Trends in acquisition and usage of electronic resources at Indian Institutes ofTechnology libraries

Abstract

The paper studies the trends in acquisition of e-resources vis-a-vis their print counterparts, identifies the e-resourcesbeing subscribed by Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) libraries at Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Kanpur,Guwahati and Roorkee either individually or through a consortium, and analyzes the usage of these resources during2004-11. The study also compiles a union list of all e-resources accessible at IIT Libraries. Data were collected bypersonal visits, interviews, and using a questionnaire. Web sites and annual reports of the Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, IITs and INDEST-AICTE Consortium were also scanned to supplement the above information.COUNTER compliant data as provided by the publishers were used to study the usage. Data analysis revealed that IITlibraries spend a significantly large proportion of their budgets to acquire e-resources. There is a clear shift in thecollection development policies of these libraries where e-resources have become a vital part of their core collections.E-resources in all IITs are being heavily used as the number of downloads have increased from 32,33,818 to 76,17,691articles reflecting a growth of 135% over a period of 8 years.