faster

motivation to use e-journals. This will also solve the problem of slow downloading.

5. Delhi University Librarian should take care of lab providing uninterrupted power supply to e-journal use.

6. In IIT Delhi and Delhi University library, users are required proper training programmes for proper exploitation of e-journals.

7. Need for more qualified staff with better exposure to modern technological devices has been stressed in both libraries.

8. In service training should be given to those library professionals who are already working, so that they may have a better understanding. Staff training programme can be carried out by different methods such as holding formal courses, workshops, seminars, lectures, discussion groups etc. The training should be practical oriented instead of theory based.




9. In order to increase use of e-journals by students, the faculty should give more assignments on latest topics so that students may force to exploit e-journal services more efficiently.

10. A Course Work on proper use of information resources may be introduced in IIT Delhi and Delhi University as part of M.Phil and PhD programme.

11. Libraries should encourage their users to use open access journals.

9. Conclusion

The study results show that users who participated in this survey are almost aware of e-journals. Most of them used these e-journals in support of research and publishing articles. The most popular search method for searching e-should teach their users about various search strategies and organize orientation session regularly. The study also shows that slow downloading is the major obstacle while using e-journals. Sufficiency of increased availability of computer systems and speed of internet should be enhanced to the desired level.

It is important that the library professionals should be proactive in working with the academic committee to develop training programmes stressed at enabling them to use e-journals effectively and efficiently. Keeping this view the study suggests that libraries should develop course work on proper use of e-journals.

10. References

1. Asnafi, Amir Raza. (2007). -journals via Library Portals: Experience of the Shahid Chamran Ahwaz University in Iran as a

Proceedings ELPUB2007 Conference on Electronic Publishing Vienna, Austria June 2007

2. Web citation behaviour in scholarly electronic journals in the field of library and information

Webology, Vol.5.No 2. 3. Borrego, Angel, Anglada, Lluisd, Barrios, Maite and Comellas, N. et al.,

an Universities: The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol.33 No.1 pp.




67-75. 4.

Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 26 No. 10, pp.12-15.

5. Dilek-The Journal of

Academic Librarianship, Vol.34 No.3, pp.239-247. 6. Galyani, Moghaddam & Talawar,V.G (200

Electronic Journals at the Indian Institute of Science: a case study in Interlendings Document supply, Vol.36 No.1, pp.15-29.

7. Kaur, Baljinder & Verma, Rama (2009). Use and Impact of Electronic Journals in the Indian Instit Electronic Library, Vol.27No.4, pp. 611-622.

8. , Library Trends, Vol.43 No.4, pp.518-527.

9. Madhusudan, Margham. (2008). Use of UGC-Infonet e-journals by Research Scholars and Students of the University of Delhi, Delhi: A

, Library Hi Tech, Vol.26, No.3, pp.369-386. 10.

Kelpro Bulletin . 9, No.1, pp.47-52.

11. and UGC-INFONET E-From Automation to Transformation. Proceedings of CALIBER, held at University of Allahabad, Allahabad, February 28-29 & March 1, 2008. Allahabad: INFLIBNET, 2008: 3.24-3.29.

12. Library &

Information Science Research, 32(3), 221-228. 13. P.M, Naushad Ali, Nisha, Faizul (2011) "Use of e-journals among

research scholars at Central Science Library, University of Delhi", Collection Building, Vol. 30 Iss: 1, pp.53 - 60

14. Rajesh Singh & Jindal, S.C. (2009).Promoting the use of E-Resources in teaching, learning and research: A case study of DULS. 7th International Convention on Automation of Libraries and Information Centres 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from www.inflibnet.ac.in/caliber2009.




15. Tenopir, Carol, King, Donald W., Edwards, Sheri, & Wu, L et al., (2009).

Aslib Proceedings, Vol.61 No.1, pp.5-32. 16. ctronic

journals (e-journals) versus print journals by healthcare professionals in Journal

of Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol.3 No.1, pp.13-16. 17. Zainab, A.N. Huzaimah, A.R. & Ang, T.F

The Electronic Library, Vol.25, No. 5, pp.558-574.




MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR) IN LIBRARIES:

A PRACTICAL APPROACHES AND SOLUTIONS

MR.MAHESH YARANAL National Law School of India

University Library Bangalore 560072

Karnataka

&

DR. RAMESHA Associate Professor

Dept. of Lib & Inf. Sc., Bangalore University, Bangalore 560072

ABSTRACT

This paper explains the role of libraries in managing the resources and gets the maximum usage of the resources within the limitation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). It guides the professionals on how they should respect the IPR laws and how they are flexible for the genuine users. The LIS professionals should be fully aware of the IP laws to protect the interest of the user community. Equally the LIS professionals should motivate and inspire the users to act as right information consumers, processors, evaluator, disseminator and

also the contributor of information for the progressive healthy society.

Keywords: IPR, Academic libraries, Copyright, LIS professionals.

Introduction:

We are living in the age of sophisticated and abundant of information. Knowledge is dominating in this age. The one who best practices the knowledge application leads the race. Now, the countries strength is assessed by its Intellectual Property rather than its economical power. Protection of Intellectual Property is gaining more importance as equal to protecting natural resources. Till now, academic institutes as a whole and faculty in specific are engaged in training activities. Now the attention diverted to protect its intellectual properties. Many higher learning institutions and universities started generating revenue through managing the Intellectual properties and also they brought in




strict governance to monitor the IPR. In India, the academic libraries not fully understand the value and importance of protecting and managing its intellectual assets for the counties future prosperity. Very few research institutes involved in developing and management of their institutions knowledge assets.

Libraries especially academic libraries in the developing world are on cross roads. They are confused on whether to support the IP protection so as to generate the income of the authors or support the open access drive where the knowledge is made available to everyone without any commercial implications. There is an immediate requirement for Indian universities to take any one route so as to protect the interest of knowledge custodians. If they take first approach though the receiver has to pay for the usage, the contributor also will get benefit out of it. If they take second route both receiver and contributor need not have any commercials in their transactions.

Application of Copyright Protection for Printed Materials:

Copyright is concerned with protecting the work of human intellect. It is an exclusive right given to author or his/her heir to gain the economic benefit of their creation. This may be for:

1. Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works 2. Cinematograph film 3. Sound recordings.

In this context some of the common problems which librarians are facing are enlisted below with suitable solutions

Sample 1:

Situation: When users ask for the photocopying of few pages or the entire documents.

Though the fair dealing allows till certain extent to copy the material, librarians sometime cannot clearly demarcate what is fair dealing especially when they are offering the membership or when the library itself is attached to any commercial establishments. The questions would be how much portion of the documents can be photocopied? Whether photocopy of the journal articles




allowed? Whether scanned copy of the journal articles can be uploaded in webpage?

Solutions:

The copyright act 1957, section 52 describes that the following actions does not constitute infringement

1. If it is used for research or private study 2. If the portion of document used for criticism or review 3. If the purpose is for reporting in a news paper or writing article in

periodicals

But, still librarians should take precautions by following some common guidelines like only 10% of the document or 20 pages whichever lesser can be allowed for photocopy. Photocopying groups which cover entire document or any systematic reproduction should be restricted. Photocopying of entire journal should be restricted. Here again, 10% rule should be followed. The librarian should encourage people to refer the articles inside the premises. There should be considerable gap between the photocopy requests for the same document.

Sample 2:

Many libraries provide news paper clipping service by scanning the content page of newspapers or magazine/Journal article and uploading it in their server and provide access to its users.

Solution:

Libraries can archive the hardcopy of entire news papers or the portions in the order they want. They can create Index and Abstracts of the clippings or journals articles and can upload the same in their OPAC or any other search platform. When anybody is interested to refer the full text of the article, they should be guided to library and provide hyperlink to the original news paper.

Application of Copyright Protection for Digital Materials:

Over the last few years, there is considerable increase in the digital resource production and distributions. Many database providers also release the




reference mnational and international conference and seminar proceedings are brought out in digital form and online access through their organizational and or associations website. Librarians are facing severe problem in disseminating this information to their clients. Digital copyright protection laws are stringent compare to print materials. Like print materials, librarians cannot have close monitoring of usage of digital resources. Many libraries are not equipped with proper tools to control the distribution of digital resources within the organization or sometime outside the organization.

Sample 1:

When the libraries procure the books sometime the contain supplement and additional information through CDs. On the other hand the CDs may contain the full text versions of the book or may contain the supportive documents like source code, charts, graphs or maps. The question would be whether these can issued as any other printed material in the library? How does the library control the user by downloading the content to his/her personal desktop?

Solution:

The CDs or DVDs which comes along with the books should be separated from the book and should be treated as separate entity. However, the libraries can have relative reference number. Instead of allowing these materials for lending, it can be loaded in a system which should be kept inside the library premises. Any user who would like to refer these resources should be allowed to browse through this system. The section (52) allows library to keep one back up of the digital resources which they procure. By doing this libraries can avoid the damage or loss which may happen while issuing of these resources. Also, control the user by illegal copying or downloading.

Sample 2:

Libraries are managing the digital resources by mounting CDs or DVDs in CD servers. This they are doing by mirroring the contents or mounting the physical CDs on the servers. The question would be whether this practice is the violation of any copyright law?




Solution:

The librarians should check the license agreement with the publisher. Taking one back up of the procured resource and releasing access to one person should not be a problem. But, when they are releasing the access to the large population, the license policy should be followed. The latest servers have option to restrict the access as per our requirements. We can also restrict users download. The shelf life of most of the digital resources is very short. Hence, the latest CDs should be kept in CD server for some fixed period and should be given wide publicity. If the contents found to be highly used, multiple licenses should be obtained for short period. The license should be obtained from the authorized copyright owner. Many times it is found that the supplier or distributor unlawfully produce the license.

Copyright Protection in Network/Online Applications:

Online contents are more vulnerable when compared with printed and digital resources. Copyright protection of these resources is really herculean task for the librarians. The issues involved in the protection are dynamic and cannot fit in one thumb rule. Managing online content is multidisciplinary in nature and require thorough technical knowledge. In case of commercial online database, the publishers do not take appropriate security measures to safe guard their contents and always insist librarians to take action to protect the copyright. Since librarians are directly involved in negotiating the price and license mode, the management also expect the librarians to handle the crisis. Lack of technical knowledge and non-cooperation of management put the librarians in to trouble. In this scenario librarians are forced to bring non user friendly measure to safe guard the contents.

Sample 1:

The libraries are subscribing to commercial database. Whether copy, download or distribution of portion of the document is allowed? What are necessary actions to prevent the users from unlawful activities?




Solution:

The libraries should have clear license agreement between the database providers. The agreement should be made available to the end user. The highlight of the agreement should be highlighted and should display prominently while user browse the contents. The publisher should have all the measures to safeguard their contents. They should inform the librarian when any unlawful activities happening in their site. The librarian will give all the power to the publisher to take necessary action on the end user to restrict any unlawful activities. Librarian will just facilitate the access to the end users and provide the details to the publisher that how the access has been released. It is purely publisher responsibilities to safeguard their contents.

Sample 2:

In the open access environment the librarians are tempted to download the contents to their local server and distributing to their clients as specialized service. Since the contents are not modified and attributed to original creators, can this be treated as lawful practice?

Solutions:

Though this practice delights the end users, there may be question on how the end users are going to use this material. The librarian may be held responsible for the future consequences. Also, sometime the open access contents may be converted to paid subscription. It would be difficult for the librarian to monitor and manage. The librarian can prepare the abstracts and add this to the library collection with proper indexing. The end user should be guided to the original source by providing the links. If the material is repeatedly used, it is better to obtain the permission from the creator to host this on internal servers. Again, a copyright declaration should be signed (accepted) by the end users each time when they try to access the contents.

Sample 3:

The libraries use the abstracts, reviews, keywords and classification




Solution:

available in the book itself. If the book is provided with classification number and keyword, it can be used. The other option is librarian can use the abstracts available in the publisher or author websites. Otherwise the librarian should create the abstracts as per the needs of their clients.

Sample 4:

The librarian service requests like download the online articles, lecture video, training videos (DVDs), case studies requested by the user community. The question would be who will own the rights? Do we need to maintain the record of how the materials are being used? If the library is not subscribing these materials, how much he is responsible for the future consequences?

Solution:

While procuring the online resources, librarian should clearly understand the requirement of the clients. If the resource is going to be used for training purpose, appropriate license should be obtained from the publisher. While delivering the resource, librarian should take the declaration from the user that how the material is going to be used. The document should be archived for future reference.

Conclusion:

In the changed scenario of digital and online environment the librarian has to play mediator role. The librarian job transferred from custodian of knowledge to facilitator of knowledge. Librarians are in the cross roads whether chose to take the user side or the author side. They are now put under pressure and compulsion to work with the limitation of technology, IP laws and high expectation of users. The open access movements are bringing new hope and relief to the librarians to return back to the service motto rather than the middle man of commercial knowledge brokers. In these crucial hours librarians has to take control of the situation by educating and equipping themselves to handle the IP and technological crisis.




References:

1. Narayanan, P; Intellectual Property Law, ed.3, Eastern law book house, New Delhi; 2007. Pp 318-345.

2. Lakshmana Moorthy, A. and Karisiddappa, C.R. Intellectual property rights and virtual libraries. In Towards the new information society of tomorrow: Innovations, challenges and impact. Papers presented at the 49th FID Conference and Congress, New Delhi, 11-17 October 1998. N.M. Malwad, et al (Eds). New Delhi, INSDOC, 1998. pp. IV.51--IV.61. FID Publication No. 719.

3. Lakshmana Moorthy, A., Prahalada Rao, M. & Karisiddappa, C.R. Intellectual property rights of electronic information in the age of digital convergence. In NACLIN 2001: Networking of Digital Resources for National Development: Papers of the Fourth National Annual Convention on Library and Information Networking, Hyderabad, November 2001. H.K. Kaul (Ed.). New Delhi, DELNET, 2001. pp.583-589.

4. Lakshmana Moorthy, A. and Karisiddappa, C.R. Electronic Publications: Issues and concerns. In Electronic sources of information : Papers presented in the DRTC Annual Seminar held during 1-3 March 2000 at the DRTC, Bangalore, edited by IK Ravichandra Rao. DRTC, Bangalore, 2000.

5. Association of Research Libraries: Fair Use in the Electronic Age:. From http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/copyresources/fair_use_electronic~print.shtml (Visited in July, 2012)

6. Gardner, M., Pinfield, S., & MacColl, J. (2002, 11-April). Setting up an institutional e-print archive, from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue31/eprint-archives (Visited in July, 2012)

7. Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Washington College of Law, American University: Code Of Best Practices In Fair Use For Academic And Research Libraries. January 2012

indigenous knowledge web resources in …...ayurveda research. tkdl, ayush research portal and dhara...

Documents