National Library, Kolkata,

The National Library has been promising easier and wider access to electronic journals and on-line databases once the ICT infrastructure was in place. We are happy to report that the library has now acquired databases such as Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford Bibliographies On-line and ProQuest Dissertations (Full Texts). We are switching to the electronic version of the latter from the current financial year. It will provide access to 2.7 million searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present day, together with 1.5 million full-text dissertations and theses. Every year more than 70,000 graduate dissertations are added to the PQDT FT, the majority of which are full-text. The library has also acquired, on a perpetual-access basis, Early English Books On-line. It would enable users to access full texts of nearly 1,25,000 English titles printed between 1475 and 1700 in the British Isles, i.e. the entire lists in A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave�sShort Title Catalogue, and Donald Wing�s Short-Title Catalogue. It also includes the Thomason Collection of the Early English Tracts Supplement.

The Web-OPAC now has around 8,50,000 records, including books in foreign languages, bound journals, and maps. We have plans of digitizing select rare and brittle documents starting in the second quarter of the financial year.� Stock-taking, a recommendation in the last Performance Audit, has started in the financial year 2011-12 after a gap of many years.

The last semester saw a number of important events, including major exhibitions and conferences. These are reported in the following pages. The Library Administration had also promised programmes relating to staff training and development. These are reported in the ensuing pages, including a major six-day workshop on security and fire prevention held for the first time in the National Library. In July, we shall be conducting a gender sensitization programme for the staff with the assistance of the organization Swayam. This year marks 175 years of the founding of Calcutta Public Library, the institution with which the National Library started life.