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Unit 3: Concept of Library

expanding services to where and when users may need them. They allow librarians to continue to Notes
use their skills in tracking down quality information for users and will become a staple feature of
library services. The implication of the third law in marketing the library is performing activities
that take library products and services to the users: publicizing the value and benefits, promotional
campaigns, adovacy, public relations, personal communication, etc. The library should use
promotional tools to publicize its resources, facilities, and services. It should direct its efforts to
attracting new users to the library and reach out to its existing users by providing library services at
their doorstep. It should give its users personal touch and develop a feeling of belonging in the
library.

Save the Time of the Reader
The fourth law is “save the time of the reader” (Ranganathan, 1988). Time is important to every
person. Time management is a key to success in life. Libraries must have the objective of saving the
time of the reader. The entire journey of librarianship is about devising, designing, and developing
methods, systems of organization and dissemination of information to provide the best service to
their readers in the most efficient, accurate, and effective manner and thus saving the reader’s time.
For example, we create catalogues, bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts to save the time of readers.
Saving the time of the reader also relates to how we actually organise information. Acceptance and
adoption of ICT has used to save thousands of hours of the reader’s time when compared to manual
systems. Noruzi very rightly opines that considering the time of the user as a vital notion, and that
all five laws of library science are transferable and applicable to the Web. Increasingly, saving the
time of the user becomes navigating with them through the Web and creating high-quality and
accurate guides to information in this challenging domain. The implication of the fourth law in
marketing library is its focus on the user benefits and preferences. Consolidation and repackaging
information into an appropriate form, making information available when it is needed, ensuring
the quality of services and offerings, are tasks that take user benefits and preferences into account.
The main objective of the library should be that the user who enters in a library for a specific purpose
should not leave emptyhanded. At the same time, it must also be ensure that the users’ valuable
time is not wasted in searching for material.

The Library is a Growing Organism

The fifth law, that the library is a growing organism (Ranganathan, 1988) states that libraries will
continue to grow in the future. Perhaps we can look at digital information and conclude that the
growth is not as pressing from the point of view of physical space, although this remains something
that libraries struggle with. Even in the digital world, the analogue continues to be important. Book
publishing remains healthy, and indeed a much less expensive endeavor than it was in 1931. Libraries
will continue to struggle with space problems. This is reflected in the statistics of information
generation and the acquisition of information resources of libraries of any type. Even the presence
of e-resources does not stop the acquisition of new print material, and the pace at which they grow
has not changed. Lancaster’s dream of a paperless society is not likely to come true in the near
future. The sacrifices librarians have to make between space for books shelves and space for computer
terminals to deliver this ever-expanding need will continue to be an issue. One can also see the
library as a growing organism in terms of staff and skills. As the library grows in services, the skills
necessary to deliver these new services will also grow. Perhaps we could argue that both libraries
and the profession of librarianship are growing organisms.

The fifth law’s implication for marketing is adapting the library to future user
needs, including mobilizing resources, dealing with uncertainty about future
user needs, new services, new customer groups, new environment, etc.

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