Gangothri library opens windows to the world

Students Block

The library department at the University of Mysore, Manasagangothri, is gaining popularity among students with the introduction of the Digital Information Resource Centre and access to humongous variety of books, writes Manish

“Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, remains of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark... In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed.” - Germaine Greer, Australian writer

T he University of Mysore has probably taken these words of the Australian writer seriously by upgrading the facilities provided in the library.

Two aspects of the library have struck a chord with the thousands of students studying at the university. One is the Digital Information Resource Centre (DIRC) and the access provided to more than 11 lakh documents by using the web portal of the university.

The increasing popularity of DIRC, which was started in June 2010, inside the library premises can be seen from the statistics provided by the library department. More than one lakh people including  students, researchers and faculty members of the university have made use of the facilities provided at DIRC.

The DIRC comprises of 120 computers and access to a large number of documents relevant to the students. Using the facilities at the DIRC students, researchers and faculty can gain access to journals - from societies located abroad and also from institutions within the country.

Speaking to City Herald, system administrator and DIRC in-charge Venkatesh said that the centre witnesses an average of 400 members of the varsity making use of the resources. Also apart from access to journals, it gives students internet connectivity and also an option to prepare their project reports and power point presentations.

Also plans are afoot to upgrade DIRC by providing an additional 250 terminals for which the building is under construction.

Describing the facilities available, library advisor I R N Goudar said the library has also created a web portal on the website of the University of Mysore. Once a student or researcher clicks on the Library link, he will be taken to a web page with five options. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog), Career Information Service Portal, E-resources (campus wide access and off campus), University Library and Graduate Library.

OPAC provides more than two lakh documents in all to each member of the varsity, who can log into the website. Using OPAC, students have the opportunity to search for any book available in the university library or in any of its constituent colleges.

Once a search is given for the book, it throws up results indicating in which library the book is available. Also, the shelf where the reader has to go and collect the book. Another, attractive feature is that OPAC gives readers a glimpse of books available on either side of the shelf.

As the website is connected to google books students can know if there are any other related documents which are more relevant for their studies. Many a times, google books throws up books with complete content too, allowing students and researchers to study online rather than even going to the university. Options have even been provided in OPAC for search of books in regional languages too.

Goudar said that University of Mysore is the first in the country to host the library database in the cloud environment. The second option provided career information service portal gives detailed information on the career options to students.

The e-Resources option gives students with campus wide and off campus access. Even though e-Resources is not necessarily held by us, we have access through UGC-Infonet Consortium (Infibnet), said Goudar. It provides access to more than 3,500 e-text journals including international societies such as Elsevier Science, Taylor and Francis, Oxford University Press, Blackwell Publishing, American Institute of Physics and Royal Science of Chemistry.

If students find a few articles available with other universities, then using the Bibliographic databases they can request other universities to send it to them the online version.
Research fellows and faculty members can track their thesis. They can also view the number of citations it has received.

For the public
However, the feature that throws open the world of research for public, who are not a part of the university, is the open access e-journals. Even though the website is available on the internet, the consolidated links to the most important journals is available here. For instance, link to American Libraries doles out books such as a 1863 edition of Newton’s Principia. If users are tired of reading they can listen to the audio, which reads out the complete text.

University Librarian Ramsesh C P said that by consolidating the vast resources, students are being given the latest books available in the market. Also, if any students happen to see a book or document, which is not available at the library, then the student can make a request to the library.

While the government lays stress on giving more emphasis to improving higher education, facilities available at the library should hopefully improve the quality of students graduating out of its varsity.