THE IMPACT OF ACCREDITATION ON ENGINEERING COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN MUMBAI WITH REGARD TO INFRASTRUCTURE

Higher education in India today has grown and multiplied at an amazing pace. This demand coupled with an alarming expansion creates a number of challenges for the regulatory bodies in the context of maintaining and enhancing quality. Accreditation is one of the measures of Quality Assurance designed to assess the quality of an educational institution. Engineering institutions are regulated by the AICTE and their accreditation is undertaken by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). The quality of an engineering institution as a whole is dependent on the quality of its various components including the library. This study was undertaken in order to find out the impact of Accreditation on engineering college libraries in Mumbai with regard to infrastructure. The research methodology included questionnaire, interview and observation. Various suggestions have been proposed by the researcher on the basis of the above findings. It has been suggested that the management of the engineering college as well as the regulatory and governing bodies take into account the importance and impact of Accreditation to the engineering library. Finally the librarian should consider the positive impact of Accreditation and recognize that both the library as well as the users will benefit from this exercise.