University Libraries in North India: A Comparative Analysis

This paper includes the profile of five university libraries of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. The profile of five universities as well as their libraries is compared. The Integrated Library Management Software (ILMS) used by them and use of ILMS in its housekeeping operations are also discussed. The data were collected both from primary and secondary sources. Primary data included information obtained from five university libraries with the help of questionnaires. The secondary sources included information obtained from the library records like annual reports, budget estimates, ledgers and other official records. Panjab University (PU) has the highest number of faculty members, whereas Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) has the minimum faculty members. Punjabi University (PbiU) has the highest number of research scholars, whereas Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU) has the minimum research scholars. MDU library has the highest budgetary provision for purchase of books, whereas it is lowest in Kurukshetra University (KU) library. PU library has the highest budgetary provision for journals and e-resources, whereas PbiU library has the lowest budget for journals and e-resources. PU library has the maximum documents, whereas least number of resources are available at MDU library. PU library has maximum number of books, whereas MDU library has the least number of books. MDU library has the highest number of e-book, whereas KU library do not have any e-book. The acquisition section of PU, PbiU and MDU is fully automated, whereas the acquisition section of GNDU and KU is partially automated. PU library is using ‘SLIM21 and Dbase’ Library Management Software in its library, whereas PbiU, KU and MDU libraries are using ‘LIBSYS’ and GNDU library is using ‘CLIPS’ software in its library.