Research in LIS Schools of Indian Universities (A Bibliographical Study of MLIS Dissertations)

The very existence of written records demands that they should be listed somewhere and thus their existence acknowledged. If this listing is done in a systematic way, there shall be some bibliographical control over the ever-expanding graphic knowledge and it can be put to use for further human development. University dissertations in library and information science, though contain a wealth of information, are lying practically unknown in the archives of library science schools. No serious effort has so far been made to document them in a systematic way and promote their use, though many of them could be regarded as distinct contributions to librarianship. For the first time in India, Prasher’s Indian Library Literature (1971) covered the LIS dissertations of two library science schools. Then in 1987 Kumar’s Research in Library and Information Science documented the MLIS dissertations alongwith those of M.Phil. and Ph.D. This work covered as many as 18 Indian Universities, though 38 universities were conducting M.Lib. I.Sc. programme then. The present work is the first serious effort to document systematically the M.Lib. I.Sc. dissertations submitted to as many as 30 universities. This in fact is a bibliographical study of the dissertations included and gives such analysis as: Broad subject break up, detailed subject analysis, University-wise analysis, Guide-wise analysis, the extent of dissertation work at different universities, etc. The book has four parts: Introduction; Review of the literature; Classified bibliography of the dissertations; Indexes; Every department of library and information science in India needs a database to find out: (1) trends in LIS research at masters level; (2) dissertations produced by the various LIS Schools of the Indian Universities; and (3) problems which require further research. Research is a costly affair requiring a lot of time, energy and money. The duplication in research shall be a sheer wastage of these inputs. This bibliographical tool is intended to save this unnecessary duplication in research. It is hoped that the faculties and students of the LIS Schools of the Indian Universities and the working librarians of the country shall find this work really useful, particularly towards the much needed bibliographical control of MLIS dissertations.