Study of the application of information technology for effective access to resources in Indian university libraries

Information Technology (IT) has revolutionized the information handling activities in research and academic libraries in India. The university libraries, as Centres of information services, have largely benefited by the rapid changes in the IT. Indian universities constitute one of the largest higher education systems in the world. It comprises more than 310 universities/institutions, 15,500 affiliated colleges, 10 million students with 5 lakh [1 lakh=100,000] teachers. The university libraries in India are at various stages of development in the application of information technology tools in their day-to-day activities. INFLIBNET-An Inter University Centre of University Grants Commission (UGC) has undertaken the task of providing assistance to university libraries across the country through its number of initiatives. This paper is an attempt to give an overview of Information Technology implementation in different university libraries in India that provides effective access to resources available within universities and elsewhere. Also discussed is the role of the INFLIBNET Centre in the overall development of university libraries across the country with special emphasis on efforts through UGC-Infonet E-Journals Consortium.