Use of UGC-Infonet E-resources by Social Science Academics in Indian Universities: An Evaluation Study

UGC is providing access to scholarly electronic resources (e-resources) to Indian universities through the UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium. Access to subscribed e-resources is being provided free of cost to member universities. The whole program is funded by the UGC and executed by the INFLIBNET Centre. Now, the UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium is in its 11th year and it has been expected that privileged academicians are utilizing available e-resources extensively and optimally. In this paper an effort is being made to assess, how social science faculty working in Indian universities have been using e-resources, what are the problems they are facing in accessing them, and what are the efforts made by INFLIBNET to spread awareness about such an ambitious initiative of UGC among social science faculty members. This paper also highlights some important issues with respect to use, acceptance and planning of this consortium.