In institutions with libraries, the librarians are expected to provide statistics of usage. Budgets are often pruned if there is a decreased trend in use and alarmingly some libraries are closed down. What is "library usage" today? Not any more should one measure this only by footfalls (number of people visiting a library) or by number of items borrowed. Libraries are centres in an institution, and it is through these centres that access to online resources is purchased and enabled. It is by overall usage of a number of resources. Again not only by downloads but by what happens with…

Years ago, when I had just started freelancing after three library jobs, one of my activities was training doctors (any health professional) in using the Internet for professional activities. PubMed had not yet become public and free, so I used to teach one of the Medline services called "PaperChase" which was affordable then. I also used to do literature searches for those who needed literature and were not confident of doing it for themselves. At that time a doctor asked me "You are teaching people to do their searches and you are also doing it for them. Are you not…

In the last month for our first (Basic) course  we received the following two feedback statements - one from a UG student and one from a research professional Feedback 1 "Thank you for your initiative. I wish I had come across this site a lot earlier" Feedback 2 "The course was taught well. just that some of it was too basic" One would automatically deduce the the UG student gave the first and that the researcher gave the second. Fact: It was just the opposite Our first course is really aimed at UG students as it teaches the absolute must…