Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A Survey of Engineering College Libraries in Sri Venkateswara University Area, Andhra Pradesh, India
Date of this Version
12-2011
Abstract
Engineers have been important to every civilization, ancient and modern. They invent, design, build and produce most of the products that make up the present civilization. They find out the solutions to the practical problems faced by the society. Hence, they play a key role in socio-economic development of any nation.
Today, engineers require not only adequate technological ability and problem solving skills, but also skills like cooperation, communication, and presentation skills, business ethics and inter-personal relationship. They must have deep commitment to safety, reliability, quality and sustainability of all engineering operations in which they take part. Engineering colleges have now a new responsibility to provide opportunities to every engineering student or professional to acquire these abilities in addition to their technological knowledge. Hence, excellent engineering colleges are essential to prepare engineers with good knowledge and skills. Teachers, laboratories and libraries are important components in imparting effective engineering education to them.
The objective of an engineering college library is to assist engineering professionals in enhancing and updating their knowledge and skills, and to provide them information regarding new innovations, views, theories, engineering education, and research. The primary role of engineering college library is to collect and organize recorded information in engineering and allied subjects to meet the needs of users. Information and Communication Technologies are increasingly used to collect, store, retrieve and disseminate a great amount of information to help engineering professionals. Library survey is “a systematic collection of data concerning libraries, their activities, operations, staff use and users, at a given time or over a given period”. Library surveys are conducted to study the existing library conditions, library facilities, library personnel, nature of users and non-users, library services, library resources; to compare th peresent conditions and desired standards; to make suggestions for their improvement; and to develop library standards.