Few takers for library project

Ranchi, March 30: Over Rs 40 lakh was spent in the UGC-sponsored “ambitious” Inflibnet project way back in 1996, but only five teachers, 27 postgraduate students and research scholars of Ranchi University availed its “incomplete” services.

In the past 10 years, top officials of the university failed to ensure that as many as 4,000-odd research works (carried after early ’70s) and approximately 1.12 lakh books of the university get a place on the Inflibnet web, which covers 115 universities across the country.

“The story dates back to 1996 when UGC sanctioned Rs 6.5 lakh to the university to set up an Inflibnet centre as per its mandate that students can access reputed journals, research conducted by all the universities so as to avoid duplication and bibliographical details of books available in the universities,” said an employee of the centre revealing how RU sat over the funds for five successive years after purchasing three computers and earmarking space for the centre on the first floor of the central library building at the Morabadi campus.

Basanti Jain, who took over as librarian in 2001 after predecessor H.N. Singh, said how the centre was closed till 2004 before it was reopened. “A server (of Rs 70,000), two more new computers and a software for university library (SOUL) was bought in 2005. But there was no computer professional to enable us to feed the data related to research work and books,” said Jain, who has retired today.

It was in mid-2005 when a computer professional S.K. Sinha was deputed from the tabulation centre to Inflibnet centre to realise the project. But there is acute scarcity of manpower as besides Sinha only one ad hoc employee was rendering services to feed the research and book data of RU so as the same get incorporated on the Inflibnet website.

Interestingly, the research data fed by the team is only in bibliographical form and no one could go into abstract and original texts of the research work conducted by RU teachers and scholars. As of today, the final data are yet to be prepared for sending it to the Ahmedabad main centre of Inflibnet. “Bibliographical details of about 4,000 research work and and only about 2,000 books (out of 1.2 lakh total books at the central library) could be fed,” said Sinha.

As of now, after the Inflibnet centre started operation in 2006, services have been availed by five teachers and 27 research scholars and PG students showcasing the aptitude of teachers and students. Top university officials do not want to give details why the service could not be started here.