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Unit 1: Library Automation: An Overview

has expanded to include the core functions of acquisitions, cataloguing and authority control, serials Notes
control, circulation and inventory, and inter-library loan and document delivery.”
Library automation may be defined as the application of computers to perform traditional
library housekeeping activities such as acquisition, circulation, cataloguing, and reference and
serials control. Automation is used to reduce the amount of staff time devoted to repetitive (and
often less challenging) activities that must be done in any properly functioning library. It is to
be remembered that, various library operations are automated, not the library as such.

Library Automation has been defined as ‘integrated systems’ that computerizes an array of
traditional library functions using a common database (Cohn, Kelsey and Fiels) and while this
is still generally true, rapid technological change is forcing a re-examination of what it means to
“automate the library”. In the broadest sense, Markuson means “employment of machines for
library processes”. ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science defines automation as “the
performance of an operation, a series of operations or a process by self-activating, self-controlling,
or automatic means. Automation implies the use of automatic data processing equipment such
as a computer or other labour saving devices”. To Bierman it is “the use of computer and
associated technology to revolutionize the meaning of libraries and redefine their existence” as
a computerized library information system.
In the simple language “When we use machineries for collection, processing, storage and retrieval
of information and do another works of library with the help of machineries that called library
automation.”

Library automation is the application of computers and also connected tools to the processing of
data in a library or libraries. The automation might also be applied to some office procedures.

1.1.2 Objectives of Library Automation

The main objectives of the library automation are:

Speedily disposal of library work
Establishment of a well storage and retrieval system
Time and human power saving with qualitative services

Suitability for library cooperation and coordination development
Simplicity in library management to meet the objectives
Proper use of human resources
Development of the new library services
Preparation of reports and correspondence

Suitability for resource sharing and networking
Development of human resources

1.1.3 History and Development of Library Automation

The effects of ICT on libraries and information centres are characterised by:
Mechanisation – doing what we are already doing more efficiently;

Innovation – experimenting with new capabilities, that the ICT makes possible; and
Transformation – fundamentally altering the nature of the library operations and services
through the capabilities extended by ICT.

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