Page 152 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Unit 8: Special Libraries

Notes
Example: In a research institute’s library, the scientists may not be having time to visit
the library for information gathering. In such a situation, the apt information and not the
document should be supplied to the users.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

5. Special libraries exist in a wide variety of organisations, most of them being units of
……………….. organisations.
6. The role of each special library is to support the …………….. needs of its users or clients.

7. Special libraries are ………………… in their collection, clientle/users and service.
8. The users also get new ideas and inspiration to initiate new …………………..

8.3 Features of the Special Libraries

All the activities of a special library are derived from two basic types of information services
that are provided by them. In fact, the reason for their existence, as stated earlier, is to provide
such information services. The first service is provided in response to users’ requests for
information covering reference and literature search. The second is information service in
anticipation of need and includes indexing, abstracting services which are designed to keep the
users updated on new and current information.

Notes Decisions about collection development of the library, processing and organisation
of documents appointment of staff, etc. are made on the type and extent of services to be
provided.

8.3.1 Collection Development

Special library collections are working collections to support their information services, with
an emphasis on current information and retrospective material, determined on the basis of the
projects and programmes taken up by the organisations. Besides the traditional forms of material
such as books, journals, technical and research reports, other typical and significant material
include patents, specifications in scientific and industrial fields, business records, trade
information and news clippings, etc. A particular feature of a collection in a special library is
that it is never static, but dynamic and changing as new activities and programmes develop in
the parent organisation. The library also gets affected by changes in the parent organisation and
the scope and nature of the library collections and services also get changed suitably. Therefore,
the staff of the special library must be constantly alert to possible new areas and the changing
interests of the organisation so that the library collection and services can respond to changing
demands of information. Generally speaking, the special library collections have three major
components; the first is published information, the second internally generated information
and the third, information available from sources, outside the organisation.

In most of the special libraries, periodicals provide the most updated information. Therefore,
periodical collections are perhaps the richest of the library resources and the maximum funds
are provided for subscriptions to periodicals. Specialised reports form the second category of
published information. Information collected through newspaper clippings, pamphlets, statistical

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