IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical for PGDLAN: Library Automation Lab on SOUL

IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical: the SOUL lab inside PGDLAN

MLIL-002 sits beside the theory course MLI-002 Library Automation. The July 2026 Common Prospectus lists PGDLAN under the School of Social Sciences as a diploma of one year (three years at most), taught in English, open to holders of a Bachelor’s Degree in Library and Information Science, with admission in January and July. Its structure pairs seven theory courses, MLI 1 to MLI 7, with seven practicals, MLIL 1 to MLIL 7, plus the MLIP 8 project, for 32 credits. The July 2022 PGDLAN Programme Guide lists MLI-002 and MLIL-002 together against 4 credits and gives MLIL-002 40 hours of practical work.

Across programmes, the practical component worries learners far more than the theory papers, and people who handle the written exams with ease can still stall on it. With MLIL-002 that component is a live session on SOUL, where the examiner looks at what is on your screen.

Many learners discover only late in the session that a course has a practical side at all. PGDLAN has one beside each of its seven theory courses: the programme guide promises a Lab Manual for MLIL-001 to MLIL-007 and calls computer practical compulsory in all the courses.

MLIL 002 question paper: what June 2025, December 2025 and June 2026 asked

Every recent IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical paper uses one frame: 2 hours, 50 marks split into practical work 40 and viva-voce 10, a printed weightage of 40%, and an instruction to use SOUL (Demo Version). Each paper has two questions of 20 marks. The first part of each question builds a database; the second part works with it through approvals, orders, lists, ID cards or reports.

Those second parts, mostly lists and printouts drawn from the database just built, carried 5 to 10 marks per question in these papers, so the Reports menus deserve as much practice as data entry. Cataloguing did not appear in these three sessions, yet older papers in the IGNOU archive, such as December 2017, asked for catalogue cards and spine labels, so skipping Section 2 of the manual is a gamble.

Ask which MLI-002 past papers we stock

Inside the two-hour IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical exam

The IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical exam is done on a computer, and the three recent papers print the same five instructions:

1. Attempt all the questions.
2. Show the output to your examiner.
3. Save your output in your system, where the examiner checks it.
4. Take printouts, where a question needs them, on a sheet signed by the RD with his or her stamp, and write your roll number, study centre and date of examination on it.
5. No manual or handbook may be used while doing the practical.

The prospectus says hall tickets are uploaded on the IGNOU website 7 to 10 days before the term-end examination and that a valid IGNOU student ID card is required at the centre.

Many learners treat the viva as a formality, yet it usually carries real weight, and tidy output earns little when its maker cannot explain how it was produced. On the MLIL-002 paper the viva-voce is 10 of the 50 marks, so be ready to walk the examiner through each SOUL step you took.

Does MLIL-002 have a viva? Learners ask us this often. It does: the June 2025, December 2025 and June 2026 papers each print Viva-voce 10 inside the 50 marks.

Questions PGDLAN learners search about MLIL-002

Theory reading that supports the MLIL-002 viva

Nothing on this page is for the MLIL-002 practical itself, because the practical assignment (TMA-P) and the exam are SOUL work you do at the centre. What sits on our shelf is reading for MLI-002, whose acquisition, serials, cataloguing and circulation units (Block 3) cover the same housekeeping work the practical runs on SOUL.

Ask which MLI-002 guide suits your viva

Rs 300 or Rs 500? Fee, weightage and the 40 percent minimum

The fee for IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical follows the practical examination slab in the July 2026 Common Prospectus: Rs 300 up to 4 credits and Rs 500 above 4 credits, paid with the Term-End Examination form and not refundable. The prospectus prints no separate credit value for MLIL 2, and the PGDLAN guide lists MLI-002 with MLIL-002 against 4 credits, so no document read here places MLIL-002 above the 4-credit slab.

On marks, the practical paper prints a weightage of 40%. The programme guide sets continuous evaluation at 20% and the term-end examination at 80% (theory and practical), gives the practical assignments 50 marks each, and asks for a minimum of 40% in practicals for clearing the course.

Learners at our desk often mix up the Rs 300 and Rs 500 amounts, which the prospectus uses for both project and practical fees. The prospectus ties them to credits, and for MLIL-002 the 4-credit pairing in the PGDLAN guide points to the lower slab, so compare it with the amount your own TEE form shows before you pay.

Practical marks often show up on the grade card after the theory marks do, which can hold up a final result when a job or admission is waiting. MLIL-002 has its own term-end practical paper, separate from the MLI-002 theory paper, so check that your grade card shows the practical result too.

A learner with no receipt has nothing to point to when marks go missing. For MLIL-002, keep the TEE form confirmation showing the practical fee and a copy of your TMA-P screen-capture file.

Your own SOUL work, your own viva

IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical is examined live, so there is no shortcut that survives exam day. The PGDLAN booklet gives zero marks to answers copied from study material and rejects assignments copied from other students, the TMA-P is marked at the centre as you work, and the exam bars any manual or handbook.

Ready-made practical files float around online and get handed in after a fresh name and enrolment number are typed on; identical work from one centre stands out, and the viva catches a learner who cannot explain it. MLIL-002 leaves even less room, since both the TMA-P and the exam happen in front of an evaluator.

Looking across programmes, three causes keep returning: news reaches learners late and differs by centre, practical work assumes time and presence that distance learners rarely have, and records get treated as formatting instead of proof of applied learning. MLIL-002, with 40 centre hours and a paper that checks output on screen, shows the second and third plainly.

The MLIL 002 assignment is done at your study centre

For IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical, the practical assignment (TMA-P) is a centre activity rather than homework you post later. The PGDLAN booklet for the January 2026 and July 2026 sessions sets these rules for it:

• You do it in the Study Centre or Tele Learning Centre, on documents and data the Counsellor or Practical Supervisor provides.
• You make screen captures of all answers and save them in one file; the Counsellor or Practical Supervisor evaluates them on the spot.
• It carries 50 marks: five compulsory questions of 10, covering duplicate checks, supply orders and merging acquisition records with the OPAC; five publishers in the Master Database; barcode labels for books and theses; eight departmental budget heads at Rs 2 lakh each; and ten periodicals reported by subject.
• Last dates: 30 September 2026 for the January 2026 session and 31 March 2027 for the July 2026 session, at your Study Centre or TLC.

The booklet prints the MLIL-002 assignment code as AST/TMA-T although the heading reads TMA-Practical, so quote the course code and session when you speak to the centre.

In our records, 70 to 80 percent of learners only start moving in the last month before a date falls due. On MLIL-002 that leaves little room, because the TMA-P is done at the centre on data the Counsellor or Practical Supervisor provides, and it is due by 30 September or 31 March.

Students often plan around a second, extended date that they assume will come. The 2026 PGDLAN booklet prints one due date per session and says a learner who misses it attempts the fresh set for the same session a year later (January 2027 or July 2027).

A wrong enrolment number, programme name or study centre on the first page is a slip we see on cover pages. The PGDLAN booklet wants enrolment number, name, full address and date of despatch at the top right, programme and course titles, assignment number, code and study centre on the left, and says work in any other format will not be evaluated.

Twenty sessions in four SOUL modules

The MLIL 002 lab manual, titled Library Automation, teaches IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical through Software for University Libraries (SOUL) from INFLIBNET. Its four sections follow the housekeeping units of MLI-002 (Units 7 to 10 in Block 3), and each section ends with five lab-session exercises.

Each section closes with the same instruction: data for the exercises may be taken in consultation with the supervisor. The manual itself never asks you to hand in a record of these sessions.

Learners tell us they hold three versions of the same task: the handbook’s, the counsellor’s and a senior’s sample. For MLIL-002 the documents that settle it are the lab manual above, the TMA-P questions in the 2026 PGDLAN booklet and the data your counsellor or practical supervisor gives you at the centre.

SOUL demo version: practise inside its limits

SOUL demo version is the software named in every MLIL-002 paper read for this page, and the lab manual’s screens come from it too. Three details from the manual change how you practise:

• The demo screens state that you cannot create more than 50 members, and the serials screen sets the same ceiling of 50 serials. If your centre’s copy fills up, ask your practical supervisor how practice data is cleared before a mock run.
• In Acquisition, the red fields (Department, Requested by, Title, Publisher, Type of material and Budget) are mandatory, and the form will not move on without them. Those values come from the Master Database, so build it first.
• The screenshots carry form dates from 2003 and 2004, so the copy at your centre may look different. Match module and option names (Accessioning, Check-In, Budget Division) rather than the look of the window.

The papers also ask for meaningful data of your own, such as journal subscriptions or member details, which is why the manual’s exercises are worth repeating with fresh records.

In computer practicals we see work with no output to show, or output that does not match what was keyed in. MLIL-002 checks exactly this: the papers say to save your output and show it to the examiner, and the TMA-P asks for a screen capture of every answer in one file.

Learners who studied in Hindi often find English technical writing hard, and English-medium learners miss the Hindi terms when they choose Hindi. PGDLAN is offered only in English, as the prospectus prints, and SOUL’s menus are English too, so learning the menu words early saves time in the exam.

Is PGDLAN practical attendance compulsory?

Yes. PGDLAN practical sessions are compulsory: the programme guide says there will be compulsory computer practical in all the courses besides counselling sessions, and the prospectus’s general rule is that attendance at practical sessions is compulsory. For IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical, the guide sets 40 hours of practical work but prints no attendance percentage. The prospectus adds that practical sessions run at designated institutions on a schedule the Learner Support Centre provides, and the guide describes a work centre arrangement for PGDLAN practicals.

Advice from a friend at another study centre often misleads, because attendance rules, meeting counts and submission steps differ between centres. Since the PGDLAN guide prints no attendance figure for MLIL-002, your own centre’s notice is the rule to follow.

Most learners we hear from hold a job, run a household, or both. Counselling for theory is often optional while practical sessions generally are not, and a missed practical is where a whole session is often lost. For MLIL-002 that cost is real: the 40 hours sit at a centre, not at home.

Practical classes tend to run on fixed dates, sometimes as full days far from home, and batch lists usually go up on the websites of Regional Centres and study centres; learners who do not look miss the slot and wait a cycle. Under the prospectus’s general rule the Learner Support Centre provides the practical schedule, and that covers PGDLAN too.

Before your IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical: six checks

Six checks before exam day

1. Get the practical schedule from your Learner Support Centre and attend the 40 hours.
2. Work through all 20 lab-manual exercises with your own records, including every Reports menu.
3. Finish the TMA-P at the centre by 30 September 2026 or 31 March 2027 and keep the screen-capture file.
4. Pay the practical fee with the TEE form and keep the confirmation.
5. Download the hall ticket once it is uploaded and carry your IGNOU ID card.
6. In the exam, save and show every output, and take printouts only on the RD-signed sheet with your roll number, study centre and date.

The learners who come through cleanly begin early, check their own centre’s rules first, keep dated work as they go and can explain each step aloud. For MLIL-002 that means repeating each SOUL module until the Reports menus feel routine.

IGNOU MLIL 002 Practical rewards the learner who has built the records and run the reports with their own hands before exam day.

shrichakradhar.com is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by IGNOU. Our guides are study reference material; your MLIL-002 SOUL work, TMA-P screen captures and exam output must be your own.