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The study examines how open data can be used to generate meaningful insights into the cultural, historical, and geographical features of India and can be the best tool for digital humanities researchers, allowing them to access large datasets about the country's diverse landscape and interpret the data in meaningful and creative ways. An attempt is made to explore the potential of open data in digital humanities projects and discuss the need to create a comprehensive digital humanities platform that caters to the needs of different stakeholders as well as the advantages and challenges of open data and government initiatives in digital humanities. Additionally, the implications of open data and government initiatives in terms of improving access to digital humanities resources, increasing collaboration, and enhancing the quality of digital humanities projects and their contribution to creating a vibrant digital humanities community in India. The paper concludes that open data can be a powerful tool for digital humanities researchers in India, allowing them to access large datasets about the country's diverse landscape and to interpret the data in meaningful and creative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital humanities is a result of the convergence of digital technology with social sciences and humanities. It is one of the key research areas around the world by the library and information science profession, and in cognate areas such as art and archeology. Focus groups, digital humanities centres are created for intensive researches which are located mainly in libraries as their core programmes. The library techniques and methods such as knowledge organisation, knowledge management, search and retrieval design, education, and emerging areas such as metadata, semantic mapping, ontology, thesaurus construction, digital curation, discovery services, find application in digital humanities. A new area of study, historical informatics complements the digital humanities. India has vast potential application of digital humanities with its diverse culture, customs and languages and so on. India is reckoned as one of the advanced countries in the IT sector, hence recognising the socio-cultural legacy and diverse historical background, it is viewed that digital humanities has many opportunities and applications for LIS professionals in India to contribute substantially. This paper brings together the concepts, tools, and applications of digital humanities and proposes a course of study in LIS curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brahmi Script is one of the earliest scripts known to India and South Asia and it is also an ancestral script for all the indigenous scripts present in India. Researchers, historians, laymen, etc. need these sources of information systematically and handily. In the scholarly world, a huge amount of data and information (Digital Humanities based collections) related to Brahmi script is available but all this information is scattered in the form of texts, images, videos, etc. This creates chaos to understand the overall story of the Brahmi script from its inception to till date. With these issues, we felt motivated to present the data and information related to Brahmi script among their users in a more informative, easily accessible, and comfortably understandable manner. In this paper, we have tried to connect all the dots related to Brahmi script under one umbrella with the help of the Digital humanities tool-Visual Eyes. Further, we have mapped these multimedia formats with each other on the historical timeline, interactive maps and story events to establish and understand the relationship among the various facets of the Brahmi script. The impact of this research is more appealing as it has presented a new dimension for any other script to make it more accessible and easily understandable worldwide while using an innovative open-source tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the status of Open Access (OA) publishing in India and reviews it's academic, economic, and societal impact. The study adopted descriptive and review methods. Data was extracted from directories, online databases, and websites for analysing OA trends at the global level and in India. Studies related to the topic were also reviewed to examine the academic, economic, and societal impact of OA publishing on different stakeholders. The study's findings suggest that the number of OA journals indexed in Scopus, WoS, and DOAJ is consistently growing in India. A significant amount of research literature published in Scopus and WoS indexed journals is OA, making India one of the leading nations in the OA movement. Major funding bodies like CSIR, UGC, DST, DBT, and ICAR in India have formulated OA policies and mandated authors to make research outcomes of publicly funded research OA. The present study's results will aid policymakers in realising the difficulty associated with OA adoption, contributing to policy formulation and implementation nationwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper has attempted to highlight published research in Library and Information Science discipline contributed by LIS researchers in India during the last four decades, 1980-2019. The secondary data for the study was extracted from Incites, a web based analytical tool, of Clarivate Analytics. The study has observed that there were 4304 publications by Indian authors, which received 17523 citations. It has spotlighted the research themes of the top 100 papers; having the highest numbers of citations. The study has analysed citations, publication avenues and authorship of all 4304 papers. Research themes of highly cited 100 research papers in the areas of applications of bibliometrics, knowledge management and information seeking behaviour on social media received 6110 citations. Bibliometrics/scientometrics/informetrics were the preferred research themes followed by information seeking behaviour and other areas. The study has also presented the analysis with respect to collaboration. The practice of solo research changed with authors collaborating in projects and producing papers. Percentage of co-authored articles grew from 5.61 per cent to 12.66 per cent in India. Journal impact, author impact, core journals and most productive authors in the discipline have also been studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing misuse of social media calls for an urgent move towards greater legal regulation to control the menace of fake news, hate speech and disinformation among democracies. Online interactions have undergone an evolution that threatens not only free speech, privacy, data protection, national security but democracy as a whole. The subject matter assumes significance, in a democracy like India, which has recently notified a new regulatory regime - Information Technology Rules, 2021, that has fundamentally changed the regulation of online content in India. This development warrants revisiting the prior regulatory regimes to analyse the new rules and guidelines and their impact on public sphere. The fact-finding review paper aims at mapping the evolution of laws governing online content in India. The study is based on reviewing existing laws, regulations, policies, research papers, media reports and articles. It also seeks to explore the linkages between the legislative regulatory gaps and regulatory framework covering rules and principles on instances of internet governance to find solutions for future developments. After critically examining new guidelines, the study found a case of overreaching provisions that dilute free speech and privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an overview of the research conducted on various aspects of Information Literacy. Many studies have been conducted in India and abroad on different facets of Information Literacy and pinpointed that information literacy is an essential skill in the era of information explosion. This paper provides an outline of the research done on Information literacy all over the world. By analysing 104 studies on information literacy, the present study indicates that Information Literacy is an essential skill in the current society. The importance of libraries in imparting information literacy is also mentioned in many studies. The literacy training has to be started at the school level, and it should be included in the curricula. The review shows that the only solution to reduce the digital divide gap among the information-rich and information-poor citizens is information literacy. Many initiatives have been started in India to bridge this gap. Many organisations and Associations like UNESCO, IFLA, American Library Associations, Society of Colleges, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) have framed different standards and Information Literacy models for various types of information users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spread of disinformation on novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and creating the larger phenomena of information disorder. It analyses an array of definitional meaning and disinformation on COVID-19, which has been identified and grounded with valid information by the fact-checkers. The study's aim is to explore and analyse the intents behind the circulation of misleading information (intended and unintended) on COVID-19. For the study, quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis methods were utilised to explore the extent of the misleading information on COVID-19. Further, in-depth interviews were conducted with factcheckers, media professionals, academicians, and a psychologist to understand the purpose of disinformation and its impact on society at large. The study's findings propose that fact-checking is a crucial method to identify fake/misleading information, which can be counter acted by accurate and verified information. This paper argues that holding journalists, fact-checkers, the Government, and the citizens' accountable, is necessary to counter the threat of disinformation about the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional Repositories (IRs) are an effective way of managing and disseminating institutions’ in scholarly communication. More specifically, an IR enhances the visibility and discoverability of the content and validates the repository’s importance. Knowledge Organisation System (KOS) strengthens the digital content organisation, connects users with collections, and improves information retrieval functionalities. This paper investigates the present status of user interface features and incorporates KOS in the institutional repository of technical institutions, restricted to Centrally Funded Technical Institutions in India. A group of twenty-four web-accessible institutional repositories was identified, and their KOS and user interface features were evaluated. It was found that user interfaces of all IRs under study comply with essential search and navigation functionalities, such as simple and advanced search, browsing, faceted or filtering approaches, and integration with multiple KOS. Only a few of them include complex KOS, such as control vocabulary. All repositories show their search results in both normal-text and metadata views. Some have specific display features, such as highlighting the query or displaying a thumbnail. Google is one of the most popular search engines that indexes IR content for visibility and discoverability, and approximately 90 per cent of repositories are linked with NDLI. Global visibility and impact participation are moderate, and they require attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tamizhi (Tamil-Brahmi) script is one of the oldest scripts in India from which most of the modern Indian scripts are evolved. The ancient historical documents are generally preserved as digitised texts using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technique. But the development of OCR for Tamizhi documents is highly challenging as many characters have similar shapes and structures with very small variations. In specific, for Tamizhi script it is very difficult to build an OCR as many characters are combined characters. This can be a single character formed by a single vowel/consonant or compound characters formed by combining vowels and consonants. This paper deals with the development of Tamizhi OCR for printed Tamizhi documents which is anticipated to perform efficiently irrespective of poor quality, noises and various input formats of Tamizhi documents. This is a preliminary study towards developing an OCR for handwritten Tamizhi inscription images that recognises text captured from onsite inscriptions. The developed Tamizhi OCR for printed text can produce an accuracy of about 91.12 per cent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library and information science education (LIS) has been spreading out all over India. Every state, one or more institutes/universities, offers LIS education. The research papers contributed by both academics and working professionally in the libraries. This paper examines the current trends of LIS publications in India from 2014 to 2018. The study reviewed 1357 documents from 2014 to 2018 indexed in the Scopus database. The study found that majority of the 342 (25.2%) papers published in the year 2018. Favorite source for publications was DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology. Similarly, LIS Indians professional more likely to published research papers collaboratively. Further noted that most frequently used keywords were scientometric, bibliometrics, India and authorship patterns, etc. The degree of collaboration (DC) for five years was 0.79. The analysis of co-citations of reference sources or cited sources indicated that "Scientometric," and "Annals of library and information studies" mentioned in their articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalayan Endangered Languages Archive (SiDHELA) created by the Centre for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University is India's first endangered language archive. This archive is part of the ongoing language documentation initiatives of the Centre funded by the University Grant Commission. The Centre, formally established in December 2016 aims for preservation and promotion of endangered languages in Sikkim and North Bengal. The Centre carries out documentation and description of the indigenous endangered languages of the region through linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork. SiDHELA conceptualised as a platform for a linguistic resource of the languages spoken in the region, houses the primary data collected through fieldwork. One of the main aims of this archive is to preserve the data for long term usage and dissemination. Central Library, Sikkim University hosts the archive under its digital library. Through this archive the Centre for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University seeks not just to preserve and protect but also to promote the use of endangered languages spoken in the region. This paper presents the journey of this archive from idea to reality. This paper outlines the motivation behind the conceptualisation of SiDHELA as a regional archive and then discusses its development. It includes discussion on the developmental platform, theoretical issues in the conceptualisation of the archive and practical challenges in its design and development and its prospects. This paper thus primarily intends to inform scholars and researchers working with endangered languages of the region about this archive and its development. Finally, it hopes to kindle interest among researchers and librarians for developments of more such regional archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every institution needs repositories for storing, organizing, and presenting digital content, as well as maintaining digital resources for long-term digital access. The authors discussed India's OpenDOAR status, a quality-assured listing of open-access repositories globally, with a particular emphasis on the Shodhganga repository. The focus of this paper is on universities in Northeast India that deposit Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) in the Shodhganga repository. This study depicts repositories in India since their inception. The Northeastern states are given special treatment by the Central Government and INFLIBNET in the form of Planners (Promotion of Library Automation and Networking in North Eastern Region). The study's main goals are to disclose the knowledge outcome as well as the knowledge gap that exists in this geographical location. The study helps determine the number of universities in Northeast India that follow the "University Grants Commission (UGC) Minimum Standards & Procedure for Award of M.Phil. / Ph.D. Degree, Regulation, 2009," which mandated that electronic version of Theses be uploaded to the Shodhganga repository for the benefit of scholars across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to identify different sources used for seeking cultural heritage information. The paper aims to study the most vital sources used to seek cultural heritage information and examine the significant difference between sources and demographic variables. The study is conducted among youth of the Tangkhul tribe from Manipur state, India. The study used a structured questionnaire to collect data. Data screening, examining validity and reliability were conducted before analysis. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. An independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA test were carried out to check the significant differences. The study reveals that "elders" are the most prominent sources used for seeking cultural heritage information. The findings also indicate that there is a significant difference between gender and Internet sources (p-value=0.040), similarly between marital status and electronic sources (p-value=0.028), likewise between education qualification and electronic sources (p-value=0.005), also between education qualification and audiovisual sources (p-value=0.042) and between the current place of residence and audiovisual sources (p-value=0.049). The findings revealed that youth used different sources for seeking cultural heritage information and the most desired sources are elders (mean score=4.02), followed by the Internet (mean score=3.48) and social media (mean score=3.46). The authors consider the study is the unique in conducting the research design. It acknowledged the gaps in the literature and the study proposed to fill the existing gaps. The study also identified the most sought source used for seeking cultural heritage information, thereby adding value to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Google Classroom' is one of the technologies used for the teaching and learning process. This paper explores the possibilities of how Google Classroom may be brought into use by educators for the effective teachinglearning process. The study's main objectives are to understand 'Google Classroom' technology and find out the use of Google Classroom by the educators of India particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The study is quantitative research in nature. The data collected through Google form contains 18 questions. A sample of 1050 educators was collected to know the usage of Google classroom in the teaching-learning process. The result indicated that most of the respondents are using Google Classroom for teaching purposes which is good in terms of Ease of access, perceived usefulness, tracking the progress of students, communication and interaction between the teachers and the students. Results also show the effective use of google classroom by the librarians to provide e-library services to their users when physical access to libraries is not available. The study recommends that the Google Classroom may be used to enhance quality in imparting teaching and learning activities at all levels of education, especially during the Pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) emphasises a critical approach to literacy to enables people to question critically what they have read, heard and learned. It is requireed in all levels of education and more so to reserach scholars. The aim of the study is to find the awareness and use of MIL tools by research scholars of Pondicherry University. The objectives are: a) to identify the level of awareness in MIL among research scholars; b) to assess the usefulness and relevance of MIL among research scholars; c) to identify the training needs of research scholars in MIL; d) to determine the problems faced by the researches scholars of Pondicherry University while using MIL tools; and e) to suggest the best methods of delivering MIL training to the research scholars of Pondicherry University. The survey method and quesionanire tool are used in conducting this study. Of the total 13 schools, due to time limiation research scholars working in 10 schools were taken as sample. A majority of the respondents are aware of the term MIL and that enables them to save time. Most of the respondents use journals/papers followed by internet for conducting research. The majority (75.49 %) of them preferred 1-2 weeks of workshop-based training on MIL. MIL syllabus may cover media literacy (75.49 %), information literacy (86.27 %), computer literacy (77.45 %), digital literacy (54.9 %), literary literacy (71.57 %), and news literacy (73.53 %). A majority (62.74 %) of the scholars do not know on MIL initiatives in India. Therefore, UGC may have to take necessary steps in implementing the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CCS Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) is among the top ten agricultural universities of India according to ICAR ranking 2016-17. The present study has been undertaken to find out the publication trends in this university during 2001-2015. The study mainly focusses on year-wise research output, major subject categories, national and international collaborations, top journals for publication, most prolific authors, keywords, authorship pattern, citations pattern and highly cited paper of CCSHAU. The 15 year publication data of the university indicate that a total of 2649 paper were published from 2001-2015 receiving 15282 citation. Nearly 47% of the university research was published in ten journal and it has collaborated with many institutions at national and international level in its research publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presents the scientometric profile of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University (SGBAU), Amravati during 1996-2017. The required research output for the study has been pulled out from SCOPUS database on the basis of affiliation based search. The complete research output is 1130 with 10.65 per cent average citations per paper. 83.98 per cent papers were published during the year 2007 to 2017 which is highly productive block compared to 16.02 per cent research output during 1996 to 2006. The highest H-index (17) was found in the year 2009. 20.08 per cent documents were produced though international collaboration. SGBAU, Amravati has the largest collaboration with Brazil (69) and United States (21). Authorship pattern predicts collaborative trend. Maximum 370 papers were written by two author, however research papers produced with three author have got the maximum 4444 citations for their 315 paper. Collaborative authorship pattern has received maximum citations (89.17 %). Average degree of collaboration is 0.96 while the average modified collaborative coefficient is 0.6289. 839 Journal and 174 Conference papers are the most popular source types preferred by the faculty of SGBAU for research expression. Mahendra Rai (209), S. K. Omnwar (143) and Anand S. Aswar (94) are the most prolific authors. It is noteworthy that Alka P. Yadav has got 3073 citations for her 17 paper. Most of the articles are published in the domain of Physics and Astronomy (356) followed by Engineering, Chemistry, Material Science, Biochemistry-Genetics-Molecular Biology and Computer Science. With regard to institutional collaboration, the faculty members of the SGBAU have confined themselves to the Maharashtra state most of the time. The frequency and co-occurrence of keywords denotes the core research areas in multitude subject fields in which the faculty members are engaged with. Data visualisation which is carried out using VOSviewer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a general trend that higher education institutions must undergo one or more ranking agencies evaluation to get reputed in the field of education. Institutions must have a place in the ranking to attract students, faculty and even for successful foreign student exchange programs. Prominence in research is an important parameter to scale the eminence of an institution. A quantum of quality publications is one of the factors judging the prevailing research environment of an institution. While doing an institutional level evaluation on research output, we always go for quantitative measures like total publication, citation and h-index. In the present scenario, the institution must set to have a strategy in achieving ambitious scientific goals. This paper presents some innovative analysis of research data by choosing valuable metrics. The samples selected for the study are the top-ranked institutions in India. The same approach can be applied to any institutions in the world for evaluation and excellence. We have done qualitativequantitative analysis using different parameters of research output to explain the importance of various metrics. The present study has identified metrics which can be considered seriously to achieve better performance in research output. It is a fused index metrics which explains along with Scholarly Output, the importance of Cited and Uncited Publications and different types of Collaborations and its impact on the overall performance of an institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The India Rankings 2020 was announced the 5th annual edition of ranking for higher educational institutions in India based on National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The impact of NIRF among institutions is progressive on their output, outcomes, and outreach to the society. The government of India is also concentrating on several policy decisions in the education sector based on the results of India Rankings. This paper is focused on the study of Research Performance (RP) parameter on India Rankings while expanding five-years window instead of three-years window. Moreover, the study is also focused on Pearson correlation between three-years research performance score and five-years RP score and weighted score of institutions. It is attempted to derive the Spearman rank correlation between RP rank and overall rank based on all parameters score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is an ancient country and its literature in the form of manuscripts is as rich as its culture. These heritage resources need to be documented and preserved by digitizing and securing them for future generations and also to make them accessible to the larger audience. This paper reviews scholarly literature and analyses it to understand the application of standards for digitisation, access, and preservation in the digital process by Indian institutions. Further, it explores the feasibility of establishing of national standards for sustainable digital preservation and retrieval of heritage resources across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the distance students' use of public libraries for their academic purposes and converse the public library as a alternate for instructive or University libraries. The current research study is based on a comprehensive survey of distance education students from Bangalore University. The data collection was carried out by personally distributing the questionnaire to the randomly selected students and the sample consists of students from both undergraduate and post graduate. It is found from the study that 1309 (90.60 %) distance learners who used public libraries during contact classes and 786 (54.4 %) of the respondents spent 0-1 h in the library. Majority of the distance learners i.e. 941 (65.10 %) responded effective for book borrowing services from the public libraries in seeking information, 1220 (84.40 %) opined effective for reference services. It is observed from the study that distance students have a tendency to look at libraries as a complete and do not make apparent difference between different types of libraries, expecting the entire system to be flawless. The paper lifts the significant executive inquiry and apprehension in relation to both the operation of public libraries and the service level given to diverse section of learning students. It is strongly recommended that library instruction programme should be organized by the public libraries for distance learners that create the responsiveness and use of library and information services effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is to examine the information security measures, physical, organisational and technological in Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), University of Delhi (DU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) in Delhi. The paper uses a mixed-method approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative analyses of information security measures with the help of a specially designed checklist. The findings of the study reveals that JNU scored 69.23 per cent highest information security features, followed by DU with 66.15 per cent, and JMI got the lowest total score with 63.07 per cent. The study has also revealed that all the university libraries under study have been lagging behind in physical security measures. It is hoped that the present study will help in improving the information security lacunas in libraries under study. The findings of the study will not only guide the university librarians to improve their Information security measures, but also open the floodgates for improvements of information security in fast changing technological world so that they can overcome the limitations being faced by librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study attempts to analyse research contributions of the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in physics and astronomy during the period 2006-15. The data for this study was extracted from Scopus. The study analyses the year-wise research productivity, national and international collaborations, top collaborating institutions, most prolific authors, journals used for communication, most preferred journals for publication, number of citations received by the University during the period under study. This paper analyses that the university has published 652 papers in physics and astronomy. The University had registered the average citation impact per paper of 7.01 per cent and 6 publications received 51 to 100 citations. Among the Indian universities, University stood at 23rd rank in term of publications output (652) and h-index (29), 16th rank in average citation per paper (7.01 per cent) and 18th rank in share of high cited papers (1 per cent) and 19th rank in terms of international collaborative papers (27.45 per cent) during 2006-15. Around 68.71 per cent publications of the University in physics and astronomy were in national collaboration between GNDU and several other Indian organisations. The study clearly indicates that journals are the most preferred form of publication to communicate research works by the researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT) is a major and unique initiative for professional development in Library and Information Science (LIS), using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform called SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) of Government of India. Learners who find it difficult to spare time for regular physical learning may use this platform for professional development and career progression. With the advantage of this platform, a new course, i.e., Emerging Trends & Technologies in Library & Information Services (ETTLIS), has been launched with National Resource Centre in Library and Information Science (NRC) at Central Library, IIT Delhi. People might be thinking that the role and prospects of library professionals are diminishing. However, we can say that they are becoming more important provided they are keeping pace with emerging trends & technologies in LIS and willing to go out of the box. ETTLIS course has been designed to make learners aware of new trends, technologies, and developments in the field of library systems and services. The paper is aimed to highlight this course and its useful contents to every library professional through SWAYAM and its YouTube Channel to help in professional development and career progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has always been rich in knowledge from ancient times which is passed on from one generation to another. The method of passing knowledge is different in different regions of India. Due to huge advancement in ICT, there has been astronomical growth of digital resources. These resources are popular among students and researchers; hence libraries spend so much on them. Unfortunately, accessibility and use of these resources by future generations depends on technology which very rapidly evolves and changes. The fragile nature of digital resources makes its accessibility dependable on technology which is rapidly evolving. Hence, access to such resources for future users is a huge task for libraries. To use this information in daily life, we perform conservation techniques. In this research paper, we are exploring the different preservation and conservation techniques for traditional documents as well as digital resources used in selected libraries of New Delhi, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeing the underlying value of having a unified interface to update users about library services and activities, most libraries have developed library portals. The paper aims to evaluate the contents and services of top ten NIRF ranked university library portals and score them in the classes of Excellent, Good, Average and Poor. Further, the study aims to investigate the most preferred type of content available on Indian university library portals. The top ten NIRF ranked university library portals were evaluated using a checklist based framework covering broad categories such as Information about general, information about the library's physical collection, Information about subscribed e-resources, information regarding the library's services, and Information regarding the use of social Web technologies. Findings suggest that six of the selected library portals were rated in the 'Average' class(scores 40-60%), which shows that most of them lack essential user-oriented information. JNU's library portal carries maximum information for their users scoring maximum University Score of 28(62.22%). Among the selected library portals 49.23 per cent prominently provide information about the library's collection, followed by general information(46%) and information regarding library services(35.33%). Only one portal exploits social networking features. The study report that the Indian university library portals suffer from issues like currency, transparency, visibility of collection, availability of online services, and uniformity. The findings of the study will help the portal development team to select the most common category of content describing information about services and facilities available on library portals. The existing portals can also improve their interface based on the findings of the present study. Assessment of existing university library portals of the national top ten university library portals in India is the first attempt to evaluate this kind of sample. The study's value lies in its evaluation framework, that's minimal in nature covering the minimum information categories that must be available on any university library portal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wave of digitalisation, institutions across countries are pushing for the creation of open data and their governance. FAIR Data Principles have initiated the publishing of open research data to the key stakeholders and practitioners in the low- and middle-income countries to meet their developmental goals through practical usage in problem-solving. Open Data, which is part of the Open Science movement, has transformed the regime structure at a transnational level for the governance of critical issues surrounding water and energy. This paper provides a baseline survey to look into the various open data initiatives in the areas of water and clean energy across countries in general and India in particular. Given the multifaceted challenges around the water-energy nexus existing in India, it is critical to identifying the open data initiatives and studying their governance at the country level. Since governance requires the participation of various institutions and multiple stakeholders, the research aims at highlighting the various initiatives such as participation of institutions and the application of Creative Commons (CC) licensing terms in the open data governance for clean energy and water sectors in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of 2428 papers indexed by Indian citation Index during 2004-2015 indicate that the pattern of growth of Indian library and information science literature has been highly inconsistent with highest number of papers published in 2010. Academic institutions contributed about 86% of papers. Prolific institutions contributed about 44% of the output, with Mysore University topping the list closely followed by University of Delhi. However, highest impact as reflected by citation per paper was made by CSIR-NISTADS and CSIR-NISCAIR. B.M. Gupta of CSIR-NISTADS topped the list, but highest CPP was for K.C.Garg of the same institute. SRELS Journal of Information Management published the highest number of papers and the area of bibliometrics and scientometrics was the area of priority of LIS professionals in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is an attempt to understand the research attitude, engagement and competencies of LIS professionals in higher educational institutions in India. It was found that out of 170 respondents, 145 (85.3%) respondents read research literature regularly and 75 (44.1) expressed that reading research based articles is their regular activity. But 95 (55.9) do not read journal articles. 155 (91.2) respondents revealed that they have conducted research after obtaining the formal degree. Majority of respondents 47 (27.6) revealed that their preferred mode of dissemination of research has been publishing paper in conference proceedings, followed by publishing a paper in refereed journals 35 (20.6). Maximum respondents 72 (40.0) followed a theoretical approach in conducting research, followed by survey method 55 (30.6). 'E-resources' (160) and 'Bibliometric Study' (120) has been the most preferred areas of research publishing. 'Lack of funding support' (160), 'time constraints' (155) and 'Problems in data collection' (150), have been identified as major constraints in carrying out research. The main purpose for conducting research is to find the academic performance indicators (APIs) 150, followed by personal growth (102). The study suggests that funding agencies and universities need to come forward to encourage LIS professionals to pursue research and publishing. This will add value in delivering the best library services to academic community and also improve research activities in academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archives are the important information centre along with libraries and museums in respect to preservation of historical documents. And similar to libraries archives also exist in different categories like academic, special, governmental, newspaper and private archives. This article is dealing with one of this category and that is Special Archives. The research area that has been chosen for the data collection is central part of Kolkata. These archives are being studied to know how they are organising the documents and preserving them for future posterity. Finally, the paper tries to highlight the problems these traditional archives are facing in this digital era, especially handling of documents for digitising the archival materials. The problems are mainly related to skills and financial support for digitising the archival documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents bibliometric analysis of 10671 citations appearing in 471 papers published in Defence Science Journal (DSJ) during 2009-2014. Efforts have been made to study the productivity and citation patterns of researchers for their published papers based on various parameters. The paper studies the automation process taken place and significant changes occurred. The study reveals almost a constant trend of inflow of papers with increasing trend of multi-authored papers. Highest share of papers are being contributed by authors of Indian origin, majority being from DRDO, and journals being the predominant source of information cited by the researchers for their R&D works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides an overview about massive open online courses (MOOCs), about how technology has changed over the years the face of distance learning and how relevant and beneficial these courses might be for distance learners. Studies related to MOOCs in India and world around have been reviewed. It also furnishes the details of various MOOCs platform such as The Open University, Iversity, ALISON, Open Learning, Coursera, Udacity, EdX and EduKart available free of cost to distance learners. This paper further provides availability of MOOCs in India and various institutions and companies associated across the nation providing MOOCs courses to academia. Limitations of MOOCs and their future has also been discussed. The paper concludes that MOOCs and online education has a huge potential which would help in accelerating and ensuring social cohesion and sustainable growth. With little efforts by the government of India, online education can successfully reach every individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interlibrary loan, also recognised as interloan, interlending, document delivery, or document supply is a service whereby a user of one library can borrow books or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library¹. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), Lucknow is a central university established in 1996. The University became a member of JCCC@UGC-INFONET in April 2008. The present paper discusses theoretical and practical frameworks of document delivery service (DDS) which was initiated by the University in July 2009. The paper deals with the steps and methods involved in DDS. It throws light on the advantages and disadvantages of the service and provides an understanding on the role of INFLIBNET for supporting the service in higher education. For this study, all the available official records were consulted, analysed and presented in tabulated form. The paper highlights the use and utility of the service and gives recommendations for improvement in services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines 718 dye sensitised solar cell (DSSC) research articles published by Indian scientists during 2011-15, which were indexed in Web of Science. It looked into the entire gamut of research performance by performing sectors, institutions, multifarious collaborative aspects, co-authorship and citations etc. Private universities figure among top performing institutions and nano-related aspects dominated DSSC research. DSSC research by Indian researchers was found to be in tune with the mainstream science in the area as about 90 per cent of the research found place in international journals published from USA, the UK and other advanced countries of Europe with respectable impact factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ResearchGate is an academic social network site designed primarily for scholars to create their own profiles, upload their scholarly work and communicate among peers. The present study explores the motives, activities and benefit researcher seek or gain from joining ResearchGate academic social network. The result of the study indicates that ResearchGate is popular among research scholars in Pondicherry University. The motive of joining ResearchGate by scholar are many, however, majority of the scholars agrees that joining ResearchGate enable them to connect with people who have similar interests. Similarly, majority of the scholars stated that the main activity they involve themselves besides many activities in ResearchGate is reading articles and reviewing paper posted by others. Finally, ResearchGate has enhanced their ability to stay abreast with new/latest developments in their field of research. However, seeking employments using ResearchGate is the least research scholars anticipate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining use patterns and information seeking behaviour of users is consequential to enhance library collections, facilities, and services. This paper tends to investigate information seeking behaviour and use pattern of students on quality of procured information in National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India. Survey research method is adopted for the study. Analysis of data is done through percentage count. It is found that 70 per cent are aware about the e-journals and databases. The result indicated that both print and electronic e-journals are highly preferred by students but access them in other places then departmental library and 32.22 per cent respondents spent time more than hours for internet access. The study will be useful for the academic librarians in improving the shortcomings of their institutes and will procure the required e-journals for their Institutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the rankings of 25 most productive Indian universities in overall social sciences and in its four subfields, based on various quantitative indicators, such as the total number of papers and international collaborative papers, qualitative indicators such as the average number of citations per paper and h-index value, and in terms of new composite indicator (which combines quantitative and qualitative aspects). Many universities changed their ranking positions, when their ranking based on quantitative and qualitative indicator is compared with composite indicator. Finally, analysed that the ranking, based on composite indicators, gives much better results than other indicators as it combines both quantity and quality. The overall ranking of top 25 Indian universities in social sciences give an indicative, if not nearly comprehensive, assessment of how the social science education is performing as generators of new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic information sources are computer-based information sources. There are several forms and types of electronic resources which are available on the internet. Some of the popular ones that are gaining ground are the electronic journals, standards, technical specifications, reports, patents, full-text articles, trade reports, and hosts of other document sources. This paper presents the findings of a survey about the awareness and use of electronic resources by medical students available in the medical institute libraries. The subjects chosen for this study were faculty members and medical students of Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS), Jammu and Kashmir, India. For evaluating study questions and data collection, the questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 300 faculty members, MD/MS (i.e., PG) and MBB final year (i.e., UG) students. The results of this survey are presented and discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study analyses the Indian publications output in glaucoma research during 2002-11 on different parameters including contribution & citation impact of top most productive countries, India's overall contribution, its growth pattern and citation impact, the share of international collaboration in India's overall research output, contribution of leading countries and identification of leading foreign collaborating partners, Indian contribution & impact of different types of glaucoma, glaucoma research by sub-fields and glaucoma research output by different population age groups, productivity and impact of leading Indian institutions and authors and pattern of communication of Indian output in most productive journals. The Scopus citation database has been used to retrieve the data for 10 years (2002-11) by searching the keywords 'glaucoma or intraocular pressure' in combined Title, Abstract and Keywords field. The Indian publications output in glaucoma research (1078 papers) during 2002-11 increased from 61 papers in 2002 to 207 papers in 2011, witnessing an annual average growth rate of 18.29 %. The average citation impact per paper registered by Indian publications in glaucoma research was 3.03 during 2002-11, which decreased from 3.87 during 2002-06 to 2.49 during 2007-11. The international collaborative share of India in overall glaucoma research was 21.06 % during 2002-11, which increased from 17.92 % during 2002-06 to 23.09 % during 2007-11. The glaucoma's irreversibility, lacking of glaucoma specialists and patients unawareness demand for an economic and effective glaucoma diagnosis system for screening. Disease control and elimination require an adequately trained functional workforce with an enabling infrastructure and technology. The authors suggest that research efforts needs to be strengthened quiet substantially by way of investment in R&D. Both research output and quality of research should be increased and strengthened and international collaborative research may further be widened to learn from the experiences of other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews research that has been done on the information needs and use of health care providers around the world. The paper focuses on different types of professionals in the medical field such as medical faculty members, general practitioners, nursing professionals, family physicians, clinicians, etc. The growth of research and developmental (R&D) activities in the medical and health-care, resulted many changes in all the field of Medicine. The health-care professionals need up-to-date information to serve the society in a better way. The findings of the studies are organised into the main headings like information needs and information use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information has gained importance in every sector of societies and health sector is not an exception. Health science professionals need information for conducting their activities related to human care, academic and research pursuits, thus providing library and information support to the health professionals has gained importance. Different health science information systems are associated with health-related institutions like medical colleges, hospitals etc. For managing these information systems on professional and scientific lines, library professionals play an important role. Realising the importance of LIS professionals in health sector, departments of library and information science have introduced different specialised papers. Health science information system is one such specialisation introduced in the library and information science discipline with the aim to produce competent professionals with sufficient skills, knowledge and attitude for managing the libraries and information systems in the health sector. The different components of the curriculum of health science information system is the focus of the present paper. Challenges posed to health science information professionals by the changing information landscape are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the scope and principles of corporate social responsibility and its relevance to the present day business. It also explains the importance of private firms and public sector units of Government of India and their role in extending a helping hand in the overall development of the society. The paper also discusses the role of public libraries in augmenting the welfare schemes of the working communities and bridging the 'digital divide' among the various sections of the society. The author describes various initiatives undertaken by the public sector undertakings in and around Visakhapatnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the concept of public-private partnership (PPP) and examines how it is different from 'privatisation' concept. It examines the present status of public libraries in India and the need for mobilising support for their improvement. The authors stress the need for implementing the National Knowledge Commission recommendation for PPP. The paper highlights the role of the public sector and private firms in developing public libraries through the PPP model. At the end suggestions were made on how to implementation the model for the development of public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the importance of public libraries in educating the masses and increasing the literacy rate and disseminating knowledge. It also describes the historical origin of ancient universities and centres of learning, including public libraries in India and their contribution to the society. The paper discusses the problems faced by the public libraries today and various options available for their improvement. The author proposes a new model of public-private partnership with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public-sector undertakings (PSUs) for the growth and development of public libraries to enable them to serve the user community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the awareness and use of library makerspaces. A well-structured questionnaire was used for collection of data. Around 700 questionnaires were distributed among the Indian library professionals. A total of 500 filled in questionnaires were received, out of which, only 470 questionnaires were selected for analysis of the data. The overall response rate was 67.14%. The result of the study demonstrates that among all users, 70% male and 30% female are aware of library's makerspaces. Majority of users utilising library makerspaces are pursuing master's degree. It has been found that nearly all of the academic libraries employees are using makerspaces facilities. Maximum number of respondents' (68.09%) using makerspaces facilities for academic and research purposes and reported them as a tool to educate students for the local and global economy (42.55%). When asked respondents about the state-of-the-art tools, technologies or forms for creating makerspaces, 44.68% of respondents claimed that their makerspaces have computer workstations. Approximately, 51.06% respondents indicated that their library's makerspaces offer students workshops/seminars/conferences. Furthermore, the study reflects that maximum number of respondents, i.e., 36% understand the significance of library makerspaces and evaluated them as "valuable". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research paper is to investigate the knowledge management strategies adopted by the libraries of central universities in India. Review of literature, reveals that codification and personalisation have been considered knowledge management strategies for sharing explicit and tacit knowledge within the library system. To determine the most used knowledge management strategies in libraries, 14 tools (seven each for codification and personalisation) were recognised from the literature review and taken for examination. A total of 116 library and information science professionals of 23 central universities spread across India were surveyed through a web-based questionnaire to explore the knowledge management strategies followed and data analyses were conducted by using SPSS version 22.0. The findings of the research show that both codification and personalisation have been used in libraries, though the balance of codification and personalisation was not in 80-20 ratio. Between codification and personalisation, codification was found to be the most useful strategy with collective mean difference, i.e., 0.312. This study has practical implications for those who are not fully aware of the prominence of knowledge management and how knowledge management strategies can be used to gain a competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maharashtra is the third largest state, in India, known for its outstanding educational quality and facilities at all levels in almost all the major disciplines of study. There are 35 districts in the state with best colleges and higher education institutions. As we are moving ahead in all areas of developments and making massive investments in education to convert our younger population into globally competent human resources. LIS education in India is completing a century of its existence during the period progress have been achieved in developing LIS education to tune with current practices. This paper traces the current scenario of LIS education in Maharashtra. It provides an overview of the universities providing present LIS courses at various levels through regular courses. From the Maharashtra, nine universities are imparting regular LIS education were selected for the present study. The eligibility and admission criteria and syllabus of LIS education is discussed. It was seen that major universities in Maharashtra have to provide an integrated two-year postgraduate course in LIS, which is being widely accepted all over the country. It has been used to analyse the research programs offered by various universities in Maharashtra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care is one of the field in which constant research is going on. Research has been amplified in the last decade. The main objective of this paper is to compare the quality of research output of the two high profile health care institutions of North India--All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. The study has been conducted using Scopus citation database. In this paper, research output of these institutions during 1999-2008 has been compared in the form of growth of publication, rank of various subjects, further citations of these publications has been observed to check the quality of the research using three year window in addition to the h-index as well as the International collaboration of publications (ICP). Except difference in total number of publications, growth, rank, quality and ICP all are almost the same. Difference in number of publications can be due to the limitations of the study and duration of establishment of these institutes. Earlier, due to paucity of means to gauge the quality of the research, it was not possible to observe the quality of the research. Hence, an effort has been made to create awareness amongst the medical fraternity about the quality check of their research, which is now possible through these citation databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses quantitatively the Indian research in Materials Science during 2001-2010 on several parameters including publication growth and rank, country-wise contribution, material-wise contribution, share of international collaborative linkages and leading collaborating countries, most productive Indian institutions and authors, and characteristics of high cited papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]