New system to catalogue library books
In
a decision which may adversely affect the marketing of Indian books in other
countries, the Ministry of Culture (MoC) has decided to merge the functions of
the Central Reference Library (CRL) with the National Library.
The
CRL, located in the National Library campus in Kolkata, is responsible for the
publication and sale of the Indian National Bibliography (INB). The INB is the
list of all books published in India annually and is the key source for foreign
libraries to know about the books published in India.
“The
Secretary (Culture) has directed that the work of cataloguing (National
Library) and bibliography (CRL), should be merged…” the Under Secretary of MoC
N.K.Sinha stated in a letter to the head Librarian of CRL and the Director
General of the National Library. As for the purpose of the merger of two institutions’
functions, the letter states that it will “reduce duplicity [the same book
being catalogued twice by both institutes] and speed up the process of
accession.”
Unlike
the ISBN system, which requires the unique number assigned to the book, the
more convenient IBN enables the search for a book with the names of authors,
language or subject matter. With the possible disruption in the publication of
the INB, it may become difficult for a foreign reader/ buyer to search for
books published in India as they may not be having the ISBN number.
The
MoC has set a target of “9,000 books per month (250 per person)” to be
catalogued by the staff of both the institutes. CRL has to catalogue 3,000
books and the National Library 6,000 books as monthly targets, respectively.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming Lecture |
ACTREC - BOSLA Annual lecture series (125th
birth anniversary of father of library science, Padmashree Dr. S. R.
Ranganathan) on Saturday, 12th August 2017 at Advanced Centre for
Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Kharghar, Navi
Mumbai. (Theme | 'MakerSpace')
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