Page 11 - Annual Report 2016_17

1. Introduction

The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre is an autonomous Inter-University Centre
(IUC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) located at Infocity, Gandhinagar. Major activities and
services of the Centre are geared towards modernization of academic libraries and information centres,

to promote information transfer and access, to support scholarship, learning and academic pursuits.
The Centre acts as a nodal agency for networking of libraries and information centres in universities,
institutions of higher learning and R & D institutions in India.The Centre was established as an
independent autonomous Inter-University Centre of the UGC in May 1996 and set out to be a major

player for promoting scholarly communication among academicians and researchers across the
country.

The technology being a driving force in the contemporary education system, the Centre, has taken-up a
number of initiatives for the benefit of the academic community in India. These initiatives include i)
IndCat, a unified online catalogue of books, theses and journals available in major university libraries in
India; ii) SOUL 2.0, state-of-the-art integrated library management software; iii) e-Shodh Sindhu, for

extending access to selected scholarly electronic journals and databases to eligible universities,
centrally-funded technical institutions and colleges in different disciplines; iv) Shodhganga, for
enabling online submission of doctoral theses and dissertations by research scholars in an open access
digital repository; v) Shodhgangotri, for facilitating research scholars to submit approved synopsis of
research proposals submitted to their universities; vi) Open Journals Access System (OJAS), to facilitate
faculty and researchers in Indian universities to launch their open access journals on OJAS platform; vii)

InfoPort: INFLIBNET’s Subject Gateway for Indian Electronic Resources; viii) e-PG Pathshala, a project
assigned to the UGC by NME-ICT, wherein e-content are being developed in 77 subjects at postgraduate
level; ix) VIDWAN, a premier database of profiles of scientists and faculty members working in leading
academic institutions and other R & D organisations involved in teaching and research in India; x) Vidya-

Mitra - an Integrated e-content portal: a web-based portal, consisting of all e-content created with
funding from NME-ICT, MHRD; xi) ICSSR Data Service: Social Science Data Repository, for setting up of
repository and hosting of NSS and ASI datasets into the data repository; xii) National Institutional
Ranking Framework (NIRF), a project assigned by MHRD for ranking institutions of higher education
across the country; and xiii) SWAYAM PRABHA- an MHRD project under NME-ICT, conceived as a group
of 32 DTH channels completely devoted to telecasting high-quality educational programmes.

2. 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

- 2 -