EVALUATING THE USE OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTERS OF STATE

UNIVERSITIES IN RAJASTHAN

Research Protocol For Registration for Ph.D. Programme

Submitted byNirmala Saini

Under the Guidance of

JECRC University

2014JECRC UNIVERSITY, JAIPUR

1. INTRODUCTIONDr. Ranganathan wished that libraries and information institution should function as

partners with specialists in all intellectual pursuits, economic and social developmental

activities, all round higher productivity, ultimately in every activity that enhance the

quality of life. The form of library is changing significantly and rapidly. New type of

library and information systems keep evolving: to quote Ranganathan’s Fifth Law of

library Science i.e.”Library is a Growing Organism”.

Academic libraries are the nerve centers of academic institutions, and must support

teaching, research, and other academic programmers. The situation in academic

libraries of India is the same as that of academic libraries in the world over; still, India

university libraries are providing maximum information with limited resources.

In India, "University" means a University established or included by or under a Central

Act, a Provincial Act or a State Act and includes any such institution as may, in

consultation with the University concerned, be recognised by the University Grants

Commission (UGC) in accordance with the regulations made in this regard under the

UGC Act, 1956. Every year, millions of students from within the country and abroad,

enter these portals mainly for their graduate, post graduate studies while millions leave

these portals for the world outside.

At present, the main categories of University/ University-level Institutions are described

as follows:

Central University: A university established or incorporated by a Central Act.

State University: A university established or incorporated by a Provincial Act or by a

State Act.

Private University: A university established through a State/Central Act by a sponsoring

body viz. A Society registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, or any other

corresponding law for the time being in force in a State or a Public Trust or a Company

registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.

Deemed-To-Be University : An Institution Deemed to be University, commonly known

as Deemed University, refers to a high-performing institution, which has been so

declared by Central Government under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission

(UGC) Act, 1956.

Institution of National Importance: An Institution established by Act of Parliament and

declared as Institution of National Importance.

Institution under State Legislature Act: An Institution established or incorporated by a

State Legislature Act.

Higher Education sector has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of

Universities/Universities level Institutions & Colleges since Independence. The number

of Universities has increased 34 times from 20 in 1950 to 687 in 2014. The sector

boasts of 45 Central Universities of which 40 are under the purview of Ministry of

Human Resource Development, 322 State Universities, 192 State Private universities,

129 Deemed to be Universities, 51 Institutions of National Importance (established

under Acts of Parliament) under MHRD (IITs - 16, NITs – 30 and IISERs – 5) and four

Institutions (established under various State legislations). The number of colleges has

also registered manifold increase of 74 times with just 500 in 1950 growing to 37,204,

as on 31st March, 2013.

Area Central Universities State Universities Deemed Universities Private Universities TotalIndia 45 322 128 192 687

TABLE 1: UNIVERSITIES in INDIAN

7%

47%19%

28%

Universites in India

Central Universites

State Universities

Deemed Universities

Private Universities

FIGURE 1- PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION

2. LITERATURE REVIEWEvaluating the use of library and information system is one of the major concerns and

an integral part of library and information science practitioners. It is easily recognized as

an important issue, although it has been looked at or defined variously.

Scrivener (1967) sees evaluation as, "an attempt to answer certain types of questions

about certain entities," while Fjallbrant (1977) defines evaluation as "the collection of

information about the effect of an educational course or programme, often involving the

comparison of observed effects with expectations or intentions." These definitions may

be outdated, and not helpful in the current environment.

Rowantee (1982) sees evaluation as the means whereby we systematically collect and

analyze information about students' encounter with learning experience. This is done

after setting aims and objectives, selecting and organizing the content, methods and

media.

Obioma (1986) defines evaluation as the quantitative judgment results from

assessment; that is, a value judgment on quantitative data arising from testing and

measurement. In a library, evaluation is the process whereby we systematically collect

and analyze information about students' encounter with the library system, by using

evidence (testing), assigning numerical values to the evidence (measurement), and

using the results to make decisions (assessment).

Sanjeev Kumar and Mishra (1993) found that in NIFT library users were visiting library

mainly for borrowing books followed by use of reference material and periodicals.

Bajpai (1994-95) in his study revealed that librarians often found it difficult to deal with

teaching and non-teaching staff members regarding return of books.

Chopra (1995) has discussed the problems being faced by college libraries in Punjab.

These were grouped as problems related to management, principals of colleges and

library staff.

Iruoje (1995) discusses the difficulties underlying efforts to measure and evaluate library

services based on use. Iruoje discusses library services that can be evaluated:

catalogue use, reference service, journal use, and retrieval systems. She argues that

evaluating services based on use is difficult, that the varied services provided by

libraries must be evaluated independently, and that evaluation must be tailored to library

type, collections, and users.

Raina and Dayal (1997-98) of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow found that

library collection was used satisfactorily. Microfilms’ use was very less in comparison to

other documents. But collection on some subjects needed strengthening.

Adelani (1998) investigates how the effective use of the library by education students.

He was able to determine the impact of library orientation on their use of library,

frequency of visits, purpose and problems in the use of library. Findings showed that a

majority of the students lacked appreciation of the importance of the library.

Osinulu (1998) examines patterns of use in a university library in Nigeria by analyzing

user records and data, which show low use of library services because of lack of

awareness. The author recommends library reference and instruction, publication of

users' guides, and teaching library use in the general studies programme.

Kebede (1999) outlines the nature and purpose of library evaluation, and further

delineates the situation of developing countries, pinpointing specific issues that can be

addressed. The article identifies the following stumbling blocks: lack of awareness, cost

of conducting the evaluation, shortage of staff, and lack of methods and tools to employ

for the purpose.

Singh (1999) has conducted a survey on IIT library Delhi, and she has taken working

hours, physical facilities, membership, purpose of visit to the library, use of library

catalogue and document collection as the main points for consideration in the study.

She has examined various services rendered by the library and also studied different

aspect of library administration and management in her survey. She has also discussed

different suggestions given by the librarians to improve the services.

Ampka's (2000) study of the use of University of Maiduguri Library found that a majority

of students did not use the library effectively because they did not use the library

catalogues.

Okiy (2000) assesses student and faculty use of academic libraries in Nigeria with

particular reference to Delta State University, Abraka. She found that respondents used

books more than other reading materials and that they tended to find materials by

browsing the shelves.

Kumbar iand Lohar (2002) explored the use of resources, services and physical facilities

of two college libraries. Another study by Singh (2002) reveals that faculty members’

main purpose of visiting library was to prepare notes for students. Journals and

textbooks were not considered very adequate.

Choukhande and Kumar (2004) conducted a study named as “Analytical Study of

Information Needs and Use Pattern of Faculty Members and Research Scholars of

Amravati University.” Authors concluded that the teachers preferred book trade

catalogue, bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, addition lists issued by library and

periodicals to know current literature in concerned fields. They have also concluded that

the purpose of user’s visit to library largely depends up on the free time available to

them.

Oyesiku and Oduwole (2004) focus on academic library use. The investigation revealed

that the students used the library most during examinations and to do class

assignments. The study further revealed that collections were inadequate to meet users

demands, even when 84.3% of users are not trained in information retrieval. The study

recommends various strategies to market library facilities and services.

Pandita (2004) has brought forward that the policy of content development needs to be

worked out and re-designed for collection development.

Mandal and Panda (2005) have discussed the different dimensions of collection

development and suggested for the staff training, provision of adequate staff and funds,

appropriate infrastructure in IT and a need based collection.

Oyedum (2005) remedial students' use of library resources and of a university of

technology. She discovered that students went to the library primarily to read their

lecture notes and study for examinations, that the sources most frequently used were

textbooks, and that majority of the students "never" borrowed library books.

Purnima (2005) study on the “Information Needs in Higher Education: A Study of

College Faculties in Manipur.” ascertained the information needs of college and

university faculties. The survey reveals that majority of the college faculty members

needed information for academic work, whereas university faculty members needed

information to update knowledge and for research work. Most of the faculties of colleges

and university were unaware of the use of IT, because of lack of infrastructure in

libraries.

Khaiser and Madhu (2006) study on the “Expectations and Perceptions of the Users of

the National Law School of India University Library (NLSIU)”, ascertained the

expectations and perceptions of users about the facilities and services offered by

National Law School of India University Library. It was found that 88% users visited

library daily, but faculty members were not the regular visitors to the library. All the

users rated library as an excellent, very good or good.

Naushad Ali and Hasan (2006) undertook a survey of teachers to assess the library and

information services of Aligarh Muslim University library under title “Library and

Information Services in Central Library of Aligarh Muslim University from the Teacher’s

Point of View: A Survey”. Survey brought to light that most of the users were visiting

library to collect teaching material and borrow books, while approximately 14% teachers

visited for research purpose. Majority of the teachers were not satisfied with overall

functioning of library.

Rajeev Kumar and Kaur (2006) have had examined the Internet use by teachers and

students and attempted to find whether the Internet can replace libraries? Survey

revealed that 77.5% users felt that the Internet cannot replace library services, whereas

22.5% responded otherwise, because they find it easy to locate information on the

Internet than in library.

A study by Kumbar et al. (2007) on the extent of use of periodical literature by

agriculture scientists reveals that that most of the users considered print journals as

better version than electronic journals, as 74.36% chosen print journals and 25.64%

opted for electronic version. Lohar and Kumbar (2007) have found that 52.25% users

spent less than an hour and more than half an hour only in libraries per week. Only a

small fraction of users was found familiar with inter library loan service.

Nikam and Chandershekra (2007) have examined the expectations and perceptions of

users including children, young adults, women and old towards public libraries. Opinions

of 200 users were collected through a structured questionnaire. About 90.50% users

considered public libraries either as more important or extremely important. Users were

not satisfied with the helpfulness of library staff, as they did not find it easy to locate the

needed reading material from libraries.

Obille (2007) found out that the standards for libraries are more concerned with the

inputs such as collection, staff requirements, physical facilities and services offered.

There is also minimal focus on measures of efficient service and efficient use of library

resources or in other words, output of the library in terms of the teaching-learning

process to which the library should take active part on. It was also observed that the

CHED minimum requirements for libraries stipulated in the curricular guidelines for

respective courses vary in terms of space requirements, size of collection required and

the mode of statement of the guidelines. PAASCU and PACUCOA and PAARL

standards also vary with each other in terms of the extent of their requirements for the

library. 

Partap (2007) study revealed that in the libraries of colleges of education the collection

size varied considerably and comparatively older colleges had large collections. He

suggested the introduction of user education programme and need to increase the

range and depth of collection and services.

Shahida (2007) has ascertained that the need to use information technology facilities

was high for users irrespective of their gender. Users’ preference to use computers and

related technologies depended upon the cultural, family and the educational

background of the users.

Bansode and Pujar (2008) have conducted a study to ascertain the use of the Internet

by research scholars in science, social sciences and humanities under title “Use of

Internet by Research Scholars at Shivaji University, Kohlapur.” It is found that users

were using the Internet mainly for communication purpose that is for the e-mail as

compared to information retrieval.

Kashyap (2014) defined that in recent days the need of users cannot be satisfied until

all the libraries join together to share their resources with each other. Resource

Sharing, Networking of Libraries and use of Internet/ Intranet Services are enabling the

libraries to provide maximum services and resources to their users. It has been

observed that most of the libraries have traditional, as well as, e-resources in their

libraries. Universities in Rajasthan are interconnected through network with each other.

The network provides the facilities to access database of all the member libraries.

Maximum university libraries in Jaipur are member of DELNET and the State

Universities are availing the facilities from UGC-Infonet and INDEST- Consortia (as per

rules of UGC) for resource sharing.

3. STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEMThe purpose of evaluation, according to Knightly (1979), is to gather information on how

the library is achieving its objectives, with a view to improving the delivery of library

services. One of the ways of testing, measuring and assessing (evaluation) the

effectiveness of a library system is through research. Considering these factors, the

statement of the present study is entitled as “Evaluating the use of Library and Information Centers of the state Universities in Rajasthan.”

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYThe principle aim and objective which prove utility of present investigation are as

follows:

To study the organizational structure of Library and Information Centers in

Universities in Rajasthan.

To define the limitations and problems, which seem to discourage the

development of resources in ICT age

To study the ICT skills of available Library and Information

To ascertain the levels of participation of faculty and students in the overall

development of Library and Information Centers of Universities in Rajasthan

To improve the organization and planning of efficient library services

To study the attitude of Library and Information Science Professionals towards

Users

To investigate the use of Library and Information Centers of Universities in

Rajasthan

To evaluate the real strengths and weaknesses of Library and Information

Centers of Universities

5. METHODOLOGYMethodology in research is a way to solve the problem, to unfold the probable answer,

and to test the hypothesis stated. As there are many roads leading to a city, likewise

there are many methods to solve the problems of research.

The main purpose of the present study was to study the knowledge centers in higher

education and analysis of state universities especially JECRC University library in

context of Rajasthan with reference to electronic sources and services provided to the

users of Rajasthan State University Libraries. The questionnaire based survey method

will be used for data collection. Questionnaire will be distributed to all Rajasthan

university librarian to get the information related their libraries. Analysis will be based on

statistics based results. Further, few questionnaires will also be given to the users

(students, researchers and faculty members) of Rajasthan university libraries for users

survey. The analysis of the data for the present study will be done by applying simple

percentage. Chi-square test will be used to compare an observed group of frequencies

with an expected group of frequencies. This will led to deduce the expected frequencies

from the null hypothesis. However, the labels and figures drawn with the help of data

will be collected through questionnaire will be interpreted and discussed present

research work.

Rajasthan is the first largest state of India. Its western part is Thar Desert and Aravali

mountain range bisects it into two parts. Its area is about 342,239 sq. km. with 33

districts. The present population is approximately 68,621,012. The literacy rate in 1951

was 8.95 percent, which rose to 67.06 per cent in 2010.

Rajasthan has a long history in Higher Education. At present there are sixty plus

universities along with one central university. Some of them are recognized by

UGC/AICTE/ICAR and other apex body. Seven universities are of specialized nature.

Their collections, services, clientele, requirement are of a special type. They do not fall

in the conventional / general university because these universities impart education in

the specialized field of Agriculture, Engineering, Technology, Ayurveda, Law, Education,

Sanskrit and Jainology, Journalism and Medical.

These can be classified as below:

Classification of Universities in Rajasthan

Types Number

Central University 01

State Universities 19

Deemed University 08

Private University 39

Total 67

Table 2: Classification of University based on types in Rajasthan

Central University2%

State Universities28%

Deemed University

12%

Private University

58%

UNIVERSITIES IN RAJASTHAN

Figure 2: Classification of University based on types

S.No

Name of University Year

1 Haridev Joshi University of Journalism & Mass Communication, Information Centre Complex, Sawai 20112 Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Rajasthan Sanskrit University, 2-2 A Jhalana Doongri, Jaipur (Rajasthan) 20013 Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur-342 011 (State University). 1962

4 Maharaja Ganga Singh University, National Highway No. - 15, Jaisalmer Road, Bikaner, Rajasthan.(formal name - University of Bikaner, 23, Civil Lines, Bikaner ) (State University)

2003

5 . Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur - 313 001 (State University) 1999

6 Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer-305 009 (State University). 19877 Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur-313 001 (State University) 19648 National Law University, Jodhpur-342 004 (State University) 20019 Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner-334 006 (State University). 198710 Rajasthan Ayurveda University, Jodhpur (State University) 200311 Rajasthan Technical University, Akelgarh, Rawat bhata Road, Kota - 324 010 (State University) 200612 Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, B - 1, Swai Man Singh Road (Opp SMS Hospital), Jaipur

(State University)*2005

13 Rajasthan University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Bikaner, Rajasthan. (State University) 195414 Rajasthan University, Jaipur-302 004 (State University). 194715 Sardar Patel University of Police, Security & Criminal Justice, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. (State University) 201116 Shekhawati University, Behind Shri Kalyan Government College, Sikar - 332001, Rajasthan. (State

University)*2012

17 University of Kota, Kota (Rajasthan) (State University) 200318 Vardhman Mahaveer Open University, Kota-324 010 (Rajasthan) (State University) 1987

Rajasthan State University6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The five laws of library science formulated by Ranganathan (1931) are designed to

provide the right materials to meet the information needs of the library users. That can

only happen when the library system is regularly evaluated. One logical means of

evaluation is seeking the opinions of users (Altman and Hernon, 1998). The era when

university libraries assumed that they were providing excellent service is over.

Dwindling resources and increased enrolment demand that periodic evaluation be done.

7. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The developments in information technology have had significant impact on

professional activities of university libraries in Rajasthan. The present investigation will

form a platform for developing a model for the University libraries in IT environment. It

will also help in providing suggestions for improvement of professional activities and to

evolve a network for interlinking available resources of not only university to university

but also university to colleges in the present scenario of information & communication

technology.

The present study will be useful to the students, teachers, and library personnel as well

as for university authorities and state government of Rajasthan. It will give a platform to

library personnel for the promotion of library activities in I T environment.

8. LIMITATIONSThe study will deal with:

1. Well established State University libraries in Rajasthan.

2. There new state universities, which have been recently established, are not

considered for study.

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