Monday, April 29, 2013

M-S-University's-H-M-library-ranked-among-top-25

M-S-University's-H-M-library-ranked-among-top-25

VADODARA: M S University (MSU), especially its Hansa Mehta library, is among top 25 institutes of the country.

The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, an autonomous Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC), has ranked MSU's H M Library 17th in terms of yearly total downloads (YTD).

In terms of document delivery service (DDS), it has been ranked sixth. And in terms of contribution to the 'Shodhganga' project, the university has been ranked at 24th position.

The INFLIBNET Centre has recently brought out a compilation titled 'Measuring research output and its impact using bibliometric indicators: Profiles of top 50 universities of India'. This compilation is aimed at sensitizing academic administrators and policy makers on measuring and evaluating research performance and ranking of academic institutions.

It also provides an opportunity to these 50 universities to examine its performance in different disciplines, identify gaps and figure out ways and means for further improvement.

The download statistics reveal that MSU is the only university from Gujarat to be in the top 20 list with 2,09,825 YTD.

"Last year, we (MSU) were ranked 18 in terms of YTD. Now, our ranking has improved further with an increase of nearly 36,000 YTD," MSU librarian Mayank Trivedi told TOI.

"The statistics provided by INFLIBNET show a strong and positive correlation between number of articles downloaded from e-resources through UGC-Infonet Digital Library consortium by faculty and researchers of MSU and number of research publications," he said.

In terms of DDS, MSU has been ranked sixth. DDS refers to the supply of photocopy from repository against a request from researchers from outside the campus.

"Our library is one of the 20 designated document delivery centres of the country designated byUGC," said Trivedi.

It was last year that MSU and INFLIBNET Centre had entered into collaboration whereby MSU became part of UGC's 'Shodhganga' project which refers to the storage of all Indian Electronic Thesis and Dissertations (ETD) at the centre.

"Although we (MSU) had joined the Shodhganga project in September last, we have been ranked at 24th position out of 130 universities that have joined the project," said Trivedi, adding that the university's position will further improve as more scholars become part of the Shodhganga project.