A new digital library network to degree colleges soon

A new digital library network is all set to be available soon for students of chosen degree colleges under Mangalore University.

The main advantage of this network is that colleges in rural and semi-urban areas can have access to scholarly electronic journals and electronic books in the world by paying a password fee of Rs. 5,000 per annum. If the colleges were to subscribe printed versions of journals they will have to shell out hefty sum which many colleges cannot afford, said Mangalore University Librarian M. K. Bhandi.

Once it becomes operational, students, research scholars and teachers in those colleges can have access to more than 2,100 electronic scholarly journals and over 51,000 electronic books and other databases, he told The Hindu on Wednesday.

Of 59 colleges eligible to get this network under the university as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms, 11 colleges have now registered to get this network, Prof. Bhandi said.

The network is called N-LIST (National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content). It is funded by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, he said.

The colleges which have subscribed to N-LIST can have access to a bibliographic data base called MathSciNet containing more than two million reviews of research articles in mathematics, he said.

Prof. Bhandi said that only colleges accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore and which have received 12 B / 2 F certificate issued by the University Grants Commission are eligible to get this network.

The 11 colleges which have registered for the service under the university were the University College, Mangalore; Filed Marshal K. M. Cariappa College, Madikeri; Bhandarkar’s College, Kundapura; Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara College, Ujire; SDM College of Business Management and Canara College, Mangalore; St. Philomena College, Puttur; Mahaveera College, Moodbidri; Govindadasa College, Surathkal; SVS College, Bantwal and Vijaya College, Mulky.

He said that the university will shortly conduct a workshop for librarians, principals and other concerned employees of those colleges on using the N-LIST.

Remote access

Prof. Bhandi said that the Vice-Chancellor of the university T. C. Shivashankara Murthy has agreed to provide remote access facility to teachers of the university at Mangalagangotri, using the UGC-INFONET network. It meant that those members can have access to the network from the comforts of their homes from either a lap top or a computer. The university is planning to provide this facility to teachers in this academic year. A separate home page for the library is on the anvil, he said.