Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) 
DELNET-Developing Library Network
About National Documentation Centre (NDC)
The National Documentation Centre (NDC) is a unique information resource centre, which provides an access to documentation on all aspects of the subjects of health, population and family welfare etc. It serves as a bank of information. National Documentation Centre came into existence in May 1977 with the merger of libraries of two premier institutes i.e. National Institute of Health Administration and Education (NIHAE) and National Institute of Family Planning (NIFP). Both the Institutes were devoted to dissemination and documentation services through innumerable activities such as abstracting, indexing, design and development of database, library automation, providing access to national/international information source and consultancy services etc. The core activity of the NDC is to collect/store, publish and disseminate health and family welfare information, which are needed for the benefit of different segments of the society. Mission of NDC is to become the prime custodian of all information resources on current and traditional knowledge of health, population and family welfare to provide high quality of documentation and reference services to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for planning health policies, strategies and campaigns to develop human resources of the country to be at par with the best in the world.
NDC has a rich collection of latest materials like books, journals, monographs, and online journals, government reports, seminar and conference proceedings, international publications on Health and Family Welfare and allied disciplines, CD-ROM, online databases, like POPLINE and census reports etc.
The collection is completely computerised and we are also going to be converted into a Digital Library. The library is well equipped with all modern facilities. There is an information desk (Counter) on the ground floor to help with inquiries. NDC caters the needs of scientists, researchers and students etc from medical colleges, research institutions, and government and non-government agencies.
Delnet
As a member of DELNET, NDC has been promoting resource sharing among the libraries in Delhi through the development of a network. It provides access to databases such as Online Union Catalogue of Books, List of Current Periodicals, Bibliographic Database, Database of Thesis and Dissertations, Who’s Who of Indian Specialists and Non book materials of all participating libraries. It helps in coordination with other regional, national and international networks and libraries for exchange of information and documents. The data is growing rapidly and therefore it is being updated on regular intervals. DELNET provides an array of facilities to its member-libraries. DELNET’s relentless efforts of resource sharing have proved extremely effective. It has indeed been a big leap towards the modernisation of libraries in India. The users of NDC can freely login DELNET database.
Inter-Library Loan Facility
Though, we are having a best-resourced library, but we can not offer every thing that every possible user may wish to access at one time. For the purpose of fulfilling their requirements, we have subscribed to an inter-library loan facility of books and journal etc that are borrowed from local libraries, which are having similar interests. When reading materials are not available in the library, the same is borrowed from other library under inter-library loan scheme. Books are also made available to other libraries when required. The inter library loan service supplements the needs of researchers and students of the Institute. The students, staff who require books, not held by the library, for research or teaching purposes may request the library to borrow them from other libraries. Request may be made on inter-library loan forms, available at the counter of NDC and after filling up the form, it has to be submitted to the SDO, NDC. Request form must be counter-signed by the teaching faculty of the NIHFW.
Circulation-cum-reference Services
How to get NDC Membership
Application for NDC membership may be made at the circulation desk in NDC. After completion of a brief application, recommended by Head of Department, the applicant's record in the library user's database is added. Five or ten number of borrowers card depending upon the entitlement are issued in the name of user/member after the completion of registration. These cards are non-transferable. Under no circumstances, these cards are to be given to someone else to use. The NDC Membership rules are designed to protect members from having their card misused by any other person in case of loss or theft.
Borrowing Privileges:
Users/members of NDC can be:
All the members are eligible for borrowing privileges at NDC. They can borrow ten items except for group C and D staff at one time for a period of two weeks. They are also eligible to use interlibrary loan and document delivery services and have off site access to electronic resources.
The documents shelved in closed collections such as thesis, reference materials and latest reports on health and related topics are not issued but can be accessed by the user in the premises of NDC.
Periodicals, reference books, and out of print books and publications marked for consultation only, will not be issued. Other publications will be issued for a period of not more than fourteen days, as specified on the date slip. The items issued to the library members must be returned immediately if called by the library before the due date.
Visiting Readers:
The readers not having membership are eligible to use NDC.However they cannot be able to avail borrowing, inter-library loan services.
Change of Address:
Please report immediately to the circulation attendant in case of changing the address/designation and fill out the new application form duly recommended by Head of Department.
Lost Borrowers(s) Card:
In case of lost of borrower card(s), kindly report immediately to the Sr. Doc. Officer in NDC, so that your card may be invalidated. For the purpose of issuing of duplicate cards, member is supposed to give an undertaking before collection of these cards.
Facilities for Outsiders:
Non-member visitors are required to obtain the permission of SDO, NDC on a prescribed application form, available at the Reception Counter of the library. They will have to record their name, address and time of arrival in NDC and purpose of consultation of National Documentation Centre.
NDC Automation
NDC has been automated with The Troodon Software package which is an integrated multi-user library management system that supports operations of NDC. The Troodon consists of 5 modules, namely (i) acquisition, (ii) circulation, (iii) serials control, (iv) OPAC and (v) maintenance for editing imputing of introspective conversion of bibliographic records. More than 40,000 bibliographic records are available in the NDC, which can now be accessed through the Computerised Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). The database of books available in the library is being updated on day-to-day basis with details of the acquired books. Records of all the library patrons have also been created in the Troodon software, which has also been successfully implemented. Online searching of documents through OPAC is available on the computers connected to the NDC.
Documentation Services
1. Union Catalogue of Non-Print Material
The adoption of modern technology has resulted in the proliferation of machine-readable databases. The databases used in the NDC contains information of around 1155 non-print materials, available in 15 apex institutions, working on health sector in Delhi. Entries in the Database have been arranged in record number wise. Each entry contains title, producer/director, producing agency, keywords, sources, and accession number etc.Four indexes, namely – subject index, producer, (Author index), title index, and institutional index), has been suffixed at the end of
2. Health & Family Welfare Abstract
This service is an attempt to bring together abstracts of valuable scientific and research work in the field of Population, Health & Family Welfare and allied subjects, published in the national/international core Journals, received in NDC. The service covers the information of previous SDI services (Selective Dissemination of Information), provided by NDC.
3. Directory of thesis in MD (PSM), MD (CHA), MHA, Dip (CHA)
This directory contains the bibliographical information (author, title, guide, institute, thesis abstract etc.) of thesis received from17 medical institutions of the country. This directory serves as a reference tool to all those who are engaged in the field of community health, population, health and family welfare programmes etc. Author index, guide index, organisation index are also given at the end of directory to facilitate the users. All the records are entered in the computer by using “TROODON”, library application software which is easy in handling to the users to access information in different options, like author, guide, publisher, year of publication etc.
4. Tribal Health Database
Tribal Health Database is a comprehensive collection of bibliographic references of the literature related to the field of tribal health in India. The database covers the articles of various journals, which are procured by the NDC. The database is compiled, checked and maintained by National Documentation Centre at National Institute of Health & Family Welfare. NDC has also been providing the database in a standardised format to the other health institutions.
5. Press Clipping Services
NDC subscribes 16 daily newspapers of English and 7 daily newspapers of Hindi languages. Each of these newspapers scanned and the items of the interest to the users group are clipped and pasted on an A4 size paper sheet. The clippings then assigned one or more subject headings and got xeroxed in multiple number of copies. It has to be disseminated to the users, after shaping it into a bound book form.
6. List of additions
List of additions is the current awareness science for disseminating information regarding the recent publications, procured in the NDC. List of additions is broadly categorised subject wise. Each entry contains the information about the author, title, and place of publication, publisher, and year of publication. Besides these, each entry also contains total number of pages, accession number and call number of the document, as assigned by the NDC.
Other Facilities
Xeroxing
A Xeroxing machine has been installed in NDC for the purpose of providing photocopies of the literature as available in NDC. The service is provided at nominal rate i.e. 0.60 paisa per page for A4 size copy. Single copy of each reference only is provided for personal use of the applicant and the multiple copies are denied.
Training
As we know, information technology has been growing rapidly and therefore there is radical change in the way of services of libraries. In order to bridge the gap between two tired society i.e. “Knowledge haves” and “Knowledge have-nots”, NDC has been conducting training courses to equip medical libraries with latest information technologies since the year 2000. The general objective of the training course is to enhance the application competencies of utilisation of information technologies in libraries.
Online Journals
NDC has enhanced its services to online journals & books also. It offers an access to journals and books etc. from leading publishers. This service is available to MD (CHA)/DHA students and other related health students etc.
Inter-library Loan
Library also caters to the needs of its users/members by way of extending facilities of inter-library loan system. When reading material is not available in the library, the same is borrowed from other library under inter-library loan scheme. The ILL service supplements the needs of researchers and students of the Institute. Current staff and students of the Institute may make use of this service if they require an item for the purpose of academic study or research. Request may be made on inter-library loan forms, available at the counter of NDC and after filling up the form, it has to be submitted to the SDO, NDC. Request form must be counter-signed by the teaching faculty of the NIHFW.
