National Level Seminar on Empowering Open Science

The Bombay Science Librarian’s Association (BOSLA) was established in October 1975 and officially registered on 9th March 1978 with Registration No. F4735 (BOM) at the Office of the Charity Commissioner, Maharashtra State, Mumbai.

During the 1970s, the librarians of scientific institutions realized that with the existing resources, it was not possible for them to fully cater to the needs of the scientific community of their organizations due to the steadily rising costs of publications and almost stationary annual budgets for their libraries.

The initiative was then taken by the librarians of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (B.A.R.C.), Department of Chemical Technology, Bombay University (U.D.C.T.), Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.), Bombay and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (T.I.F.R.). They started meeting frequently to discuss and explore the possibilities of developing closer ties than routine inter-library loan. As a result of these efforts, the Bombay Science Librarian’s Association (BOSLA) was formed in October 1975.

Presently, the association has grown to include more than 500 life members nationwide. The association keeps organizing seminars, conferences, and workshops in association with various institutions with the main objective of upskilling the working knowledge of the librarians.

Main objectives of the Association:

• To improve the services of the Bombay Science Libraries.
• To cooperate actively to benefit mutually by the resources available to the libraries.
• To strengthen the financial resources of the science libraries in Bombay.
• To raise the professional standard of library staff in the Bombay Science Libraries.
• To improve the status and service conditions of the library staff in Bombay.
• To maintain liaison between the professionals and the Government.

The C-DAC Mumbai Library of the Institute plays a significant & vital role in serving the faculty, research fellows, students & staff. The library is well-equipped with modern facilities and resources, including CD-ROMs, Online databases, books, bound volumes, project reports, and conference proceedings, in the fields of Information Technology, Electronics, Management, and allied subjects. There are two libraries, respectively, in the Juhu and Kharghar centers. It was very popular among researchers in the fields of information technology, electronics, software development, computer science, management, and other related fields at the time of NCST. The library has a separate stack for textbooks, periodicals (current and bound volumes), CD/DVD, Reference sections, Book Bank Section, and a separate enclosure with cubicles for research fellows and faculty members. The library facilitates access to several e-resources through the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative, Govt. of India, and it includes IEEE, ACM, and E-books through its participation in the MCIT consortium. The library is rapidly developing its collection of books, reference books, periodicals, and electronic resources. The library subscribes to a number of journals, periodicals, and newspapers. The library is also developing a fine collection of Hindi books on Literature and the English language.

Services provided by C-DAC Mumbai Library

• Reprographic Service
• Inter Library Loan Faculty
• Article Request by e-mail
• Current Awareness Service
• Selective Dissemination of Information
• Publication of CDAC Weekly Digest
• Member of the MCIT Library Consortium provided by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
• User awareness program for library users