LIBRARY AUTOMATION: A STUDY OF THE AIC, BANSDOC
AND THE NATIONAL LIBRARIES OF BANGLADESH

Dr. Md. Hanif Uddin

Assistant Professor ,
Dept. of Information Science and Library Management,
 University of Dhaka
Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

Introduction

Mechanization of library house keeping operations predominantly by computerization is known as library automation. The most commonly known house keeping operations are acquisition, serial control, cataloguing and circulation control. In recent times, even the related topics such as information retrieval, semi-automatic/automatic indexing and networking of automated system are also treated as part of library automation (Rao, 1996:2). Library automation may be defined as the application of automatic and semiautomatic data processing machines (computers) to perform traditional library house keeping activities such as acquisition, circulation, cataloguing and reference and serials control.(lnt.lib.rev.1989:76). Today "Library Automation" is by far the most commonly used term to describe the mechanization of library activities using the computer.

There are several reasons for computerizing library activities. A machine
readable record, prepared at the time of acquisition may be used repetitively for several purposes. Thus a considerable saving in effort, time and resources involved in manual processing can be achieved. The other reasons for computerizing library activities are (Rao, 1996:4)

(a) To improve control over collection;

(b) To have an effective control over the entire operation;

(c) To improve the existing services;

(d) To share effectively the resources among various libraries in a region;

(e) To avoid duplication of work;

(f) To use the services of the existing staff effectively;

(g) To satisfy the users; and

(h) To economies expenditure for library activities.

The existing position of library automation of some premier libraries, documentation and information centres of Bangladesh have been evaluated in this paper. These are namely Agricultural Information centre (AIC), Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation centre (BANSDOC), National Health Library & Documentation Centre (NHLDC) and the National Library of Bangladesh.

Agricultural Information centre

The National Agricultural Library and Documentation Centre (NALDOC) was established in 1980 at BARC complex , Airport road, Farmgate Dhaka. NALDOC was renamed as AIC (Agricultural Information centre) in the year 1988 . AIC, sponsored by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) was placed under the Ministry of Agriculture , Government of the peoples Republic of Bangladesh . There is a strong need for such a centre in recognition of the pressing need' for a national information system for effective promotion of co-operation and co-ordination in production and exchange of information in agriculture and allied sciences among the member institutes under the National Agricultural Research System (NARS)(BMA, Approved Project for NALDOC: 1).

Aims and objectives of the AIC

         1.    The main objective of the AIC is to serve as an Agricultural Information resources centre to facilitate the agricultural scientists, policy makers. Teachers and student in their research activities.
2.    To establish an agricultural information network  with effective   linkages among NARS institutions.
3.    To serve the agricultural information needs of the NARS institutions and individual scientists in their literature search.
4.    To promote new and better techniques, including training for ' handling and disseminating agricultural information.
5.    To train NARS personnel on computerized information processing, technical writing and editing etc.
6.    To act as the focal point of NARS information system and to strengthen and co-ordinate the activities of NAIS.
7.    To consolidate participation in the regional and international Agricultural Information system like AGRIS.

Information resources

AIC has a good collection of books , pamphlets and journals. Table 1 indicates the number of information resources available at the AIC.

Table 1: Information resources available at the AIC

The library has also a good collection of materials on irrigation and water management, consultancy reports, annual reports on agro-ecological zones
(AEZ) and users manuals of land and soil resources of thanas of Bangladesh.
Services rendered by the AIC

The following services are provided by the AIC

(a) Technical services

(b) users services

c) . Information services

(d) Document supply services

(c) News paper indexing services

(f) Audio-visual services

(s) SDI services

(h) Literature searches and

(i) CD- ROM search

Automation of the AIC

The centre is mainly concerned with development of collection of information materials (AIC, 1998) and their technical processing for effective and efficient use. Since 1990, the library materials are being processed in computers where a database has been created for the books, reports, etc. It has been using Universal Decimal Classification scheme for classifying library materials. The centre uses CDS/ISIS program for creating data base. The centre has developed the following databases (AIC,1998 : 5).

a. database on AIC holdings

b. database on National Agricultural systems

c.  database on periodicals available in the AIC

d. database on newspaper articles published in the major newspapers of Bangladesh and
e.  data base on periodical collections of NARS institutes Library.

Future plan

AIC is planning to intensify its activities in pooling information on agriculture at a national level by establishing a National agricultural Information system (NAIS) and to act as the apex body of all information cells under the NARS institutions. The centre will provide the latest data and information through computerization under broad based programmes. Dissemination of information among the NARS institutes would help to develop fisheries, forestry, livestock, crop multiplication programs and transfer of technology among them and to the grassroots level users (Ahmed, 1998: 4).

Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre
(BANSDOC) : BANSDOC, originally a branch office of the then Pakistan National scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (PANSDOC) started functioning in 1962. After the independence of Bangladesh, it was placed under the Bangladesh council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) in 1972. As per the provisions of the National Science and Technology policy of Bangladesh, announced in 1986, the BANSDOC was placed under the administrative control of science and technology Ministry and was developed as an independent organization. The policy envisages the creation of 3-tier science and Technology information system in the country with the BANSDOC as the apex organization (1st tier) having four sectional documentation centres as the 2nd tier and the individual institutional libraries and documentation centres as the 3rd tier (LAB, 1993 : 24). BANSDOC has been designated as the national focal point of the scientific and technological information system in Bangladesh. It has also been functioning as the national focal point of many regional and international scientific and technological information systems in the world, including the SAARC Documentation centre (SDC) established in New Delhi, India.

The following are the Objective of the BANSDOC

       a) collection, processing and storage of information and data on scientific
     research and experimental development in all branches of science and
     technology.

      b) Dissemination of such information to researchers irrespective of their
   affiliations whether they are engaged in research and academic
   institutions, planning organizations, policy making bodies and in the
   public and private industries sector and

      c) Assistance to researchers to make contact with researchers of other
  countries working in the same field of interest.

BANSDOC renders following services

a) Document procurement service

b) Scientific contact service

c) Translation service

d) Bibliography compilation service

e) Document reproduction service

f)   Library service

g) Computer service and

h) Inter library lending service

Automation of the BANSDOC

BANSDOC library is a modern and resourceful library of scientific and technological books and journals. The library has about 16,000 books on different branches of science and technology. It subscribes to 182 titles of national and international journals. The centre introduced computer service in 1988. It has personal computers, laser and dot matrix printers, CD-ROM database on life sciences collection. At present computers are being used in data entry, in preparing card catalogue, and in all official works. It has a database which holds 4000 records. Library personnel are well trained in computer courses. With a view to enhancing the capability of BANSDOC to provide quicker and effective services to its users, modern information systems like telex, fax and e-mail have already been installed at BANSDOC (BANSDOC, 1996 : 7)

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