The Bhoothalingam Library was inaugurated on January 6, 1994 opened by Mrs Mathuram Bhoothalingam, mother of late Mrs Mina Swaminathan.

The primary mission of the library is to support the educational and research programmes of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) by providing physical and intellectual access to information, consistent with the present and the anticipated educational and research functions of the Foundation.

There is a large print collection of over 21,032 books, journals, theses,and reports; also over 4,500 back issues of periodicals.

Bhoothalingam Library aims to develop a comprehensive collection of documents useful for the faculty and the research communities across several science areas, and is open to public. The timing is 09:30 am to 5.00 pm on the working days.

Library Collection:

Library Services:

The library provides services such as Reference Services, Referral Services, User Guidance Services, Circulation Services, and online OPAC search services, as well as Document Delivery Service, Weekly Book Display, Research support, and more.There is also a well-equipped reading space to its patrons.

The library has been using the KOHA system – an Integrated Library Management software package with all the modules for the library housekeeping operations. The library Online Catalogue database has more than 18,000 records of books (Bibliographic Information). Using Koha OPAC, users can search the Library Online Catalogue by Author, Title, Subject, and keywords.

Details of services are below:

Research Support

– The library offers research support to its researchers by helping in the various ways:

• Assisting in the refinement of the research question
• Using various reference management systems like Zotero to assist researchers in managing citations and references
• Aids in the avoidance of plagiarism when writing any research article
• Assists in the identification of high-impact journals for the publication of research papers

E-Resources: E-Journals –

Nature, Scientific America, Science, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), New Scientist, and others are among the e-journals available at the library.

Reference Services –

The Library maintains a separate reference collection consisting of encyclopaedias, dictionaries, directories, handbooks, atlases, etc. Readers may approach the Reference Desk for information or any assistance in the use of the Library Collections and Services.

OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) –

The collection of the library can be accessed through OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) from any work stations (computer terminals) available at MSSRF.

Online Document Delivery Service:

The Library makes it possible for users to receive requested articles by email. Any article can be requested by sending an email to sahoo@mssrf.res.in or gsuresh@mssrf.res.in.

Circulation Rules

• Books are issued to all eligible members as per their entitlements.
• Loss of library books should be reported to librarian immediately.
• A book can have maximum two renewals.
• The reader has to check the condition of books while borrowing, in case the books are found damaged, mutilated or spoilt while returning, the reader has to replace the same as a new book.
• Books are renewed if there are no reservations against the book.

Journal section

Reading Space for patrons