About us:

The Indian Council of Social Science Research, an autonomous organisation, was established by the Government of India in 1969 with the prime objective of promoting social science research all over the country. As part of its programme of decentralizing administration and broadbasing social science research, the ICSSR set up six Regional Centres across the country. The Western Regional Centre (WRC) was set up with the approval of the Government of Maharashtra in January 1973 in collaboration with the University of Mumbai (host university) on its new campus at Vidyanagari. The states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa were under its jurisdiction.

At present it consists of three buildings – a wing of the Jawaharlal Nehru Library (1976), the ICSSR Hostel building (1976) and the J P Naik Bhavan (1983). The Conference Hall is located on the ground floor of the J P Naik Bhavan.

During the last thirty years, the WRC has grown into a fine and exceedingly useful institution. In fact, it has now been recognized as one of the best and most developed Regional Centres of the Indian Council of Social Science Research in the entire country.

Role:

In keeping with the objectives of the ICSSR, WRC's role was:

• To act as the agent of the ICSSR within the region;
• To act as the representative of the social scientists of the region and to bring their ideas and problems to the ICSSR;
• To provide a platform for the social scientists of the region to come together for promotion of social science research; and
• To serve as the link between the social scientists of the region and the national and international community of social scientists;
• To promote/support social science research in the region by providing library and documentation services.

Activities:

In pursuance of its role the WRC undertook to:

• Supplement the social science journals/periodicals at the host library;
• promote/undertake essential documentation and bibliographical work in English and the regional languages;
• Promote /undertake special documentation work;
• Provide low cost accommodation to scholars/students visiting the city for library or field work;
• Award study grants to scholars for visiting libraries/institutions for research work in the city, in accordance with the rules framed by the ICSSR;
• Organize seminars/workshops/conferences independently or in collaboration with other organizations;
• Organize lectures by distinguished scholars;
• Assist regional professional associations of social scientists;
• Conduct any other activity which may promote and facilitate social science research in the region and/or which may be delegated by the ICSSR.

Organisation:

The Vice-Chancellor, University of Mumbai is the ex-officio Chairman of the WRC and the head of any one of the social science departments of the host university is appointed as the Hon. Director in rotation for a minimum of two years extendable by one year. The Dy. Director runs the administration and conducts the activities of the WRC with their consultation and approval. Besides, the following Committees are also constituted to help the Dy. Director develop and administer the programmes :

Advisory Committee:

It consists of eminent social scientists belonging to the universities and research institutes in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat & Goa with the Vice Chancellor of the Mumbai University as its Chairman. It has been constituted for advising the WRC on the planning and development of its programmes.

Local Consultative Committee:

It consists of five social scientists locally available in Mumbai to advise and guide the Dy. Director in planning and administering the activities of the WRC. It is presided over by the Hon. Director of the WRC and meets approximately four times a year.

Staff:

• Dr. Dilip Nachane, Hon. Director
• Sh. M.R. Prabhu, Dy. Director
• Ms. Usha Chattopadhyay,  Librarian

Programmes:

The aforementioned activities have been translated into following programmes:

Library:

WRC, right from its inception in view of the optimum utilization of library materials, for the convenience of research scholars, and economical management and dissemination of documents decided to provide the library and documentation services in collaboration with the host university's library i.e. Jawaharlal Nehru Library of the University of Mumbai (JNL) located on the same Campus.

Hence the books the WRC purchases or receives complementary are merged with the JNL book collection. In case of journals, the JNL directly orders the journal titles as per the requirement of its clientele in consultation with the heads of the concerned departments on behalf of the WRC.

Readers’ Assistance Services:

The WRC library staff assists a varied clientele in locating the material of their interest either in the JNL or other libraries in Mumbai for their study, research and teaching. Among the regular clientele are the postgraduate students, research students / scholars and lecturers/professors from the host university. Among the others are the undergraduates from various colleges in the city looking out for references for their project work, academicians from other institutions, professionals, and persons from industry from across the country.

A special mention should be made of the ICSSR Study Grant Awardees. Since they are a special category and are unfamiliar with the city, its libraries, their collection and system, they are helped in all respects.

Documentation work:

The WRC brings out two Current Awareness Bulletins every quarter namely ‘Update on Human Rights’ and ‘Special Issue Alert’. While the former includes references from the journals received in the JNL and relevant references from the indexes received in the JNL irrespective of whether or not they are available in the JNL, the latter includes the special issues received in the JNL only. Both the bulletins are sent to the NASSDOC, the Regional Centres and to the concerned departments in the host university. All these references are searchable on computer at the WRC.

Compilation of short bibliographies/reading lists:

This facility is generally available to the outstation readers. A list of select references inclusive of books and articles is supplied on request. Different bibliographies, indexing and abstracting journals, current awareness bulletins and catalogues including JNL catalogue are used for preparing the lists. This service is provided free of charge.

Compilation of thematic bibliographies:

WRC has also compiled thematic bibliographies on certain current and burning issues. The bibliography on Uniform Civil Code consisting of approximately 700 entries - books and journal articles - is available on computer allowing multiple access. Another bibliography on CTBT is available on cards.

Document Delivery services:

Though the WRC does not maintain a separate library, it does receive requests for document delivery from time to time. Since the source material is available at the JNL, such requests are complied with through the JNL with advance payment. Orders may be placed by post, telephone, fax or e-mail.

Xeroxing services:

The WRC has a Toshiba 2030  Xerox machine and offers xeroxing facility to students, scholars and the departments on a very reasonable charge of Rs.0.50 per exposure.

NASSDOC Projects:

The Regional Centres are also supposed to help the NASSDOC in collection of data for its different projects from their respective regions. In this area the WRC has successfully completed the following projects:

• Retrospective Index to Journals in Politics and Economics: The WRC was assigned part of it in 1992. It consisted of 28000 entries and was completed in 1995. Both the bibliographies are available at the NASSDOC.
• Directory of Social Science Libraries in India: In 1998 the WRC revised the list of important social science libraries in the cities of Mumbai and Pune for this NASSDOC publication.
• Revision of the Union Catalogue of Social Science Periodicals, 1975: In 1999 the WRC was assigned part of this NASSDOC Project. It was supposed to revise the data for the city of Mumbai. The data was collected from about 16 important libraries of Mumbai city, validated and converted into machine readable format. When completed in 2001 it contained about 3000 titles and 5000 entries. It is to be updated periodically. It is available at the NASSDOC and the WRC on computer and on the WRC's present site.

Computer Lab:

The WRC plans to have its own computer lab in view of its plan of holding  workshops frequently and future networking of the ICSSR constituents. It also plans to provide Internet access to online electronic resources to faculty members, students and scholars.

At present the WRC has 6 computers with LAN and Internet facilities.

Acquisition of Theses:

The WRC acquires dissertations from the scholars by paying them a sum of Rs 600/- on behalf of the National Social Science Documentation Centre of the ICSSR. Dissertations in regional languages are retained by the WRC while their synopses in English are sent to the NASSDOC. Dissertations in English are sent to the NASSDOC, New Delhi. So far, the WRC has acquired 149 theses.

Seminars/Workshops/Conferences:

The primary objective of the WRC is to improve the research capacity of scholars and potential research workers in the region so as to encourage research in social sciences all over the region. During the last 28 years, it has sponsored 375 seminars/workshops and conferences on different topics in Social Sciences and Research Methodology in different parts of the western region. Besides sponsoring, it also conducted a ‘Workshop on Social Science Research in Digital Environment’ at its own premises between 20-23 Jan. 2003 which was attended by researchers and library and information professionals from the western region.

Study Grants:

The purpose of the Study Grant is mainly to provide financial assistance to doctoral students in the field of social sciences in order to enable them to visit Mumbai and consult libraries & specialists for their research purpose. The assistance under the Study Grant scheme is given to research scholars who are registered in any Indian university for a Ph. D. or D.Litt. degrees in social science and who do not receive any fellowships or other assistance carrying travel or contingency grant from any other agency. The period of stay of the selected scholars is not ordinarily less than 2 weeks but should not exceed six weeks. The awardee is paid Rs 150/- as daily allowance. In addition to this, the selected scholars are paid their to and fro second class railway journey fare.

Scholars from all over India have taken advantage of this facility. So far, 620 scholars have availed themselves of the Study Grant facility provided by the WRC.

ICSSR Fellowships:

The Council awards several types of fellowships to assist social scientists undertake research on a whole-time basis or to complete research already in progress. Scholars from the western region who are awarded these fellowships by the ICSSR can join the WRC for the purpose of disbursement of their fellowship amount. During the last 28 years, 9 Doctoral fellows, 9 Senior Fellows, 3 General Fellows and 2 National Fellows were attached to the WRC.

Foreign Scholars:

Distinguished foreign social scientists invitied to India by the Council under its programme of International Collaboration visit the Centre. The Centre takes advantage of their visits and also those of other foreign scholars who happen to visit the city by arranging meetings with specialists, researchers and professionals and by organising seminars/lectures in their respective fields of specialisation for the general benefit of interested persons from various fields. So far, 142 foreign academicians have visited the WRC.

Guest House:

The guest house has proved helpful to the students and scholars wishing to meet other scholars in their field of specialisation and to utilize the research material available in the University library and other libraries in the city.

The guest house has 21 single rooms, 3 flats and 3 A/C suites. The present charges are: Single Room – Rs 80 per day; Flats – Rs 300 per day; A/C suites – Rs 300-500 per day. For the recipients of the Study Grants, bonafide research scholars and employees of the ICSSR, charges are Rs 70 per day for a single room.

During 1973-2001, 25,450 scholars availed themselves of the this facility.

Conference Hall:

The conference hall is being extensively used by the various university departments and other academic organisations for holding lectures, seminars, workshops, meetings, etc. The hall is provided to the university departments at a nominal charge of Rs. 200/- and to the external organizations on the payment of Rs.1500/-. The seating capacity of the hall is 80/100 persons.