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Unit 5: Resource Sharing and Networking

5.4.1 Library Network Notes

The development of sophisticated technologies in computer and communication field has upset
libraries worldwide in storing and transmitting information. The computer and its
communication circuits link to other computer or to terminals constituting an integral information
machine. This technology introduced the ‘Network System’. When a group of libraries using
computers decide to exchange information, a network is developed. The National Commission
on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) in its National Programme Document (1975)
defines a network as:
“Two or more libraries and/or other organizations engaged in a common pattern of information exchange,
through communications, for some functional purpose. A network usually consists of a formal arrangement
whereby materials, information and services provided by a variety of libraries and other organizations are
available to all potential users. Libraries may be in different jurisdictions but agree to serve one another on
the same basis as each serves its own constituents. Computer and telecommunications may be among the
tools used for facilitating communication among them”.
According to Martin, “A network is a group of individuals or organizations that are interconnected. The
linking must include a communication mechanism, and many network exist fort the express purpose of
facilitating certain types of communication among their members. In the library world, institutions from
network primarily to achieve better sharing of resources – resources consisting of bibliographic information
and of collection – and better services to patrons”.
It must be emphasized that the particular focus in this gathering will be on online networks,
those using computers and linking members to the computer resources by means of
telecommunication connections.
A library network is a description of an activity which existed before the term itself was devised.
When any two libraries talk to each other, we have the fundamental condition for networking
that is exchange. When one library provides a service to another, we have the rudiments of
network behaviour. Inter-library loan or bibliographic exchange in any form is the chief
justification of a network.
Networking is a system with a predominant how of service and a reverse flow of demand. When
a librarian asks his neighbour for a book or a citation and his request is honoured networking
begins. Librarians now tend to view a collection as not merely what they possess in their
institution, but all materials they have access to through photocopying, inter-library loan and
reciprocal borrowing privileges.
Networks enable librarians, faced with clients’ information needs beyond their local resources,
to identify and obtain materials and services for those clients. As we move increasingly into
electronic information era, we see technology and networks working together to reduce the
physical movement of materials.

5.4.2 Objectives of Library Networks

The basic purpose for creating a network is to provide information services to member libraries
through sharing of resources of the participating libraries of the network. This may lead to
member libraries to depend more on access to documents held in the other member libraries
than on depending only on their respective collection. The main aims and objectives of library
network are stated as the following:
1. To promote resource sharing and cooperation activities among libraries by providing
efficient and reliable means of resource sharing, e.g.

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