As the library's primary point of contact, the circulation desk manages patron registration, user accounts, registration for IVL, and the lending and returning of library books. It serves as the front desk of the library for users to interact with. Staff at the desk answer queries from users and guide them to the required materials. The desk handles renewals, reservations for books, online overdue payment, books on call service, ILL, and arranges for Prior Art Search Service (ILL).
Library offers a dedicated Textbook Bank Service, curated specifically to meet the needs of B.Tech students. Developed in close coordination with faculty recommendations, this collection consists of the essential titles required for each semester’s academic programmes. This service ensures the availability of basic textbooks for B.Tech students for the entire semester.
To prevent plagiarism in publications and uphold academic integrity, the library offers Similarity Checking Service for students, research scholars, and faculty members. Utilising tools like DrillBit (link with https://www.drillbitplagiarism.com/) (empanelled with AICTE and used under the ShodhShuddhi programme) and Turnitin (link with https://in.turnitin.com/), the library assists users in identifying similarities in their research papers, theses, and project reports. To streamline this process, the library has enabled campus-wide access, allowing users to verify the similarity of their manuscripts themselves.
This is a special service provided for faculty to have library books ready at the circulation desk upon arrival at the library. Faculty can submit their book requirements over the phone, and library staff will make the books available at the front desk for immediate collection upon their visit. By eliminating the need for faculty to search the shelves themselves, this service ensures that the resources they need are ready for use the moment they arrive at the library.
Library has developed a well-organised reference collection to support the academic and research needs of users. This service ensures that students, faculty, and researchers can access accurate and credible information efficiently. This service provides personalised guidance that ranges from answering basic factual queries to assisting with literature searches and navigating specialised databases.
Library offers various alert services to users. The alert system ensures that users stay informed about the latest additions to the library collection. Users receive email notifications as soon as new books or recent journal issues are added to the collection, providing immediate access to the content pages and full-text, if available. To maximise visibility and encourage usage, these updates are displayed across the campus via the digital signage system and showcased on both the library's website and portal. Auto overdue alerts, alerts to track the suggested books, etc., are also provided to users.
Library also showcases posters and research articles authored by students and faculty. Each work is displayed in the digital signage system with a QR code, allowing users to access the full-text version.
As the nodal agency for the institute, the library uploads soft copies of theses from IIST to the Shodhganga repository, the national digital repository for PhD theses and dissertations, maintained by the UGC/INFLIBNET. Library ensures that every thesis is archived with accurate metadata and in compliance with national technical standards.
URL of the IIST repository is : https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/187485
Library’s Writing Assistance Service provides users with a suite of sophisticated digital tools designed to elevate the quality of their academic and professional work. By offering institutional access to Grammarly (give link to https://www.grammarly.com) and QuillBot (give link to https://www.quillbot.com), the library empowers users to refine their professional writing and correct grammatical errors, while leveraging advanced paraphrasing features to enhance the clarity and flow of their writing. For researchers and students in technical disciplines, the library supports Overleaf (give link to https://www.overleaf.com), a cloud-based collaborative platform that simplifies the complexities of LaTeX formatting for scholarly papers.
The library offers an Inter-Library Loan facility with the DoS/ISRO libraries. This service helps users to borrow books and other resources from other DoS/ISRO libraries. Provision has been given for users to search the OPACs of other DoS/ISRO libraries and submit ILL requests for items not available in the IIST library.
Library arranges to provide prior art search service for researchers and faculty through interlibrary loan. This helps researchers and faculty to evaluate the novelty of their ideas by meticulously scouring global patent databases, academic journals, and technical repositories. This service not only helps in refining research directions to avoid duplication but also provides a critical foundation for drafting a patent application.
To enable users to use the resources, e-collection, and web-based tools more effectively, the library conducts Library Resource Awareness Programmes on a regular basis. This includes orientation and hands-on sessions on online tools, as well as subscribed e-resources which helps users to use the tools and navigate scholarly content with precision and ease. This also ensures the optimal utilisation of the resources subscribed by the library.
Library OPAC serves as the digital gateway to its print and electronic collections. It provides users with access to the library's bibliographic database, allowing them to search for books, journals, and digital resources by author, title, subject, or keyword. It also allows users to check the current availability of books, place holds, self-renew books, suggest books for purchase, track suggestions, and view books in their accounts from any device connected to the campus network.
OPAC Link: https://libopac.iist.ac.in/ (intranet only)
Library regularly organises Book Exhibitions as part of its collection development programme. These exhibitions provide a hands-on platform for the campus community to preview the latest titles from leading publishers. Users can evaluate the relevance of the books and recommend suitable titles for the academic and research programmes for purchase. Additionally, the library hosts Thematic Book Exhibitions, which are specifically curated to coincide with conferences, seminars, and workshops hosted by the Institute.
Library provides Research Information Management Service through the implementation and maintenance of the Indian Research Information Network System (IRINS) instance of the institute. This digital portal, curated by the library team, serves as a database to showcase the scholarly publications, research citations, and academic impact of the faculty. By integrating with global identifiers like ORCID ID, Scopus ID, Researcher ID, and Google Scholar ID, the library ensures that the research of faculty is globally visible and accurately represented for national ranking frameworks. The library staff offers support to faculty with data validation, metadata curation, and technical queries.
The Author ID service offered by the library serves as a support to streamline the digital identity of the faculty and research scholars. By assisting in the creation and management of persistent identifiers, such as ORCID, Scopus Author ID, and Researcher ID, the library ensures that every publication is accurately attributed to the correct individual, effectively eliminating the common issue of name ambiguity.
Library manages the social media pages of the institute, which serve as digital outreach platforms for the institute. By maintaining active profiles on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X platform, and LinkedIn, the library effectively spotlights the institute's achievements and campus events while celebrating the accolades of students and faculty. These platforms act as an information gateway, broadcasting essential updates on events, academic programmes, and collaborations.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IIST.Trivandrum/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iist_trivandrum/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianInstituteofSpaceScienceandTechnology
X : https://x.com/IIST_Trivandrum
LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/indian-institute-of-space-science-and-technology-iist
The library team oversees and manages the content for the digital signage system across campus, ensuring real time visibility for events, programmes, research highlights, and other announcements. Simultaneously, the News and Events, Web Banners, and Announcement sections of the institute’s website are also handled by the library. This ensures that the website is populated with details of upcoming and past programmes, academic and research accolades, and other news items. The library also manages uploading of institute publications, details of PhD theses awarded, posters presented by students in conferences, etc., into the website.
An online payment portal has been developed for making library overdue payments. This portal enables users to log in to their personal accounts, view overdue amounts, and make payments via a secure gateway. Providing automated email and account updates enhances administrative transparency and also offers users the convenience of making online payments.
Library serves as the nodal office for registering members from the IIST in the National Digital Library of India, an initiative by the Ministry of Education under the NMEICT. In this capacity, the library serves as a facilitator for integrating the academic community into the national knowledge network.
Library offers Documentation Service dedicated to the long-term preservation and systematic management of the institute's publications. Every document is assigned a unique documentation number that serves as its permanent reference throughout its lifecycle. A software to track the status, location, and issue history of each document is also in place. By combining physical preservation with digital oversight, the library ensures that the institute's documentation remains organised, traceable, and protected for future administrative and historical needs.
The library manages the institutional membership of the institute with other libraries, significantly broadening the resources available to the academic community. This partnership enables students and faculty to visit and utilise the collections, specialised databases, and services of partnering libraries.
This is a special service provided for faculty to have library books ready at the circulation desk upon arrival at the library. Faculty can submit their book requirements over the phone, and library staff will make the books available at the front desk for immediate collection upon their visit. By eliminating the need for faculty to search the shelves themselves, this service ensures that the resources they need are ready for use the moment they arrive at the library.
The library supports faculty in making lecture notes in book form for students. This service enables faculty to create and distribute their lecture notes in an organised and professional format. This includes basic content formatting, graphic works, printing, and binding of the documents, particularly for subject areas where traditional textbooks are not available.
Library portal on the institute's intranet showcases e-resources and services provided by the library. The portal serves as the gateway to search across multiple databases through a single interface, giving access to various types of electronic resources subscribed by the library. The portal also provides guides for using e-resources and library services.