FORSA INTRODUCTION:

FORSA Introduction In the early 1980s, due to proliferation of information, library professionals working in the Institutes where astronomy was one of the main thrust areas of research felt the need to come together and to form a forum, which can act as a springboard for sharing and exchange of information. The sheer necessity brought all like minded astronomy librarians in the country together and a first meeting was held on July 29 1981 at Raman Research Institute, Bangalore and informally launched "FORUM FOR RESOURCE SHARING IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS" (FORSA) with a vision and mission to share resources held in each library. Since 1989, FORSA members meet every year, in conjunction with Annual Meeting of the Astronomical Society of India. A noteworthy feature of such meetings is that FORSA members interact with the astronomers in the Joint Session, in which developments in library and information handling activities in the field of astronomy/astrophysics are presented and comments from users are solicited to improve and expand library services. At present, there are eleven institute members, viz. ARIES, Bose Institute, Nizamiah Observatory, HCRI, IIA, IUCAA, NCRA (TIFR), PRL, RRI, SINP, SNBNCBS and TIFR