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Introduction
National Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials in India (NUCSSI) is the first major indigenous database created at NISCAIR erstwhile INSDOC[1] . It is a repository of about 260,000 holdings data pertaining to over 44,500 unique serial titles held in over 540 libraries of scientific institutions, universities, R&D units of industrial complexes and higher level institutes such as the Indian Institute of Science, and professional institutes in various disciplines throughout India. NUCSSI includes serial titles from the seventeenth century to date from 99 countries. All scientific and technical serials covering subjects falling under the main classes of the Universal Decimal Classification system have been included.
The NUCSSI database has been widely acclaimed by library professionals for its utility. For the first time the database provides, bibliographic control of scientific serials resources in India. The exorbitant cost of serials and the limited budget of libraries have made it clear that acquisition of serials should be based on resource sharing amongst libraries. Although publishers offer journal packages these are not always relevant to library users. Thus the NUCSSI database has become an ideal location tool for the resource sharing of journals. Obtaining a journal or article of interest, requires four steps: discover, locate, request and deliver (access). Desktop connectivity to the web through internet search engines has made this process easier.
Features
Serial publications are the main source of current scientific and technical information; the NUCSSI database serves as an ideal access tool and is an indispensable tool to support decentralized document supply. Moreover, integration of the database with e-mail enables the routing of library and user request information. In addition it provides bibliographic control over the country's serial resources thereby supplying valuable data for planning and funding acquisition programmes.
The regular update of the database is enhanced with online access granted to participating libraries via the internet so that journal seekers can obtain updated information free of cost. A user-friendly interface and powerful search engine enables easy and improved access to locate a particular journal and its availability.
A brief history
The project for the compilation of NUCSSI was initiated by NISCAIR in 1965. The plan envisaged bringing out a series of library and regional union catalogues of scientific serials and then amalgamate them to yield...