Page 43 - DLIS101_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SOCIETY

Library and Information Society

Notes and the classics. In 1766, Yale had approximately 4,000 volumes, second only to Harvard. Access to
these libraries was restricted to faculty members and a few students: the only staff was a part-time
faculty member or the president of the college. The priority of the library was to protect the books,
not to allow patrons to use them.

In 1849, Yale was open 30 hours a week, the University was open nine hours a
week, Columbia University four, and Bowdoin College only three.
Students instead created literary societies and assessed entrance fees in order to build a small
collection of usable volumes often in excess of what the university library held.
Around the turn of the century, this approach began to change. The American Library Association
was formed in 1876, with members including Melville Dewey and Charles Ammi Cutter. Libraries
re-prioritized in favor of improving access to materials, and found funding increasing as a result of
increased demand for said materials.
Academic libraries today vary in regard to the extent to which they accommodate those who are not
affiliated with their parent universities. Some offer reading and borrowing privileges to members
of the public on payment of an annual fee; such fees can vary greatly. The privileges so obtained
usually do not extend to such services as computer usage, other than to search the catalog, or Internet
access. Alumni and students of co-operating local universities may be given discounts or other
consideration when arranging for borrowing privileges. On the other hand access to the libraries of
some universities is absolutely restricted to students, faculty, and staff. Even in this case, they may
make it possible for others to borrow materials through inter-library loan programs.
Libraries of land-grant universities generally are more accessible to the public. In some cases they
are official government document repositories and so are required to be open to the public. Still,
members of the public are generally charged fees for borrowing privileges, and usually are not
allowed to access everything they would be able to as students.
Academic libraries are the treasure trove of knowledge which cater to the needs of scholars, scientists,
technocrats, researchers, students and others who are directly associated with the mainstream of
higher education. In this competitive age, the policy makers have to rise to the occasion and create
a new generation of knowledge workers. The information personnel of the academic libraries are
also called upon to equip themselves with the best tools, techniques, procedures and practices. The
ways in which people communicate, and acquire and share knowledge, will inevitably have an
impact on the library, its services, and its staff (Miller, 2006). The academic libraries play an important
role in the academic community by providing necessary forum and resources for faculty and students
to do their research and advance their knowledge. In order to effectively meet the growing needs of
the clients and achieve success in the management of academic libraries, the academic libraries
need to actively address the many challenges for the design and delivery of innovative resources
and services (Cohen, 2007).
Academic libraries are also required to play the role of scholarly partner in exploring new pathways
to knowledge and acting upon this (Gelfand, 2007; Ogburn, 2008, Abram, 2008). It is widely
acknowledged that meaningful reference work and research support is absolutely essential to ensure
successful dissemination of knowledge to the clients on the basis of meaningful team spirit and
work.
It is imperative that subject reference workers adapt to the reality of dealing with socially networked
clients. Reference interaction has always been a conversation (Lankes, 2008); moving towards
reference in the social environment is therefore a natural development that has been shown to be
not only practically viable, but also to benefit the community of users in the field of higher education.
Academic libraries are required to develop know how and show how systems which are highly
essential elements of meaningful academic library management.

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