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In the developing knowledge society and emerging electronic environment, university and research laboratory libraries in India are facing several challenging situations and problems. Due to unavailability of funds, libraries are finding difficulties not only in modernising and restructuring their work operations but also in maintaining traditional services to their users. The rising cost of reading material and currency fluctuations considerably reduce the purchasing power of libraries while growing user demand and additional requirements for modernisation put many libraries in a predicament. This paper discusses the financial problems of university and research laboratory libraries in India in general and describes case studies of such problems faced by the University of Jammu library and the Regional Research Laboratory Library, Jammu.

The aim of this paper is to develop a model for the prioritization of collusive behaviours within Indian food grain supply chain (FGSC) to enable government authorities, entrusted with the task of public distribution, to address those frauds based on their priority for making an existing supply chain more sustainable.

An interval 2-tuple linguistic Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (ITL-TOPSIS) method has been used to deal with the problem of prioritization of frauds under incomplete and uncertain information. Unlike traditional methods, this methodology offers an ability to make informed decisions, without loss of information, while factoring in various ambiguities.

The outcome indicates that the most severe fraud is adulteration, which adversely impacts the health of a person. Bogus Ration Card comes next, as it results into the distribution of grains to non-poor, ineligible population rather than the deserving beneficiaries. Next is diversion, where diverted food grains end up being sold at much higher rates than specified subsidized rates. Theft is least severe, as this would not affect FGSC much until done on large scale.

More decision-makers can be consulted to entertain more uncertainty and ambiguity. Also, a comparative study can be performed using different methodologies.

The proposed modelling could empower various governmental and non-governmental regulatory bodies in formulation of food policies to effectively tackle the problem of inappropriate delivery of food to the unintended population and to take necessary informed decisions for ensuring food security and safety to the society at large.

There is a dearth of studies related to the prioritization of frauds within FGSC. This research bridges the gap in literature by providing a decision-making framework for prioritizing collusive behaviour under ambiguous and uncertain information.

This paper discusses the problems and challenges of change management in the university libraries to facilitate their growth, resources management and service performance similar to the work culture of the corporate sector.

Discusses the changing face of Indian university libraries. Describes the developing corporate culture in the university libraries and explores the ways the university libraries can manage change. Presents a case study of managing change at the University of Jammu Library.

This study reveals the complexities of change management in the university libraries and indicates that the university leadership, the library manager, and the professional staff play a key role in affecting change in the university libraries. Highlights that change management and staff development go hand in hand. The paper points to the fact that evaluation and review processes of the universities for accreditation, grading, and certification also help to a great extent to facilitate and manage change. The university libraries may adopt the work culture of the corporate sector for building their collections, managing their finances, training their staff, upgrading their technologies, ameliorating their operations, but for rendering their services they must ensure humanism in practice.

Problem areas identified and strategies tested provide an important input to the university librarians for effectively managing change in the university libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to find out possible barriers of information technology (IT) applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India. All these barriers have their strategic importance for serving the supply chain partners in better way and also help in improving the Indian agrarian economy. The study is a blend of theoretical and practical frameworks, which would focus on those key factors or IT barriers leading to implementation of IT in the sugar supply chain.

The paper is based on theoretical exploration of potential barriers IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India and prioritizing these barriers by employing multi-criteria decision-making approach.

The findings of this paper are identification of barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India, and ranking of these barriers in terms of its severity.

Potential barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India considered in to the study are 11 in total. There can be more barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system.

This study reveals the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy AHP to Indian sugar industry for prioritizing the IT barriers which influence the sugar supply chain.

This paper aims to present an exploration of the potential utilisation of different information and communication technologies (ICT) in Indian academic libraries.

A survey method was used for the collection of data. A structured questionnaire, containing close-ended questions, was sent by postal mail to 30 librarians of the Central University Libraries in India, of which 15 questionnaires were returned.

Academic libraries in India have mostly been involved in applying traditional ICT-based solutions for the management of various library functions and services, particularly for organising and retrieving information. Use of modern ICT-based tools of knowledge creation and sharing such as web discovery tools, blogs, wikis, Real Simple Syndication feeds, social networking and social bookmarking seems uncommon in academic libraries. Lack of trained staff in ICT, low level of ICT skills among library users, unawareness of potential benefits of ICT and inadequate ICT infrastructure were found as the major barriers of ICT applications in academic libraries.

Academic libraries in India are still in the early stage of understanding the importance of modern ICTs. Librarians should renovate existing library environment and develop knowledge and skills among their staff in the fields of computer programming, website or portal development, hardware maintenance and metadata or e-resource management for providing quality information services to their users.

Because no empirical study on the use ICT-based knowledge management (KM) tools in academic libraries in India has been carried out before, this study closes this gap and provides guidelines for practising librarians, policy makers, management and the University Grants Commission of India to promote the use of ICTs in libraries, and to design courses of information communication technology and related skills.

The study aims to explore the relevance of knowledge management (KM) education within library and information science (LIS) educational courses in India.

The study used a quantitative research approach. A Web-based questionnaire survey was designed and distributed through FreeOnlineSurveys.com for the collection of data. A link for attending the survey was sent via electronic mail to the teachers (95 in numbers) of 65 LIS schools. A total of 43 responses (approximately 45 per cent) were received.

The findings show that there is a strong interest among LIS community towards the inclusion of KM education within LIS educational courses to impart the knowledge and skills related to KM among LIS students, and to facilitate their entry into the KM job market. Most of the respondents believe that a curriculum which embodies core elements of LIS, management and information systems and technology would best meet the needs of LIS students for their involvement in KM activities.

Findings of the present study may be used as the groundwork for the revision of current LIS educational courses as well as the revision of LIS curricula to impart the knowledge and skills-related to KM among LIS students for working in KM environment.

As no empirical study on the relevance of KM education to LIS professionals in India has been carried out before, this study closes this gap and provides a framework to modify existing LIS courses or curricula to fulfil the requirement of KM competencies of LIS students.

The effect of culture on various aspects of life, business and disciplines such as knowledge management (KM) has been much studied. Hospitality has also received much attention because it, among others, can produce and redistribute wealth whether in developed or developing economies, who often find it as an invaluable means of generating foreign income. Nonetheless, there is no combination of the three areas in a single study done in a developing economy. The paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the impact of culture on the adoption of KM in the hospitality industry of Nigeria.

Hofstede’s culture model and technology acceptance model were used as underpinning theories to develop a research model which was operationalised into a 45-item questionnaire. A five-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree was used. The questions were closed-ended for the variables of the model, but there were also open-ended questions. Two Nigerian cities were purposely sampled and they generated 195 responses from the 400 questionnaires that were distributed. Correlation analysis was first done to establish relationships before regression analysis was performed after checking for multicollinearity. Findings and conclusions were drawn from significant hypotheses.

The findings showed significant collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, femininity and short- and long-term orientations as factors that would affect adoption of KM in the hospitality industry of Nigeria. Power distance and individualism as factors, on the other hand, were not significant.

The research has produced a model that can form the basis for future research. The study apparently is the first and therefore needs replication in other industries and other developing economies. A comparative study can be done too between developing countries or between a developing and a developed country. Many replicated studies could perhaps produce a generic model that would apply beyond Nigeria. Moreover, as this study is on a moving target both in terms of culture and the extent of KM adoption, subsequent studies could update the findings of this study.

Hospitality managers have to develop and maintain a conducive culture if adoption of KM is to be achieved. Managers should be sensitive to and take good advantage of cultural differences displayed in the personality traits of employees. For example, uncertainty avoidance (preference for precision) could be an asset to make knowledge explicit in computer systems, making it easier to share such knowledge in the organisation. Collectivism and nurturing orientation would encourage knowledge sharing and collaborative work, which is often nowadays done virtually. Managers should encourage knowledge workers to seek and acquire both short- and long-term views of their work.

There apparently is no systematic empirical study that combines KM, hospitality and culture in developing economies’ context. Thus, this study examines the effects of culture on KM adoption in the Nigerian hospitality industry. The findings have practical implications on how the Nigerian hospitality industry can benefit from the application of KM.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a performance‐based allocation model for university libraries in India.

Using economic models with weighted values, a system of allocating funds to university library departments is illustrated.

The paper finds that many university libraries in India struggle to continue their existing operations and services due to financial problems. Careful budgeting and most appropriate use of financial resources is essential to solve the existing financial problems.

The model takes into account efficiency and equity considerations, which can assist the library in allocating its budget in a transparent and fair manner.

The paper aims to study the status and future trend of outsourcing in science and technology libraries in Delhi.

The paper is the result of the detailed literature survey and a survey conducted on 40 science and technology libraries of Delhi, India. Questionnaire and interview tools of survey were used to collect the primary data.

The paper reveals that most Indian libraries have been using selective outsourcing for many years, which has had favorable impact on these libraries. The majority of libraries outsource professional‐automated and non‐professional activities and services. They are still not ready to outsource professional traditional library activities and services, whereas the literature shows that internationally libraries outsourced tradition activities and services equally. Indian libraries also want to continue and expand the use of outsourcing in the future, especially digitization, RFID tagging and maintenance.

The Indian library science literature gives just the reflections of outsourcing being practiced in various libraries and no traces of survey(s) conducted in this area. This paper is the first attempt to glance at this widely used concept in almost all types of libraries in one way or another. This paper may open discussions on an area that is being used by all, although they refrain from accepting it, considering outsourcing as an anti‐professional activity.