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*, CASA-OU,
HCRI*, IIA, IUCAA, NCRA (TIFR), PRL, RRI, SINP* and
TIFR
* New FORSA Member Join in 2004