Dr. Raj Kumar
Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research
India

Dr Raj Kumar is working as Sr Library & Information Officer at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India since May 2001. My educational qualification is MA (History) (Public Administration) M .Lib. Science. L L B., Dip in PM & LW and Ph.D in Library and information science from Panjab University, Chandigarh. I have contributed 14 papers 5 for the international conferences and 9 for the national conferences. Presently I am the Secretary of Medical Library Association of India.

Abstract

Medical Libraries play a vital role in providing medical information to the medical professionals in their day to day clinical requirements. Due to the tremendous growth of biomedical literature, limited budget and space, medical libraries are left with no alternative but to rely on library cooperation through resource sharing arrangement with similar type of institutions. Library cooperation, interlibrary loan, document delivery services, library network, etc are some of the modes of resource sharing. The main aim of resource sharing is to provide right information to the right person at the right time. Technological advancement provides a platform for digital resource sharing for health science librarians and professionals. The availability of Information Technology (IT) products like online full text journals, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, medical databases and changing attitude of the users is also putting pressure on the medical libraries to upgrade the existing infrastructure. The information communication technology (ICT) is the most important tool for sharing of resources at a much greater speed among the medical libraries. The present paper gives a bird’s eye view of resource sharing through ICT in the medical libraries in India.