Page 82 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 4: Information Services and Products

Notes
journals are available and the task of filling gaps in important serials is being actively
pursued. The Chemical Abstracts Society has recently commended the library with a
plaque for its complete collection of chemical abstracts. Readership has now crossed
5,000 mark from the academic community in and around the state of Goa. The GUL is also
a partner in the nationwide Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), a programme
of University Grants Commission (UGC). In addition to contemporary holdings, the library
also houses a collection of rare historical documents from the collection of more than
52 donors that include the noted historian Dr. P.S.S. Pissurlencar and the eminent Portuguese
scholar Mr. Nuno Gonsalves, dating back to 16th Century and encompassing fields such as
Indo-Portuguese relations and the history of Goa. The library is also officially designated
as repository for nearly 4,000 United Nations publications since 1996.

GUL uses the following methods to design a market mix for ensuring a catalytic role in the
modern information community:

product development;
physical distribution of information;
promotion of products and services; and
price.
Product Development
A product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a need. A large assortment
of materials, services, and programmes constitute the library’s product. A library offers
goods, either tangible (e.g. books and Internet access) or intangible (e.g. personal assistance,
or value of the library as a premier community institution). De Aze (2002: 5) says that,
“products and services which provide benefits for users and which answer users’ most
important needs are the core business of the library and information service” (Aze de
Elliot E.2002: 5). Seetharama (1998) considers that, without products no organization has
reason to exist, there is no task to perform; hence product is the most important factor in
marketing, and Weingand (1995:307) asserts that, the library’s product can be arranged
within a three dimensional structure of the product mix, product line, and product item.
Programmes of the library are a product line where product items consist of bibliographic
instruction, displays, and lectures.
GUL is ready to develop the products to meet the needs expressed by the users. The library
has automated its functions under the Library Automation Programme with the financial
assistance of INFLIBNET. The bibliographic database of the library collection is available
online, with barcodes for circulation, and rare archival and special collections materials
have begun to be digitized and stored on CD and the Web to enable scholars in Goa and in
other countries to access these resources.
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC): The searchable digital catalogue of library holdings
is available on the campus-wide intranet and on the Web at: http://goalnet.unigoa.ac.in/
gulibrary/.
Digital Information Services: The library offers access to reference materials such as general
and subject encyclopaedias.
COPSAT: The library subscribes to the Contents Pages of Science and Technology (COPSAT)
of more than 40 journals in each of eight science disciplines from INFLIBNET, a UGC
project. GUL has developed a web-based application using WWWISIS software that queries
this database and offers a search service from its website.

Contd....

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