Use of Institutional Repository Software in Private Autonomous Engineering College Libraries of Andhra Pradesh

This work examines the issues related to use of institutional repository software among the private autonomous engineering college libraries of Andhra Pradesh. The paper tries to assess the purpose and scope of the use of institutional repository software in libraries. Andhra Pradesh had a total of fifty autonomous engineering colleges up to academic year 2018–19 as per UGC (https://ugc.ac.in/subpage/Autonomous_Colleges.aspx)1, out of which, five are government autonomous engineering colleges, and the remaining 45 are under private management. The forty five private autonomous engineering college libraries were selected for the study. Open form questionnaire was mailed to all the librarians for a free response in the respondents own words. The questionnaire related to resources available in the institutional repository software among the college libraries. Primary data were received from eight colleges on appointment visit, fifteen colleges sent it by post, eighteen colleges sent by e-mail and four colleges did not respond. The response rate was 91 percent. Out of 41 colleges only 13(31%) colleges were maintaining institutional repository software out of which 5 are using open source software, 8, in-house developed software and no one uses commercial software. The study suggests needful and helpful findings for librarians to make and implement institutional repository software in their colleges.