Subscription to over 40 online databases which provide access to journals and other resources has not been renewed by the Delhi University, and thus resulted in cutting scholars off from vital research material.
This void of research material in the university has taken place through two contemporaneous processes.
Direct Subscription to as many as 29 online databases has been stopped by the University since 2015. These databases included IEEE Xplorer which provided access to material on computer science, electric engineering and electronics, and has not been accessible since 2016. Another Journal source named Emerald Management Extra, which provides access to management journals, and not been accessible since 2015; and Science Direct, which provides research material in physical sciences, life sciences, health sciences and social sciences, and has not been accessible since 2017.
As inferred from a source in DU’s library system, varsity administration provided funds for these databases till 2014 from various budgetary heads. Despite the limited funds which trickle in through a couple of grants, around 39-40 databases still continue to be made available. The decision on which subscription will be renewed would be taken by a standing committee on e-resources. In terms of larger interest, the subscriptions being chosen for renewal are the less costly ones. Whereas the other Important subscriptions such as Science Direct, are too expensive and would cost around Rs 90 lakh per year
Adding to this entire issue, back in 2015, the university has already put a stop to subscribe to the print editions of journals and started procuring them online. Now, though, even the online access has been lost.
UGC-run Infonet Digital Library Consortium launched in 2004, used to be the other source of the database for the university. It provided free of cost access to 25 e-journal databases to universities that were a part of its network. However, this was dismantled and replaced by another consortium called e-ShodhSindhu.
In October 2017, HRD Ministry sent a letter to the universities which stated that the programme would do “collective bargaining” for these institutes for e-journals required by them. The essential crux of this letter was that the institutes would provide a list of e-journals required by its students and faculty, and after that, the portal’s Negotiating Committee would negotiate prices on behalf of those universities, and the institutes would pay the negotiated rates directly to the publisher. For this to happen, the requisition list was to be sent by November 10, 2017, but Delhi University never sent a requisition of any such sort.
In the meantime, professors played a very keen and role by relying on their personal and professional connections to help research scholars under them to get access to the resources they require.
A professor in the University’s Chemistry Department showcased a positive side it to and stated on his and other teachers’ behalf that they have friends in other institutions and they have to ask them to help them access resources. If the students need something, they send them to other institutions. This way, the students also form friendships with students elsewhere who can help them get access. The entire process is kept alive through personal relationships. Access to journals and vital resources like SciFinder (which was available through the UGC digital consortium) is extremely important to research because it is needed to keep in touch with the latest developments in his field.
The professor also showed his concern and a glimpse of foreseeable future if things continue like this and said that the effects of cutbacks on research facilities will begin to show in a few years: “The entire process of publication and completing a project takes time but the effects will tangibly show in about two-five years.”
