Page 142 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Unit 7: Academic Libraries

Notes
present, there are seven IITs and six IIMs functioning under the Ministry of Human Resource
Development of the Government of India as depicted in Table 1 in their chronological
order:

Table 1: Growth of IIMs and IITs in India

Generally, VRS refers to a network of experts, intermediation and resources placed at the
disposal of someone seeking answer online. These services are provided through e-mails,
web forms, chat, video-conferencing, digital reference robots and FAQs, etc. Keeping in
view the importance of digital resources, the libraries of IIMs and IITs are deeply involved
in the organization and management of a large number of e-resources to provide various
digital reference sources to their users under intranet as well as internet environment.
These resources and services which deserve mention are as follows:
1. Reference Desk Service: The reference desk in the libraries provide access to various
indices, reviews of the quality, credible and current information-based sites and
assists the readers in navigating these sites to satisfy their required need.
2. E-mail Reference Service: In e-mail reference service, the user sends the concerned
library an e-mail with a reference query to supply whatever information he or she
feels is necessary. It can be provided to the users in different forms, such as TOC
Alerts, customized news to users, latest additions of library resources and provide
answers to the query by different ask a services such as ASK A Librarian and Question
point, etc.

3. Real time Reference: Real time reference service that libraries of IITs and IIMs are
attempting to provide more and more is live reference. These are real time, interactive
reference service in which user can talk to a real, live reference librarian at any time
day or night, from anywhere in the world. Chat, technology enables users to
communicate on the internet with others in real-time. Also the instant messaging
software product such as AOL instant messenger and ICQ allow libraries to
communicate in real time with users through a series of messages sent back and
forth. Video conferencing is also becoming a popular mode of real time reference
for big institutions.
4. Links to E-Resources: The growing popularity of electronic information resources
and the increasing demand of information seekers have necessitated the present day
libraries to acquire e-resources. The libraries of IITs and IIMs have built up a good

Contd....

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