BANSDOC

BANSDOC (Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre) started functioning in 1962 as a small unit of the Pakistan National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (PANSDOC) at the premises of the East Regional Laboratories of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) in dhaka. After liberation it was placed under the bangladesh Council of scientific and industrial research (BCSIR) and was renamed Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre in 1972. The aim of the centre was to put the scientific literature of the world at the disposal of researchers, teachers, industrialists, technicians, and in general, all those who are active in the field of science and technology. In 1987, BANSDOC was placed under the direct administrative control of Science and Technology Division (now an independent ministry) of the government so that it could be made the Central Documentation Centre of the country.

As one of its major functions, BANSDOC provides research and development (R&D) programmes support to the overall economic development of the country. It is entrusted with the responsibility of collection, processing and compilation of information and data on all fields of scientific research and experimental development and dissemination of such information to researchers irrespective of their institutional affiliation. Services provided by the centre include document procurement service, bibliography/literature search service, reprographic service, desktop publishing, printing service, and library service. Under the document procurement service, BANSDOC, if requested, collects copy of any published research paper, report or any other information material from both local and foreign sources for its client. In more than 80% of the cases, such materials are procured from abroad. The literature search service provides bibliographical data from international CD-ROM databases, including biological and physics abstracts, in collaboration with different libraries and information centres. The reprographic service includes providing photo prints, projection slides etc. of scientific and technical papers, information materials and other documents on request. The centredesktop publishing and printing services have considerably increased the speed of publications. Leaflets, brochures, invitation cards, certificates, training manuals, publicity materials etc. are designed by using in-house desktop printing facilities. BANSDOC library now has a rich collection of books on different branches of science. It subscribes to more than 300 national and international scientific journals/periodicals and CD-ROM on Biological Abstracts (1997-2000) and Physics Abstracts (1998-2000). BANSDOC has been running a Cyber Centre since 1999.

Some of the major publications of BANSDOC are Bangladesh Science and Technology Abstracts, Directory of Scientists and Technologists of Bangladesh, Directory of Bangladeshi R&D Organisations and Their Current Scientific and Technological Research Projects, National Catalogue of Scientific and Technological Periodicals in Bangladesh, Science and Technology Related Activities in Bangladesh, Scientific and Technological Research Institutions of Bangladesh, and Survey of Research and Development (R&D) Activities in Bangladesh. [M. Abdus Sobhan]