Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, Gandhinagar

The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, Gandhinagar is an autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi.

About INFLIBNET Centre

The INFLIBNET Centre is a major national programme initiated by the UGC in March 1991 as a project under the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). It became an independent Inter-University Centre in June 1996. INFLIBNET is involved in modernizing university libraries in India using the state-of-art technologies for the optimum utilisation of information. INFLIBNET is set out to be a major player in promoting scholarly communication among academicians and researchers in India.

Mission and Vision

• Leveraging on the latest technology, create a virtual network of people and resources in academic institutions with an aim to provide effective and efficient access to knowledge through perseverance, innovation and collaboration
• Provide seamless, reliable and ubiquitous access to scholarly, peer-reviewed electronic resources to the academic community in all educational institutions with a focus on services and tools, processes and practices that support its effective use and increase the value of this information
• Build and strengthen ICT infrastructure in educational institutions with value-added services
• Develop tools, techniques and procedures for secure and convenient access management enabling users to access information in electronic format from anywhere, anytime
• Develop resource selection guides and online tutorials for effective delivery and usage of e-resources
• Facilitate the creation of open-access digital repositories in every educational institution for hosting educational and research contents created by these institutions

e-Consortium

e-ShodhSindhu

The e-ShodhSindhu is a consortium for higher education electronics resources. It provides access to e-resources (10000+ full-text journals, 164300+ e-Books and 4 databases through e-ShodhSindhu and 600000 e-Books through NDL) to Universities, Colleges and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) in India.

N-LIST Programme

The National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST) project is being jointly executed by e-ShodhSindhu Consortium, INFLIBNET Centre and the INDEST-AICTE Consortium, IIT Delhi provides for (i) cross-subscription to e-resources subscribed by the two Consortia, i.e. subscription to INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and e-ShodhSindhu resources for technical institutions (ii) access to selected e-resources to colleges. The N-LIST project provides access to e-resources to students, researchers and faculty from colleges and other beneficiary institutions through server(s) installed at the INFLIBNET Centre. The authorized users from colleges can access e-resources and download articles required by them directly from the publisher's website once they are duly authenticated as authorized users through servers deployed at the INFLIBNET Centre.

INFED

The INFLIBNET Access Management Federation (INFED) is the first and only access management federation in India, based on Shibboleth, a standard-based open source software, for authenticating authorized users from colleges, universities and other institutes in India.

InfiStats

The InfiStats Usage Statistics Portal is a platform for harvesting usage statistics from the publisher's website, access to member institutes and reminders for low usage.

ShodhShuddhi

The Ministry of Education, Government of India has initiated a programme ShodhShuddhi which provides access to Plagiarism Detection Software (PDS) to all universities/institutions in India since 1^st September 2019. 1000+ institutions are identified which includes Central Universities, State Universities, Deemed to be University, Private Universities, Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) and Inter-University Centre (IUCs)  of UGC. Under this initiative, URKUND a web-based plagiarism detection software system is being provided to all users of universities/intuitions in the country. This initiative is formally launched on 21^st September 2019.

Library Automation

IndCat

The IndCat is unified online catalogues of Books, Theses and Journals available in major university libraries in India.More than 1.25 crore bibliographic record of books.

SOUL

The Software for University Libraries (SOUL) is a state-of-the-art Integrated Library Management System for library automation. Most installed software in the country

e-Content and e-Learning

e-PG Pathshala

e-PG Pathshala is an initiative of the MHRD (now renamed as Minister of Education) under its National Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT) being executed by the UGC. The e-PG Pathshala is a gateway to all post-graduate courses.

e-Adhyayan (e-Books)

e-Adhyayan is a platform to provide 700+ e-Books for the post-graduate courses. All the e-Books are derived from e-PG Pathshala courses. It also facilitates the play-list of video content.

UGC MOOCs (Online Courses)

The UGC MOOCs is one of vertical to produce courses on Post Graduate subjects in SWAYAM. UGC is one of the national co-ordinators of SWAYAM and INFLIBNET is the technical partner for UGC-MOOCs.

e-Pathya (Offline Access)

e-Pathya is one the verticals of e-PG Pathshala which is software-driven course/content package that facilitates students pursuing higher education (PG level) in distance learning as well as a campus learning mode. It also facilitates offline access.

Vidya-Mitra

The Vidya-Mitra is an online learning portal for all the e-content projects developed under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT). The portal provides facility to search and browse all hosted content wherein a learner can easily access the desired material including audio/video learning material, textual material, multimedia-enriched materials etc. through a single interface. Moreover, features of faceted search, usage statistics, project-wise access, My-Space are incorporated in this portal.

SWAYAM PRABHA

The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 34 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on a 24x7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and NIOS. The INFLIBNET Centre maintains the web portal.

UGC-MOOCs - A Vertical of SWAYAM

The SWAYAM is a programme initiated by the Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching-learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.

Open Access Initiatives

Shodhganga

The Shodhganga is a reservoir of Indian theses. It provides a platform for research students to deposit their Ph.D. theses and make it available to the entire scholarly community in open access. The repository has the ability to capture, index, store, disseminate and preserve ETDs submitted by the researchers.

ShodhGangotri

The ShodhGangotri is an initiative that compliments "ShodhGanga". While "ShodhGanga" is a repository of full-text theses submitted to universities in India, ShodhGangotri hosts synopsis of research topic submitted to the universities in India by research scholars for registering themselves for the Ph.D. programme. Shodhgangotri is now a vibrant project covering not only research in progress but also hosts Major-Minor Research Project/Post Doctorate Fellowship/Emeritus Fellowship etc. (MRPs/PDFs/Fellowships). The repository on one hand, would reveal the trends and directions of research being conducted in Indian universities, on the other hand, it would avoid duplication of research. Synopsis in ShodhGangotri would later be mapped to full-text theses in ShodhGanga. As such, once the full-text thesis is submitted for a synopsis, a link to the full-text theses would be provided from ShodhGangotri to ShodhGanga.

IR@INFLIBNET

The Institutional Repository of INFLIBNET Centre contains articles published in all conventional proceedings of INFLIBNET Centre. It also contains various training material, press clippings, newsletters etc.

InfoPort

The INFLIBNET Centre promotes open access to Indian scholarly content through the InfoPort - A Subject Gateway for Indian Electronic-Resources. While Centre uses and promotes Intute, a well-known subject gateway developed by MIMAS, UK, the InfoPort is designed and developed to serve as a comprehensive gateway to all Indian scholarly content. The gateway open-ups the Indian scholarly content scattered over the Internet through an integrated interface that supports search, browse and multiple listing. The InfoPort selectively catalogues online resources of Indian origin on diversified subjects available in open access through an elaborate process of testing and evaluation. The Centre proposes to collaborate with librarians and scholars in college and universities in the process of identification and selection of resources.

Scholarly Network

Vidwan

The Vidwan is the premier database of profiles of scientists/researchers and other faculty members working at leading academic institutions and other R & D organisation involved in teaching and research in India. It provides important information about expert's background, contact address, experience, scholarly publications, skills and accomplishments, researcher identity, etc. The database developed and maintained by Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) with financial support from the National Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT). The database would be instrumental in the selection of panels of experts for various committees, taskforce, established by the Ministries/Government establishments for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

Indian Research Information Network System (IRINS)

The IRINS is web-based Research Information Management (RIM) service developed by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre in collaboration with the Central University of Punjab. The portal facilitates the academic, R&D organisations and faculty members, scientists to collect, curate and showcase the scholarly communication activities and provide an opportunity to create the scholarly network. The IRINS is available as free software-as-service to the academic and R&D organisations in India. The IRINS would support to integrate the existing research management system such as HR system, course management, grant management system, institutional repository, open and commercial citation databases, scholarly publishers, etc. It has integrated with academic identity such as ORCID ID, Scopus ID, Research ID, Microsoft Academic ID, Google Scholar ID for ingesting the scholarly publication from various sources.

Project and Consultancy

ICSSR Data Service

The ICSSR Data Service is the culmination of the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The MoU provides for setting-up of “ICSSR Data Service: Social Science Data Repository” and host NSS and ASI datasets generated by MoSPI. Under the initiative, social science research institutes, NGOs, individuals and others dealing with social science research are also being approached to deposit/provide their research datasets for hosting into the repository of ICSSR Data Service. The ICSSR Data Service includes social science and statistical datasets of various national-level surveys on debt & investment, domestic tourism, enterprise survey, employment and unemployment, housing condition, household consumer expenditure, health care, etc., into its repository. ICSSR Data Service aims to facilitate data sharing, preservation, accessibility and reuse of social science research data collected from the entire social science community in India & abroad. The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, Gandhinagar has been assigned the task of setting-up the data repository.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD (now renamed as Ministry of Education) and launched on 29^th September 2015. This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions. The parameters broadly cover Teaching, Learning and Resources, Research and Professional Practices, Graduation Outcomes, Outreach and Inclusivity, and Perception.

Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA)

The Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) is an initiative of Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India to systematically rank all major higher educational institutions and universities in India on indicators related to “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development” amongst students and faculties.

E-NBA

The National Board of Accreditation (NBA)has assigned the task to develop a full-fledged online platform for accreditation workflow management system for technical institutes.

National Testing Agency (NTA)

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has been established as a premier, specialist, an autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions. To assess the competence of candidates for admissions and recruitment has always been a challenge in terms of matching with research based international standards, efficiency, transparency and error-free delivery. The National Testing Agency is entrusted to address all such issues using best in every field, from test preparation, to test delivery and to test marking.

Study in India

The Study in India program was integrated by EdCIL (India) Limited, a mini-Ratna Category-I CPSE company based in India. Launched in April 2018, the Study in India program receives applications from across the following regions - SAARC, Africa, South East Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle-East. In an abundant and extensive higher education system such as India, the Study in India interface is a prime intermediary for students to explore, connect, and apply to various top-ranked institutions in the country.

Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat

The Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme aims to enhance interaction and promote mutual understanding between people of different states/UTs through the concept of state/UT pairing. The states carry out activities to promote a sustained and structured cultural connect in the areas of language learning, culture, traditions & music, tourism & cuisine, sports and sharing of best practices etc.

PMMMNMTT

The Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) is a central sector scheme with All- India coverage. The proposed Mission is envisaged to address comprehensively all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation and professional development. The Mission would address, on the one hand, current and urgent issues such as the supply of qualified teachers, attracting talent into the teaching profession and raising the quality of teaching in schools and colleges. On the other, it is also envisaged that the Teacher Mission would pursue long term goal of building a strong professional cadre of teachers by setting performance standards and creating top class institutional facilities for innovative teaching and professional development of teachers.

Conventions

CALIBER

CALIBER an International Convention organized by the INFLIBNET Centre at different parts of the country in collaboration with universities, invites high-quality papers on research and technical works, case studies, technology updates etc. related to the themes and sub-themes of the convention mentioned below. The convention provides a unique forum to the library and information professionals, teachers, IT professionals, consultants and users involved in automation and networking of libraries as well as information providers to come together and interact on the subjects of mutual interest.

PLANNER

Promotion of Library Automation and Networking in North-Eastern Region (PLANNER) is a bi-annual convention with a special focus to uplift academic libraries in the North-Eastern region, India in the aspect of library automation and networking. The event is organized by INFLIBNET Centre along with the universities located in the respective North-Eastern States. The convention is a forum comprising of practising and teaching librarians along with experts and students in the LIS profession who will deliberate upon a wide range of topics based upon the theme that is pertinent to library automation and modernization of libraries with a focus on the North-Eastern States of India.

ICT Skill Development Programmes

Imparting training to manpower working in the university and college libraries in the use of IT is an important objective of the Centre and has been given due priority. INFLIBNET Regional Training Programme on Library Automation (IRTPLA) is one of the popular training programmes organized by the Group in collaboration with colleges and universities regularly. User Awareness Training Programmes on e-resources subscribed under the eShodhSindhu project are being conducted across the country in collaboration with the universities. Besides, the Centre also conducts short-term and long-term specialized training programmes of variable duration depending upon the requirements of users. National and international conventions called PLANNER in North-eastern regions and International CALIBER in various states in India are being organized biannually as a regular activity of the Centre. The Centre has also conducted training programmes on SOUL Installation and Operations for Libraries.

Source: Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, Gandhinagar