In tern a tio n a l

Sch o la rs
Jo u rn a ls
African Journal of Library and Information Science ISSN 5721-610X Vol. 4 (12), pp. 001-010, December, 2018.
Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

Full Length Research Paper

The use of collections and services at IIT Delhi library:

A survey
Krishna Kumar1*, Akhtar Hussain2, Nishat Fatima3 and Sunil Tyagi4
1
Technical Section, University Library, Faculty Member, Department of Library and Information science, Chaudhary
Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.
2
Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
3
Department of Library and Information Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India.
4
Kisan Institute of Technology, By-Pass Road Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Accepted 03 March, 2018

This study examines the use of collections and services at IIT Delhi Library. A well structured 190 questionnaires were
distributed among IIT Delhi users during the academic session 2008 - 09, to find out the user of information resources
is being provided by IIT library. The questionnaires were checked and out of 178 filled questionnaires returned, 170
(95.51%) were found fit for analysis and out of which 8 (4.49%) were considered unusable. The present study
demonstrates and elaborates the various aspects of use of collections and services, purpose of visit to the library;
adequacy of library hours, infrastructure facilities, use and collections of documents that is, internet information
resources. The paper also identifies the levels of use of various services provided, access of online databases
services, database search techniques, and users’ awareness about different types of library network. Highlights
satisfactions with overall functions of the library. Suggestions have been given to make the collections and services
more beneficial for the academic community of the mentioned Technical Institutes India as well as abroad.

Key words: IIT Delhi library, internet, information, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Bombay, Guwahati, Roorkee.

INTRODUCTION

Indian institute of technology Delhi is one of the seven 1961. The institute buildings were formally opened by Dr.
institutes of technology created as centers of excellence Zakir Hussain, the then president of India, on March 2,
for higher training, research and development in science, 1968. The IIT Delhi library system consists of a central
engineering and technology in India, the others being at library and 18 departmental libraries which collectively
Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Bombay, Guwahati and support the teaching, research and extension pro-
Roorkee established as college of engineering in 1961, grammes of the institute. All students, faculty members
the institute was later declared an institution of national and employees of the institute are entitled to make use of
importance under the "institutes of technology the library facilities on taking library membership. The
(Amendment) Act, 1963" and was renamed "Indian library, besides having a huge collection of books on en-
Institute of Technology Delhi". It was then accorded the gineering, science and humanities offers library services
status of a deemed university with powers to decide its through its various divisions was initially setup in 1961,
own academic policy, to conduct its own examinations, the central library moved to its new building in May, 1988.
and to award its own degrees. HRH Prince Philip, the The library uses Libsys software package which is an
Duke of Edinburgh, laid the foundation stone of the integrated multi-user library management system that
institute on January 27, 1959. The institute was inau- supports all in-house operations of the library. The Libsys
gurated by Prof. Humayun Kabir, the then union minister consists of modules on acquisition, cataloguing, circu-
for scientific research and cultural affairs on August 21, lation, serials, article indexing and OPAC. Retrospective
conversion of bibliographic records has been completed
and more than 1, 30,000 bibliographic records of books
available in the library can now be accessed through the
*Corresponding author. E-mail: akhtar.a47@gmail.com. Libsys OPAC. The database of books available in the
library is being updated on day to day basis with details of Internet by teachers and students in Shaheed Bhagat
recently acquired books. Records of all the library patrons Singh College of Engineering and Technology”. The
have also been created in the Libsys package. The major findings were: (i) Majority of the respondents has
editing and updating activities are in progress. The Libsys more than two year experience of using the Internet. (ii)
package has been successfully implemented. Majority of the users of the college use the internet
services daily (iii) the most frequently used places for
accessing the internet are the college (90%) and the
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
home (63.3%) (iv) E-mail service is the most preferred
The objectives of the present study are: service by all the internet users followed by www. All the
respondents face the problem of insufficient time slot
allotted to per user in the college for Internet use. Singh
i.) To know the usefulness of collections and services of
the library; (1999) attempted about background information about the
emergence of Indian institute of technology (IIT), Kanpur.
ii.) To study the various types of collections and services
She discussed the methodology used for data collection,
are being used by faculty members and students in the
library. acquisition of periodicals and other documentary collec-
tion. Majority of the users rated library collection, services
iii.) To identify the use of internet information resources.
and attitude of library staff was good. The users were not
iv.) To identify the infrastructure facilities are being
provided by the library. satisfied with the photocopying services. Odini (1994)
examined the fundamental problems encountered at the
v.) To know the access of online database and database Kenya polytechnic library in collection development,
search techniques are used by users of IIT Delhi Library.
particularly policy and those associated funding, lack of
vi.) To know the provisions of online search facilities
collection development. The paper highlighted the various
provided by the library,
factors which librarians at the Polytechnic ought to
vii.) To identify the users awareness about different types consider in order to realizing brighter collection
of library networks and its use for exchange of
development prospects. These factors include the
information, and
formulation of suitable collection development policy, the
viii) To suggest measure to make library services more organization of gifts and exchange practices and partici-
effective and efficient.
pation in resource-sharing programs with other national
polytechnics and universities. Unomah (1985) carried out
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE a study about student utilization of academic libraries in
Nigeria. The important findings of the study were: (i) most
Literature plays a very important role in research acti- of the students found their lecture notes sufficient and felt
vities, as it forms the very first step of a research pursuit. there was no need to read textbooks. On borrowing, 68%
Review of literature happens to be an important segment had no books on loan. On use of leisure time, (ii) most of
of the concerned topic. The literature review should be the faculty members do not promote student use of the
conducted in a systematic way to achieve optimum library that is, 76% of the students said their lectures did
results. In this study an attempt has been made to cover not give them reading lists. The students were not equally
few works which have been undertaken in India and given any guidance by faculty as to the use of the library
abroad. Akhtar Hussain and Krishna Kumar (2006) and resource materials.
carried out a survey the use, collection and services of
IIRS library. The major findings of the study were: (i) A METHODOLOGY
majority of the users (41.25%) of the IIRS library use the
library services daily (ii) Majority of the respondents Questionnaire and personal interview methods were used for data
mainly used the library to borrow books and other collection. There were approximately one thousands users available
materials (81.25%) and the list number of respondents in IITD. A total of 190 questionnaires were administered and 178
filled in questionnaires were obtained from the faculty members and
use the library for audio-visual materials (iii.) Most of the
students. Out of 178 questionnaires, only 170-(95.51%)
respondents preferred to print collection (87.50%) were questionnaires were selected for analysis of data and
using books followed by electronic collection, (68.75%) 8(4.49%) questionnaires were rejected because of incomplete
were using CD-ROM, further followed by 86.25% res- response from the respondents.
pondents use for current periodicals. Naushad Ali (2005)
focuses the purpose of study that the use of electronic
Data analysis
information services (EIS) among the users of the Indian
institute of technology (IIT) library in Delhi, India. The Data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed using
study found that Boolean logic and truncation are the frequency counts and simple percentage.
most often used search facilities by IIT users. Lack of
printing facilities, terminals and trained staff are the major
The sample
reasons that would discourage users from accessing the
EIS. Rajeev and Amritpal (2004) in their study “Use of There are large numbers of users and they range from
Table 1. Size of the sample.

S/No. Users Total No. of users included in the study Sample population in percentage
1 Undergraduates (UGs) 89 52.36
2 Postgraduates (PGs) 34 20.00
3 Research scholars (RS) 24 14.12
4 Faculty members (FM) 23 13.52
Total 170 100.00

0 20 40 60 80 100

Percentage

Figure 1. Size of the sample.

Table 2. Frequency of visit to the library.

S. No. Frequency No. of response Percentage

1 Daily 51 30.00
2 Two to three times in a week 34 20.00
3 Once in a 15 days 25 14.70
4 Once in a month 45 26.48
5 Occasionally 15 08.82
Total 170 100.00

undergraduates to faculty members. A sample from all categories of shows that 30% of the users visit the library „almost daily‟, while 26.
users was taken to find out their opinion about the services 48% visit it once in a month. 20% users visit the library two to three
provided by the library. Table 1 gives the categories of users and times in a week, followed by 14.70% visits it once in 15 days. Only
the size of sample of the study. a small percentage of users, that is, 08.82% visit occasionally.
Table 1 shows that 52.36% of the total population under study Thus, it clearly shows that 30% of the users are regular visitors of
consists of undergraduates, 20% postgraduates, 14.12% of those the library, while the remaining users are not regular visitors of the
working research scholars, 13.52% of those are using faculty library (Figure 2).
members. The size of the sample chosen for study is quite large so
that the formalities of finding can be facilitated (Figure 1).
Purpose of visit to the library

Visits to the library The purpose of user‟s visit to the library was ascertained to find out
whether they come to satisfy their information needs for research
The frequencies of the visit to the library are one index to judge the requirements or for general reading.
utilization of the library resources. If the users frequently visit the Table 3 shows that majority of users 51(30%) visit the library for
library it can be said that they are using the library more in professional purpose, while 47(27.64%) for Preparation of com-
comparison to those users who rarely visit the library. Table 2 petitive examination. Followed by 39 (22.94%) users visit library for
 Figure 2. Frequency of visit to the library.

Table 3. Purpose of visit to the library.

S. No. Purpose No. of response Percentage

1 Professional 51 30.00
2 Academic 39 22.94
3 Preparation for competitive examination 47 27.64
4 Recreational 27 15.88
5 Reference and Information service 17 10.00
6 Others 34 20.00

academic purpose, while 34(20%) users visit the library for others
purpose. Further followed by 27(15.88%) users visit the library for
recreational purpose, whereas Only 17(10%) users to read
reference and information services (Figure 3).

Library hours

Adequate library hours facilitate the use of the resources of the

library. The users were asked to indicate if the library hours were
adequate for study and research. The response has been tabula-
ted. The library is kept open from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. On the
five working days that is, from Monday to Friday and on Sundays,
Saturdays and other holidays functions from 10:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m.
The library remains entirely closed on republic day (January 26),
Independence Day (August 15), Dussehra, Diwali, Holi and Mah-
atma Gandhi's Birthday (October 2) every year.
The analysis shows that users of all categories are satisfied with
library hours while very little percentage users are not satisfied and
Figure 3. Purpose of visit to the library. are demanding that library should be kept open for 18 h throughout
the year. While Postgraduates and Research Scholars are com-
pletely satisfied with library hours and feel that they are adequate
(Table 4).
Table 4. Adequacy of library hours.

S.No Adequacy No. of response Percentage Infrastructural facilities

1 Yes 136 80.00
2 No 34 20.00 Users‟ satisfactions with infrastructure facilities are important
because reader‟s dissatisfaction means that the service provided by
Total 170 100.00 the library is not good. In order to promote the use of books it is
 Table 5. Infrastructure facilities

S. No. Infrastructure facilities Yes Percentage No Percentage

1 Furniture‟s 136 80.00 34 20.00
2 Lighting 119 70.00 51 30.00
3 Ventilation 102 60.00 68 40.00
4 Drinking water 90 52.94 80 47.06
5 Cleanliness 90 52.94 80 47.06
6 Toilet 85 50.00 85 50.00

clientele efficiently and effectively. The focus of the study is

services provided by the library especially „reader services‟ with a
view to find out the type, nature extent, etc. of services. Questions
have been asked to elicit information through the questionnaire.

Users’ awareness about library services

Users‟ awareness about the library services is prerequisite for

proper utilization of the library and its resources. Therefore the
responses of the users in this regard have been analysed in Table 8.
Table 8 indicates that majority of users 102 (60%) used CD-ROM
based search service, 51(30%) users used video service, 153
(90%) users used Xerox service, 85(50%) users used reference
service, 34(20%) users used inter-library loan service, 32(18.82%)
Furniture users used bindery service, 22(12.94%) users used
OPACs/WebOPACs,119(70%) users used online search service,
15(8.83%) users used online download service (Figure 7).
Figure 4. Infrastructure facilities. Table 9 depicts that majority of users were accessing online
databases service in the library that is, 79(46.47%), while
54(31.77%) users access online database in library are through
staff. Followed by 25(14.70%) users access online database in
advisable to have a functional building with provision for pleasant, library through friends, further followed by 12(7.06%) others helps
natural and electrical light, soothing interior, good-looking furniture, to users access online databases (Figure 8). Table 10 indicates that
comfortable chairs and other such facilities. They increase the use database search techniques are used by only about 26% or less of
of books. respondents (Figure 8).
Table 5 reveals that 136(80%) users satisfied with infrastructure
facilities available of the library as furniture‟s, while 119(70%) users
satisfied with lighting facilities. Followed by 102(60%) users
satisfied with ventilation, while 90(52.94%) of the users satisfied Library network
with drinking water and cleanliness similarly. Only 85(50%) users
satisfied with the toilet facility available in the library (Figure 4). A system of computers interconnected by telephone wires or other
means in order to share information is known as network or
exchange of library information is known as library network. The
Use of documents analysis of response has been tabulated in Table 11.
Table 11 depicts that 90(53%) majority of the users do not use
Users were asked to indicate about the document need felt by them the library networks, followed by 80 (47%) of the users used library
for provision of different library services. The responses have been network (Figure 9).
tabulated in Table 6. The data analysis in Table 12 reveals that 17(10%) most of the
Table 6 indicates that most of 51(30%) users of IIT Delhi library users used by email services whereas 12(7.05%) users used others
were using general books, while 50(29.41%) users were using CD- library network that is, DELNET, INFLIBNET, NICNET etc. Followed
ROM Databases. Followed by 43(25.29%) users were using by 11(6.47%) users used as a national databases, further followed
reference books while 34(20%) users were using technical report as by 9(5.29%) users used union list of periodicals and 8 (4.70%) use
well as compact disks. Further followed by 25(14.70%) users who as a FAX (Figure 10).
used video cassettes, 20(11.76%) used others documents, and
17(10%) users used bound volumes of journals as well as
microfilm-/microfiche similarly (Figure 5). E-journals and e-articles Satisfactions with overall functions of the library
are used by a large majority of respondents, followed by other
information resources (Table 7 and Figure 6). It is important to find out the image of the library in general. It
includes all aspects such as buildings, physical facilities, services
collections, etc.
Services Table 13 shows that maximum percentage of users have rated
the library as „good‟, while 60(35.29%) of users have rated the
The basic function of the national library is to provide services to its library as „excellent‟ and 30(17.64%) as „fair‟. Followed by
Table 6. Use of documents.

S. No. Reading material No. of response Percentage

1 General books 43 25.29
2 Reference books 51 30.00
3 Bound volumes of journals 17 10.00
4 Standards 23 13.52
5 Technical reports 34 20.00
6 Theses 14 08.23
7 Pamphlets 12 07.05
8 Microfilm/Microfiche 17 10.00
9 Compact discs 34 20.00
10 Video cassettes 25 14.70
11 CD-ROM database 50 29.41
12 Others 20 11.76

Figure 5. Use of documents.

Table 7. Use of internet information resources.

S/No. Type of e-information No. of response Percentage

1 E-journals 40 23.52
2 E-articles 34 20.00
3 E-thesis and dissertations 21 12.35
4 Databases 18 10.58
5 E-books 16 9.41
6 Mailing lists 07 4.11
7 Newsgroups 09 5.29
8 Subject gateways 04 2.35
9 E-archives 03 1.76
10 Web resources 07 4.11
12 Downloading services 21 12.35
13 Online search 16 9.41
 Figure 6. Use of internet information resources

Table 8. Users awareness about different types of services.

S. No. Services Used Percentage Unused Percentage

1 Circulation service 102 60.00 68 40.00
2 Video library service 51 30.00 119 70.00
3 Xerox service 153 90.00 17 10.00
4 Reference service 85 50.00 85 50.00
5 Inter-library loan 34 20.00 136 80.00
6 CD-ROM based search 90 52.94 80 47.06
7 Bindery service 32 18.82 138 81.17
8 OPACs/WebOPACs 22 12.94 148 87.05
9 Online search service 119 70.00 51 30.00
10 Online download service 15 08.83 155 91.17
11 Others 27 15.88 143 84.12

Figure 7. Users awareness about different types of services.

 Table 9. Access of online databases services.

S/No. Databases No. of response Percentage

1 Your self 79 46.47
2 Through Staff 54 31.77
3 Through friends 25 14.70
4 Others 12 07.06
Total 170 100.00

Figure 8. Access of online databases services.

Table 10. Database search techniques.

S/No. Search Techniques No. of response Percentage

1 Controlled vocabulary or subject searching 45 26.47
2 Keyword searching 34 20.00
3 Boolean searching 23 13.53
4 Truncation and wild cards 22 12.95
5 Field searching 21 12.35
6 Proximity locators 15 8.82
7 Relevance searching 10 5.88
Total 170 100.00

Table 11. Users awareness about library network. FINDINGS

S/No. Awareness No. of response Percentage vii.) Small percentages of users were using library
1. Yes 80 47 networks for the exchange of information resources viii.)
2. No 90 53 A large majority of users were satisfied with the overall
functions of the library.

SUGGESTIONS
15(8.83%) user-s who have rated overall functions of the library as
„poor‟ category (Figure 11). The following important suggestion can be focuses:
 Figure 9. Database search techniques.

Table 12. Users Awareness about different types of library network.

S/No. Facilities No. of response Percentage

1 Union catalogue of books 06 3.52
2 Union list of periodicals 09 5.29
3 Access to national database 11 6.47
4 E-mail 17 10.00
5 Fax 08 4.70
6 Others 12 7.05

Figure 10. Users awareness about different types of library network.

Table13. Satisfactions with overall functions of the library. v.) Library should be get better the search of
documents by most modern search techniques, and
S/No. Opinion No. of response Percentage also lengthen the library network for the exchange of
1 Excellent 60 35.29 information.
2 Good 65 38.24 vi.) In order to promote the use of books it is advised to
3 Fair 30 17.64 have a functional building with provision for pleasant,
4 Poor 15 8.83 natural and electrical light, soothing interior, good-
Total 170 100.00 looking furniture, comfortable chairs and other such
facilities. Glasses should be kept on the aqua guard so
that users can drink water.
vii.) It is therefore, suggested that library staff should be
attentive, cheerful, and careful for books and readers.
Library staff should also render helping hand to the
readers.

CONCLUSION

It is generally assumed that the faculty members,

research scholars, PGs and UGs students in unpre-
dictably tends to possess favorable towards information
and makes an attempt to keep abreast of the most up-to-
date information. The present study does not fully
authenticate that.

Figure 11. Satisfactions with overall functions of the library. REFERENCES

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