GUWAHATI, Sept 8 - For the first time in the North East, the college libraries in Assam are going to be connected with a union catalogue that will go a long way in helping readers and students choose books from a wide range of collection spread across the college libraries in the State.
The long cherished dream of the college libraries in the State is going to be possible because of 'IndCat' which is a union database of Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) � a programme of online union catalogue.
�INFLIBNET, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad has agreed to the request of Assam College Librarians' Association (ACLA) to include the college libraries of Assam in its programme. IndCat is a free online union catalogue of books, theses and serials of major university and institute libraries in India covering all major subjects. Moreover, Assam will be the first State in North East India and probably the second State in the country after Gujarat, which is going to be part of this programme as college component,� said general secretary of the ACLA Dr Prasanta Kumar Deka.
�Every college has its own catalogue. But many a times, the readers and students seek books, which may not be a part of the library of that particular college. Through this programme, we can surf the collection of other college libraries and get in touch with them to get the book or other study materials. It will make studies, especially research more convenient and specific,� Deka added.
In the first phase, 185 college libraries are going to be a part of this network. Gradually, libraries of all the 305 provincialised colleges of Assam would be taken in the loop. Currently in the process, the programme would be launched towards first part of October.
In a mail to ACLA, INFLIBNET has requested the ACLA to coordinate for providing the bibliographic data in the prescribed MARC21 format for the college libraries.
Dr Deka said the college libraries of Assam, which have done their library automation, need to connect with each other through this unified national platform.
This can be possible only when all the colleges participate equally by sharing their bibliographic data in MARC-21 format. Any user can have online access to all the book records of the college libraries in the State. It will act as tool for inter library loan as well as resource sharing among the college libraries. It will also facilitate the researcher in their research work by providing a uniform platform to search the records of related literature for their research work.
It will further help the college libraries to import the bibliographic data from INFLIBNET IndCat server directly into the local integrated library management system of the respective colleges.
In this regard, ACLA has further taken the initiative to request the college principals of Assam to participate in the programme by sending their bibliographic data of respective libraries to [email protected] on or before September 13, 2019.
