An analysis of the contributions to Library and Information Science journals in India, 1971–1982

ht.

Libr.

Rev.

(1984) 16, 223-230

An Analysis of the Contributions to Library and Information Science Journals in India, 1971-82 S. SINGH*

The first ever journal in the field of Library and Information Science was instituted in the United States more than one hundred years ago, in 1876, by the great library stalwart Melvil Dewey. It was entitled Library Journal and is still being published, though over the years there has been a tremendous increase in the library science journals in that country. The journals in Library and Information Science published in India have a history of 70 years, beginning from 19 12 when the first journal Library Miscellany was published from Baroda (ceased publication in 1920). This was a big landmark in strengthening the foundations of a just started library movement in the then princely state of Baroda, in particular, and in India in general. The second periodical was commenced by the Punjab Library Association with the name of Modern Librarian from Lahore in 1930. It was a name to reckon with during the formative days of the Indian library movement in the pre-partition era. A year before India won her independence, Modern Librarian ceased publication, and another journal Indian Librarian was started from Lahore (later shifted to Jullundur) . It is in its 37th year of publication now and is the oldest surviving journal in our country. The Indian Library Association started its official organ Library Bulletin in 1942 but it soon ceased publication. After independence, it started another journal Abgila from 1949, but could not continue for long (it ceased publication in 1953). The Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres (IASLIC), Calcutta, established its official organ IASLIC Bulletin from 1955, and then the Delhi Library Association started issuing its Library Herald three years later. Meanwhile, the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), N ew Delhi, was established in 1952 and it started * Department

0020-7837/84/020223

of Library

Science,

+ 08 $03.00/O

Guru

Nanak

Dev 0

University,

1984 Academic

Amritsar, Press Inc.

India

143005.

(London)

Limited

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publishing from 1953 its Annals of Library Science and Documentation (formerly Annals of Library Science). Many more library science periodicals were started during the sixties and seventies, and very recently, three new journals have been commissioned in the first three years of the eighties as well. This brings the total number to twenty odd journals in the area of Library and Information Science published in India to date. The growth in the number of periodicals suggests the importance of the subject of Library and Information Science. It is also indicative of the fact that an increased amount ofbasic and applied research is being conducted in the area. During the past five years or so a large number of library science schools have been established across the country. While there were only five (Madras, Varanasi, Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta) in the prepartition days, now they are about fifty in number, leading to an astronomical growth in them. This factor also led to the establishment of some periodicals by some of the university teaching departments, e.g., Libra (Rajasthan University, 1963-64), Timeless Fellowshz$ (Karnataka University), Journal of Library and Information Science (Delhi University, 1976), and Progress of Library and Information Science (Banaras Hindu University, 1980). The teachers, researchers, and students of all the fiftyodd library science schools contribute scholarly, technical, and popular articles in these and otherjournals. They report their research and other academic activities in them. PURPOSE

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the contributions made by teachers and research students of library science schools, professional librarians working in different types of libraries, and also by others, including foreigners, to the Library and Information Science journals in India during 1971-82. A careful study of Indian library literature has revealed only two studies made of this nature so far. Mahapatral has made a survey of the articles published in Indian library science journals during 1971-75 only. The second study is made by Satyanarayana2 wherein he covers only four journals, viz., Abgila, Herald of Library Science, Library Herald, and Granthalaya Vijnana (In Hindi). This survey was partial and can not be said to be comprehensive from the standpoint of coverage of 1 M. Mahapatra (1978). A survey of articles published in Indian library science journals 1971-75.3oumal of Librmy and Inform&ionScience 3, 172-179. z N. R. Satyanarayana (1979). A survey of literature on periodicals in India. In March Science: Kuula Festschrii (V. Venkatappaiah, ed.), pp. 110-120. New Delhi: Vikas.

during

of Library

INDIAN

JOURNALS

periodicals, nor from the point of time period. The followed in both these surveys is, however, up to date. CHOICE

OF

225

1971-82

methodology

PERIODICALS

As mentioned earlier, the number of library science periodicals in India is quite large now. Not only are they published in the English language, but several are brought out in regional languages also, e.g., Hindi, Bengali, Gujrati, Telugu, etc. Language being a barrier in the free flow of information, the choice of periodicals for this paper is restricted to the English language only. The periodicals included in the present analysis are enumerated below: ( 1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) ( 10) ( 11) ( 12) ( 13) (14) ( 15) ( 16) ( 17) ( 18) ( 19)

Annals ofLibrary Scienceand Documentation DR 2-G’Annual Seminar Herald of Library Science IASLIC Bulletin ILA Bulletin Indian Journal of Library Science Indian Librarian Indian Library M ovement (now International Library Movement) Journal of Library and Information Science Libra Library and Librarian (now ceased) Library Herald Library Progress (International) Library Review . Library S caence with a Slant to Documentation Lucknow Librarian National Librarian Progress of Library and Information Science Timeless Fellowship

Every effort has been made to lay hands on all the issues of the above periodicals, yet a few of them might have eluded the author due to a variety of reasons. A comprehensive coverage is thus not claimed, though this has been the cherished goal. PERIOD

COVERED

For the present analysis a period of twelve years from 1971 to 1982 is covered because many new periodicals have started publication during the seventies and early eighties. It thus provides a wider coverage, so far as the number ofjournals is concerned, in comparison with the previous

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S. SINGH

two studies. Mahapatra covered a maximum number of twelve periodicals only, while we are covering as many as nineteen-almost the whole range of those published in India. SCOPE

Efforts have been made to include maximum information which could be of advantage to working librarians, students, and teachers of library science. Only “grey literature”, book reviews, poems, notes and news, etc., are excluded. It includes, however, information about other contributions, such as core articles, technical notes, addresses delivered at various seminars, conferences, etc., that appeared in the periodical literature. This is done in order to give it a wider base and make it as useful as possible. BASES

OF ANALYSIS

ClassiJication All the entries prepared were classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classzjication System (19th edition) and subject headings. Later, they were grouped under the following broad divisions: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

(11)

Library and Information Science Library Co-operation Library Legislation Management (including administration, organization, personnel, preservation, etc.) Acquisition (including selection of books, periodicals, etc.) Classification Cataloguing Reference Service and Sources (including bibliographies, user studies, orientation, etc.) Types of Libraries (general, public, school, college, university, special, etc.) Documentation (including indexing, abstracting, information transfer, information systems, information retrieval, automation, etc.) Others (inclt&ng m . f ormation about periodicals, publishing, rare books, manuscripts, reading habits, children’s literature, etc.)

On the basis of this classification methodology the articles covered are analysed to know the subject-scatter and the divisions most popular with the library science authors, and so on.

1NDIAN JOURNALS

227

1971-82

ANALYSIS During the period of coverage ( 197 l-82)) a total number of 2034 entries is recorded. However, for the year 1982 all the issues of various periodicals covered have not been received as yet. The last issues of most of them are in press up to the time of writing this article. It is not, therefore, possible to cover the complete volumes for 1982. The chronological split of the contributions is as given in the following table: TABLE

I

Year

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982

Number of articles

168

164

137

171

129

% age

8.37

8.12

6.32

8.51

6.42

204

190

10.11 9.41

218

176

10.86 8.76

142

248

87*

7.07 12.36 2.98

* Incomplete.

From Table I it becomes obvious that the total number of contributions made in 1971, 1972, and 1974 is almost constant at 168; while there is a visible slump in 1973 when the number of contributions dwindled down to 137 only; and similarly to 129 in 1975. The figures again rise to 204 in 1976, with a maximum number of contributions in 1981 at 248, followed by 2 18 in 1978. Here also the figure comes down for 1979 and 1980, unexpectedly however; while there is a sharp rise to 248 in 1981 from 142 in 1980. Another visible trend is the slow rate of growth in the total contributions made over all these years. For the first five years (197 l-75) the total of 769 contributions are made, while for the subsequent five years (1976-80) the number stands at 930. There is an obvious increase in absolute terms, while the rate ofgrowth, which is worked out at about 2 1%, cannot be said to be satisfactory, keeping in view the increase in the number ofjournals during the second half of the seventies as also the early eighties. SUBJECT SCATTER The total information split into eleven subject headings is presented year-wise in the following table. Not only contributions under each of the subject headings are given, but their yearly split is also outlined. The ranking of each of the subjects is mentioned last.

168

Total

164

24 18 6

16 30 9 137

17 14 4 171

30 41 9

13

24

19

10

1 1 2 1 11 11

1 3 3 3 27 6

3 3 5 2 26 5

3 14 7 22 12

1974

51

1973

49

1972

48

1971

36

Year

Library and Information Science Library Co-operation Library Legislation Management Acquisition Classification Cataloguing Reference Service and Sources Types of Libraries Documentation Others

Subjects

129

22 27 5

8

3 15 5 7 8

29

1975

TABLE

204

29 37 9

16

6 2 8 5 29 19

44

1976

190

43 39 6

12

3 2 11 11 13 4

46

1977

218

31 18 6

21

15 2 28 8 12 7

77

1978

I I. Subject scatter

27 29 7 142

176

18

1 10 7 6 1

36

1980

34 43 7

23

3 3 6 9 5 4

39

1979

248

39 54 10

12

1 8 33 9 5 6

71

1981

87

11 25 6

7

3 5 5 2 3

20

1982

2034

323 375 84

183

40 27 133 72 165 86

546

Total

-

3 2 8

4

6 9 5 7

10 11

1

Rank no.

;

wl LA 2

INDIAN

JOURNALS

229

1971-82

It is seen from the analysis on the basis of subject scatter as revealed from Table II that the largest number of contributions are made in the general area of Library and Information Science, followed by and Types of Libraries. The area of Library Documentation, Legislation seems to have received minimum of attention from the professional librarians as well as the teachers in library science. It contributes only 27 articles over a span of twelve years with an average of about two articles per year. In addition to Indian authors, foreign authors have also been contributing to Indian journals in library science from time to time. Given below is the year-wise distribution of foreign authors’ contributions which comes to a total of only 198 articles during the years 1971-82. III

TABLE Year Number

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 18

13

15

13

9

14

33

28

12

15

22

6

During the past twelve years, the maximum contributions made by authors from other countries is 33 in 1977 followed by 28 in 1978. The minimum figure, however, is six in 1982 so far, with no year vacant when any foreign author has not sent his/her article(s) for publication in Indian journals. The total share offoreign authors during the period under review has been a little less than ten percent of the total of 2034 contributions. The yearly average for foreign authors is a little higher than 16 articles.

In this consolidated analysis of Indian library literature over a span of twelve years ( 197 l-82)) the following conclusions could be drawn. The most glaring lacuna is the obvious lack of interest in some areas, especially, Library Legislation, and Library Co-operation, among others. Though librarians and library science teachers almost always talk about the failures on the part ofstate machinery not to have enacted library acts for those states where these have not been passed so far by the respective state legislatures, surprisingly, there is only scanty literature published during the period under review. Similarly, discussions are held invariably by professional “think-

230

S. SINGH

tanks” about the possibility of resource-sharing among different library systems; areas of co-operation are well identified, but there always remains a need to publish more literature to make out the formulations for their implementation, in the absence of which it remains the proverbial exercise in futility.