Social Science Cyber Library, An Attempt Towards E- Learning at Aligarh Muslim University

Abstract

The learning and teaching process has travelled far enough from the prehistoric times to reach the present information communication technology driven era. ICT, Internet, WWW all have contributed to this change, making society more information dependent thus giving rise to a knowledge society. E-learning as we know it today can be traced back to networked learning. E-learning implies learning and teaching by using ICT as a communications and delivery tool between individuals or groups. The digital library initiatives all over the world had set up a platform for e learning in the form of e-books, e-journals, subject gateways and the like. The ease of using all these formats and their subsequent approval by the user community is an indication that impact of e learning has been felt and that too positively. This paper is an effort to draw attention to the unique effort by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh of setting up a Social Science Cyber Library encompassing all open access resources available in different formats ranging from e journals to video lectures on themes relating to social sciences at one place facilitating their visibility, use thus saving the time of the reader as emphasized by Ranganathan's laws of Library science. The present paper discusses the role the social science cyber library can play among the e learning generation. The paper draws on information available through google and the cyber library website regarding the change in the behaviour of teachers, students, libraries and library professionals transformation in education system especially the Higher Education Sector and analysing the impact this initiative can impose on the social scientist's community not only at AMU or in India but all around the globe.