Information Technology Usage Scenario in Academic Libraries of Higher Education in Chhattisgarh: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The Chhattisgarh State was formed in 2001 carved out from the then Madhya Pradesh. Ever since its establishment as a fully fledged state, a considerable number of academic institutions have sprungup. To promote education a Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have been established along with universities and colleges. As libraries are heart of any institution, present study attempts to analyse the status of libraries in various academic institutions of Chhattisgarh with emphasis on status of automation and ICT applications and use. Survey method was followed to collect the data and six libraries were selected for detailed analysis. There are one central university, one state university, one special university, one open university, along with NIT and IIM. The results indicate that all libraries are discharging their services with functional library buildings. However, their collection is uneven and staff strength is less. Most of the libraries are yet to develop any collection development policies and still collection of non-book materials is very less. Although most of the libraries have implemented automation either by using Libsys or SOUL, staff of the libraries have required skill to handle various bugs in using software. Digitisation of collection is not well adopted in most of the libraries.To excel in services, staff training and staff appointment seem to be urgent need of these libraries.