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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the initiative of the University Grants Commission of India in setting up the Infonet Digital Library Consortium (The Information and Library Network) in order to provide access to scholarly communication to the academic community in India. Design/methodology/approach: The context of higher education in India and the expansion and establishment of universities under the five-year plan is given along with details of e-resources that are being provided. The usage trends of e-resources from various publishers during 2004-2007 are detailed. Findings: The paper finds that there has been a qualitative increase in overall usage, but use is also dependent on a high-bandwidth connection. Originality/value: The study provides evidence of increased use of consortial services for access to e-resources in Indian higher education.

A good estimate of the ground resistance of foot is required for calculation of permissible values of step and touch voltages at a substation during an earth fault. The ground resistance of foot is taken as that of a circular conducting disk of 0.08-m radius. A thin layer of crushed rock is usually spread on surface of soil in the switchyard area. The effect of the layer of crushed rock on foot resistance can be computed analytically by modeling it as a metallic disk lying on a two-layer soil. A reduction factor, which accounts for the finite depth of crushed rock layer, is thus determined. A number of empirical expressions are available in literature to determine value of the reduction factor. In this paper, a comparative study of the available expressions is made. Based on the study, two expressions, which are the most suitable for determining reduction factor, for practical values of parameters involved, are selected. The selected expressions are further improved upon by optimizing their numerical coefficients. Index Terms--Foot resistance, grounding, step voltage, substation, touch voltage.

The usage of e-resources is one of the most important parameters to judge effectiveness of a consortium. Manual downloading and analysis of usage statistics is a time-consuming process for a consortium like UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium having more than 180 core members. COUNTER and SUSHI standards have the potential to ease the work of a consortium administrator by minimizing the time involved in manual downloading of usage statistics allowing more time for analyzing the usage statistics for better decision making. The article gives a brief of the implication of SUSHI for creating a usage statistics portal at the INFLIBNET Centre for monitoring the usage of the member universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about radio frequency identification (RFID), an automatic identification and data collection technology. RFID refers to a term used for a radio-enabled device that communicates with a tag or smart label embedded with as single microchip processor and an antenna. It is widely used in a variety of industrial applications including automation, fare collection, public transits, packaging wireless pay-at-pumps, and hands-free access control system. It is also used in libraries. Through RFID technology, it makes library circulation activities fast, easy and accurate.