In a decision which may adversely affect the marketing of Indian books in other countries, the Ministry of Culture (MoC) has decided to merge the functions of the Central Reference Library (CRL) with the National Library.
The CRL, located in the National Library campus in Kolkata, is responsible for the publication and sale of the Indian National Bibliography (INB). The INB is the list of all books published in India annually and is the key source for foreign libraries to know about the books published in India.
“The Secretary (Culture) has directed that the work of cataloguing (National Library) and bibliography (CRL), should be merged…” the Under Secretary of MoC N.K.Sinha stated in a letter to the head Librarian of CRL and the Director General of the National Library. As for the purpose of the merger of two institutions’ functions, the letter states that it will “reduce duplicity [the same book being catalogued twice by both institutes] and speed up the process of accession.”
Unlike the ISBN system, which requires the unique number assigned to the book, the more convenient IBN enables the search for a book with the names of authors, language or subject matter. With the possible disruption in the publication of the INB, it may become difficult for a foreign reader/ buyer to search for books published in India as they may not be having the ISBN number.
The MoC has set a target of “9,000 books per month (250 per person)” to be catalogued by the staff of both the institutes. CRL has to catalogue 3,000 books and the National Library 6,000 books monthly target, respectively.
