An Overview of Periodicals Procurement in the University Library of University of North Bengal

Shubhrangshu Kumar Mistri Deputy Librarian^{* *}Correspondence: Shubhrangshu Kumar Mistri, Deputy Librarian, University Library, University of North Bengal, Raja Rammohunpur, West Bengal 734014, India, Tel: +91 9433140129, Email:

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Introduction

Periodicals are the publications which are published periodically i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc. all over the year. Periodicals are published in several types of publication format like journals, databases, magazines, newspapers, etc. In an academic library, collection of periodicals is the most important issue of the library users to enrich themselves by receiving information regarding the current developments which may be receives from periodicals. Generally, each academic institute have the library contains journals, magazines; newspapers, etc. depend on their budgetary allocation. Periodicals are required for research and development and career guidance purpose of the library users. So, the procurement of periodicals is must to all libraries subject to availability of annual fund allocation for the subscription of periodicals.

Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study is to aware all library professionals/working librarians regarding the periodicals procurement procedures. Most of the library professionals/working librarians have the working knowledge of traditional books subscription procedures. But, they have no idea about the periodicals procurement procedures due to the complicated process.

Methodology

The data has been collected as working experiences knowledge in the periodical section of university library of University of North Bengal.

About University library of University of North Bengal

The University of North Bengal campus is situated at the foothills of high Himalaya covers an area of 331 acres of land in the district of Darjeeling. The University has also set up it’s another campus at the district of Jalpaiguri. The North Bengal University Library is a three storied building with 2662.61 sq. mtr. Carpet area and its Annex is a two storied building with 445.52 sq. mtr. Carpet area was established along-with the establishment of the University in 1962 in order to meet the academic and research needs of the students, research scholars and the faculties of this institute. The university library has a rich collection of books, journals, magazines, rare books, theses, online journals/databases, census, debates, reports, etc. The University Library of University of North Bengal has the separate periodical section that deals with procurement of periodicals and their alliance activities relating to the management of subscribed periodicals. The library users are the post graduate and MPhil students, Research Scholars, Teachers and other stakeholders of this university.

Subscribed periodicals

The University Library of University of North Bengal has been subscribed the following number of Indian and foreign print journals and magazines, online journals/databases in the Financial Year 2021-2022:

Indian Print Journals Subscribed 72

Foreign Print Journals Subscribed 115

Subscribed Online Journals/Databases 29

E-Resources Subscribed through e-ShodhSindhu Consortium 16

Generally, Indian journals are published in print mode only. Whereas, foreign journals are published in print, print+online and online mode only. The publisher SAGE Publications (India) Pvt. Ltd. has to provide us the complimentary online access of each subscribed print journal without any extra cost.

E-Resources subscribed by the University of North Bengal

The following list of e-Resources are subscribed by the University of North Bengal by participating in the e-ShodhSindhu Consortium. As per the Negotiated Committee of e-Shodh Sindhu, some of the e-resources are considered by them for central funding to our university and others are to be subscribed under negotiated rate from publishers directly, if required.

E-Resources subscribed under central funding

The following 16 e-resources are subscribed under central funding by participating in the e- Shodh Sindhu Consortium in Table 1.

Table 1: E-Resources Subscribed Under Central Funding

NDL e-Resources

National digital library of India (NDL) India project to develop a framework of virtual World ebook library of learning resources with national licensing a double-window search facility in Table 2.

Table 2: NDL E-Resources

E-Resources s ubscribed u nder n egotiated r ate u sing u niversity f und

The following e-resources are subscribed under the eSS negotiated rate of publisher’s price and publisher’s owned price by using university fund from the budget head of account “Journals and Periodicals Including e-journals” in Table 3.

Table 3: E-Resources Subscribed Under Negotiated Rate Using University Fund

Periodicals selection procedure

The periodical selection is the first stage of periodicals procurement. Generally, our library is to send the renewal suggestion to each department for subscribing of periodical subscription. Afterwards, all heads of the departments in discussion with the respective departmental committee will recommend periodicals to be subscribed in the library. Such recommendations may be the renewal and remove of existing periodicals by substitute of new one within departmental budgetary provision. On receiving the list of recommended periodicals along-with publication details like price, publisher, etc. from the respective head of the departments, it needs to be approved from the Library Committee. Finally, the library will prepare a master database of approved periodicals along-with their bibliographic details. Now, the list is ready for ordering.

The library committee

The University Library of University of North Bengal is running under the control and operation of a Committee called The Library Committee. The Library Committee will approve the list of periodicals subscription which is recommended by the Head of the departments in discussion with the departmental committee. The Indian journal suppliers should be Good Office Committee (GOC) enlisted and duly approved by the Library Committee for supplying foreign periodicals, online journals/databases, etc. The Library Committee is setting up as follows:

1. Honorable Vice-Chancellor, Chairman

2. Deans of the Faculty Councils for Post Graduate Studies

3. One teacher nominated from each department

4. One Research Scholar nominated by the Honorable Vice-Chancellor

5. One Post Graduate student nominated by the Honorable Vice-Chancellor

6. Registrar of the University (ex-officio)

7. Finance Officer of the University (ex-officio)

8. Librarian of the University, Secretary (ex-officio)

Budget allocation

The university library has a budget head of account for subscribing periodicals “Journals and Periodicals including e-journals”. This fund is to be used for the subscription of Indian and foreign journals (print or online mode), online journals, databases, magazines, etc. In the Financial Year 2021-2022, the budget allocation was Rs.3,30,00,000.00 for subscribing periodicals.

Good Office Committee (GOC)

The Good Office Committee (GOC) is to retain a uniformity of terms for supply of books and journals and coordinate a relation between Indian vendors and libraries to provide effective service. One may complain to The Federation of Publishers' and Booksellers' Association in India, Delhi (IFPBAI) against the journal supplier if he fails to supply as per the order of periodicals which is violate the GOC term of supply. The Federation will take prompt action against the supplier because, most of the reputed journal vendors are agreed to bound the “Terms of supply of journals” of GOC. The following are the GOC terms of supply of Journals:

1. No Discount.

2. Conversion rates as per latest GOC Circular.

3. Bills will remain valid for sixty days from the date of invoice. All payments which are not completed within the sixty days from the bill date, that bill may be changed as per the new conversion rates prevailing on the date of payment.

4. Supplementary bills shall not be raised if the bills are paid within sixty days, except when subscription rate is changed by the publisher and revised rate is paid by the supplier. Such revised rate may be paid by the librarian on submission of supporting proof.

5. Advance payment to be made against journal bills. Bills to be submitted along-with supporting document and price proof.

6. Claims for missing journals to be made within ninety days of the publication of the issue in case if it is supplied directly by the publisher.

7. In case of delivery from the vendor, the supply will be reviewed every quarterly by the library and the vendor.

8. Claims for missing issues of journals should be settled within one and half years from the date of payment.

9. The vendor will remit the full subscription price to the publisher within thirty days from the date of receipt of payment. The details of full payment which is send to the publisher may be intimated to the subscriber within the next fortnight with supporting proof.

10. Journal supply should be started within hundred days from the date of payment unless there are any special issues.

11. Journal orders should be placed to the approved vendors of the GOC.

Results and Discussion

Moreover, the procurement of books, periodicals, etc. for a library need not require a tender which is stated in the Chapter 6: Procurement of Goods and Services, Rule-136: “Definition of Goods” of the General Financial Rules 2005, Government of India. This rule clearly excludes books, periodicals, etc. for a library from the category of “goods”. Serial control the university library has an integrated library management software i.e. Software for University Libraries (SOUL2.0) which is developed by the INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmedabad. The Serial Control is one of the modules of SOUL2.0 for the automation of periodicals. The Serial Control module has some sub modules: Titles, Suggestions, Subscription, Payment, Check-in, Commercial Binding, In-house Binding, etc. However, we are at the initial stage with starting serial control operations in our university library by using SOUL2.0 with subscribed periodicals of 2021.

Publishers vendors suppliers

Indian journals (print/online mode) are subscribed directly from the publishers. Whereas, the foreignjournals (print/online mode), online journals and databases are subscribed through GOC enlisted Indian vendors or suppliers, which is approved by the Library Committee. Moreover, some foreign journals, online journals and databases are subscribed directly from the publisher due to unavailable of the Indian vendors or suppliers.

Agreement

The university library has a policy to make an agreement with the foreign periodical suppliers/vendors that all terms and conditions of the university will be agreed by putting sign and seal of the periodical suppliers/vendors.

Ordering

At this stage, order is to be placed on receiving of approved list of periodicals, approved list of suppliers/vendors and approved budget allocation. The order should be included order number and date, name of periodical along-with volume number and subscription period, subscription number (if any), mode of publication, etc.

Goods and Service Tax (GST)

The GST will be exempted for purchasing printed periodicals in the educational institutions. Whereas, the GST will be imposed extra for purchasing online resources at the rate of 18% above the price value.

Payment process

At the payment process stage, we collect triplicate invoices from the periodicals suppliers/vendors/publishers along-with supporting documents like publisher’s price proof, bank exchange rate, etc. The supplier/vendor shall submit the copy of bill of the publisher. The payment will be made preferably at Indian Currency. The exchange rates shall be at par with any Indian Nationalized Bank Rate prevailing on the date of billing. A downloaded copy of exchange rate shall be enclosed along-with the bill. Whenever, the price is available in multiple Foreign Currency, the lowest rate after conversion into Indian Currency will be accepted.

The payment of subscription for foreign print and online journals/databases subscription is to be made as per the bank exchange rates prevailing on the date of billing. In case of any difference of exchange rate on the date of payment, the supplier or vendor may raise supplementary invoices for the payment of increasing exchange rate of each and individual periodical and/or may refund the excess payment for the decreasing exchange rate of each and individual periodical.

All payments for the subscription of periodicals are treated as advance payment which is used from the university budget head “Journals and Periodicals including e-journals”. However, payments are made through the CHEQUE/DD/NEFT/RTGS/WIRE TRANSFER as per the directions provided in the invoice of the supplier/vendor/publisher.

Acquisition process

The acquisition process is one of the important functions of periodical section of the library. This function may be divided in two sections one is receiving of supplied periodicals and its related activities and other one is claiming of non-supplied periodicals and its related activities. These are as follows:

Activities on receiving of supplied periodicals:

1. To verify that periodicals received as per supply order with stamping and date of receiving and online access is enabled through IP-based or user id and password based for the online journals/databases.

2. To record the periodicals received in the manual KARDEX by mentioning all bibliographic details, order no. and date, payment details, etc. and to link the online journals/databases in the library portal and university website.

3. To display current issues periodicals in the respective departmental display racks.

Activities for claiming of non-supplied periodicals:

1. To send reminders to the suppliers/vendors once every two months for the non-supplied issues of periodicals.

2. To refund the subscription amount of non-supplied issues of periodicals, if it is nonsuppliable or unable to supply of missing issues or too late publishing. The refund amount must be paid by way of cheque in favor of “UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL”.

Binding of periodicals

All procured loose periodicals are to be bound and incorporating of accession number and call number of each bound volume and put on the shelves as per alphabetical arrangement.

Conclusion

It is found that the periodicals subscription procedures are too complicated process. The price value of periodicals is so high. The periodicals subscription is quiet impossible for small libraries, college libraries due to their fund constraints. But, the university libraries and special libraries are subscribing periodicals within their budgetary allocation. Our state government needs to make a consortium like-e-Shodh Sindhu consortium to share e-resources with a nominal cost among participating universities, colleges and other educational institutions in West Bengal.

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Librarian, University of North Bengal for his valuable suggestions and I also want to extend thanks to all the staff of the periodicals section of the university library, University of North Bengal.

References

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