INFORMATION

CENTRES
Types and their
Organisation
MLIB-Paper VIII-
Lecture 1

By
Dr Sonal Singh
 Modern libraries are rightly
known as the information centres
actively engaged in making
optimum use of information
resources.

Today, readers need not only

books and other reading material

INTRODUCTI from the library but they need

exact information regarding their
problem of study.
ON Today, libraries provide timely
access to relevant information by
collecting, storing and processing
recorded information.

Today, libraries are known as

information centre, library service
as information service and
librarian as information officer.
 Information centre acts as a bridge to
avoid information gap between
information needs of a user and actual
information needed.

INFORMATI It is an agency to provide Right

ON information to Right user at Right time
in Required format.
CENTRES Libraries traditionally collects and
disseminates the document, but an
information centre gives information
that is inside the document and also
processes it and disseminates it.
 For rapid distribution of information for its optimum and
maximum use.

To make the country a well - developed nation.

NEED FOR To organise ever growing volume and variety of

information sources.
INFORMATI Knowledge of developments in various subject areas.

ON To help the scientists and policy makers to take right and

CENTRE- prompt decision.

Easy access to new publications, information services and

databases.

To avoid duplication of efforts

 Selection , acquisition, storage
and retrieval of specific
FUNCTION information.
S OF Announcement, abstracting ,
INFORMATI extracting and indexing of
information.
ON
CENTRES Dissemination of information on
request/in anticipation.
 The information centres may be categorised as
under-
By Specialised Interest.

TYPES OF By ownership

INFORMATIO By Level of service.

N CENTRES By variety of services provided.

By type of material

By service in terms of users

 Keeping in view the specialised interest,
the information centres may be of
INFORMATIO following types-
N CENTRES
BY 1. Subject- oriented- Such information
centres are devoted to a specific subject
SPECIALISE like, Social Science, Agriculture, medical,
Engineering, Technology, etc.
D
2.Mission- oriented- Such information
INTEREST centres are devoted to missions, sectors
of national economy.
 3. Special information-
oriented- Such information
centres are devoted to a
INFORMATIO particular kind of information, like
N CENTRES Agricultural, Medical, legal,
industrial , Bibliographical, etc.
BY
4. Geographical Region-
SPECIALISED oriented- Such information
INTEREST centres are devoted to
information from specific
geographical region.
  Keeping in view the ownership , the
information centres may be of following
types-
 1.Government oriented- Such
information centres are owned, funded,
and run by Government agencies, like
INFORMATION National Information Centre, New Delhi.

CENTRES BY  2. Semi-Government oriented- Such

information centres are run by Semi-
OWNERSHIP government , like National Centre for
Science (NCSI) established as a UGC
Inter-University Centre, is the information
centre of Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore that provides electronic
information services to the institute
academic community.
  3. Autonomous Body oriented- Such
information Centres are run by Learned
societies or professional associations.
 4. Private Information Centres- Such
INFORMATION information centres are owned and run by
private agencies, like TERI (The Energy
CENTRES BY and Resource Institute), which is a
research institute in New Delhi that
OWNERSHIP specialises in the field of energy,
environment and sustainable development
. Its information centre has emerged as a
pioneering research information centre in
South Asia on energy, environment and
sustainable development.
INFORMATION CENTRES BY
OWNERSHIP
 5. International Information centres- Such
information centres are inter governmental
organisations devoted to provide information to the
nations concerned, like International Trade Centre
(ITC) having its Headquarter in Geneva. It provides
trade information service for international
development and economic development.
INFORMATION CENTRES BY LEVEL
OF SERVICE
 Keeping in view the level of service, the information
centres may be of following types-
 1.Global Information System/centres- Such
information systems operate at global level having
decentralised input, centralised processing and
decentralised dissemination of information like,
International Nuclear Information System (INIS) is a
unique and valuable information resource, offering global
coverage of nuclear literature.It hosts one of the world’s
largest collections of published information on the
peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.
INFORMATION CENTRE BY LEVEL OF
SERVICE
 2. Regional Information Centre- Such institutions operate at
regional level. The countries belonging to a geographical region group
together create regional information activities, like, SAARC (South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) has its regional centre-
The SAARC Documentation Centre (SDC) at New Delhi. It acts as
depository of information resources that includes regional and
international databases on various disciplines. The centre also
regularly organises training courses in the area of information
technology for information management. SDC acts as a repository of
books, journals, documents and reports on scientific, technical and
developmental matters produced in the region and on the region.
INFORMATION CENTRE BY LEVEL OF
SERVICE
 3. National Information Centres- Such
institutions operate at national level and perform
national level functions and services, like National
Institute of Science Communication and Information
Resources (NISCAIR), located at New Delhi, is an
information science institute that operates under
the umbrella of Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR). The institute provides the
Associateship in Information Science degree and
also publishes several academic journals and
magazines.
INFORMATION CENTRE BY LEVEL OF
SERVICE
 4. Sectoral Information centres- Such information
centres are devoted to a specific discipline. These are
available to national basis to users and institutions are
engaged in the concerned discipline or mission, like National
Information Centre for Food Sciences and Technology
(NICFOS) is a discipline oriented information centre to
provide information on Food Sciences and Technology and its
peripheral areas. It is one of the sectoral information centres
funded by NISSAT.
 5. Local Information Centres- Such institutions operate at
local level. They are attached to individual organisations to
meet their specific needs.
 Such institutions offer varied special services to
users. By variety of services, these may be of
INFORMATIO following types-

N CENTRES
BY VARIETY 1. Current awareness services- It is a special
service to keep the information seekers abreast
with the latest development in the respective

OF fields.

SERVICES 2. Abstracting and Digest Services- These are

specialised services, highly useful for users.

PROVIDED Abstracting service provides abstracts of

publications, often on a subject or group of
related subjects. The Digest service provides
compilation of information periodically, may be in
magazine form with summaries of the news or
other information.
INFORMATIO 3. Product Information Services- It is a
specialised service of information industry in which

N CENTRES access is provided to information goods, such as

books and databases and also to various library
services like traditional library services , market

BY VARIETY
research services and alerting services.

OF 4. Data Bank- It is a repository of information on

one or more subjects- a database organised in a
SERVICES way to facilitate local or remote information
retrieval and is able to process many continual
queries over a long period of time.

PROVIDED
 By type of materials, these information
centres may be of following types-

INFORMATIO 1. Standards- It is a technical document

N CENTRES designed to be used as a rule, guideline or
definition that helps to do something in an
agreed way. Any organisation can establish
BY TYPE OF standards for internal or external use having
technical specifications.

MATERIALS
2. Patents- A patent is a right granted to an
inventor which excludes others from making,
using, selling and importing an invention.
 3. Engineering Drawings- It is a type
of technical drawing which is used to
fully and clearly define requirements of
INFORMATIO engineered items and to communicate
ideas and information from one mind to
N CENTRES another.

BY TYPE OF 4. Audio-Visual Materials- These are

non-book materials that can be
MATERIALS understood by observing visual aspect
of any thing’s. These are helpful in
increasing the effectiveness of teaching,
learning and research purpose.
 By service in terms of users, the information
centres may be of following types-

INFORMATIO
N CENTRES 1.Research and Development users-
These are the users actively engaged in

BY SERVICE discovering new contributions to verified

knowledge or in discovering practical
application of knowledge to solve a social

IN TERMS problem.

OF USERS 2. Research , Production and Industrial

Users- These are the users devoted toward
research for the progress of an industry and
also to discover the ways for increasing
production of industry.
INFORMATION
 3. Government Employees- These are
CENTRES BY the users of Government sector, mostly
executives charged with the administration
SERVICE IN of an organisation. These are the decision
makers and requires intellectual
TERMS OF information from recorded knowledge.

USERS
ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION
CENTRES
 The information centres are organised to provide better and efficient
services to its users. The information centres may be of global,
national, regional , sectoral or local level and accordingly the
organisational responsibility is handed over to a global organisation.
At national level , the organisation may be handed over to parent
institution or any government agency to establish and administer the
information centre. If research and Development activities are funded
by the government then the information centres are mostly
established in Government sectors.
 The information centres are organised
to fulfil their functions in an efficient
way. The main functions are Acquisition
and processing of documents , their
ORGANISATIO systematic storage for rapid retrieval,
and various information services to
N OF satisfy the users.
INFORMATION According to size of library, number of
users, collection strength, the personnel
CENTRES requirement- both professional and non-
professional, administrative staff,
clerical staff, should be appointed in
proper quantity and quality.
 Classifier, cataloguer, indexer, etc should be
selected very carefully.

For circulation services, inter library loan service,

ORGANISATIO reference service, reprographic services,
translation services, abstracting services , should
N OF be taken care of.

INFORMATION While establishing an information centre , its

CENTRES overall objectives should be taken care of.

According to services, users, collection, Building

and equipment should be selected.
 Executive authority for supervision and
administration, functional organisation ,
budgeting, and developing operational capability
should be well organised.

ORGANISATIO The building should have modular planning to

make suitable changes.
N OF
INFORMATION The facilities for specially abled persons should be

CENTRE taken proper care of.

Mobile appliances with charging facility should

make a special corner of Information centres.
  Information centres constitute the
information infrastructure of a country and
helps to develop it as a developed country.
The purpose of every information centre is
to provide instant access to information.
There are various types of information
CONCLUSION centres to fulfil the purpose of access of
information. The today’s information
centre helps in accessing global
information 24/7 days with internet and
other computer and mobile appliances to
establish sharing of information resources
among the like minded.
QUESTIONS/QUERIES ?

 [email protected]
THANK YOU
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