A Survey of Engineering College Libraries in Sri Venkateswara University Area, Andhra Pradesh, India

Introduction 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 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 interpersonal 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 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 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 given time or over 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 the peresent conditions and desired standards; to make suggestions for their improvement; and to develop library standards. Review of Literature Mishra (1977) discussed fifteen year perspective plan for the development of engineering and technological libraries and information service in India. Janak Raj and Rama Verma(1992) conducted survey on 34 engineering college libraries in India by using mailed questionnaire method. Abbas Khan (1993) made study on the growth of collection and users of library of Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology (MJCET), for the year 1981-90, and compared with the growth of its budget. Singh (1994) conducted study on collection development and readers' services at IIT Library, Kharagpur, by collecting data from sample of 222 users of the library comprising faculty members and students using questionnaire method. Singh (1994) evaluated the collection and services provided by IIT libraries in India from user's point of view. Rashid and Amin (1998) in their study found that there is no uniformity in the use of classification and cataloguing schemes in Regional Engineering College Libraries in India. Sharma (2001) in his study attempts to examine the status of engineering college libraries in Haryana, by surveying sample of twenty engineering college libraries. Tadasad (2003) made study on the use of Internet by collecting data from 193 undergraduates in engineering. Ali and Hasan (2003) examined the utilization and the satisfaction level of users about Internet, CD-ROM databases and other services provided by IIT Library, Delhi. Mandal and Panda (2005) examined the different dimensions of collection development with specific reference to engineering college libraries. Rajeev Kumar and Kaur (2007) conducted user survey to analyze the use of the Internet and related issues by collecting data from 960 teachers and students of engineering colleges of Punjab using questionnaire method. …