Page 73 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Library Automation

Notes These are useful in building information resources and for retrospective search and current
awareness services. Again, however, the tape service is expensive and suitably sophisticated
computers are scarce. The databases have a standard format which requires extensive
changes to fit existing hardware and other system requirements. Also, relevant
bibliographic information has to be selected from the databases and stored. Often this
storage space is scarce and expensive.
2. Economic Problems: The major obstacle for any innovations in developing countries is the
lack of resources. The initial cost of establishing a computer system is beyond the reach of
most organizations and institutions. Library and information processing is done either
with spare computer capacity made available by the institution itself, or with computer
time hired from another institution. The cost of hiring computer time and storage space is
very high and often cannot be justified at the management level by cost-benefit analysis.

Example: At IIT, CPU time per hour cost ` 1000 for educational purposes and ` 2000 for
business and industrial use.
Moreover, the computer provides only paper printout, and the paper often cost more than
the processing. Few developing countries can afford the machine-readable databases,
either. The tapes are very expensive and because foreign exchange is involved in subscribing
to them, it is even more difficult for most organizations in India and other developing
countries to afford them. The annual subscription rate of one database is now approximately
$ 8000. Library tasks often overlap and their peculiar nature seldom makes the advantages
of computerization seem very convincing in the light of cost benefit analysis.
In India, libraries and information centres are attached to government organizations or
research institutions, so library services cannot be calculated on a profit/loss basis. Long
term benefits have to keep in mind while justifying such services. The libraries that have
computerized some of their services or operations often have not taken such steps as a
result of serious thought. Computerization has glamour of its own in the minds of many
librarians. Overly enthusiastic librarians often run uneconomical programmes, producing
lengthy listings for instance in the name of computerized service.
Often the manual method is used concurrently with the computerized system because of
a lack of faith on the part of staff and users. The duplication of work and the cost involved
in these cases is obviously unjustifiable; the librarian should know which aspects of service
should be mechanized. An example of an economically visible computerized library
activity is the centralized acquisitions but also eliminates the cost of duplicate purchasing.
3. Attitudinal Problems: Computers appear very awesome to developing countries. They
are powerful machines which can perform many functions and therefore offer a solution
to the many types of manual inefficiency which often plague the developing countries.
Among librarians there are two groups often give insufficient thought to the real value of
the computer to the organization/institution and make uneconomical, haphazard use of
the facility.
The other group, still the majority in developing countries, lacks knowledge of the
potential and consequences of library automation. There is constant tension between this
traditional librarian group and the ‘new wave’ librarians. Professionals of the majority
group do not realize that computers cannot replace human intelligence. Due to the accuracy
essential for data input in library services, the librarian/information scientist is
indispensable. The National Library of Calcutta conducted an experiment to computerize
the Indian National Bibliography in 1968.
The scheme failed, however, because labour unions opposed it fearing retrenchment of
library staff. Among developing countries, the attitudes of India’s librarians are typical.

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