By Vasumathi Sriganesh | Founder & CEO
A recent initiative by the Govt of India - "One Nation One Subscription" (ONOS) has created a buzz amongst the academic community in India. This initiative is geared towards enhancing research in all fields. This is about providing access to over 13000 journals from 30 reputed publishers, to academic institutions in India.
Launched in Jan 2025, it currently is for government supported institutions. In the coming years, access will be provided to a bigger network of institutions. All details are available in the website - https://www.onos.gov.in/
Recently I was invited to be a panelist on this topic at an event held in the Dr DY Patil University, in my city of Mumbai. The librarian from their "Centre of Excellence", Dr Padma planned a great session. She organized a panel discussion between four librarians, and also had invited another senior librarian Dr Satish as a keynote speaker on the topic.
She asked relevant questions to each librarian. For my part, what I shared was
Every panelist and the keynote speaker Dr Satish, provided similar useful inputs. At the end, Dr Padma encouraged all attendees to explore the site thoroughly, keep learning more and keep teaching their users continuously.
For me - it was a day well spent.
But it also made me reminisce. Years ago, our country had access to a very useful resource - "The Cochrane Library" - a database of evidence in medicine. This resource was open to just anyone in India. Sadly after a few years, this was quietly withdrawn. And during the few years, at every lecture that I delivered - when I asked "How many of you have heard of the Cochrane Library" - very few hands would go up.
The effort towards promotion and training was negligible. The Government spent money to provide access, but this lacuna led to low usage and a quiet withdrawal. During the panel discussion, I stressed the need for promotional awareness and training, using this example
I sincerely hope that we will have a much larger effort towards promotion and training - with ONOS. From QMed's side, I commit to spreading the word about the ONOS and exploring how best we can help people to exploit this resource.
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