Emerging Role of
Librarians
Dr.Meghna Dhar
“Advancement is something that
the human society can neither unwish nor wish against”.
The recent developments in
science and technology have led to a new alarming situation regarding information
created in the world. Today, we are living at the midst of an era of change.
The introduction of new technologies in the libraries has brought about
sea-change in various services provided by modern libraries. IT is a single
innovation that has impacted the library services to a great extent .Over
recent years each new technological development that takes place impacts on
Library and Information Centers. Information Technology has revolutionized most
of the routine operations and services of Library and Information Centers by
opening up new possibilities in collecting, organizing, disseminating and
providing access the vast volumes of information in accordance with the
specific needs of groups of people or an individual.
From the days of papyrus to the present,
libraries had undergone a tremendous change. In ancient times as human
civilization started progressing, stone, metal plates, papyrus rolls were the
main source of writing material, sometime later evolved were clay-tablets,
parchment, birch-barks and palm leaves followed by paper. The paper finally
became essentially the writing material of the present civilization and has
played a major role in the collection development in libraries. Earlier the
librarian was merely considered as a custodian of stored books, but now the
entire situation has totally changed due to various developments in information
technologies and their applications in libraries.The nomenclature of librarians
has changed to “Documentation Officer”, “Knowledge Managers”, “Information
Managers”, “Information Scientists”, “Information Specialists”, “Information
Officers”, etc. The libraries are similarly being named as ‘Resource Centres’,
‘Information Centres’, ‘Knowledge Resource Centres’ etc. Today, the emphasis is
on providing reference service, current awareness service, selective
dissemination of information service, reprographic and translation service and
now web-based services.
Impact of IT on the Job &
Work Performance of Library Professionals:
Information is a dynamic and unending
resource that effects all disciplines and all walks of life. The single force
that has brought revolutionary changes in the functioning of libraries is IT.
The introduction and application of these modern means have elevated modern day
libraries to a very high pedestal, thereby improving and altering its image,
functions and service to revolutionary extent and rendering of services with
great efficiency and effectiveness. Automation gives ability to cope up with an
increased workload. With the help of information technologies, library
personnel can do the routine jobs like acquisition, cataloguing, stock
verification, circulation, periodical subscription, reference service, serial
control, documentation and information retrieval etc. more quickly and accurately.
The computerized acquisition system has eased the burden for record checking of duplicate purchase orders and follow-up action can also be taken automatically. IT has speeded up the accessioning and other processing work of the acquisition section by eliminating a large amount of repetitive and time consuming operations. The use of technological devices such as computers, barcode scanners, RFID technology etc. helps in the performance of the routine circulation operations easily and quickly. It saves lot of time of the staff as well as of users. Computers help in periodical subscription and subsequent monitoring of the receipts of individual issues. It helps the staff in maintaining records of sanctioned funds and amount expended for different categories of serials. The reminders can be easily issued and overall management of periodical section is improved. Reference service is much more influenced by the development in IT than any other services of library and information centres. Reference librarians, now require working with computerized catalogues, online bibliographic databases and searching the networked information resources.
Benefits of the Internet for
Library Professionals
*The Internet helps in acquiring
the right electronic information resources available at various websites.
*The Internet has greatly
enhanced both the circulation and inter-library loan services through increased
access to online catalogues which allow a user greater convenience in
undertaking online searches.
*The reference librarian can
provide reference service through the use of the Internet offering greater
conveyance to users. The answers to reference queries which use to take too
much time earlier, can now be provided within few seconds.
*Orders of books, journals and
other reading materials can be sent through e-mail.
*Day to day correspondence could
be sent through E-mail, thereby providing effective and fast services to its
readers.
Conclusion & Suggestions
No single technology has affected
the lives of people so much as the Information Technology since the invention
of wheel. It has revolutionized the way we think, we work and we live.
Libraries have also undergone a number of changes in their course of
development.
The advancement in science and
technology has reduced manual efforts enormously, library and information
professionals should respond to the opportunities and challenges of the
developments in Information Technology with high degree of enthusiasm and
professionalism. In order to change the face of librarianship and modernize the
library and information services, the library professionals of today should be
ready to adapt to the opportunities, changes and challenges presented by the
new information society. The information professionals must change and adapt to
new electronic information environment and continuously work for providing
better and more convenient library and information services to user community.
(The author is Assistant
Professor in University of Jammu, Jammu)
Regards
Prof. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library &
Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
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