191,625 research outputs found
Library stock verification: a ritual and an occupational hazard
No full textExplains the sensitive, controversial stock verification as one of the occupational hazards and a postmortem, emphasises need for clarity of objectives and procedures regarding stock verification and responsibilities of loss, points out that the cost of stock verification often far exceeds the benefits, highlights norms and procedures of stock verification for Government of India institutions, discusses some advantages and various methods and procedures of physical verification, put forth precautionary measures to be taken against loss and mutilation of library documents, analyses the issue of responsibility of loss and ways of resolving the conflict of responsibility, presents the procedure for write-off of reasonable loss, finally concludes by stressing the need for rational and updated rules and procedures about stock verification, responsibility of loss and limits to write-off loss as well as vital role of professional bodies in this direction
Know your library : user orientation
No full textIn a recent longitudinal comparative study of card catalogue and OPAC of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) Library, it was sadly noted that despite automation and meticulously developing, updating and maintaining nine databases on OPAC, almost doubling the number of registered members, collection and use of documents over the same period, use of OPAC has not much increased compared to use of card catalogue. It is often speculated that there is substantial decline in general reading habit and use of libraries over a generation. Promoting the use of OPAC (and multiple databases on them) through user education/ orientation instruction programmes was felt again and again. After all, OPAC, like card catalogue, continue to be one of the many means by which users discover bibliographic references of their potential interest. Having faced such a situation, gearing up user education/ orientation programmes particularly to new users and younger generation is much desired.
The purpose of user education is to make the end user searching as easy and as comfortable as possible, to minimise waiting time at the terminal and to avoid resorting to time consuming trial and error mode. Some of the new technologies are pretty easy to use but few can be effectively used without training. The need for training can be ascertained from the signs of novice users sitting in front of the terminal with lots of beeps, moving back and forth or from menu to menu and long periods of inactivity as well as the need expressed by users themselves.
In addition to extensive one-to-one assistance by professional staff and flip charts, new user induction and orientation programmes have been launched with visual animated presentation as well as lecture and discussion. Regular user orientation entitled "Know your library" consists of lecture cum demonstration on using various services followed by a local tour in small groups and distribution of informative brochure “Know your library” and “library user manual”. In the introduction, the presentation highlights the necessity of consumption skills among users, levels of user education and types of information covered in the presentation, a brief look at significant information-behaviour of engineers, display of selected parts of classification scheme followed by the library and finally the digital content and the non-book material collection of the library. Keeping aside common self-explanatory aspects of OPAC, Digital Library and the Internet, the presentation focused on features generally not known to users. Feedbacks from earlier studies on card catalogue and OPAC were also kept in mind. A series of A3-size colour charts with tips for effective use of OPAC, Internet, Digital Library, on-line and other information services were periodically designed and displayed at important places
Prospects of Open Access to Indian Agricultural Research: A Case Study of ICAR
No full textHistorically, agricultural research and education in India have been in the public domain. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was established as an apex organization for effective research coordination among institutions and promotion of agricultural research in the country. For the dissemination of research output, the research journal publishing in India have been, for long, primarily a public funded activity and done mostly by Government agencies like ICAR organizations supported by it. Though many of these journals are distributed for international indexing, full–text database services are very poor. Many of them are not even in the ISI Master Journal list for impact factor or science citation index analysis. The main objective of each author is to have more impact, visibility and readership for their work. These journals publish quality articles after stringent peer review process, but the time lag from submission to publication of an article or production of issue is long. The infrastructure for publishing online is also not available for these journals. Recently, some provisions have been established for providing free online access of journals being published by professional societies. Now the availability of open source software for the transformation of traditional journals into open access journals and the establishment of open archive online repositories for archiving research can make agricultural research accessible to much larger audiences. The paper argues that this will increase the visibility of research output and eventually lead to an enhanced impact factor for many Indian journals
A decision theory approach to standing order procurement of NASA reports
No full textExplains various package deal procurement methods including standing order method for library documents. Enumerates different standing order services of NTIS for technical reports. Describes the NASA information system. Discusses and analyses the economy of NASA FS service by applying decision theory approach and considering the various costs as well as saving aspects/advantages. Explains the non-economic factors to be considered in evaluating such a service. Suggests ways of making NASA FS service more beneficial to the library of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)
Understanding the user - why, what and how?
No full textExplains the need, importance, purposes and scope of user studies, discusses procedure for conducting sound user studies together with associated problems of research like selection of problem, formulation of hypothesis, design of study, sampling strategy, data collection methods, scaling techniques, pilot study, processing and analysis of data, testing of hypothesis, interpretation, drawing inferences, communication and dissemination of results and finally concludes by highlighting methodological flaws and gaps in user studies
ram-sridhar/pyisv: AMS-AIES CNN Filter (Stan and Mantripragada 2023)
No full text<p>Added Jupyter Notebooks for Figures in AMS-AIES paper</p>
Information center/ system planning: Physical layout and facilities planning
No full textHighlights the general issues of physical planning for libraries and explores alternate plans from the angle of collection, users, staff, etc. Provides practical tips for the whole exercise of physical planning for libraries and for acquiring equipment and furniture. Discusses related aspects like space estimation, allocation and utilization. A case study of projecting requirements of space for a special library, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) Library is presented with emphasis on practical aspects of creating physical facilities and environment
Subjective wellbeing: a primer for poverty analysts.
No full textThe article reviews the current theory and measurement of subjective wellbeing (SWB). The first two sections discuss growing efforts in many countries to measure and monitor national wellbeing, particularly in the United Kingdom. The third and fourth sections discuss the novelty and controversies about SWB research. It concludes that a critical approach is essential in evaluating SWB research but dismissing it offhand or framing it as antithetical to objective wellbeing is misconceived. The pressing issue for poverty research and public policy is to determine which insights about SWB are worth using, and how much space within conceptions of wellbeing used in public policy should be given to SWB
Corrigendum to “Heterologous Two-dose Vaccination with Simian Adenovirus and Poxvirus Vectors Elicits Long-lasting Cellular Immunity to Influenza Virus A in Healthy Adults” [EBioMedicine 29 (2018) 146–154] (S2352396418300653) (10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.02.011))
No full textThe authors wish to point out that L. Coughlan and S. Sridhar were both at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, OX3 7DQ, UK, when the work for the paper was completed.</p
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