Introduction
Being the third largest air force in the world, Indian Airforce (IAF) has taken so many steps towards digitalisation. One of them is the Indian Airforce eLibrary kick-off in 2022 on both webpage and mobile versions available at the google play store and apple store. IAF’s main idea of developing eLibrary is to bring knowledge resources nearer to active members and their families. After the pandemic conditions world is moving towards online and digital resources from traditional ones. This facility will help the members to use it to the full extent to gain knowledge.
Materials and Methods
In this case study, I have searched the entire website with different subjects, print and non-print media publications by using keywords and indexing. Exploring different facilities offered, data collected from the IAF eLibrary webpage as a primary source that is accessible for members. Data and information were collected from the website on Mar 23 after reviewing the literature.
Review of Literature
Bhatt, R. (2010). discussed the use of UGC‐Infonet Digital Library Consortium Resources by research scholars and faculty members of the University of Delhi in History and Political Science. The main aim is to determine the needs of research scholars and faculty members of the University of Delhi in the discipline of history and political science. Shafiu, A., Yakubu, M., Yakubu, A. M., & Nora, N. O. (2019). The study found that the human factors affecting the utilization of eLibrary resources include; user awareness and willingness to use e-library. Concerning the enhancement of the utilisation of e-resources in the College. Somaira Nabi. (2012) The study reports the aim and features of the World Digital Library (WDL), one of the pioneer projects reflecting the beauty of digital preservation. The study analyses the contribution of resources continent-wise, type, lingual pattern, period, subjects covered and institutions to WDL. Mehta, D., & Wang, X. (2020, June 25) Said their experience of a university library in response to the COVID-19 pandemic since early March 2020. The paper describes the library’s position during the crisis and illustrates the uncharted challenges that the pandemic has posed to its digital services. Furthermore, it details how the library has adapted some existing services into a digital format and explored new initiatives/practices to support the university’s full online teaching and learning since March 23, 2020. Jose, A. (2007). expressed the need for digital library evaluation. It provides insight into a framework for digital library evaluation. The paper also discusses various evaluation techniques in detail
Apart from these ibid references I have gone through the facilities provided by different types of defence, and military libraries providing e-services.
The Objective of the Study
The objective of this study is to look in-depth details of the operation and various facilities offered by the Indian Airforce eLibrary
Different Types of Sources
During my study, I have found that IAF eLibrary has mainly focused to bring world-class literature closer to readers who are not able to access it from traditional libraries. Being a military library, it is difficult to access all the publications and monograms of every member and their family members2 due to time constraints and the location of the library in a restricted area. This eLibrary has made it possible to collect, store and retrieve the literature in our own time. This facilitates us to use vast areas of a subject like Aviation, Arts, Management, Science Tech and Humanities. Let’s see in the dept inventory held by this eLibrary.
IAF eLibrary is mainly divided into print media (thesis, e-books, journals, monograms, reports, databases, magazines and newspapers) and non-print media (video, audiobooks).
Thesis
In IAF’s eLibrary collection, they have around 2,94,652 theses available sourced from all over the world 76.71%, and 23.21% from India and the rest of the globe. In terms of publishers or archive depositories shared mainly by e-Shodhshindu3 and the least by California State University Sacramento4 with 10.27%, and 0.26% respectively. The main contributed subject are Management, and Commerce contributing with 16.572% and 12.574% and Ocean & Hydraulic Engineering with the lowest contribution of 0.001% All thesis shared on this platform has full access to the reader to contribute their studies and research.5
Table 1
Thesis details subject wise
E-Books and monographs
E-books and Monographs held by IAF eLibrary cover 25 major disciplines starting from astronomy to zoology. They are 19,152 e-books and 129 monographs mostly from international publishers are available for the readers' collection dating back to 1913. The majority of monographs are sourced from DOAB5 with a share of 42.05% and the rest by 26 publishers.
Periodicals
Periodicals are the main content provider and most searched topics in any eLibrary. They provide the reader with updated development and innovations in their respective fields. In IAF’s eLibrary Journals, Magazines and Newspapers are available under a huge diversified section of subjects. Journals provided a broad area of coverage with an arsenal of 3,108 in which Biology has a share of 14.92% and Computer science with 0.03%. The journals section has International publications of 2,336 and 772 of Indian origin.
Table 2
Detail distribution of journals
Magazines and newspaper
A total of 4238 magazines are available for the reader of which 703 are subject-specified and 3535 are general. Newspapers collection in this library has around 3,056 covering 58 languages all over the globe including Indian native languages.
Reports and database
Being a military eLibrary reports take a majority of the share. A total of 23,370 published reports on various types of subjects are available by sole contributor JSTOR.6 Database of mostly Aerospace and Military affairs are available for accessing various information from United States Airforce,7 Air University,8 Press Reader,9 JSTOR6 and StratNews Global10 in unrestricted mode.
Non-print media
In this contemporary time, we all are shifting towards the digitalisation of everything, we are familiar with audio books and videos which are taking a prominent role in learning and teaching. IAF’s eLibrary has 15,503 audiobooks of all subjects and 20,700 videos covering mainly Aviation & Military Science and Economics with 13,541 and 7,159 respectively.
Collections
In IAF eLibrary there is an option available in the directory tab Collections.11 In this section, IAF has accumulated all the information pertaining to aerospace, terrestrial and amphibious warfare and its literature under different sub-sections. They are explained and enumerated in the following table. The ‘Arms, Ammunition and Defence Technology’ section deals with different types of topics ranging from land mines to space war in this directory we can find all single-point contact for a reader. There is a section go to point for Newsletter related to military and subsidiary department CAPS12 - Aerospace Newsletters’ where we can access free and unrestrictedly. ‘CAS Recommended eBook’ in which Chief of Air Staff (CAS) has given a list of eBooks recommended to be read by the readers. Think tank ideas and unique innovations from all over the world in the felid of defence strategies are covered by 'Defence Think Tank’13 in this section we find the largest leads of sources which cross 1.5 lakhs. ‘Defence Strategy and Doctrines’14 In this collection we can find exclusive articles and theses on defence strategy from all over the world. Last, three sections deal with the exclusive in-depth lead to International Studies, Management and History concerning the military.
Table 3
Collections and their leads
IAF Subscriptions
After general indexing of all contents, IAF eLibrary facilitates uniformed scholars1 and research users separate sections for some core concentrated subjects as ‘IAF Subscriptions’.15 Under this part, they are four major and three minor contributors. Let’s look into these major depositories, ‘Defence and Security Collection’16 we can find various videos, eBooks, monographs and journals segregated into a single place topic related to defence, internal and external security and geo-militarisation, etc. JSTOR6 share the largest report and journal collection ‘Paper Boy’17 and Press Reader9 e Newsstand provides the largest collection of magazines, and newspaper in various language catered for the user’s daily needs. Strat News Global,8 Taylor & Francis18 and The Diplomat19 are minor members providing database.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Table 4
IAF Subscriptions section
Other Features
IAF eLibrary offers different types of features like SDI, News Headlines based on library staff and publisher, and personalised profiles for storing publications, monographs and periodical collections under different headings. There is a section ‘Browse Media’ under which they are two sub-sections Classics and Poetry offer us an exclusive collection of classical music, dance, literature and poetry from different parts of the world with a collection of 248 and 273 respectively. The ‘Important Think Tank’ section is available under browse media in which 33 sources are provided to give different information pertaining to national and international issues on defence and situations for the user’s perusal.
Conclusion
At last, we have seen the initiation of the Indian Airforce towards digitalisation providing access to knowledge to every member of their organisation and their peers. This initiation helped uniformed scholars and researchers to dig, access and retrieve archives in their free time. IAF eLibrary is available on desktop and mobile versions which will help students and young kids study while on the move. In this library, we have seen different types of data retrieval available on the bases of title, author, subject and publisher in the form of eBooks, monographs, eThesis, reports, articles, databases, journals magazines, audiobooks, and videos. Being a military backgrounded library large collection of aviation, security and defence material is available for users' need apart from regular subjects. There is a large collection of e-newspaper covering all corners of the globe in different languages, SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information) facility is a great tool to research scholars to reach their destined sources. At last, this initiation helped society to reduce the distance between the book and its reader and preservation of greenery.
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