Indira Gandhi National Open University - [IGNOU]

The IGNOU library is the most resourceful information centre in the country in the field of Distance Education. The library has the largest collection of books, journals and other related materials in the field of Distance Education, throughout the country. It was established in 1986 in tune with the objectives of IGNOU.

The primary mission of the library is to support the educational and research programmes of the University by providing physical and intellectual access to information. In accordance with the objectives of the University, the library aims to develop a comprehensive collection of documents, useful for the readers.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University operates through a three-tier system having University Headquarters at Maidan Garhi, New Delhi; Regional Centres and Learner Support Centres scattered all over the country. Library and Documentation Division is a hierarchical system with the Central Library at the Headquarters followed by libraries located at Regional Centres (RCL) and Learner Support Centres (LSC). The Central Library caters to the needs of Academic, Administrative and Supportive staff and students at the headquarters.The RCLs look into the library requirements of Staff, Students, Academic Counselors and Academic coordinators at Regional Centres and the SCLs to meet the needs of the students exclusively. The number of RCLs and LSCs change from time to time depending upon the establishment of new RCs and LSCs considering the enrollment of students in the region. Every RC and LSC invariably has a small library attached to it. The Central Library is the main library which co-ordinates the effective functioning and development of RCLs and LSCs.The Central Library has been using the Koha, an integrated Library Management software package with all the modules for the library housekeeping operations. Using Koha Web OPAC, users can search the library online catalogue by Author, Title, Subject and Keywords.

As the role of the Library within any University can be realised only in the context of the institution's philosophy of education, the basic objectives of the L&DD are in tune with those of the IGNOU. They are as follows:

Acquisition Section of the Library deals with the purchase of books, reference books, textbooks serial publication and multi-volume books. The section also deals with day to day operations such as receiving indents for purchase of books, checking duplicates, placing orders, receiving and entering the books with serial number in the accession register as well as in the system of the Library and the budget control etc.

Technical services are the "behind the scene" activities that a library undertakes to effectively deliver library services to the public. These services include the processes and procedures which are necessary to order library materials, like classifying, cataloging, assigning subject headings, data entry, checking and physical processing, to get the materials ready to put on library shelves. These services also include the activities that are necessary to control the lending and returning of library materials. Other technical services include the activities related to preservation of library materials. Library follows Dewey Decimal Classification scheme for classification, AACR2 for cataloguing, Library of Congress Subject Headings for assigning subject headings and Cutter’s Author mark for book numbers etc.,

Periodical Section handles Print as well as Electronic Journals databases. Processes Journal subscriptions, renewals, orders, payments/advances, Journals receipts, bound volumes every year. Maintains budget (s), accounts and statistics. Regulates the shelf arrangement of the current journals, displays recent arrivals daily.

This is the front end of library operations providing the lending services to the library users. All the functions of this section are computerised and the transactions in this section are based on the barcode technology. All the registered library users are provided with a Bar-coded ID Card and all the books in the library are bar-coded.