Page 100 - DLIS407_INFORMATION AND LITERATURE SURVEY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Unit 11: Evaluation of Information Sources in Social Science

by including it in the 9th Plan with the allocation of funds and by creation of a new organisational Notes
set-up in the form of a Society. Today ERNET is largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network
with point of presence located at the premiere educational and research institutions in major cities of
the country. Focus of ERNET is not limited to just providing connectivity, but to meet the entire needs
of the educational and research institutions by hosting and providing relevant information to their
users. Research and Development and Training are integral parts of ERNET activities. International
connectivity is achieved through gateways at New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and Calcutta, with a
total capacity of 6.64 Mb. Daily traffic over ERNET exceeds 20 GB.
The ERNET India, in partnership with University Grants Commission is currently setting up UGC-
Infonet project to facilitate electronic journal consortium in universities and affiliated colleges. Main
Features of the UGC Infonet are:
y scaleable architecture to grow from universities to affiliated Colleges
y nation-wide terrestrial backbone using fiber optic links
y integrated satellite WAN supporting broadband and V SAT technology
y comprehensive network management systems
y linkage with academic and research networks all over the world
y data security and virus protection using firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems
y data Centres and Mirror Sites Content Hosting.

Self Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
8. The ……………programme was launched by UGC under the chairmanship of Prof Yash
Pal in April 1988.
9. The ITES (formerly INDONET) was engineered and commissioned as India’s first data
network in 1986 by the …………..for the computer user community in India.
10. ERNET was initiated in ……………… by the Department of Electronics (DoE).

11.5 Concluding Remarks

The social sciences have played an important role in the socio-economic development of any nation.
Information is an essential part of development efforts whether in developed or developing countries.
However because of limited resources, while making allocations in the budgets, the resources are
diverted by planners to other priority area like housing, family planning, education, water supply,
medical facilities, etc. than for providing support for building research resources and information
services. But if we look into slightly deeply. that even for such priority areas as enumerated above
there is a need of establishing information series which is not usually done. One of the solution can be
to provide some percentage of budget allocation ia all such programmes for information services.
Lack of adequate support by national/regional and even international agencies is one of the basic
reason for poor information systems/services in social sciences. In fact in comparison with science
,the social sciences information systems services stand no where in terms of money, manpower and
material support; inspire ol the fect that the number of users of social sciences information is much
more than that in other disciplines. Our libraries and information centre have mostly out-dated
collection from which we are supposed to provide latest information service.
Social Scientists/Information Scientists working in developing nations work in an environment which
may be quite suffocating for a scholar who has worked in developed nations. Because of inadequate
resources library acquisition are done on a highly selective basis. With the result that with inadequate

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