LIBRARY VISIT TO CHENNAI FROM 25th TO 27th AUGUST
2014
A group of 18 students and three
staff members of PG Department of
library & Information science have been to Chennai to visit various
libraries from 25th to 27th August 2014 ( Monday –
Wednesday).
DAY 1 : 25-9-2014
(Monday)
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Chennai
The central library of IIT, Chennai
was one of the leading library situated in a separate building was reached by
the students at 9 A.M Dr.Mahendra.N. Jadav, Deputy librarian has given a warm
welcome to us and as made a power point presentation on “Best Practices in IIT library”. Then he has directed the trainees
to take the students to various sections of library starting with circulation
section which is a fully automated system with RFID ( Radio Frequency
Identification Detector) Technology using which 5 books can be issued in 5
seconds was really an wonderful system which saves the time of user. The OPAC
media resource center, Digital Knowledge Center, Children Library Corner, Cataloguing
section and Binding section were various others section witnessed by us. The
campus is Wi-Fi enabled and the students are allowed to bring their laptops to
library for self-study.
SRM Central and Medical College
Library
In the afternoon the students were
taken to SRM group Of Institutions at Kattamkulathur Chennai. First we have
been to medical college library there we have got hands on experience in a
medical database SCOPUS. Later we have visited the central library which
situated in the center of the campus and these are beautiful infrastructure
which has attracted many user towards library. The unique feature of this
library I s lending of laptops to the students on demand.
Anna Centenary Library (ACL)
In the evening we went to one of Asia’s
biggest library Anna Centenary it has a beautiful infrastructure with 8 storey’s
and is certified as green building and has two wings A wing and B wing. The main attraction of these library is the
Braille section( for visually challenged user) and own book reading section. It
has an open auditorium with good natural lighting facilities in each section
the most attractive section is the children section which has a natural
atmosphere.
Day 2: 26-9-2014 (Tuesday)
In a morning we have been to the knowledge resource center of CSIR-SERC it was a fully automated library with a auto lib library software. The main service of this library is reference service with intranet facilities the users have online access to library resources anywhere in the campus. Online project research profile service (OPRPS) interactive personalize service (IPS), auto alert service(ASS), auto issue alert (AIA) and auto overdue remainder service are some of the features of this library. Micro fiche reader and Railing rack system were the other notable things of this library.
Next
Rojah Muthaiyah Research Library (RMRL)
Next we have visited the RMRL which
is a special research library exclusive for Tamil literature. The major
attraction of this library is preservation of old documents using advanced
microfilm making equipment's, microfiche and imported scanners. Both print and
audio collections(available in gramophone plates) were preserved using sound
forge and wave pad software's. The digitization of resources is the ongoing
process there and the resource are quite useful for Tamil researchers. CDS/ISIS
and MARC 21 used for cataloging in Tamil books.
Indian Express Library
Later we have visited Indian
express library before visiting the library we have visited the process of
printing which was wonderful experience. The major work of the library is
indexing we have witnessed the caption writing for photos and indexing the same
using the softwares. It gave lot of inputs to gain practical knowledge of
indexing and abstracting.
Day 3: 27-9-2014 (Wednesday)
One of the oldest library in
Chennai Connemara was visited by us on the third day of our trip it has more
number of user for periodical section it
has more number of users exclusively for periodical section with the richest
collection of 3500 journals with almost all the Indian language were Koha
library software is used for automation. The library receives the book and
periodical according to Delivery of Book Act. Then we were taken to old library
which was donated by Lord Connemara which has a very beautiful infrastructure
with beautifully carved wooden racks and Belgium glass paintings. The government
gazetteers, documents etc are the unique sources of this library.
Next we have been to a media
library at vikatan publications. It has a vast collection of their publication
since 1926 and has been laminated and filed.
Thus the library visit was very
useful for the students to gain more k about technology software sand
specialized services provide in different libraries in different manner.
On 27th August 2014 afternoon we
boarded the train and were back to our place.