Institutions of higher education have the main responsibilities of equipping students, researchers and faculty with advanced knowledge and skills. A well equipped and managed library is an essential prerequisite to achieve this. In particular, scientific research needs a library as well as its laboratories. Keeping this in view, the Madras Veterinary College Library undertakes many responsibilities and performs varied functions and it plays a vital role in the university education and research by providing invaluable resource of knowledge.
The Madras Veterinary College Library was established in 1903 along with the Madras Veterinary College. The MVC library had a humble beginning and over these 109 years its growth has been phenomenal and transformed from “book-only” library to a modern “digital library” with invaluable collection of e-resources to cater to the increasing information requirements of the stakeholders.
The mission of the MVC Library is to provide access to and delivery of information resources to TANUVAS students, faculty, and staff in support of the research and instructional mission of the university. The Library develops, organizes, and preserves collections for optimal use and provides links to remote information sources. The Library provides services, including instruction for information literacy and information management, to enable its users to fulfill their academic and intellectual needs. The Library provides resources and services to non-TANUVAS users to the extent possible. Relying on its highly skilled staff, the Library encourages innovation, capitalizes on appropriate technologies, forges effective partnerships, and aggressively promotes excellence.
Growth of MVC Library - At a Glance
At present, the library is functioning in a total floor space of about 12,000 sq. ft. in the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Student Day Care Centre Building of MVC. The Book Section and Book Bank are functioning in the 2nd floor. The Journal-cum-Back volume Section, Digitization Unit, Microfilming Unit and Reprography unit are functioning in the 3rd floor. In addition, an Archive with a total floor space of 2400 sq. ft. has been established in the 1st floor of the Dairy Science Block which houses very old books, back volumes of journals, Masters and Doctoral theses and other old documents.
The library is open on weekdays from 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. (Monday to Friday) and from 8.00 a.m. to 3.45 p.m. on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays).
The Library is functioning under the direct control of the Dean, Madras Veterinary College. A Deputy Librarian, supported by an Assistant Librarian, Library Assistants and other staff members, heads the library. There is a Library Committee in the college level for which the Dean is the Chairman. The committee is consisting of the Dean, Faculty of Basic Sciences and three Heads of Departments as members and the Head of the Library as the Convenor.
The library has an institutional membership base of about 1000 (600 UG students, 200 PG students and 200 staff). The University Officers, Professors and Associate Professors can borrow 12 books; Assistant Professors and PG students can borrow six books and non-teaching staff can borrow one book at a time for a period of 30 days from the library. The UG students are eligible to borrow three books at a time for a period of 10 days Apart from the institutional members, non-institutional people (scientific workers and other private persons such as Veterinarians) can also become the members of the library by paying a caution deposit (to be decided by the University from time to time) and they are eligible for two books at a time for a period of 30 days.
The library has a collection of about 40,000 books. Of these, more than 20,000 books are kept as reference books. The collection includes textbooks, reference books, manuals, monographs, dictionaries, encyclopedias and colour atlases. Around 500 to 600 basic to advanced books are added every year for the users of the library.
Collection of about 250 e-books at present and all these e-books are accessible via the e-book gateway of OPAC which is available through the Intranet connecting all the three teaching campuses and the University headquarters. The e-Book gateway also provides web links to major e-book gateways which are providing access to thousands of full-text e-books covering various disciplines including veterinary and animal sciences
The MVC Library has a tie up with the HEIST, UK and receives postgraduate prospectus of renowned universities in the United Kingdom and displays them in the Library for the use of aspirants of study abroad.
Journals are the medium of scientific communication because of its up-to-datedness. The library subscribes about 100 foreign journals and 65 Indian journals.
The old journals are hardbound and kept as Back Volumes for reference. So far, the library has built up over 25,000 back volumes of journals.
Availabe Back Voumes
In the electronic age, information-seeking process is made so much easier and quicker by introduction of e-journals and digital library. Falling in line with modern electronic era, the MVC Library has also activated on-line access to about 100 foreign journals and 30 Indian journals. A list of Open Access e-Journal Portals has also been compiled by the Library and web links established to those portals to ensure easy access to the invaluable journal literature. http://www.indianjournals.com/ ; http://jgateplus.com/search/
In addition to its own collections, the MVC library has access to Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA), an online journal consortium funded under NAIP of ICAR. CeRA provides access to about 2,800+ online journals covering various disciplines of agricultural sciences including veterinary and animal sciences http://jgateplus.com/search/
The library has about 160 CD-ROM products for the users to retrieve necessary scientific data. This collection includes databases and CD-ROM products including DVDs. The DVDs are mirrored in a DVD server and made accessible via the Library LAN.
Since microfilming is one of the best ways of preserving documents, the library started microfilming of the M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. theses and other important documents in the year 1998. The library has a microfilm recorder and a reader printer.
Circulation activities of the library had been automated using "Library Management Software" developed for this library which was replaced by the "Software for University Libraries" (SOUL 1.0) developed by UGC. Now, SOUL is replaced by KOHA Integrated Library Management System. Necessary equipment for automation of the library viz., computers, printer, scanner, barcode label printer, barcode readers etc., had been procured under NATP / NAIP funds.
The resources of the library in terms of books, back volumes of the journals, M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. theses of MVC, VC&RI and FC&RI, CD-ROMs, VCDs/DVDs and other reports have been catalogued and the web-based Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) of the library is available at http://www.elibrary.tanuvas.net:2048.At present, 25 computer terminals have been provided for the library users for OPAC.
A Digital Knowledge Resource Centre has been established at this Library with 35 computer systems and necessary digital infrastructure to cater to the ever increasing information requirements of the students, research scholars, faculty and scientists of the University.
Electronic surveillance system has been installed in the library to ensure proper safety and security of the valuable library collection. The system consisting of IR surveillance cameras and monitors help the library administration to track the movements of the library users.
The Library has started digitizing the theses and dissertations and currently abstracts of over 2,600 theses had been digitized and full-text of theses and dissertations submitted after 2000 are available in digital format. Valuable old documents available in the library are identified under e-Granth project of ICAR for digitization and digitization of about 3,00,000 pages of documents are in the pipeline. All the digitized contents are available at Institutional Repository of NARS at http://krishikosh.ac.in
RFID Technology of Document Identification and Library Security System have been implemented for the library functions and services, along with the following facilities:
A finger based biometric attendance system has been established at MVC Library. Biometric attendance system is used to mark attendance of all teaching and non-teaching staff members as well as students. It provides exact information about every body's presence.
Photocopying facilities are available to the library users at nominal charges. To improve the services, two digital copier (scanner, printer and copier) and a colour digital copier had been added recently. The students and staff utilize these facilities for their reprographic requirements.
The MVC Library is a full fledged book binding unit of its own. As and when the books are damaged it is taken out from the sections and rebound. Journals received in the Library are bound when their volume is completed.
Since the MVC Library is 109 years old, the library has very old books and back volumes of journals. To save these materials, an archive unit has been established at MVC campus. Necessary infrastructure facilities are being created to strengthen the archive unit.
MVC Library is a participating library under CeRA project and through this project it shares the library resources of about 123 libraries including SAU/SVU and ICAR institute libraries. The library is also a member of the Madras Library Network (MALIBNET) to share the resources of the libraries of IIT-M, Anna University, Medical University, University of Madras, CLRI, IGCAR, Kalpakkam, etc. Further, the library is an institutional member of the British Council Library for resource sharing.
An SC/ST Book Bank comprising of basic and advanced books has been established in the library for the benefit of SC/ST students of MVC.
The MVC Library periodically conducts information literacy / library orientation programmes to the library users. Awareness programmes are also being conducted for the benefit of library users regularly.
The annual budget of the library is around Rs. 108.00 lakhs. The library also gets funding support from ICAR through development grants and NAIP projects for modernization of library like automation, digitization and journal subscriptions.
Dr. L.Rajendran, Assistant Librarian
Thiru.N. Murugan, Library Assistant (S.G.)
Thiru K.S. Jayapal, Assistant
Thiru M.G. Muthu, Typist
The Assistant Librarian and Head,
Madras Veterinary College, Chennai - 600 007
Telephone : +91-44 25388997, 25381506 | Ext.278, 283
Tele / Fax : +91-44 25388997 | E-mail : hodlibmvc@tanuvas.org.in
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