Page 234 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Unit 12: Library Automation Services

Notes

Case Study Technology-Enhanced Library Services and the
Librarian’s Identity Crisis in Academic and
Research Libraries of India

ibraries across India, as in other parts of the world, are facing sweeping changes on
account of the media in which information is generated, transmitted, disseminated
Land archived due to the increasing presence of electronic formats. There is no doubt
that information in electronic form is a potential asset, and that it can be vigorously
applied in any environment. The advent and spread of electronic formats has made a
major difference in the information processing and service environments in libraries,
especially after the emergence of the Internet and Web as the dominant pathway and
repository of electronic information resources. In an increasingly networked world, it is
possible that universities may be able to take back control of scholarly information, and
libraries may risk being cut out of the author-publisher-dissemination loop (Levy 2000).
Libraries act as facilitators to provide the right information to the right user at the right
time.
Users visit libraries to borrow identified documents, or to take photocopies/printouts of
those documents from reference collections or journals not issued out normally. The
advent of Web-enabled information resources, such as e-journals, e-books and e-reference
sources, and their access through networks has taken the library to the users (instead of the
users coming to the library) and a significant amount of information access is now taking
place beyond the four walls of the library. In many cases users want a ‘pinpointed precision’
in the information search process whereas the library attempts for an ‘exhaustive recall’ to
comply with the various ways in which an information source is approached and to satisfy
each user’s diverse interests. This information overload may cause doubts in the users
regarding the relevance of information services as perceived from a professional angle.
Along with quantifying use, it is equally important to assess the qualitative attributes of
implicit and explicit use and examine the difficulties of users in properly framing their
requests for information.

The limitation on the part of library professionals to perceive and represent what is
demanded by users in information systems, and the dilemmas of information organization
and retrieval to handle these demands must be effectively addressed. Libraries and
professionals are equally concerned about the emergence of Internet as an information
repository beyond the library’s walls, as amply demonstrated by enhanced citations of
Web resources. As library acquisitions are falling, information sources are increasing, and
a single site library satisfying the user’s needs is a doubtful proposition; users are forced
to look beyond the library for their information needs. Thus the only option for the
libraries is to enter into collaborations, networking and consortia and to reorient their
roles as information services and access centres from their previous roles as information
warehouses. At the same time, the technical advances resulting from enhanced research in
science and technology have made it possible to reduce drastically the time involved in
information collection and identification. Also the extra time required in adapting printed
information to client service through cumbersome manual routines of classification and
cataloguing is considerably reduced by the availability of electronic information, leaving
the professionals to concentrate more on tasks to support the extensive teaching and
intensive research environment.
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