International Journal of Library

Science and Research (IJLSR)

ISSN(P): 2250-2351; ISSN(E): 2321-0079
Vol. 6, Issue 3, Jun 2016, 1-8
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

ESTABLISHMENT OF E- ZONE AT LIBRARY, DR. AMBEDKAR

GOVERNMENT LAW COLLEGE, CHENNAI -A CASE STUDY
E. NISHAVATHI1 & K SANGEETHA2
1
2

Librarian, Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Research Scholar, Librarian, Highway Research Station, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai has been the premier institution imparting formal legal
education in the South India since its inception. Library attached this premier college play a vital role in imparting
quality legal education. A pressing need has been identified to uplift the library services to march towards the next
generation education and to suit the Government Law College students to compete with advanced law schools, efforts
were taken to establish an e-zone in the college premises. After successful implementation of pilot project, it has been
extended to the entire college campus. This paper discusses about the ways and means of establishment of e-zone which
enables the student to access open access legal information resources.

This paper also discusses about the subject

gateway of open access legal information sources.

KEYWORDS: Internet, Legal Research, Legal Sources, Open Access Legal Sources, Legal Information Resources, Law

Case Study

Library.

Received: Mar 28, 2016; Accepted: Apr 12, 2016; Published: Apr 19, 2016; Paper Id.: IJLSRJUN20161

INTRODUCTION
Present student who are studying law are the future prosperous lawyers and Judges who are need of
possessing knowledge of legal information sources, legal reasoning skills and develop indigenous skills to cope up
with unprecedented information overload due to the evolution of technological developments. With the advent of
information technology the legal information landscape has tremendously changed from print material to non-print
materials which includes on-line journals, online legal databases, reports, e-books, e-dissertations, e-clinical
source materials etc thus there is pressing need to educate the student in this regard.
The bedrock of any judicial system is the imparting right kind of legal education. It is from the law
college that lawyers and judges emerge. In view of the supportive character of legal education of the judicial
system, it is necessary to uplift the services provided by the libraries attached to this institution. Dr. Ambedkar
Government Law College has taken keen steps and established e-zone at the Library.
History of the College
Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai has been the premier institution imparting formal legal
education in the South since its inception on 2nd May 1891.

The establishment of the law college as an

independent institution was sanctioned by the Secretary of State, on the advice of the Council of Legal Services
(Education) in London. Mr. Reginald.A. Nelson, the first principal entered up on his duties on 2nd may 1891. The
college was housed at the Senate House of the University of Madras for seven and a half years. The Law College

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E. Nishavathi & K Sangeetha

moved into the present building designed by Mr. Henry Irwing, the Government Architect, near the west of Madras High
Court building. In the year 1953, a separate department of legal studies was created and Director of legal studies was
appointed for the first time. The Law College was upgraded as a Post Graduate Institution with the introduction of M.L.
Courses. From 1973-74 the Tamil Language has also been made as a medium of instruction in Law as part of a
Government Policy.
The ever increasing demand for legal education led to the proliferation of law colleges in the State and in a short
period, law colleges were started at Madurai (1974-75), Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli (1978-80), Tirunelveli (199697),Chengalpattu 2006-2007 and Vellore (2008-2009).The alumni adorning Honourable positions across the world bear
eloquent testimony to its glory and grandeur for more than 120 years.
Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai has a programmed focus on managing contemporary legal
issues in fast-evolving global environments. The College offers five year integrated and three year undergraduate
educational program i.e. BABL, BL. The College also offers unique full-time ML degree with specialization in Business
Law, Criminology, Labour& Administrative Law, and Property Law.
Library attached this premier college play a vital role in imparting quality legal education. Law libraries are
different from any other libraries that they serve a profession which is literally unable to exercise its work without the use
of book. The law books are different from all other subject literatures, not only in their subject matter, but also in their
own innate form.It has a robust collection dated back from 17th centenary. The library housed in then Madras Law College
was noted for its up-to-date acquisition of books of importance, during the period of 1930 to 1950 while Prof. K. Krishna
Menon was adorning the Principal of this premier institution.
At present the library has grown to its present gigantic dimensions and to meet the ever increasing demands in the
field of legal education consequent of a new block has been constructed with two floors with ample space for stacking of
books, for reference purposes, and also for future up gradation.
Library Collection
It has over 82,000 volumes covering a wide range of general and special subjects, comprising of text books,
reference books, 20,000 back volumes of journals and reports etc., apart from current legal periodicals.
Library Users
It caters to the needs of about 2250 student on the roll of the college. It is opened for reference to Library Interns,
research scholars, faculty members and practicing advocated on their request. The library has the following sections, and a
separate PG block library has been established to cater the demand of the PG Student and scholar

Circulation

Journal

Reference

Sc/St Book Bank

Common Room

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.5789

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1

Establishment of E- Zone At Library, Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai

PG library
To meet the growing challenges of internet usage, the library conduces students, and faculties by providing the

following services

Archival library information centre

E-zone

Reprographic section

UGC Remedial Coaching Section

Establishment of E-Zone
E-zone is the section established in the Library which consists of 50 computer systems with high power internet
connectivity. Zonal wi fi facility has been made available to the student to enable them to use their personal gadgets for
retrieving legal materials. All these facilities are controlled by firewall which prevents everybody from browsing anything
other than the legal resources. In order to meet out the demand of students and for research purpose all faculty rooms were
provided Desktop facility with internet connectivity.

Need For Establishment of E-Zone at the Library

This college Library has rich collection of books and journals which satisfy the requirements of the students and
teachers and others who visits the library but function on traditional manual system which offers traditional services like
book issue, reference, book bank, reprographic etc.. and try to improve its services to cope up with the latest technologies
within the limited funds.In the era of information revolution and integration of communication technologies has changed
the concept of library and created venue for digital library. The immense need for establishment of e-zone is,

To develop sound legal knowledge with the help of information and communication technology

To facilitates legal research activities

To improve the efficiency and quality of legal education

To create awareness and educate the studentabout the recent online legal resources and its usage during their
practice.

To offer electronic legal resources like online journals, databases, reports and books

To provide an opportunity to access the latest technologies by the student of this college

To compete with the students of advanced law schools, universities and colleges

To facilitates browsing the current judgments and international developments, which is the need of the hour for
advancement of legal studies
Moreover as per the Bar Council of India Education Rule 2008 at least 10 online access point with disktop facility

must be made available to the student to get the recognition of Bar Council of India.
In order to march towards the next generation education and to suit the Government Law College students to fit

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for any legal assignments and to compete with advanced law schools, efforts were taken to establish an e-zone in the
college premises where in even poor students can do wonders in legal education with the help of electronic devices.
Initially a pilot project has been implemented in the Library with 8 port 2mbps BSNL connection with wifi
facility. The services are restricted to the PG students, faculties, research fellows and Mooters during the academic year
2012-2013. The successful implementation of pilot project, plan has been drafted to extent the services to all the students
of this college. Accordingly computers their accessories hardwares, softwares required for LAN connectivity with wired
and wireless access has been purchased and installed. Honourable Judges of Madras High Court and alumni of this college
have donated computers to the Library. Moreover Infosys has donated 15 computer systems for establishment of e-zone.
The college has collaboration with CISCOM Communications Pvt.Ltd., for providing and maintaining servers and
LAN (Local Area Network) connectivity. Under the project National Mission for Education Project through Information
and Communication Technology sponsored by Ministry of Human Resources Department(NMEICT) 10mbps VPN broad
band connection has been subscribed for this services
Services Offered in E-Zone
Resource Sharing: LAN is utilized in the library for better resource sharing. LAN allows sharing online legal
information by several users at a time. LAN was implemented to reduce the cost of purchasing several copies of online
legal journals instead of purchasing the network version of online journals.The library possesses full text databases
covering SCC, AIR on CDs. With the LAN connection it enables several users at a time to browse the resources of full
text legal databases loaded on the server.
Access to Open Access Legal Information Resources:
Library has created a subject gateway to open access legal information resources for providing single click easy
access to court related information (includes national and international, apex court judgments, like, judgments, orders,
statutes, open access journals committees and commissions reports, case laws, Parliamentary intents, Law Reports,
Encyclopedic Reference Services, Manuals and central Acts, Law Lexicon, Open Access Databases and other materials
related to law.

This service mainly intended for the student of five year BA BL degree course as initiation of

freshman.This service available on off-line. Some of the open access legal information resources at national and
international scope are listed below
Open Access Indian Legal Journals:

http://www.ili.ac.in/lawreview.htm/
http://liiofindia.org/:This is not a government project but is a non-profit private initiative by four National Law

Schools of India, IIT- Kharagpur and Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law to provide comprehensive online
collection of Indian legal information with a good search option.

http://www.liiofindia.org/in/journals/INJlConLaw/ n Journal of

http://www.liiofindia.org/in/journals/INJlIPLaw/

http://www.liiofindia.org/in/journals/INJlLawTech/

http://www.liiofindia.org/in/journals/NALSARLawRw/

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.5789

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1

Establishment of E- Zone At Library, Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/45

www.mainstreamweekly.net/

http://www.nalsarstudentlawreview.com/

Open Access Legal International Journals

http://www.californialawreview.org/issues

http://organizations.lawschool.cornell.edu/ilj/

http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dlj/index

http://harvardhrj.com/

http://www.hg.org/redir.asp?url=http://www.hir.harvard.edu/

http://www.harvardlawreview.org/index.php

http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/lcp/

http://www.yalelawjournal.org/current-issue.html

Judgments: National, International and Apex court Judgments:

http://indianjudiciary.in :links to information relating to Supreme Court, State Judiciary, Legal information,
Judicial Academies, E-Committee

http://indiancourts.nic.in: this database contains details of fresh cases filed as well as the disposed off and pending
cases.

www.courtnic.nic.in: a database of case information was generated to provide thestatus of the pending cases to the
litigants and advocates.

www.judis.nic.in : provides access to court judgments for the litigants, advocates and general public full text of all
reported Supreme Court of Indiajudgments from 1950 till date, and recently theorders of the District Courts and
Tribunal are also provided.

http://judis.openarchive.in/: is free search engine/repository of Indian Supreme Court cases from 1950-2007 and
provides free unrestricted access to complete texts of over 23,000 Supreme Court Cases.

http://www.nja.gov.in/: information relating training of judges is available.

www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=2

http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/search.asp?skin=hudoc-en

http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/

Manuals and Central Acts

http://indiacode.nic.in : a database of the Acts of Parliament from the year 1836onwards. TheConstitution of India

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is available in English as well as in Hindihttp://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html

http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/coifiles/amendment.htm - allthe amendment Acts till the 19th Amendment are

available with Statement of Objects and Reasons

Acts and Rules: (National and international)

http://india.gov.in/my-government/actsrules

www.austlii.ed.aw/au/legis/cth/consol act/

www.canlii.org/en/

www.statutelaw.gov.uk

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/browse.html

Bills and Legislation

http://www.parliamentofindia.nic.in/:The Parliament of India website has links to the bills and legislations
introduced and passed by LokSabha and RajyaSabha.

http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/debates.htm:The Parliament website also has link to all the proceedings

of the Constituent Assembly. All the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly from 9 December 1946 to 24
January1950 are available.

Open Access Databases

http://www.ssrn.com

http://www.indian kanoon.org

http://www.glin.gov/search.action

http://www.findlaw.com/

http://www.indiankanoon.org/ : Full-text access to Supreme Court and state court case law.

http://legalsutra.org/ : Legal Sutra Law Students Knowledge Base This site provides student generated class
outlines and commentaries on specific legal issues

http://lawkhoj.com/LawKhoj: Indian legal search engine.

http://www.advocatekhoj.com/library/index.php : Advocate Khoj Law Library: links to legislation, case law, legal
conferences, information about Indian law schools, and attorney directories.

Commission and Committees

http://ahrchk.net/

http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.5789

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1

Establishment of E- Zone At Library, Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai

http://nhrc.nic.in/: contains all information about human rights

http://www.ohch

http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/ : website has all the two hundred and thirty four reports submitted by nineteen
law commissions till date.

Encyclopedic Reference Sources

www.law.cornell.edu/wex

www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia

Law Lexicon

www.lectlaw.com/ref.html

www.thelawdictionary.org/

www.alphadictionary.com/..../law/

Antivirus, Anti-Spy Ware, Anti Spam, Content Filter, & Intrusion Prevention Services
The Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College library has become member in the Consortium for Indian
Information Technology Education (CIITE) to protect the network and the data by applying antivirus solution. They have
installed network based antivirus server with a powerful antivirus as well as the antivirus control at the firewall level to
avoid the virus from outside, along with Anti-spyware, Anti-spam, Content filtering and Instruction prevention facilities
also provided at the firewall level
High Performance
The higher performance of the speed in the wired & wireless LAN must be provided at all time throughout the
campus. The CISCOM Communications Pvt. Ltd. (partner and System integrator for BSNL, Chennai, Telephones)
provided a strong LAN connectivity through Wifi and OFC as backbone the speed performance in both wired and wireless
Zonal wifi services
The college campus has been provided withBrovis AS550 indoor Wireless Access Point with integrated Antenna
2.4GHZ fast Ethernet for multimedia applications and Brovis AC 150-LC-BGN outdoor smart MIMO

Wireless

Distribution System Access point Extended range Multi Client device with integrated Antenna, 2.4 GHZ Fast Ethernet for
Multimedia Applications. It facilitates the student, faculties, researcher to use the e-zone services anywhere within the
college campus by their personal gadgets. Utilization of this service is password protected for security purposes.
Future Plans
This college library possess collection dated back from 17th century. Digitizing the collection of those books and
make them open access would be the appropriate step march towards virtual law library. The service subject gate way will
be made available on line in near future. Steps will also take to linking all the government law colleges in Tamil Nadu
under the umbrella of Directorate of Legal Studies. Thus enables better resource sharing.

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CONCLUSIONS
The e zone services were established in the academic year 2014-2015. This study focuses onways and means
forestablishment of e-zone in the college library and various services offered to the students. Future research can be done
in evaluating the services by receiving feedback from the student. Based on the evaluation study modification can be done
to improve the quality of services. Frequent updating open access legal resources will definitelyhelp the student to know
about latest amendments.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors extent their sincere thanks to Dr. N. Santhosh Kumar, Director, Directorate of Legal Studies,
Government of TamilNadu, TamilNadu for his valid suggestions to establish e-zone at the library, Dr. Ambedkar
Government Law College, Chennai
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Chander, satish. "Access to legal information in india." DESIDOC Bulletin of information technology (1998): 21-28.

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Mallik, Soumen;B.K.Sen. "Information sources in academic law libraries in India." Annals of Library and information Studies
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Manikya Rao Burra; Viswachandra Nath Madasu. "Importance of internet facility in support of Legal education and legal
research." ABHINAV (n.d.): 38-46.

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Hand Book 2014-2015. Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College

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Magazine 2014 2015. Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College

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India Code, Available at: http://indiacode.nic.in/ (Accessed on 11 Sept. 2014)

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India Portal, Available at: http://www.india.gov.in/ (Accessed on 9 Oct. 2014)

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Indian Kanoon, Available at: http://www.indiankanoon.org/ (Accessed on 13Nov. 2014)

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Legal Information Institute of India (LIIOFINDIA), Available at: http:www.liiofindia.org (Accessed on 13Nov. 2014)

10. The Law Dictionary, Available at :www.thelawdictionary.org/( Accessed on 13Nov. 2014)

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.5789

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1