ABOUT BOSLA
During 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.
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Today, the association swelled covering over 500+ life members spread across the country. The association keep organizing the 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:
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To improve the services of the Bombay science libraries.
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To cooperate actively so as to benefit mutually by the resources available to The libraries.
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To strengthen the financial resources of the science libraries in Bombay.
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To raise the professional standard of library staff in the Bombay science libraries.
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To improve the status and service conditions of the library staffers in Bombay.
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To maintain liaison between the professionals and the Government.
ABOUT TIFR
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a National Centre of the Government of India, under the umbrella of the Department of Atomic Energy, as well as a Deemed University awarding degrees for master's and doctoral programs. The Institute was founded in 1945 under the vision of Dr. Homi Bhabha and carries out basic research in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, computer science and science education. The main campus is located in Mumbai, with Centres at Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. A library was established almost simultaneously with the Institute with the objective to cater to the scientific literature requirements of the academicians. Information Technology Infrastructure of the library was implemented in the year 1990.
In 1991 TIFR Library installed ‘LIBSYS’ – a sophisticated library management software package was installed in the system, and extensively used. In 2012, the same was upgraded by from existing Libsys4 to Libsys7. Integration of e-book MARC records in Libsys7 has helped to retrieve e-book collection.
In 2007, the name of the Library was changed to Scientific Information Resource Centre (SIRC ) in line with other DAE units, due to the increasing orientation of its collection towards electronic resources, and the indispensable use of IT in its functioning to provide various online resources and other services to users.
SIRC subscribes to various online packages namely- ACS (1996+), AIP Complete (1999+), APS All (1893+), Elsevier Science Direct (1995+), EMS (1997+), IEEE (1872+), IOP Science (1874+), JSTOR (1665+), Oxford (1996+), SIAM (1997+), Springer (1997+), T&F [Maths & Physics Collection] (1997+), Wiley [Core & Custom Collection] (1997+), World Scientific (2001+). It has also acquired E-journals back files of ACS (1879-1995), AIP (1930-1998), Elsevier (1826-1994), Springer (1853-1996), OUP (1878-1995), RSC (1841-2004), T&F (1798-1996), Wiley (1799-1996), World Scientific (1973-2000) and some more.
With periodic updates, the SIRC Website provides access to all e-resources, open access content, online forms (book recommendation, article request, feedback form, etc.), links to in-house database, and additional information to the users such as online books catalogue, catalogues of other libraries, publishers and booksellers catalogues, recent additions to mathematics, physics and other subjects which are on display along with the previous one year’s list.
SIRC presently has a collection of more than 70,000+ books mainly covering the subjects as Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chemical Physics, Theoretical Computer Science, Condensed Matter Physics, High Energy Physics, Material Science, Mathematics, Molecular Biology, Nuclear and Atomic Physics and Theoretical Physics. Though, SIRC is primarily responsible for catering to the information needs of the scientific community in TIFR, it also serves scientists from other Institutions.