We are happy to inform that the Department of Library and Information Science (MyDLIS), University of Mysore, Mysore has been awarded financial assistance of more than 26 Lakhs under the UGC programme of Special Assistance (SAP). The objective of SAP scheme of UGC is to raise the quality of teaching/research in different disciplines. The Departments are carefully selected on their past academic achievements and viable potential for future development. The essence and primary aim of the scheme is to promote group research efforts in pursuit of excellence. MyDLIS is one of Library and Information Science departments in the country to be awarded the level of DRS-1 for the next five years. The thrust area for the MyDLIS SAP is – digital libraries. Believing in building on our strengths in the area of digital libraries, where in we have established a strong presence-nationally and internationally through the Vidyanidhi Digital Library,* *the Department has * *identified ' digital libraries' as the thrust area. We have prepared a plan of action for the SAP- programme. The academic activities under SAP programme will be focussed on the following areas: - Building Digital Libraries: The choice of 'collection' is of critical importance in the success and usability of DLs. The chosen area is 'Mysore Heritage Collection'. * *Erstwhile* *Mysore state, with many firsts in areas such a art, architecture, electrification, industrialization, women's education, legislative assembly and many more and the* *ninety one year Mysore University – sixth in the country and first university to be established in a princely state have carved a unique place in the history of India and the firmament of Indian Higher education system* *respectively. Mysore Heritage Collection will showcase this. - Training workshops various areas of ICT applications for libraries. Nine training workshops (eight national levels and one international level workshop) in the areas of DL and Library automation are proposed* * to be conducted. - Developing an open courseware for LIS *:* This is another area that MyDLIS would like to focus on. It is proposed to create an e-learning environment by using Moodle – an open source software for courseware development. * *Vidyanidhi has already implemented the Moodle for its Training Programmes. * *Building on this expertise, it is proposed to implement the courseware from the forthcoming academic semester itself. - Research and Development in Digital Libraries: It is envisioned to focus the collective research of MyDLIS in the emerging areas such as Ontologies, Metadata, and evaluation of DLs. Dr. Shalini R Urs, Professor, DLIS, Mysore is the co-ordinator and Dr. Mallinath Kumbar, Reader and Chairman, DLIS, Mysore is the Deputy co-ordinator for the SAP programme. An advisory committee with the Vice-Chancellor of University of Mysore as its chairman has been formed. The other members of the committee include two UGC nominees, senior faculty members of the Department and one external member from the other Department. -- N.S. Harinarayana, Ph.D Department of Library and Information Science University of Mysore, Manasagangtori Mysore 570 006 Off. Ph: (0821) 2419393 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.