Information Services II: Web-Scale Discovery Services; National Information Systems and Networks; International Information Systems and Networks; and Library Resource Sharing and Consortia
2. National information systems and networks
| System or network | Origin and parent | Role and current status |
|---|---|---|
| NISCAIR, now CSIR-NIScPR | INSDOC (1952) and NISCOM merged to form NISCAIR (2002); NISCAIR merged with NISTADS in 2021 to form the CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research, New Delhi | Science communication, the National Science Library, research journals, science policy research; the syllabus's "NISCAIR" is now NIScPR |
| DESIDOC | Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre, DRDO, Delhi; began as the Scientific Information Bureau (1958), renamed DESIDOC in 1967 | Information for defence research; publishes the DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology and the Defence Science Journal |
| SENDOC | Small Enterprises National Documentation Centre, Hyderabad, at the National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises | Information for small enterprises and entrepreneurs: technology, markets, project profiles |
| ENVIS | Environmental Information System, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, from 1982; a decentralised network of centres and hubs, now continued as EIACP (Environmental Information, Awareness, Capacity Building and Livelihood Programme) | Environmental data and information by theme and state |
| INFLIBNET | Information and Library Network, begun as a UGC project in 1991 and an autonomous inter-university centre since 1996, Gandhinagar | IndCat union catalogue, SOUL library software, Shodhganga and Shodhgangotri, e-ShodhSindhu, Vidwan, Shodh Shuddhi, and One Nation One Subscription |
| DELNET | Developing Library Network, started in 1988 at the India International Centre, New Delhi, registered as a society in 1992 | Union catalogues, inter-library loan and document delivery among member libraries across India and abroad |
| NICNET | National Informatics Centre (1976) network, Ministry of Electronics and IT | Government network linking central, state and district offices; e-governance services |
| ERNET | Education and Research Network, from 1986, Ministry of Electronics and IT | India's first academic internet network; connects educational and research institutions |
| National Knowledge Network (NKN) | Approved in 2010; implemented by NIC | A high-speed multi-gigabit backbone connecting universities, research labs and libraries; carries e-resources and virtual classrooms |
| Biotechnology Information System Network (BTISnet) | Department of Biotechnology, from the late 1980s | Distributed information centres and bioinformatics facilities across Indian institutions |
3. International information systems and networks
| System | Sponsor and start | Subject and notes |
|---|---|---|
| INIS (International Nuclear Information System) | International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1970 | Peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology; decentralised input by member states (India through BARC); a model for cooperative systems |
| AGRIS (International System for Agricultural Science and Technology) | Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, 1974 | Agricultural literature from national centres; indexed with the AGROVOC thesaurus; open access |
| INSPEC | Institution of Electrical Engineers (now the Institution of Engineering and Technology), UK, 1967, with records going back to Science Abstracts (1898) | Physics, electrical and electronic engineering, computing, control and information technology |
| MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) | US National Library of Medicine, 1964 | Computerised production of Index Medicus; forerunner of MEDLINE (1971) and PubMed (1996); indexed with MeSH |
| BIOSIS | BioSciences Information Service, Philadelphia; publisher of Biological Abstracts (1926); now part of Clarivate's Web of Science platform | Life sciences and biomedical research literature |
| ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) | US Department of Education, 1966 | Education literature, journal articles and grey literature; the ERIC thesaurus; free online |
| Patent Information System (PIS) | Indian Patent Office, Nagpur, set up in 1980 | Patent documentation and search services for Indian and foreign patents; international patent data are also searched through WIPO PATENTSCOPE and Espacenet |
| Biotechnology Information System (BIS) | Department of Biotechnology, India; the system behind the BTISnet network | Bioinformatics centres and biotechnology information; do not confuse this BIS with the Bureau of Indian Standards |
4. Library resource sharing and library consortia: national and international
Resource sharing is the arrangement by which libraries make their resources available to one another, on the principle that no library can be self-sufficient. It covers cooperative acquisition (agreeing who buys what), cooperative cataloguing and union catalogues, inter-library loan and document delivery, shared storage, and shared staff expertise. A consortium is a formal association of libraries that agree to act together, most often to license electronic resources at lower cost and on better terms than each could obtain alone, and to share infrastructure. Consortia bargain collectively, often through "big deals" giving access to a publisher's whole journal list, and they can be centrally funded (the member pays nothing), partially funded, or member-funded (a buying club).
| Consortium | Year and members |
|---|---|
| UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium | From 2003-04, for universities, through INFLIBNET |
| INDEST-AICTE Consortium | 2003, for IITs, IISc, NITs and engineering institutions |
| N-LIST | 2010, e-resources for colleges |
| e-ShodhSindhu | 2016, merging UGC-INFONET, INDEST-AICTE and N-LIST under INFLIBNET |
| CSIR e-journals consortium, later the National Knowledge Resource Consortium (NKRC) | For CSIR and Department of Science and Technology laboratories, coordinated by NIScPR |
| CeRA (Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture) | 2007, ICAR institutes and agricultural universities |
| One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) | Approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2024, operating from 1 January 2025, implemented by INFLIBNET; one national licence to a common set of journals for government higher education and research institutions |
Internationally, OhioLINK in the United States (early 1990s) became a model statewide consortium for shared catalogues, delivery and licensing; OCLC, founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, grew into a global cooperative whose WorldCat is the largest union catalogue; the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC, 1997) is an informal group of consortia worldwide; and national bodies such as Jisc in the UK negotiate licences for whole sectors. Recent consortium negotiations increasingly seek "transformative" or read-and-publish agreements that bundle subscription access with open access publishing.
Key takeaways
- Web-scale discovery (Summon 2009, EDS 2010, Primo, WorldCat Discovery) searches one pre-built central index with relevance ranking and facets, unlike live federated search.
- National systems: INSDOC (1952) to NISCAIR (2002) to CSIR-NIScPR (2021); DESIDOC (1958, renamed 1967); SENDOC; ENVIS (1982, now EIACP); INFLIBNET (1991, IUC 1996); DELNET (1988); NICNET; ERNET (1986); NKN (2010); BTISnet.
- International systems: INIS (IAEA, 1970), AGRIS (FAO, 1974), INSPEC (IET, 1967), MEDLARS (NLM, 1964) leading to MEDLINE and PubMed, BIOSIS (Biological Abstracts), ERIC (1966), PIS (Nagpur, 1980) and the DBT's BIS.
- Resource sharing covers cooperative acquisition, cataloguing, ILL, document delivery and storage; consortia license e-resources collectively.
- Indian consortia: UGC-INFONET, INDEST-AICTE (2003) and N-LIST (2010) merged into e-ShodhSindhu (2016); NKRC; CeRA (2007); One Nation One Subscription (approved November 2024, from 1 January 2025); abroad OhioLINK, OCLC (1967), ICOLC (1997) and Jisc.
Practice questions (10)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
In 2021, NISCAIR was merged with NISTADS to form:
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Answer: B — CSIR-NIScPR
The CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research was formed in 2021 from NISCAIR and NISTADS. INSDOC was NISCAIR's predecessor (1952), DESIDOC is DRDO's centre, and INFLIBNET is the UGC's inter-university centre.INIS, the international information system for nuclear science, is operated by:
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Answer: A — The International Atomic Energy Agency
INIS was set up by the IAEA in Vienna in 1970. The FAO runs AGRIS, the National Library of Medicine built MEDLARS, and UNESCO promoted cooperative systems through UNISIST.Which consortia were merged in 2016 to form e-ShodhSindhu? Select all that apply.
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Answer: A — INDEST-AICTE Consortium; C — N-LIST; D — UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium
e-ShodhSindhu combined UGC-INFONET, INDEST-AICTE and N-LIST under INFLIBNET. CeRA is the separate ICAR consortium for agriculture.MEDLARS, the computerised system of the US National Library of Medicine that preceded MEDLINE, became operational in which year? Type the year.
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: 1964
MEDLARS began operating in 1964 to produce Index Medicus by computer and run batch searches. Its online successor MEDLINE followed in 1971, and PubMed gave free access from 1996.A web-scale discovery service differs from federated search chiefly because it:
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Answer: C — Searches a single pre-harvested central index
Discovery services harvest content in advance into one central index, giving fast, unified relevance ranking. Sending live queries to each database is federated search; discovery covers far more than print books and removes the need to learn each interface.Assertion (A): AGRIS is a cooperative international information system. Reason (R): AGRIS records are indexed with the AGROVOC thesaurus. Choose the correct option.
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Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both are true, but R does not explain A. AGRIS (FAO, 1974) is cooperative because national centres in member countries contribute records of their own literature to the shared database; the use of AGROVOC for indexing is a separate fact about how those records are described.DELNET, which provides union catalogues and inter-library loan among member libraries, began in 1988 at:
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Answer: D — The India International Centre, New Delhi
DELNET began at the India International Centre in 1988 and was registered as a society in 1992. INFLIBNET began as a UGC project, and IISc hosts the National Centre for Science Information.Which statements about One Nation One Subscription are correct? Select all that apply.
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Answer: A — It was approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2024; C — It is implemented through INFLIBNET; D — It began operating on 1 January 2025
ONOS was approved in November 2024, began on 1 January 2025 and is implemented by INFLIBNET for government higher education and research institutions. The RRRLF supports public libraries and has no role in it.A consortium of 40 libraries licenses a journal package. Before joining, each library subscribed to 150 titles; the package gives every member access to 1,200 titles. How many additional titles does each member gain? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: 1050
Additional titles = 1,200 accessible − 150 previously subscribed = 1,050. This cross-access, reaching titles a member never paid for, is the main gain of consortium licensing.Which subject area does INSPEC cover?
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Answer: B — Physics, electrical engineering, electronics and computing
INSPEC, produced by the Institution of Engineering and Technology in the UK, covers physics, electrical and electronic engineering, computing and control. AGRIS covers agriculture, ERIC education, and BIOSIS the life sciences.