Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for E-resources Procurement

Meeting of the Library Working Committee (formerly, Library Development Advisory Committee), at the INFLIBNET Center (Gitanjali Net), Central Library, 14 December 2019 at 3.00pm.

a)     At first fund allocation committee/competent authority has to allot/approve grant to procure e-resources i.e. e-books and e-journals, databases, and others.

b)     Thereafter, E-demonstration program with the e-resources of reputed e-publishers/ e-aggregators have to be arranged followed by proper notification for the academic fraternity through individual mail, WhatsApp, Library Webpage, hardcopy as far as practicable to attend the demonstration program and thereby interact with the publishers.

c)      Opinion/recommendations from the faculty members, scholars, library professionals, and members of the e-resources selection committee have to be collected soon after the demonstration program on spot.

d)     All the publishers/aggregators those have been participated in the demonstration program will be requested to offer full-text trial for at least one month. By their policy if any one is not able to offer trial access, they may offer trial access for limited /bibliographic text only.

e)     Again, notification will be issued to all HOD, Faculty Members and Scholars for browsing the text through trial access.

f)       Then report will be collected from the concerned publishers/aggregators to supply the status of hit/download.

g)     Then HOD will be requested to send one list of titles on pick and choose from the title list as offered by the publishers/aggregators on his/her subject.

h)    Based on the recommendation during demonstration program, status of Hit/Download list will be prepared by the library and will be sent to concern publishers/aggregators for pricing.

i)       On receiving the price from the vendor, meeting of the E-resources selection committee will be arranged. After receiving the price proposal, the same may be negotiated for the interest of the university and also to cover maximum title/subject.

j)       For preparation of final recommendation, the meeting of the e-resource selection committee will be arranged. During finalization of the title list perpetual access i.e. ownership model (for e-books and archives) will be preferred and will try to cover most appropriate titles of almost all the departments as far as practicable

k)     If situation requires, more than one meeting of the e-resources selection committee meeting is to be arranged.

l)       Then the final recommendation of the e-resource selection committee along with the followings as enclosure as far as practicable will be sent to the competent authority for necessary approval;

                                i.            Forwarding letter for approval

                             ii.            Statement of vendor and subject wise price

                           iii.            Letter of fund allocation from the Development Office, VB

                            iv.            Notification of meeting of the fund allocation committee

                              v.            Proceedings of fund allocation committee meeting

                            vi.            Notification of E-demo program

                         vii.            Notification of trial access (full text) of e-Resources for VB fraternity

                       viii.            Notification(s) of e-Resource selection committee meeting

                            ix.            Proceeding (s) of the e-Resource selection committee meeting dated 24 August 2019

                              x.            Price (after negotiations) Proposals as received from the vendors

m)  After obtaining necessary approval, Activation Order (Supply/Work Order) may be issued to concerned publisher(s) /supplier(s) for uplink the titles through our IP for access. Also, they will be requested to submit necessary Invoice/Bills in triplicate to release the payment.

n)    After checking the accessibility (sample), Bills will be sent to Accounts for Payment.

o)     To avoid payment in foreign currency, publishers will be requested to take payment through Indian vendor.

p)     In case of foreign currency conversion, RBI current exchange rate on the date of placing supply order or seeking date of price proposal will be considered as advised by the external audit. Even for subscription of foreign Journal (both electronic and print) and procurement of print books, RBI exchange rate is to be followed.

q)     The issue like GST and others will be dealt with the time of applicability.