Whether big deals are really big for engineering college libraries? Or is there any need for better model?

Abstract

Purpose

Library consortia have played a vital role in sharing information resources among participating libraries. In India, engineering college libraries subscribe to many electronic resources through the Indian Digital Library of Engineering Science and Technology (INDEST) consortium. This paper aims to identify the collection development of electronic resources through INDEST to predict the most required and useful model for engineering colleges.

Design/methodology/approach

The list of colleges that subscribe to electronic resources through INDEST was studied online and analyzed.

Findings

It is evident that most colleges only subscribed IEL online through INDEST. Some colleges have subscribed to different resources from more than one publisher. The bundles of resources subscribed through INDEST have not fully supported all the courses offered by the institutions. It is revealed that the bibliographical databases for searching the literature in technological sciences were not subscribed to by any colleges participating in INDEST.

Originality/value

The results of this study are useful for engineering college libraries to develop the collection of online journals in the digital era.

Citation

Nagaraja, A., Gangadhar, K.C. and Vasanthakumar, M. (2011), "Whether big deals are really big for engineering college libraries? Or is there any need for better model?", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 741-750. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378831111189804