Physical verification as administrative and collection evaluation tool: A study of Institute of Agriculture Library; Visva-Bharati

Abstract

This article is the result of an intensive stock verification of more than 50000 documents of an academic library (Institute of Agriculture; Visva-Bharati) established in 1957. The physical verification process includes physical noting of all accession number of books on and out of stack and use of LibSys software to generate reports. The paper highlights that physical verification of collection can help in identifying major areas of loss and thereby can help in framing administrative guideline for collection evaluation and management policy. The paper also urges for review of existing government rules regarding loss of books and weed-out policy.