Collection and Services of Government Libraries in Delhi

Abstract

The present study aims to find out the collection development and management, library services, library staff, library budget, and ICT technology in the selected six libraries of the central government ministries viz. Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution that are situated in Delhi by way of collecting their qualitative and quantitative data on aforesaid parameters which could be directly related to their overall development. There are various studies on various types of government libraries however no study on ministerial libraries of the government of India has been done before. The research was designed through a structured questionnaire that aimed at collecting information about the overall collection, management, and functions of the libraries and subsequently, the librarians or heads of selected libraries alongwith their staff were approached for collection of the data specific to the structured questionnaire. Findings of the study show that these libraries are lacking professional skilled staff as well as the unavailability of adequate ICT components. Furthermore, there is a lack of proper information services which is hindering their overall development. Since these libraries are special libraries in nature and consists of a rare and useful collection related to their respective Ministry, hence, evaluation and study of these libraries to know their developmental status will be helpful to the library users.