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The journal subscription data of the Central Library (CL) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur during 1995‐97 is analysed to assess the prevalent information drought experienced by researchers in less developed countries. The rationale of the study, some of the myths about electronic alternatives over print media, etc. are explained. A study conducted in 1995 at the CL by gathering subscription details from other IITs to explore the options of resource sharing is extracted to present the duplication rates of costly journals. Quantification of research publications from the IIT, Kaharagpur and India are also attempted using electronic databases like CCOD and INSPEC. The budgeting pattern of CL is presented from the IIT’s Annual Report. Some possible suggestions to get over the information drought are also explored.

The Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur has begun developing an information facility called KELNET (Kharagpur Electronic Library on the Internet) as a means of coping with the spiralling cost of information resources and the increased demands being placed on library services. Describes the development of KELNET to date and looks at prospects for its continuation.

This paper deals with standardising commands for CD‐ROM searching, such as NISO Z 39.58 and ISO 8777, and the command languages evolved through EasyNet and Euronet. The standard commands are also compared with the software from database providers SilverPlatter, Dialog, and ISI. Apart from a discussion on the various attempts towards standardising search software, the groundwork for command languages and their implementation, the influence of the command languages on the evolving CD products is also highlighted.

This paper aims to highlight the research output of library and information science of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations during the ten year period, i.e. 2005-2014, as reflected through the Web of Science database.

This study used Social Science Index (SSCI) of Web of Science (WoS) citation database to collect data for the ten year period. All records indexed in SSCI were refined by subject area of “Information Science and Library Science” and selected countries. The downloaded results were analyzed by using specific parameters.

WoS indexes different kinds of documents, such as articles, conference proceedings, biographical items, book reviews, corrections, editorial material, letters, reprints and reviews. Out of the BRICS output, almost 90 per cent of papers were articles. Other types of documents included conference papers, review papers and book reviews. China contributed nearly half of the documents followed by Brazil, South Africa, India and Russia. On an average, a document had cited 34 references. More than one-third of records did not receive any citations. It has been observed that the titles that had 11-16 words attracted the most number of citations. The top ten publishers in whose journals the researchers published included Emerald, Elsevier and Springer. The primary subject areas were information science and library science, information systems, interdisciplinary applications and management. About 85 per cent of the documents were published in English. Around 93 per cent of the non-English research publications were in Portuguese, the official language of Brazil.

There are not many studies on BRICS countries and that too about Library and Information Science (LIS) research output. This study may reveal insights into how LIS researchers interact with local and global issues in a specific spectrum of the world community.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a personalised information support system to help faculty members to search various portals and e‐resources without typing the search terms in different interfaces and to obtain results re‐ordered without human intervention.

After a careful survey of various tools and techniques available for computerised client‐centred information services, the study selected to apply web usage mining, proxy level data collection and a vector space retrieval model to develop the personalised information support for teaching and research in a higher education institution.

There are practical constraints in the implementation stage. There is considerable difficulty in getting real and correct user interests and mapping them effectively into the products and services offered by the library. Also the interests of users change continuously. If multiple users share the same PC, it is difficult to identify the user as there is no one‐to‐one mapping between user and IP address.

The paper has not considered cases for all the faculty members due to time constraints. The results obtained from the system also need correlation with the sources actually used by the faculty to test its efficacy in a highly fluid research situation like higher academics.

A pragmatic client‐centred information support prototype described in this paper may find use in other institutions needing similar information support.

This paper demonstrates the pragmatic application of ICT for linking users and e‐resources in an academic library.

The paper aims to assess the level of preparedness of the Central Libraries of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to personalize content and seeks to determine whether the personalization service prototype being developed at IIT Kharagpur can be extrapolated to the remaining IITs.

A questionnaire was sent to the Librarians of the seven IITs, designed to compare the available information resources and services, with special emphasis on user interests and personalization aspects. The survey was supplemented by study visits to a couple of the Institutes.

Kharagpur and Mumbai have implemented personalization services in some form while the remaining IITs plan to adopt them in the near future. There is also a strong case for extending Kharagpur's personalization service, currently in project mode, to the other IITs.

IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur failed to return the questionnaires, so relevant information regarding these Institutes had to be collected from their web sites and other available sources. There is also scope for further research to accurately access the current status of personalization activities in all the IITs.

With parallel interests and similar research and information facilities, personalization services in one IIT can be replicated and utilized by all the others, leading to greatly enhanced library services in all the Institutes.

This one of a kind survey underlines the need for and possibility of making content personalization a reality in advanced technical libraries. The results obtained are valuable to all IIT libraries in particular and academic/technical libraries in general.

Awareness of the latest publications is vital for science and technology research and, in inter‐ and intra‐disciplinary research coupled with the so‐called information explosion, coping with current information is a tedious process. Library and information professionals are resorting to refining old techniques to effectively serve their clients in this critical exercise. This paper demonstrates how the time‐tested techniques of selective dissemination of information is suitably modified and delivery is made electronically to generate current information lists for faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

To provide a selective bibliography in the emerging area of library content personalization for the benefit of library and information professionals.

A range of recently published works (in the period 1993–2004), which aim to provide pragmatic application of content personalization rather than theoretical works, are discussed and sorted into “classified” sections to help library professionals understand more about the various options for formulating content as per the specific needs of their clientele.

This paper provides information about each category of tool and technique of personalization, indicating what is achieved and how particular developments can help other libraries or professionals. It recognises that personalization of library resources is a viable way of helping users deal with the information explosion, conserving their time for more productive intellectual tasks. It identifies how computer and information technology has enabled document mapping to be more efficient, especially because of the ease with which a document can be indexed and represented with multiple terms, and confirms that this same functionality can be used to represent a user's interests, facilitating the easy linking of relevant sources to prospective users. Personalization of library resources is an effective way for maximizing user benefit.

This is not an exhaustive list of developments in personalization. Rather it identifies a mix of products and solutions that are of immediate use to librarians.

A very useful source of pragmatic applications of personalization so far, that can guide a practicing professional interested in creating similar solutions for more productive information support in his/her library.

This paper fulfils an identified need for a “review of technology” for LIS practitioners and offers practical help to any professional exploring solutions similar to those outlined in this paper.

In the last five years, more and more universities have ventured into offering library courses on the distance mode, without any major increase in the demand for library professionals in the Indian job market. The motivations behind this practice are visible to a curious observer, and it is attempted in this paper, to list unusual conditions of the distance learning practice for library and information science education in India. A comparison of the library professional with an engineering professional is explored to arrive at the facts. Since accurate data about the number of library jobs is not available, two models were constructed to justify that the demand on library jobs is fully satisfied by the regular courses. The aspirations of working graduates of libraries to become professionally competent can be satisfied by resorting to an “accommodative” attitude by library schools. The challenges posed by the unchecked growth on distance education can be tackled only by the formation of a Library Education Council (LEC) with proper support by the professionals, administrators and professional organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a brief outline of the potential applications of intelligent agent technology in libraries with a list of illustrative examples.

A definition and the attributes of intelligent agents are presented, along with different types of agents and their wide‐ranging applications in various contexts. Illustrative examples of intelligent agents are presented, with some interesting case studies from different domains.

The role of intelligent agents in modern libraries is highlighted from various perspectives, such as electronic information services, collection development and acquisition, classification and organization of library materials, indexing and abstracting, issuing collection, and reference services.

The authors do not attempt to devise an intelligent agent to test these applications in the libraries where they work, although they wish to pursue it as a future course of action.

With libraries dealing with patrons who never disclose fully their information needs and research interests to library staff, libraries have to resort to newer methods of feedback collection, and intelligent agents provide viable options to improve information organization and refine library services.

The paper, being very precise and covering the latest developments, offers new insight into the field of intelligent agents and their pragmatic applications in libraries to interested professionals.