DOCUMENTATION AND INFORMATION CENTRES AND DATABASES: 

Traditionally, libraries have been collecting various kinds of publications and holding them in readiness for use by scholars, who generally know what they want. After the World War II, there has been a knowledge explosion and consequently, exponential growth of literature .There have also been complexities in information generation, handling and use. The users have been increasingly feeling helpless due to lack of time and skill to go through the vast amount of literature or to find the information directly. Traditional library services had to be supplemented with more active service provisions. As a result, documentation and information centres began emerging to take dare of the changing needs of information users for specialised services. The emphasis first shifted to documentation where periodical articles, etc. were required to be handled and served and then to information where the information contained in the documents became the product of service. Libraries, particularly special libraries, and documentation and information centres have been known to scan current literature sources, select items of interest to the users, prepare bibliographical entries and maintain a file to offer current and retrospective ,literature search services. These files are known as databases. In these files are recorded bibliographic data. A documentation and information centre may create databases in its areas of interest from internal and external sources and also provide on-line access to external databases for providing current and retrospective literature search services.