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The purpose of this paper is to determine the materials cited in doctoral theses of botany, submitted to the Kuvempu University during the years 2000‐2006, with the aim of improving the existing collection development of the library.

The study employed descriptive research design. Theses submitted for the award of Doctoral degree from 2000 to 2006 to the Department of Botany, Kuvempu University were examined. The population of the study was all the theses submitted during the periods under study. Data were extracted from title page and references given at the end of each chapter. Extracted data were analysed using statistics.

The study reveals that journals are the most preferred sources of information used by the researchers in the field of botany, accounting for 74.77 per cent of total citations, although citations from books, proceedings, theses, reports and patents are also found. It is also observed those researchers are not taking much advantage of internet resources. The journal Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (USA) was ranked the first, with 158 citations, accounting for 7.57 per cent of the total journal citations. Further, Bradford's law of scattering was applied. It is observed that major citations come from journal literature. In addition, more cited materials were contributed by multi authors and degree of collaboration is 0.75.

The paper presents a sense of the importance of botany research, and as such informs that community, as well as researchers involved in citation analysis.

The outcome of the study is an original research work with citation analysis of doctoral theses in botany. It highlights the information materials available and used by researchers of the Botany Department for their research work and those which need to be added for a healthy collection.

The purpose of this paper is to study and analyse the authorship pattern, degree of collaboration, prepare list of prolific authors and test Lotka’s law of scientific productivity in spacecraft technology research.

Data are collected from the print versions of three journals in the field of spacecraft technology for the period 2001-2011. In all 154 volumes containing 1,907 papers have been analysed, and data are presented in different table headings.

Study reveals that 4,355 authors have contributed 1,907 papers. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets has published maximum (1,487) number of papers during the study period. Multi-authored papers with 87.15 per cent of contributions have dominated this field of research. Journal of Spacecraft Technology has recorded highest degree of collaboration of 0.90. James M. Longuski has published 20 papers in Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets during the period 2001-2011. Lotka’s law of scientific productivity is tested and conforms only partially.

Study is restricted only for the period 2001-2011, and the data are collected from the print versions of three journals in the field of spacecraft technology research.

As far as space science and technology is concerned, there are not many bibliometric studies reported in the published literature. The present study will add value to the bibliometrics literature and provide publishing trends in spacecraft technology research.

The main purpose of this study is to determine India's position in publishing top research papers in chemistry as reflected in Science Direct. It also aims to find out authorship pattern, countries with major contributions, journals with high publication rates, etc.

Citation analysis methods were applied to study citations of 450 research papers in chemistry taken from the listing of top 25 papers in Science Direct database. The citations covered 18 issues of the Science Direct generated alert service for the period 2004‐2008. The bibliographic data were entered in Excel sheets for necessary analysis.

The studies revealed that, out of 450 research papers, 36 (8 per cent) are contributed by Indian researchers. In the ranking of contributing countries, India reserves third position after the USA and China. More than 86 per cent of Indian chemistry research papers were cited by others. As regards to number of citations, 25 per cent of Indian papers are cited between 10 and 25 times each. The journal Tetrahedron was found as the highest publishing journal with 71 (16 per cent) publications.

The paper presents a sense of the importance of Indian chemistry research, and as such informs that community, as well as researchers involved in citation analysis.

The outcome of the study is an original research work with citation analysis of top research papers in chemistry. The findings will have practical implications for Indian scientists, funding agencies and research establishments in different areas of chemical sciences.

This paper aims to discuss the present status of using new generation web technology, social media and Web 2.0 features among the technological university library websites in south India. It seeks to assess the library websites as a primary platform and one‐stop portal for information services and to examine how much library websites are effective in providing web‐based information services.

The library websites of the technological universities in south India were evaluated on the basis of a relative weight checklist. The criteria for the checklist were drawn on the basis of availability of websites for library, resource discovery tools, access to scholarly content and Web 2.0 tools. The various issues and challenges in adapting new web technologies in the academic environment are discussed.

Using the current web development technologies and deploying for mainstream web information services is not widespread as web information services are yet to take off widely in academic libraries. The majority of university libraries are found to be working in the conventional library settings and the diffusion rate of web information services is relatively low.

As this is an assessment of the existing online information infrastructure facilities of the engineering universities in south India, the awareness of web‐based information services, their viability, and service values can be enhanced. More emphasis to improve upon the current learning, online educational facilities and benchmarking electronic information services for sustainability is highlighted.

This paper seeks to emphasise the use of e‐resources by teachers and research scholars in the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR). The paper aims at particularly identifying the needs of the users as well as the problems faced by them while using e‐resources and also their level of satisfaction in getting the essential information on electronic means.

A survey was conducted through a questionnaire circulated among 140 teachers and research scholars of NDRI and NBAGR. The response rate was an encouraging 90.71 per cent.

The majority of the respondents are well aware of the various e‐resources in their respective field and confidently use them regularly. E‐Journals are the most preferred e‐resource among the respondents. They seek the help of e‐resources to perform their routine exercises, i.e. teaching, research, entertainment and communication. Some major problems faced by the respondents are slow speed of internet, difficulty in retrieving contents and poorly designed web sites.

The study is restricted to the teachers and research scholars of NDRI and NBAGR and elaborates on the fact that those e‐resources are being used up to the optimum limit. The study will assist the existing organizations in the field to understand the requirement of electronic resources and stimulate the path to revision of the same.

This is the first study on this topic in India, which has been carried out to discover the importance of e‐resources in the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR). It will support the approach and importance of such e‐resources and their usage for intellectual investigation in the agriculture community.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the competences in librarianship and information communication and technology (ICT) skills between different designations of library professionals (librarian, deputy librarian, assistant librarian and library assistants and others) working in the engineering college libraries affiliated with Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum (www.vtu.ac.in) in Karnataka state, India.

The study adopts a combined methodology of theory, fieldwork and the data gathering tools used which included questionnaire, observation and interaction with library and information professionals.

The majority of the library professionals working in the engineering colleges in Karnataka state have chosen this profession by accident. The significant difference is observed between different designations towards competence on operation of computers, creation of files and folders, radio frequency identification, library automation software modules, various operating systems, internet-related skills, web design/web editors, search engines and digitization of IR. Compared to all designations, librarians have more skills on web designs. The majority of the professionals are facing financial problems, overload of work and negative attitude of the higher authority in acquiring ICT skills.

This is the first ever study of library professionals working in technical institutions in Karnataka state (India) about the competences in ICT and librarianship.

The purpose of this paper is to report the research findings of an evaluation of the impact of continuing education programs (CEPs) on library information science (LIS) professionals of academic libraries in Mumbai, India. The paper also introduces Donald Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation for Library Science research in the area of program evaluation.

The impact of CEPs was evaluated using Donald Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation using survey method. The impact was evaluated at four levels; reaction, learning, behavior and results. The population of the present study included 344 LIS professionals working at colleges libraries affiliated to University of Mumbai and Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University in Mumbai, India. The data collected through questionnaire were supplemented by five specimen interviews of heads of institutions of the academic librarians who had attended more than five CEPs in five years, 2009-2013.

The findings of the study revealed that professionals were satisfied with CEP attendance; keen on gaining more knowledge and transferring the acquired knowledge and skills at their workplaces and interested in implementing the learning to achieve results. The reasons given by academic librarians on not implementing the learning in the library indicated that there were hindrances like lack of management support, lack of technical expertise, inadequate staff in the library, poor IT Infrastructure, etc. in transferring the learning at work.

The study was based on self-perceptions of respondents. The limitation of self-perception was eliminated to some extent by supplementing qualitative data wherever required. CEPs included conferences, seminars, workshops, refresher courses, orientation programs and online courses. Pre-test and post-test recommended by the Kirkpatrick model could not be conducted as the researcher has not adopted experimental design. The data of feedback from the organizers and content of the CEPs attended by respondents were not analyzed in the study.

The paper describes the implementation of Kirkpatrick model to evaluate the CEPs, which can be used by the organizers or institutions to evaluate the impact of CEPs in future. This will help them to improve upon the contents of CEPs making them more relevant and effective.

Evaluation of CEPs will be useful to ensure the effectiveness of CEPs and performance of LIS professionals.

This paper reports an original research initiative undertaken to evaluate the impact of CEPs attended by LIS professionals of Indian academic libraries in Mumbai, India. It fills the gap in LIS research. The application of Donald Kirkpatrick model of Training evaluation is also valuable for LIS research.

This paper aims to assess the usage patterns of a university library website to find out user’s behaviour of monthly use, its top most used resources and services and search phrases used to reach the library website.

Transactional log analysis (TLA) – an unobtrusive research method – was used to identify and analyse data of website-using patterns. The log data of website use from January 2011 to March 2011 were analysed for this study.

The findings of this study revealed that the university library website was heavily used on campus by users; however, it was used by a significant number of clients residing off-campus. Free scholarly journals, resources downloaded, e-journals, e-books and donated personal collections were among the top most used resources and services. However, free scholarly journals were used more than subscribed e-journals accessible on-campus only.

This study first used the TLA method to trace user behaviour of website use in a local scenario. Assessing the usage of e-resources is imperative to determine the effectiveness of the library website in providing these services to its on-campus and distant users. The findings of this study are valuable for librarians and webmasters of the library website to redesign and reorient their services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine users’ attitude toward the implementation of information technology (IT) on the library of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS). The paper also aims to explore the hindrances and recommendations for IT-enabled services and find out the present status of automation in the library of SGPGIMS.

A well-structured questionnaire was designed to collect the data for the present study. A thorough survey of the literature was done to examine the findings of the earlier relevant studies.

The results of the survey provide the important information regarding the state-of-the-art of the users of mentioned library. It also finds the barriers due to which overall implication of IT is being delayed. The findings of the study bequeath measures to eradicate the barriers and get the fully automated medical library.

The study will have important implications on policymakers, librarians and other higher authorities of SGPGIMS to improve the IT status of their library. It evaluates the users need and points out the measures which can improve the IT status of these libraries.

The present paper aims at analyzing the research output performance of library and information science (LIS) professionals. Citation analysis of all the journal articles published in the Collection Building journal during 2009-2012 is carried out.

The data for this study were drawn from a selective sample of a free e-journal, i.e. Collection Building, available through the Kuvempu University Web site without subscription or registration. A total of 91 articles published during 2009 to 2012 with 1,302 citations. The analysis cover mainly the number of articles, authorship pattern, subject-wise distribution of articles, average number of references per articles, forms of documents cited, rank list of journals, Bradford’s law.

The study reveals that journals (53.84 per cent of citations) are the most preferred sources of information used by the researchers in the field of LIS. It is followed by Web resources with 24.27 per cent, these two together constitute 78.11 per cent of total citations and remaining 21.89 per cent of citations from books, proceedings, theses, reports and gazetteer. Collection Building (USA) has ranked first with 68 (9.70 per cent) citations. Further, Bradford’s law of scattering was applied. It is observed that major citations are from journal literature. In addition, more cited materials were contributed by multi-authors, and degree of collaboration is 0.44.

The paper presents a sense of the importance of LIS research, and as such, informs the community and researchers involved in the citation analysis.

The outcome of the study is an original research work with citation analysis of LIS publications. The study highlights the information materials available and used by researchers in the field of LIS, and those that need to be added for a healthy collection.