Institutional Repository Initiatives in Higher Education Institutions in Tamil Nadu: A Study

Nowadays the intellectual output of the students, faculty and the institution plays an important role in the teaching learning process of a Higher Educational Institution (HEI). Articles, lecture notes, project/thesis, audio/video files, photographs, institutional magazines, journals, newsletters and circulars, annual reports, calendars, curriculum, syllabus and question papers etc are scattered in many places of an institution in print and electronic form. Hence it is essential to collect, classify, arrange and store these materials digitally in a single platform by establishing Institutional Repository (IR) and to provide easy access to them over intranet/internet to the institute community and others. This paper reports the findings of the study on the use of IR software, level of initiation/implementation, usage level and the exposure of librarians on IR in the HEIs of Tamil Nadu i.e. State Universities, Deemed Universities, Engineering Colleges and Arts and Science Colleges.