R&D LIBRARY & INFORMATION

LANDSCAPE :
DRDO Scenario

A. ARUNA, Sc ‘G’
GTRE, Bangalore

CSTL- 2017, IIT, Gandhinagar, 2 March 2017

 DRDO : OVERVIEW...
DRDO is one of the premier scientific and technological organisations in the country under Department
of Defence Research and Development (DDR&D).
DRDO headquarters (HQ) at New Delhi, which coordinates the overall functioning of the organisation, is
an interface between the Government and the cluster HQs and laboratories.
DRDO has around 52 Research labs across India.
These are grouped into seven technology clusters and clusters function under respective cluster Director
General (DG). DRDO HQ houses the Corporate Directorates functioning under six Chief Controllers (CC).

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 DRDO : OVERVIEW
 Three human resource institutions, i.e., Centre for Personnel Talent Management (CEPTAM) for
DRTC, Institute of Technology Management (ITM) and Recruitment and Assessment Centre (RAC)
for DRDS.
 Three certification agencies - Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) for
airworthiness products, Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) for fire and
explosives, Scientific Analysis Group (SAG) for grading of communication security products.
 In addition DDR&D has one autonomous body, viz., Aeronautical Development Agency, one joint
venture viz., BrahMos Aerospace and one deemed university, viz., Defence Institute of Advance
Technology (DIAT).
 Manpower: Defence Research and Development Services (DRDS), Defence Research and Technical
Cadre (DRTC) and Admin & Allied Cadre.
 Projects: Mission Mode (MM) projects-which are initiated on the formal request of the Defence
Services, Technology Demonstration (TD) projects-to develop and demonstrate a specific
technology module which is typically required for future integration into an MM system, Science
and Technology (S&T) projects-to explore scientific research and Infrastructure and Facilities (IF)
projects-nation-building by creating new test facilities.
 DRDO-Academia Interactions: Extramural Research (Grants-in-Aid), Contract Research at lab level,
Research Boards-Aeronautics Research & Development Board, Naval Research Board, Armament
Research Board, Life Sciences Research Board, Research Innovation Centre (RIC)-IIT-Madras,
Centre of propulsion Technology (COPTI), IT-Mumbai and IIT-Madars
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 ROLES - DRDS LIS PROFESSIONAL
• TIRC Heads
− TIRC management and Information Services
− Close interaction with scientists and timely support for project activity
− Article / Report writing
− PHD
− Gap Analysis and Reviews
• HR Heads
• Technical Coordination Heads Qualifications: MSc, BLISc, MLISc/ ADIS/ PHD
• Administrative Heads -Around 44 DRDS Scientists
• IP Coordinators -130-150 DRTC Officers/Staff
• Mentor
• CPIO
• Technical Project Documentation
• Members of Various lab level committees
• Public Relation Officers
• Event Managers – Def Expo, Indian Science Congress etc.
• Official Language Implementation Committee
• Technical Publication committee of Seminar/ Conference
• News Letter Correspondents
• Institutional Repository Coordinators
• Data Sharing Officers under NDSAP
• Preparation of Annual Reports and Corporate Review Documents

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 Information Landscape - DRDO Central Level
 DESIDOC started functioning in 1958 as Scientific Information Bureau (SIB) It became one of the
laboratories of DRDO on 29 July 1970. It provides S&T information, based on its library and other
information resources, to the DRDO headquarters, and its various laboratories at various places in
India. It also functions as a publishing house of DRDO.
 DRDO manual of procedure for management of libraries and technical information centers.
 Procurement Manual.
 DRDO e-Journals Consortia.
 World-ebook library.
 Open Athens / Remotex for scientists to access from home.
 Central Rate Contract (RC) for subscription of print and online journals.
 Strong Resource sharing-DRDO-JGATE (earlier).
 DESIDOC has a single window service on DRONA which provides –access to DRDO repositories,
union catalogues of books, journals of DRDO libraries, Digital Reference Desk etc.
 DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Science, Defence Science Journal and Defence Life
Science Journal – on Internet-Open Journals System – Open Access.
 DESIDOC – Coordinating Centre for Data Sharing under National Data Sharing and Accessibility
Policy (NDSAP).

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 Information Landscape – Lab level
 Technical Information Resource Centres (TIRCs) of DRDO Labs can be grouped under small, medium and
big in terms of budget and collection of TIRC as well as size, budget and no. of projects of the parent
organisation.
 Few major TIRCs are headed by the Library Professional at DRDS level. Other TIRCs are headed by
Scientists from other disciplines. Manpower -LIS professionals DRDS/DRTC, Other disciplines DRDS/DRTC,
Admin and allied staff, contract staff .
 Few major labs have separate TIRC buildings while others are part of buildings.
 Networking: 1.Intranet 2. DRDO HQ and labs are connected with a WAN network “DEDO Rapid Online
Access(DRONA) 3. DRDO Internet 4. NKN Internet - Intranet and Internet are physically separate lines and
are not interlinked. This is a major challenge for TIRCs.
 Automation Software: Most major TIRCs are fully automated with software like Suchika, DLAS, Virtua,
Libsys, Koha, Libsuit, TLSoftware System. Some medium and small libraries have in-house developed
database etc.
 Barcode is used widely. RFID is implemented at few TIRCs with and without stock management system.
 Few major TIRCs have portal/website, OPAC on Intranet.
 No TIRC website or OPAC is available on Internet or DRONA (Policy). Only DESIDOC services are available
on DRONA as a Lab.
 One or two TIRC have webpage with e-resource links on Internet server before firewall on proxy and this
is accessible only from inside the lab.
 Dspace software is widely used at lab level for Digital Repository as well as for dissemination of
information.
 Few major TIRCs are ISO certified with proper documentation of activities/procedures in place.
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 My Role
• Test Data Repository - Implemented GRANTA MI Database with external reference data for
materials properties on Intranet. Designed sample database of GTRE materials raw data and
tested using GRANTA MI database software.
• Technical Project Documentation: IETM/P (Interactive Electronic Technical Manual/Publication)-
To ensure technical project documents with consistency, clarity, accessibility, interoperability,
version control and traceability for co-development project based on Intl. Standard e.g. S1000D-
Document defining, designing, authoring, software selection/validation, Integration with PLM
for Legacy Data.
• IP Coordinator: IP Information, Information on GTRE IP Status, Member - Technical paper
clearance committee, CARS Committee, GATET, Awards committee.
• Technical Coordination : Interface between Lab, Office of DG (Aero) and various directorates of
HQrs on project progress reports, reviews, closures, new projects, cluster council meetings,
corporate reviews, parliamentary queries, Results Framework Documents.
• Software Quality Assurance: Inventory, database and tracking of both in-house and commercial
software, Software tests and issue of test certificates for in-house software, IV & V coordination
during software development
• CPIO
• Co-Chairperson, OLIC

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 My Role
Integrated Resource Platform for Aero Cluster Libraries: Linking OPACS of Aero cluster Libraries of DRDO on
DRONA.
• All database are not strictly ISO 2709 compliant.
• Follow up and updating the database centrally when individual libraries buy new documents (Work
redundancy-data has to be entered at local library server and again upload in the centralized database.)
• Information on issue status of the publication (i.e. if document is issued out to the user)

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 Where are we headed ...

 Issues: DIY approach to sourcing information by users-without any concern for rigour/accuracy/
completeness, Manpower & Budget.
 Big Data is the currently happening worldbuzz word, and it is a big opportunity for LIS
professionals to play a role. LIS profession is an interdisciplinary and collaborative field, absorbing
the knowledge of multiple domains and bringing the tools, techniques, and theories of LIS to
bear on subject-specific domains.
 The phenomenon of big data and the Internet of Thing (IoT) has changed the meaning of data
especially in R&D establishments.
 Source of Data: Data from Labs, Industries, Research Projects, Surveys, Theses/Dissertations and
Streaming Data from various equipment (satellites, sensors, CCTVs). e.g. Turbo Fan engine which
comes with 5000 sensors can generate up to 10 GB of data per second. A single twin engine
aircraft with an average of 12 hours flight-time can produce 844 TB of data.
 Provide inputs for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Industry, Reactive, Preventive and
Predictive Maintenance, Performance Monitoring, Prognostics, Problem solving and inferences,
New research and analysis.

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 Where are we headed
Four Stakeholders of Big Data
 Data Capture (LIS Professionals): Formats & structure of data, Standards for interoperability &
discovery – metadata & ontologies, Filtering & weeding out irrelevant data, Data Curation - ensuring
long term preservation and reuse
 Technology for Big Data (Technology people): Hadoop Eco System, NoSQL , Cloud etc.
 Data Analytics (Statisticians): Descriptive, Predictive, & Prescriptive
 Domain Experts
Data Librarians, Research Data Management (RDM).
Registry of Research Data Repositories: re3data.org.
Government initiatives: data.gov, https://data.gov.in, National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy
(NDSAP)
Standards: DCAT, DCAT-AP, Linked Open Data
Library initiatives in the Big Data: e.g. DataOne (for Data Concervancy), MetaArchive (for preservation of
local/state government spatial data), DataCite (to work with the publishing industry to develop the
mechanisms to assign persistent, unique identifiers to datasets so that they can be cited),The Digital
Preservation Network (Universities funded for NATIONAL preservation Network)
Engine houses and big data: GE’s signal identification that can predict failure in jet engines, GE’s big data
product-Predix, Big Data to Improve Pratt & Whitney Engine Performance, Rolls Royce’s big data on
Engine Health Monitoring and Manufacturing, Snecma’s Safron Data Analytics etc.

“Information professionals need to be mindful, observant, proactive, warmer,

approachable and understand the language of scientists”
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