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Foundation of Library and Information Science

Notes over the centuries more or less in an autocratic way. We have inherited rich civilisation
and a culture, which depicts a mixture of various racial influences of Aryan, Semitic,
Roman and Dravidian. Politically we are governed by different political parties with their
specific ideologies.

Educational Features: From the point of view of literacy, nearly 60% of the population is
illiterate. Our constitution envisages provision of compulsory primary education for all
children between 6 to 14 years of age. But this target is still to be realised. There are a high
percentage of dropouts in the primary education. Secondary and higher education although
show quantitative growth, these are not in line with planned development of the country.
There are great disparities between the educated and the non-educated. Many people,
especially rural, are unaware of scientific and technological developments which affect
their lives, e.g., health, hygiene and nutrition. Thus, generally, the application of scientific
and technological innovations is low.

Socio-Psychological Features: People are generally found to be tradition bound and
fatalistic in their outlook on life. Traits of self-help and independent thinking are not
found in many. Information is conserved rather than disseminated. People are governed
by fear and diffidence rather than by hope and confidence. They are fearful of
experimentation. Religion and language have hindered national unity and progressive
attitude.

6.1.4 Present Status

The current status of the public library system in India is hard to ascertain and describe, because
a consolidated picture is not available. The state of public libraries varies between different
parts of the country. In particular, the condition of the majority of public libraries in rural areas
is poor. Many of them do not have their own buildings, being located in no more than small
thatched huts; or they have to share the premises of other institutions. Storage facilities are very
poor and the stock of reading materials is small. According to the Constitution of India, public
library development is a State responsibility. Therefore, all States are vested with the mandate
to set up libraries at different levels within each State. But out of 29 States and 6 Union Territory
Administrations, only 11 states have so far passed library legislation, enabling their respective
State Governments to provide a public library system. So, as a response to this variability in the
level of development in the States, the Department of Culture of the Government of India has set
up the Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF).

!
Caution It is intended to act as a nodal agency for development of public libraries in India
and has also been given the responsibility for resource mobilization for modernization of
the State and District central libraries, the development of infrastructure and training of
personnel.
In consequence, there are now 28 State central libraries situated in different cities which are
funded by the RRRLF. Presently, the RRRLF is working to spread library services all over the
country in active cooperation with State Governments, Union Territory Administrations and
voluntary organizations (NGOs) working in this field. It is clear then that the public library
scenario is not uniform in India. It is difficult to collect authorized statistics on public libraries
in the country, as they are under the responsibility of a variety of agencies who, for various
reasons, never disclose such information on a national scale. This forces us to guess about the
state of a vast number of public libraries, though it is not hard to imagine the difficulties they
face in facilitating information and library support to the mass of over a billion population,

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