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The Institute has a well equipped library consisting of reference section
and a gallery of books from different disciplines such as linguistics, History,
Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology and other Indian languages.
All these books are available for those who want to refer or read from
the reading room maintained in the Institute.
The Institute is the second in the country to have a fully digital library. Here
a computerized system allows users to obtain coherent means of access to an organized,
electronically stored repository of information at their work place itself. The
Institute in its 37th year of its service to Indian languages converted its conventional
multimedia library into modern digital library.
The collection as of now exceeds two lakh books and non-book materials and
more than sixty percent of the books are in Indian languages.
The library of the Institute has English and majority of Hindi books and the seven
Regional Language Centers at Bubaneswar, Guwahati, Lucknow, Mysore, Patiala, Pune
and Solan, have books collected from the respective regions.
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JOURNALS
• In the Home site, Journal is a link that deals with
Current journals in CIIL library, electronic journals, index, etc, http://192.168.0.7/home
• Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) in the VTLS package has been done for
150 Journals using the worksheet prepared for journal OPAC.
• With the help of ISSN number one can down load the OPAC from Library of Congress
online catalog (LC) since VTLS has given the interface to LC.
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THESES and DISSERTATIONS
• In BBLA home page a web page for theses and dissertations has been made with
search facility.
• The institute has digitized nearly 350 theses which were available in the
microfilm roles in the tape archive.
• The digitized theses are being maintained by the project.
• Fifty three microfilms purchased from University microfilms are now in the
process of getting digitized.
• One hundred and eleven theses available in book form in the library are also
getting digitized.
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MAPS
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• The map collection of the library exceeds 4000 consisting of both restricted
and unrestricted maps.
• They have been entered in the VTLS and special retrieval facility is made
in the VTLS iPortal.
• A map container is in the process of acquisition for their maintenance.
• As and when the maps are digitized, the Virtua software used by the Institute
has High Resolution facility in its iPortal for retrieval, reading etc,
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OTHER NON-BOOK MATERIALS
• Entire Non-book collection has been entered in the Virtua package. All the
gramophone records and cassette tapes have been digitized and made available with
their accompanied material in book form in the iPortal with multi media facility.
• Film strips are getting digitized and will be made available with their accompanied
material in book form in the iPortal
• Micrographic materials also are getting digitized.
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GRATIS BOOKS
• The gratis books have separate accession numbers and are not mixed with regular
library books.
• A database has been created for these books with search facility in the BBLA
home page.
• Users can select from this database and refer them within the library.
OPAC or Online Public Access Catalog: Wide range search capability
by Author, Title, Subject, Keywords, language, etc is available. The Chameleon iPortal
can be optimized down to the smallest detail to meet the demands of the user. Skins
technology which makes this most flexible web OPAC is built upon the use of HTML
templates and cascading style sheets.
• The classification work related to books in linguistics and its allied fields
are computerized. If the topic is given, the class number is obtained automatically.
• Stock verification work is being planned using the Virtua software and barcode.
• Work related to online newspaper clipping and binding of back volumes of
journals from the beginning till date is in progress.
• As a part of library modernization new equipments are being ordered.
• Works related to binding of books are complete and those books have been
entered in the Virtua by the BBLA Staff.
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INFORMATION SERVICES
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The Multipurpose Indian Language Evaluation System [MILES]
Background : The CIIL, being an institute of importance
at the national level, has often been called upon to take care of a variety of evaluation
requirements from various organisations in this country and abroad with reference
to Indian languages. The requirements are too many and are unconnected from one
another. Some of them are concerned with orientation and consultancy;
some are related to the restructuring of syllabi; many of them are on preparing
the instruments of evaluation. The focus in some cases is pertaining
to a single language, and the rest is to a group of languages.
The kind of evaluation sought in many cases is partial and in others is
comprehensive relating toa programme or a field or an organization.
The purposes of these requirements may be seen as a point of confluence either
on achievement, or on aptitude oron the level of proficiency
in one or more languages. Attempts made towards fulfilling all such requirements
have ended-up mostly in wastage of money, time and energy
without any fruitful result. This has caused a series of academic constraints
and administrative complexities. In order to overcome all such difficulties,
an R&D was initiated to evolve a centralized mechanism comprising a
series of multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and multi-disciplinary factors
by adopting all kinds of IT facilities available as on date.
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The MILES : As a result, a conceptual frame work blended
with a core of inter-disciplinary concepts, involving the areas
of language, literature, linguistics, education, psychology, mathematics, statistics,
and computer engineering is being designed towards fulfilling the above
requirements. It facilitates the creation of a huge data base consisting a variety
of academic resources for systematically assessing the mastery
of language and literature and personality developed there on. Details
of such resources brought out as practical realisation in different Indian
languages are explained under the broad components of contents, methods
and purposes of evaluation. Continuous work on these areas has paved a
way for developing the above-said mechanism duly filled with a variety
of distinct question-items prepared on all the dimensions associated with each of
the codified components of language, literature, and personality. Assuming
that the object being assessed here is nothing but the core contents of
these three areas, all the dimensions associated with them are effectively covered
by using 10 types of question-items for scholastic and about 20
types of techniques for non-scholastic aspects. This process
is repeated 5 to 10 times to ensure the coverage of all the problems associated
with about 10 major, 40 minor, & 300 sub components each with 4 to 11 problem
areas.
The whole set of questions which have accommodated all the problems, are being computerised
and stored in the Item File Card (IFC) format along with their quality
indices (Q.Is.), answer keys / cues, objectives being tested and
other such relevant information. This would facilitate to retrieve all the required
information on evaluation. Such an all-inclusive database together with
retrieval facility is named as Multipurpose Indian Language
Evaluation System.
Highlights : On its successful completion, this system will cater
to the following types of requirements with reference to Indian languages by instantly
providing meaningful, scientific, valid, and reliable tests in equivalent forms
with sampling error-free content coverage for any purpose,
any level of education, and also for any length of time with scholarly
acceptable academic inputs taking into account the ultimate objectives of education.
Specifically it will help to
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construct mastery as well as the personality tests with a number
of item types under objective and subjective categories.
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determine one’s language competence in terms of his aptitude, achievement,
and proficiency in any given context.
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obtain the graded components from the GFRs for language, literature, and
personality - for effective planning of language, maintenance of inter-language
comparability, curriculum development, and syllabus making
for various courses;
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recall the testable components of language, literature and personality
on the basis of the computer number codes assigned to them.
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identify potential item writers for different purposes based on the quality
indices of question items produced by them.
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acquire insights for understanding the dimensions of language and literature
on the basis of which the tools of measurement can be developed in a more
scientific way.
Beneficiaries :
The teachers will have a lot of graded inputs for appropriate lesson planning
with clearly demarcated components of language, literature, and personality while
translating the conceptualization into concrete action both at the macro and micro
levels. Learners will have a global perspective of what they are
expected to learn. Evaluators will have an all inclusive database for
constructing a variety of objective based tests with 'sampling error-free' content
coverage and scores distribution. Researchers will have an empirical basis
for maintaining intra-level and inter-language comparability with new coinages
of scientific terms in the respective Indian languages. Textbook writers
will have a kind of ready reckoner with the details of content-ability components
for their identification, selection, gradation, and distribution among various inter-related
lesson units. Syllabus framers will have a list of hierarchically arranged
/ pragmatically classified components of content inputs and consequential effects
for outlining level-wise objectives towards giving a clear direction to all those
involved in the process of teaching, learning, and evaluation. Curriculum developers
will have a comprehensive database for determining the extent of emphasis to be
given for language and literature components while deciding the aggregate of all
the courses as a unifying activity. Examination cells (boards) will have
an inbuilt mechanism to choose and pick up question items which could be used to
construct a variety of mastery and personality tests with academically acceptable
equivalent forms. Selection / recruitment agencies too will have a wide
range of item resources for instant construction of tests to determine the level
of aptitude, proficiency, etc., of candidates in a content-free and context-free
situation. Educational planners will have an overall idea about the role
of language and literature in developing the learner’s alround growth in terms
of his intellectual, emotional, and physical aspects as outlined in the taxonomies
of educational objectives.
Besides the CIIL and its RLCs, the beneficiaries may also include organisations
of research; departments of central and the stategovernments; boards
of studies in the educational institutions / universities and so on.
On completion of this sophisticated system, the CIIL will have an additional facility
to extend timely help to various examination agencies who are
frequently encountering the problems of mass copying, leakage of question papers,
etc., by supplying instant alternatives with scholarly acceptable academic
inputs.
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