UGC INFONET - Introduction

                                                                                                                               

The UGC-Infonet is a major initiative of University Grants Commission (UGC) to make use of the benefits of Information and communication Technology (ICT) to all the universities and colleges across the country. Under this program the universities have been provided connectivity with the assistance of ERNET. INFLIBNET Centre is a nodal agency to monitor, decide, the connectivity and provide content over the network. Universities have been provided the bandwidth ranging from 128 Kbps to 2 Mbps depending on the perceived needs of the specific university and the infrastructure available. Recently it was decided to increase minimum bandwidth to 256 KBPS for small universities and up to 2 MBPS based on the actual usage. More than 115 universities have already got the connectivity under the scheme during the last one year.

UGC-Infonet – E-journals Consortium

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has initiated a programme to provide electronic access over the Internet to scholarly literature in all areas of learning to the university sector in India. The programme is wholly funded by the UGC. All universities which come under UGC’s purview will be members of the programme, and it will gradually be extended to colleges as well. The programme is being executed by Director, Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, Ahmedabad which is an autonomous institution under the UGC. Access to various E-Journals has started from January 1, 2004. 

The programme will increase in a very fundamental way the resources available to the universities for research and teaching. It will provide the best current and archival periodical literature, from all over the world, to the university community. The programme will go a long way in mitigating the severe shortage of periodicals faced by university libraries for many years, due to the ever widening gap between the growing demand for literature, and the limits of available resources.

The E-Journals programme is a cornerstone of the UGC-INFONET effort, which aims at addressing the teaching, learning, research, connectivity and governance requirements of the Universities. The E-Journals programme demonstrates how communication networks and computers can be used to stretch and leverage available funds in furthering these aims. The programme has been made possible due to the close and understanding cooperation between the UGC, ERNET, the Inter-University Centres IUCAA, INFLIBNET and CEC, and national and international publishers.

Consortium

The consortium will cover all the universities in India which come under the purview of the UGC, and will gradually be extended to the colleges as well. The first phase of the programme covers more than 50 universities and additional 40-50 universities join the program from August 2004 with actual subscription starts from September 2004 at a much cheaper cost as the major cost was paid for the first 50 universities. The UGC provides funds for the programme, which will be cost free for the universities.

Coverage

The E-Journals programme aims at covering all fields of learning of relevance to various universities including:
· Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
· Physical and Chemical Sciences
· Life Sciences
· Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics

The literature made available will include journals covering research articles, reviews and abstracting databases. Access is provided to current as well as archival literature. Portals are provided which will enable users to navigate easily through all the literature that is made available. 

Operation

INFLIBNET administer and monitor the programme and have independent electronic access to all the publications to help with the process. It will be provided one free print copy of each journal from many publishers, which can be a national repository at Ahmedabad on the Gujarat University Campus. A web site has beeen created to provide all needed information to consortium members about the status of the programme at http://web.inflibnet.ac.in/econ/index.htm. INFLIBNET conduct various training programmes at different places to spread awareness and to develop expertise in the university community in the use of E-Resources. Special training programmes, seminars are conducted on different University campuses by publishers of complex databases.

Current status

As of March 2004 agreements have been reached with the following publishers and UGC-Infonet E-Journals Consortium subscribes to: 
 

Discussions are in progress with several other publishers and their publications are expected to become available in stages.

Future plans

Many more resources will be made available to the universities through a continuous process which will bring in literature covering an ever increasing number of fields from a wide range of publishers all over the world. Programmes will be initiated to digitise and make electronically accessible literature which is present only in the print form, often unpublished, in various institutes and universities in India. Appropriate packages of the literature will be developed for use by students and teachers in various colleges. The community of teachers, library professionals and students from the university system will be consulted on a continuing basis in the development of the programme so that it remains up to date and useful. Several national seminars, workshops, users awarness training programs are planned. Centre has already conducted specialized programme on access to Chemical Abstracts using STN with the support of different universities through which the chemical abstracts access is given to all the universities having departments in chemistry and allied subjects. Around 35 user awareness programmes were conducted and this will be continuous activity over the next few months.

Contact Persons

For any further details contact:

Dr. T.A.V. Murthy Phone: (079) 26305702 (O)
Director, INFLIBNET Centre (079) 26304695 (O)
Near Gujarat University Guest House Fax: (079) 26300990/ 26307816
Post Box No. 4116, Navrangpura E-mail: tav@inflibnet.ac.in 
Ahmedabad 380 009

Queries may also be marked to 

Dr. V S Cholin
Scientist-B, INFLIBNET Centre 
P.Box 4116, Navrangpura
Ahmedabad–380009
Ph : (079) 26305702 Fax: (079) 26300990
E-mail: cholin@inflibnet.ac.in