The Building
CERC is built on land admeasuring 10,000 sq. meter, given to us on permanent lease by The Gujarat Institute of Chemical Technology. The building is equipped with a state of the art fully air conditioned Conference Hall. It has a seating capacity of 65 to 75 people and has been the venue of a number of both national and international work shops. The Conference hall is equipped with audio visual facilities, OHP, display boards and recording facilities. Besides the above, there is yet another air conditioned board room used for in-house departmental meetings. This has a capacity of fifteen people. There are other smaller meeting rooms to attend to visitors. Having been equipped with only 2 computers when CERC was founded in 1978, it now has a full-fledged computer infrastructure which includes computers, printers, modems, storage devices and scanners.

Library and Information Services
Set up in 1980, the exclusive consumer and public interest library of CERC is the only one of its kind in India. It has 12,500 volumes and 140 periodicals from all over the globe. Books, magazines, encyclopedias, yearbooks, dictionaries and directories of NGOs and government organisations in India and abroad,

journals, legal judgements, standards and bare Acts, newspaper clippings, audio-visuals — you name it, the library has it. It covers various subjects related to consumer protection, promotion and research; environment; social audit; insurance; transport; pollution hazards; safety; drugs; health; housing; human rights; etc..

The library is open to all, free of charge.

CERC has created a computerised database, based on the exclusive and unique collection in its library. It has published bibliographies on eight subjects— Consumer Protection, Advertising, Environment Protection, Insurance, Health and Drugs, Public Utilities, Food and Nutrition, Law. These unique annotated bibliographies provide a concise abstract of each study, and cites the author, sponsoring or collaborating organisations, price, edition, year of publication and language.

The library entertains reference queries in the field of consumer protection on telephone, in person, or through correspondence.

The CERC library offers Interlibrary loan services with local libraries as well as British Library and USIS.

CERC proposes to be a member of the Local Area Network known as Ahmedabad Library Net Work (ADINET). This helps member libraries to share the vast amount of information available in twenty six libraries in Ahmedabad.

CERC is a member of Consumers Internationals Consumers Information Network (COINET). COINET is a network of consumer libraries working together to promote sharing and exchange of experiences and resources in consumer documentation.

CERC library is also recognised as a Library of National Importance by Raja Rammohan Roy Foundation, Calcutta.

CERC, being the representative in India for United Nations Department of Public Information, the library receives useful literature from UNO.

The library maintains press clippings of selected newspaper articles. Photo copies of such articles are provided to the in-house members and to other readers on demand. At present, the collection of clippings has been classified under 150 specific headings. Around 5000 articles are added annually to this collection.

Financial Support