Annual Progress Report (2024-2025) SKUAST-K Library System
The Library System of Sheri-E-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, comprises of one Central Library, Five Faculty/College Libraries and small Research station/unit Libraries spread across the valley of Kashmir. The Library System is committed to provide state-of-the-art information services to its users at each Library both in print and in electronic form. Moreover, new information handling technologies have been incorporated to facilitate the scientists and the students with the required information on demand and in anticipation to their demand.
The vision of SKUAST-K Library System is to be a world-class University Library that caters to the needs of students and faculty members for academic excellence.
The mission of SKUAST-K Library System is to provide many services and various modes of activities to its user community in a wide range.
Mainly to support teaching, learning, research and innovative activities in becoming active & discerning users for promotion of their knowledge.
To establish learning environment for the Library users as well as encouraging and supporting the professional growth & individual growth for staff, students and every individual in his treasure of knowledge of great name, fame & reputation earned by its great extended services.
To fulfill this mission we are committed to build collections, create tools and render services.
An Overview of core activities, initiatives and Library Membership carried out during the year 2024-25 is given as under:
Library Membership:
All faculty members (scientists/teachers), students and staff are given free of cost library membership against proper registrations of their names for different time frames as per the duration of their service or degrees. Guest users from other academic and research institutions are also allowed to use our print as well as e-resources against temporary membership granted to them after fulfilling the necessary codal formalities. A glimpse of the library membership recorded during 2024-25 is given as follows:
Table 1: Year wise breakup of library users for the year 2024-25
| Name of Library/ Destination | Students | Students | Students | Staff | Staff | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name of Library/ Destination | UG | PG | PhD | Scientists | Others | Total |
| Central Library Shalimar Campus | 356 | 260 | 73 | 144 | 55 | 960 |
| Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura | 296 | 223 | 65 | 72 | 41 | 704 |
| Faculty of Veterinary & AH, Shuhama | 411 | 112 | 26 | 97 | 21 | 649 |
| Faculty of Fisheries, Rangil | 85 | 71 | 12 | 28 | 16 | 337 |
| Faculty of Forestry, Benihama | 110 | 63 | 18 | 25 | 18 | 236 |
| College of Temporary Sericulture, Mirgund | 78 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 9 | 146 |
| Regional Research Stations / Sub Stations and KVK/ETCs supporting Libraries | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 16 | 72 |
| Total | 3,104 |
Information Base Enrichment (2024-25)
Main focus and concern remains on the development of information base and rendering of information services. Efforts were made to enrich the information base both in print and electronic forms. Detail about this enrichment is given under two separate headings as follow:
1. Print Resources
A good number of books, journals, theses, reports, etc, were added to the existing collection. A brief about main resources added in print form to the information base in 2024-2025 is given under following sub-headings:
a. Books in Print Form:
Textbooks in print form remains as the most sought after information resource by both UG and PG Students, accordingly preference was given to procurement of textbooks of national and international scope. A total number of 4,885 books in print form were purchased during 2024-25, A substantial improvement in the book collection has thus been recorded taking the total number of Text and Reference Books in the entire Library System to 77,727. The detail in this context is given below:
Table 2: Faculty wise breakup of books added during 2024-25
| S. No | Faculty | Textbooks | Reference | Total No. of Books |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Faculty of Horticulture | 3152 | 45 | 3197 |
| 2 | Faculty of Agriculture | 784 | 34 | 818 |
| 3 | Faculty of Vet. Sc. and AH | 281 | 17 | 298 |
| 4 | Faculty of Forestry | 185 | 21 | 206 |
| 5 | Faculty of Fisheries | 169 | 16 | 185 |
| 6 | College of Sericulture | 117 | 14 | 131 |
| 7 | KVK Malangpora | 42 | 08 | 50 |
| Total | 4,885 |
b. Journals in Print Form
The Library System since its inception has been subscribing to a good number of foreign (+50) and Indian (+70) Journals in print form. This way the Library System has developed a rich and voluminous journal back file collection of 21,707 Issues in print form. The System has indigenously developed a smart search and retrieval system of research articles available in these print journals using MS Access and Visual Basic. An Electronic Journal Directory has also been developed to search and retrieve information about each journal issue.
Faculty wise breakup of journals’ back file collection
| Name of Library | No. of Journal Issues |
|---|---|
| Central Library | 8750 |
| FOA Library Wadura | 6720 |
| FVSc. & AH Library Shuhama | 4712 |
| FoFy Library Rangil | 441 |
| COTS Library Mirgund | 213 |
| KVK/ETC Library Malangpora | 367 |
| MFCRS Library Khudwani | 179 |
| RARAS Library Leh | 145 |
| RARAS Library Kargil | 180 |
| Total | 21,707 |
C. Gratis Items in Print Form:
Library System also maintains a collection of books, reports, digests, magazines etc. received free of cost from the authors/publishers or donated by the outgoing scientists. A total number of 10,306 items are available under this category, with breakup as under:
Faculty wise breakup of Gratis Items
| Faculty | Books | Journals | Reports | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faculty of Horticulture | 2960 | 530 | 345 | 3835 |
| Faculty of Agriculture | 1290 | 1360 | 123 | 2773 |
| Faculty of Vet. Sc. and AH | 1245 | 720 | 210 | 2175 |
| Faculty of Fisheries | 215 | 110 | 160 | 485 |
| Faculty of Forestry | 170 | 28 | 65 | 263 |
| College of Sericulture | 440 | 125 | 190 | 755 |
| Total | 6320 | 2863 | 1093 | 10,306 |
d. Theses in Print Form:
A total number of 522 Theses submitted by the Students of the University after having successfully completed their degrees during 2024-25 were added to the print collection of Theses.
The faculty wise breakup of theses added during the years is presented below:
Faculty and degree wise breakup of Theses added during past five years
| Year | FOH | FOA | FVSc. & AH | Faculty of Fisheries | Faculty of Forestry | College of Sericulture | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | 126 | 69 | 41 | 27 | 15 | 13 | 291 |
| 2021-22 | 78 | 38 | 25 | 17 | 14 | 5 | 177 |
| 2022-23 | 121 | 93 | 39 | 29 | 26 | 15 | 323 |
| 2023-24 | 151 | 101 | 31 | 28 | 24 | 13 | 348 |
| 2024-25 | 172 | 198 | 31 | 59 | 42 | 20 | 522 |
2. Electronic Sources of Information
Keeping in view the advantages of the electronic form of information resources and inclination of users towards this format of information, efforts were made to enrich the electronic information base in the shape of e-abstract databases, e-books, e-journals, e-theses, e-reports, etc.
2.1 CDROM Library
The indexing & abstracting databases (11 CDROM Databases – bibliographical detail and abstracts of journal articles of world famous titles in digital/electronic form) subscribed from 2003 with retrospective data from 1972 were kept readily available in offline mode for use of the students and scholars of the University. About 15.15 million research articles (bibliographical data along with the abstracts) are available in these databases. Mention worthy among them are CAB Abstracts (6.75 million), AGRIS (3.20 million), AGRICOLA (3.30 million), VetCD (0.55 million), MEDLINE (1.10 million) and FSTA (1.0 million). A good number of scientists/students/scholars from all the faculties visited the Central Library during this period to avail this facility. The scientists/students/scholars were also facilitated with full text research papers available in the indigenously created data bank of this library, developed by downloading niche area research articles/chapters and through depositing the same in the said database for free and fair use purpose.
2.2 Books in Electronic Form (e-Books)
A good number of e-Books, with perpetual access, are now available for anytime anywhere access of the registered users of SKUAST-Kashmir Library System. For fair use purpose these e-books can be downloaded and saved without any restrictions on content or number of downloads. Detail of e-Books made available to users of SK Library System till date is given below:
Cumulative breakup of e-Books available with SK Library System
| S. No. | e-Books Host | Qty | Access Type | Coverage | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CABI | 560+ | Perpetual | International | https://www-cabi-org.ezproxy.skuastkashmir.ac.in/cabebooks |
| 2 | EBSCO HOST | 160+ | Perpetual | International | https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/advanced?vid=0&sid=2fc90388-f5b8-4334-8620-3fcdb4ce15cb%40redis |
| 3 | CeRA | 1180+ | Perpetual | International | https://jgateplus.com/cdn/cerabooks.html |
| 4 | ASAP GLOBE | 40+ | Perpetual | Indian | https://www-asapglobe-com.ezproxy.skuastkashmir.ac.in/default.aspx |
| 5 | NIPA ERS | 50+ | Perpetual | Indian | https://www-nipaers-com.ezproxy.skuastkashmir.ac.in/univebooks/dashboard/a-f |
2.3 Journals in Electronic Form (e-Journals)
Owing to the advantages of availability of the journals in electronic form, the library system shifted its focus from print to online subscription of this important primary information resource. The library clientele are facilitated with access to as many as possible e-journals under following options:
(i) CeRA (consortium) Now ONOS
The Scientists and Students of the University all across the constituent Campii of the University continued to avail access to full text of +3500 e-journals relevant to Agriculture and allied disciplines. CeRA is now available on J-Gate+ (http://jgateplus.com/), the largest Indian electronic gateway to global e-journal literature. Seamless access to bibliographical details & abstracts of millions of journal articles (above 83.57 million) offered by 15,294 Publishers was thus provided to users. Presently it provides access to a massive database of journal literature, indexed from 67,487 e-Journals, Conference-Proceedings, Book series, with links to full text at publisher end.
From January 2025 ONOS takes the idea of a consortium and scales it up to a national subscription level, making it a core part of India’s strategy to foster research and innovation under the National Education Policy 2020. The ONOS initiative is a transformative step to bridge the knowledge gap and advance India’s research ecosystem. By providing comprehensive access to world-class resources, it empowers students, faculty, and researchers to achieve academic and scientific excellence. This integrated approach will drive innovation, strengthen India’s global leadership in research, and lay the foundation for a self-reliant, knowledge driven nation by 2047. The ONOS initiative provides access to over 13,000 scholarly journals from 30 leading international publishers. It targets over 6,300 government-run higher education institutions and research centres.
2.4 KrishiKosh Repository
KrishiKosh is being continuously updated by posting the newly submitted Theses of the Master’s degree students and Ph.D. scholars of SKUAST-Kashmir. While maintaining an embargo period of two years, a total number of 2924 Theses covering the time period of Year 2000-2025, have been placed on this portal. Access to full text Theses (both Masters and Doctoral) has been kept available for use of the scientists and students through this national level e-theses repository under NARES.
2.5 Shodhganga Repository
University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with INFLIBNET Centre under the Shodh Shuddhi Programme of the UGC. INFLIBNET Centre is hosting and taking care of Shodhganga a repository of Indian Electronic Theses and dissertations that not only provides full-text access to a huge number of Theses, but also acts as a platform wherefrom important research facts are being harvested to determine ranking of universities. From the date of MoU the University has Uploaded 65 Thesis on the Shodhganga Portal and send almost 800 Soft Thesis to INFLIBNET Centre for uploading the same in the National Repository.
Services Rendered:
The ultimate aim behind enriching the collection of information resources and in establishing the state-of-the-art library infrastructure is to render smooth, satisfactory and efficient services to library users and ensure optimum utilisation of the valuable resources acquired against huge investment of money and manpower. Library is purely a service centre and as a matter of fact the library professionals devote most of their duty hours towards rendering information service to scientists and students both on demand and in anticipation to their demand. The core services rendered by the Library System are highlighted as under:
Selective Dissemination of Information
More than 4300 queries were received and timely addressed by the technical staff of the Library System. The queries included searching and delivery of research articles, book chapters, review papers, excerpts from electronic theses and dissertations, research abstracts, etc.
Issuance of Theses CD Resemblance Certificates
This assignment is regularly carried out by the professional staff of the library on case to case basis as and when the case arrives from all constituent faculties/colleges of the University.
Facilitation of Plagiarism Detection Software (PDS)
To uphold academic integrity and ensure originality in scholarly work, the library provides access to plagiarism detection tools for both postgraduate and doctoral research. Copyleaks is used for screening Masters’ theses, offering detailed similarity reports and source tracking to help students refine their submissions. For Ph.D. research, the library utilizes Drillbit Extreme, a robust plagiarism detection tool designed to handle advanced research-level content.
An Anti-Plagiarism Cell established at the Central Library has now been functional for more than 4 years. During 2024-25 more than 450 users were facilitated with this service by allotting them with authentic user ID and passwords.
Teaching Services
- PGS 501: Library and Information Services.
- PGS 502: Technical Writing and Communication Skills.
Remote Access to e-Resources
The library system has a good collection of e-resources comprising of e-books with lifetime access, consortium based access to e-journals, ETDs and some individual e-journals which are accessible through online mode to the registered members of SKUAST Kashmir. In order to provide off-campus and anytime anywhere access to these resources, we have subscribed to Off Campus Access Facilitating Software of M/s. Knimbus Online Pvt. Ltd. The software is robust in facilitating off-campus access to users on anytime anywhere basis and allows us to derive the required user statistics and generate various graphical reports. 435 users were registered in the current year to avail this remote access facility taking the total number of Scientists and PG Students who are currently availing this service to 2033.
E-Resource Centre
The Library’s E-Resource Centre is a modern, technology-enabled facility designed to provide seamless access to digital academic content. The centre is equipped with modular computer tables and ergonomic, deluxe-type moving chairs to ensure user comfort during extended study or research sessions. The centre also facilitates wireless internet connectivity through Wi-Fi enabled environment for users wishing to operate and browse on their personal devices.
Digital Scanners, Printers, and Photocopiers (reprographic services)
The library is equipped with a range of high-end multifunctional devices to support robust reprographic services. The availability of these digital facilities enables students, researchers, and staff to efficiently carry out high-quality printing, scanning and photocopying services. These machines are strategically placed within the library premises to ensure easy access for users.
Library Automation
The library is fully automated through the integration of Koha, an open-source Integrated Library Management System (ILMS) which runs on a dedicated Linux Server, and a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system pushing data through a dedicated Middleware. Through Koha all core library functions, including acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, serials control, and OPAC access are efficiently managed, thereby providing a seamless user experience for both library staff and patrons. Complementing this, the RFID system brings advanced automation to circulation services with features such as self-check-in/check-out kiosks, smart card-based user identification, and theft detection through RFID-enabled security gates.