The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students will not have to struggle for getting the research or reading materials anymore as the university library is reaching out to its users with remote access services. Through this service all the data, including e-resources, e-journals, e-books, library catalogue and all other database subscribed in the Central library, can be accessed by both students and teachers from anywhere in the world.
“About eight lakh digital news clippings, 20,000 theses and dissertations, in-house publications — including the reprints of faculty articles will be soon made available under this service. The current focus of the library is on electronic delivery of information as it is fast accessible. Students can access from inside and outside the campus — from homes and abroad. Our concern is not that how many visit the library but how many we reach out to,” said Ramesh C Gaur, the University librarian.
To make the access of multiple database and e-resources hassle free, the option of single window access has been created through Web Scale Discovery. It is a search engine similar to Google Service but with results limited to the library and subscribed resources.
Students are delighted with such developments in the university and many of them express that other universities of the country too should enhance such technological support to researchers. “The research quality in India is way backward when compared with other nations. In this stage, if we have something as remote access service which makes good journals a click away it is a great development. It is a sign which will make things better. One’s research is bound to be better once you have access to better and vast material this easy otherwise it is too time consuming,” said Aufaq Paikar, an M.Phil student at the university.
To keep a note on the check of plagiarism, a software Turnitin has been provided to all the M.Phil and Ph.D students of the university.