CHANGING ROLE OF THE COLLEGE LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS IN THE INTERNET ERA: TRENDS , OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
CHANGING ROLE OF THE COLLEGE LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS IN THE INTERNET ERA: TRENDS , OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
* Dr.Ramesh .R.Naik
Reader, Department of Library & Information Science, Karnatak University, Dharwad. rrnaik@gmail.com
** Shri.Mahesh.D.Horakeri
Selection Grade Librarian and Research Scholar, Department of Library & Information Science, Karnatak University, Dharwad.
Abstract.
The advancement of Information, Communication and Technology has brought a lot of changes not only on the library and information services but also on the roles and expectations of the librarians and information professionals. With the global shift from storing the information to knowledge era, the tents of library profession have also changed .This paper narrates the changing role of modern academic librarian in the web environment and also focuses on the trends, opportunities and challenges.
1.Introduction
Education and library have been inseparables since centuries and civilizations. Evidences are plenty where library has been one integral part of all education, more so in the institutions of higher learning. In India, Nalanda and Takshashila Universities and even the gurukula type of education has highly dependent on their libraries. The Higher Education in India, during the last sixty years or so has been expanding primarily for social and political reasons rather than on economic and manpower considerations. On 28th December 1953 the University Grants Commission (UGC) was established in India. U.G.C brought out reforms in college education by relaxing several colleges from the rigid regimentation of traditional course structure. As a result of the schemes initiated for restructuring courses in its Sixth Plan Development proposals, there has been a great expansion of libraries in most colleges on the development of library collection during the last twenty years. The UGC provided generous funds for purchase of reference books and textbooks as well as grants for library buildings. The UGC also sponsored the College Humanities and Social Science Programme (COHSSIP) and College Science Improvement Programme (COSIP). As a result, the classroom teaching using latest teaching methods and techniques, which provides exhaustive knowledge of the subject to the students. The UGC has also provided assistance for introducing community Service Scheme and Summer Institute for development of college libraries in India. A well –established library with qualitative collection suitable for study and research is a sine-qua-non for modern higher education like in University. There are many college libraries, which provide education to the students up to graduation levels in order to achieve the objective of college education. College libraries should redesign their activities in such a way that they may prove to be significant partners in conservation of knowledge in the form of information.
Libraries of today have assumed a new role in modern society, by that they integrate educational technology, information and communication technology and the new media. The libraries since their existence have also adapted to changes that have influenced them from outside as well as within. The moveable type brought the first landmark change in the content of libraries. Since that time the libraries started acquiring new media and also a new role to support academic programmes of all educational Institutions. Libraries with changing media enhanced the needs and wants of the learners and the facilitators of learning – the teacher and the librarian. This implies, the changes seen in the education have definite impact and brought transformation in every domain of libraries. The knowledge resources of libraries have changed from time to time, the methods of handling have also undergone significant change, with the changing media and the users also adopted this process of continuous change. Needless to say that the new media in which knowledge resources are emerging are equally accepted by the users of today.
In the late 1990’s, the Internet became the life blood of information sharing not just for libraries, but for commerce, education, government and the general public. High-speed networking availably created an efficient and fast way to move both text and graphics from one server to another in a matter of nanoseconds. The Internet is the most democratic, yet confusing information tool ever devised. On one hand, storage and access issues are eliminated, yet since anyone can place anything they want on the World Wide Web, users frequently find erroneous or false information and use it as “fact”. While the Internet is a wonderful thing, it is not a substitute for the campus library, or more importantly, the librarian. Librarian’s guide and teach students and other users how to find the best sources of information, whether print or online. In fact, most of the world’s knowledge before 1970 does not appear on the Web in any organized or holistic fashion.
2. Changed Role of LIS Professionals :
The role of the academic librarian in the information age is to promote access to appropriate and accurate information to serve the needs of users. This has been the librarian’s mission for generations. However, the information age has made this mission much more challenging and complex. It has also demanded that librarians and library support staff bring or develop new technical skills to promote information access. The technology revolution has brought many changes to the way librarians and library staff manage their day and provide information to users. Up until ten years ago, libraries were book focused institutions. There were just print card catalogs; online vendor databases had barely become tools in the librarian’s arsenal to answer questions; the Internet as we know it now was still years away from practical use. Library acquisitions, cataloging and circulation were done via paper or managed by using print ledgers, pens and card pockets. Spreadsheets, internal databases or other productivity software was never used to manage library data.
The wealth of conventional wisdom related to traditional information management has been subjected to drastic changes. Today’s information technology has transformed the generation of knowledge and its management to explore various utilities for the benefit of mankind. The global communication technologies created several avenues to many. The instance communication around the globe has revolutionized the world society in many ways .The instance accessibility of information significantly changed the scenario to greater heights. The library in an educational institution is now considered as actively participating medium between the learners and the vast store of knowledge resources, between classroom lecture and the vast sources of information where the content of the lectures are drawn. The librarian has an extended role from keeper of knowledge resources to become a true friend and a perfect guide for the learners in an academic setting. The gist of the above deliberation is to highlight that libraries continue to adopt new media from time to time- from manuscript to electronic media. Similarly the media has also influenced the learners and the learners of different dimensions. The new education technology becoming part of every education has also become the part and parcel of distance education. So the institutions like libraries have influencing factors to both formal and non-formal type of education by adopting the changes. At the contemporary changing scenario of information storage media transformation from paper to electronic base, university and college libraries around the world are forced to move strategies of offering access to information rather then building up library holdings, due to reasons of economic, technological viability in transforming them in to store house of knowledge base. Academic libraries should be considered as a research tools, co-evolving with technology. The Internet has changed the way in which universe of knowledge is communicated and hence also the role of libraries.
Librarians are the ultimate search engines. Their level of technological expertise extends past the simple reference interview and selection of materials for the collections. Librarians interface with faculty to design and teach their students appropriate research skills; they manage and select digital collections and services; they serve on a variety of committees with the College; they conduct outreach and perform a vital role. Libraries are information portals and librarians are the guides who connect need with satisfaction. Librarians are the glue that binds successful, efficient and excellent library services to the students, faculty and staff that require library information resources. Traditional values associated with librarians include precision, discipline, attention to detail, and helpfulness. They may be seen as curators or custodians of books and other sources of information, but librarians are not usually regarded as publishers of information.
3. Paradigm Shift:
Over the past few years, academic libraries have changed considerably as bibliographic utilities, online catalogs, automated circulation systems, and other new technologies have been implemented in a majority of library operations and services. These changes have created rising costs for libraries in a time of tight fiscal constraints, particularly in the area of telecommunications, buildings, furniture, and electronic equipment. The increased access to electronic information systems not held locally and to other new technologies such as CD-ROM, laser technologies, interactive multimedia packages, Optical character recognition and imaging systems, satellite communication and teleconferencing, laptop computers, packet telephone switches, and cellular telephones have also been making an impact in a few libraries along with LANs (local area networks) and WANs (wide area networks) for interconnecting local computing resources. The new technologies have required not only different expertise and training requirements for personnel but have required new types of personnel and more personnel, even though shifts in existing personnel could be made to meet new demands when the newer technologies made some activities obsolete and others less labor intensive.
Librarians are usually seen as consumers and information seekers, whether for themselves or on behalf of students and other library users. While most librarians probably use the web and Google routinely in their work, the impact of the ubiquitous use of Google on librarians is still unclear. It is widely known that Google along with most other search engines does not make use of information held in HTML <meta> tags when indexing and ranking documents. However, this does not mean that metadata is irrelevant to Google. On the contrary, it increases the significance of the one metadata element that Google does use: the HTML <title> tag. It is tempting to state that the universal availability of fast and easy access to online information is devaluing, and perhaps undermining, the traditional role of librarians as intermediaries. Funding is needed for online network memberships and connections to local, national, and international networks. These network relationships require new and expanded licensing agreements with updated copyright procedures and related issues. New formats and access tools require revamped policies and procedures, rules, and regulations. Expanded training (of staff and users) and continuing education require increased travel budgets for participation in new professional associations and continuing education and training opportunities. Fund-raising has become far more commonplace in all types of academic libraries than ever before in history- and not just through state and national granting agencies but through approaches to foundations and corporations, as well as individual benefactors. Priorities have changed; funding methodologies have expanded; resources (budget, personnel, space, equipment, responsibilities) have had to be re-examined and reallocated. All of this requires that far more personnel time be devoted to both short- and long-range planning within libraries, across campus, and with the consortia of a local, state, and even national nature. Yet almost all libraries do publish, on a small scale at least. For some libraries this may amount to little more than details of opening hours and location posted on a website. For many others it will extend to making available their catalogue of holdings online, along with guidance notes, while an increasing number of libraries are digitizing some of their collections and publishing them online. The Libraries organizational structure has undergone several changes in recent years in response to the dramatic changes and opportunities in the information environment.
Libraries are in the retail end of the information revolution. It is important to note that even with all the technical complexity and additional responsibilities, a librarian’s core role as gatekeeper to information is unchanged. We still select books and pint periodical titles, we still teach users one-on-one and in classroom settings how to do research; we still answer questions from students and other users. Except we now answer questions via phone, fax, and email as well as in-person. Through technology, we select, manage and maintain complex computer and web-based information systems and we teach via distance by creating on-line tutorials.
The card catalog which was replaced in the early 1990s has itself been replaced with a Web-based interface. This means that the maintenance of the information, typically handled by library support staff, has to be accurate and the level of sophistication and technical expertise to handle the amount of information added to the library’s own knowledge base increases yearly as the capacity to store and access information has increased. Also important to note, the online catalog is accessible from anywhere as it is a web-based catalog. Over the past ten years librarians have grown accustomed to what they might call Web 1.0, that is, by using the Internet they have been able to look at thousands and thousands of documents, look at pictures of land, sea, and people, listen to music, and even watch movies. Web 1.0 is very similar to the Libraries of yesterday. Libraries and Web 1.0 has been a passive relationship. Even though it is a passive relationship, for many people Web 1.0 replaced the library: Instead of going to the library to get things to look at/read or listen to, user can go on the web from homes and get the same information whether for recreational, basic information or authoritative research information.
But Web 2.0 is something very different. Web 2.0 is commonly known as a collection of websites and tools which allow people to participate with others or to work by alone to create, change, and publish dynamic/changing content of all kinds on the Internet with the knowledge that what user has done becomes the property of the world. In the Web 2.0 world user still go to websites but each site has ways of sensing who we are and it changes itself to more closely align with our needs. In the Web 2.0 world we don’t just look at things, we participate with others in the creation of information. In the Web 2.0 world most things are free but there is a lot of advertising revenue being generated to pay the costs of interactive activities. Web 2.0 allows people to interact with each other and with the informational resources they find on the Internet. Many people (millions of them) like to do this sort of thing. These people prefer interaction to passively looking at information.
4. Knowledge Management: An emerging concern
Knowledge management is emerging as a key concern of organizations, particularly those who have already redesigned their business processes and embedded a total quality approach into their practices. What does this mean to library and information service professionals? Does it mean that the nirvana of public appreciation and value is here? After all, don't librarians organize and provide access to knowledge? Knowledge is increasingly seen as a primary business asset and knowledge management as a key differentiator between firms in the late 1990s. Integral to the implementation of knowledge management is understanding the organization's information flows and implementing organizational learning practices which make explicit key aspects of its knowledge base. Knowledge management is not about managing or organizing books or journals, searching the Internet for clients or arranging for the circulation of materials. However, each of these activities can in some way be part of the knowledge management spectrum and processes. Knowledge management is about enhancing the use of organizational knowledge through sound practices of information management and organizational learning. The purpose is to deliver value to the business. Knowledge management practices aim to draw out the tacit knowledge people have, what they carry around with them, what they observe and learn from experience, rather than what is usually explicitly stated. In firms that appreciate the importance of knowledge management, the organizational responsibilities of staff are not focused on the narrow confines of traditional job descriptions. Managing knowledge goes much further than capturing data and manipulating it to obtain information. Even among information intensive companies, librarians and information professionals do not typically have high visibility or influential positions. Service levels have contracted in some consulting firms, even those once thought to have been in the vanguard of using librarians and information professionals for “knowledge” work.
5. Current Trends:
Before discussing on the opportunities and challenges of College librarians and information professionals in the new era, let’s first look at the current trends discussed in most recent literature of library and information management. These current trends somehow or rather will have a bearing in shaping librarians and information professionals in the new era. They are summarized as follows:
• A vision towards information and knowledge rich society;
• Library functions in information and knowledge-based society;
• Knowledge-based economy – information & knowledge as drivers to boost the economy;
• Information management recognized as an important discipline;
• Information recognized as commodity (information brokerage, information entrepreneurship, fee-based information);
• Integrated and widespread ICT applications;
• Mushrooming of information systems – need for Information System Management;
• Role of digital/electronic/virtual library;
• Librarians are designated as cyber librarians;
• Competency- based assessment/training;
• Access role replace custodial role;
• Customer-focused/customer-centered, user oriented approach in provision of services;
• Strategic alliances, partnership and collaborations;
• Librarians need new management knowledge and skills;
• Specialized knowledge & skills in library and information management;
• Trend to develop digital contents to facilitate access.
6. Opportunities:
Online libraries or information systems will be only a part of tomorrow's library. Access to recorded knowledge will not be completely online. Subject experts disagree with the increasingly popular belief that the computer's widespread use means online libraries will replace the library building along with its books, journals, and other printed material. The march of electronic technology in the library gives incentive to the idea that click and drag will replace brick, mortar, and paper. Computers have replaced the card catalog. People increasingly have the option of going online to search for books and journals, to check out material, to find the due date for returns, and to order interlibrary loans. However, these options have not replaced human librarians or paperwork. Consider what has happened in society.
Outside the library, electronic technology has not eliminated brick, mortar, and paper. The Indian Postal System continues despite email. Banks and human tellers continue to deal with paper currency, alongside online banking. People still pay bills with checks and at payment centers even with online options. Online education probably will not replace school buildings and human instructors. In tomorrow's library as with society, human beings, buildings, and paper will have important functions. The future library will see recorded knowledge existing in terms of a four-fold social-electronic complex: the library building; online access to recorded thought; students, teachers, and librarians in classrooms updating recorded knowledge; and online access to classrooms updating recorded knowledge. Tomorrow's library will be an amalgam of books, journals, databases, images, and other as yet unknown technologies. Human beings are social beings who need to be in buildings, and handle and learn from physical objects such as books and journals. People are not merely robots or neurological systems. Virtually everyone can find recorded information by using a computer instead of having to always visit the library. Online access is important for locating library system.
The classroom adds a dimension to the library building. People attend classes and interact with librarians and departmental instructors outside the library. These interactions allow updating recorded knowledge. Where the library building and online resources give access to recorded information, the classroom is for thinking and recording of new knowledge. Online learning will not replace the classroom. Instead, classrooms will be an important link in the library system. Students and teachers bring recorded knowledge to the classroom so they can have a basis for their interpersonal discussions. These discussions including lectures, dialogue, and other forms of classroom learning can comprise ongoing or recording of information to advance recorded thought for storage and retrieval. Librarians will interact with students and teachers in order to help them understand the discipline under discussion, but also relate this to the liberal arts including all other knowledge. Librarians can help students and teachers find disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Students and faculty will learn about accessing information about their field, but also orient particular fields with general knowledge and information.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) have the potential to offer vast advantages to users. ICT could bring broad and in-depth information to those who have been denied such knowledge and thus opportunities for social and economic mobility. Libraries are pressed to demonstrate their worth, both to their parent organization (the college or university) and to their users. Librarians frequently observe that users are accustomed to relying on Internet resources found through freely available search engines such as Google or Yahoo. The library provides access to excellent scholarly material, but users are often unaware of these resources. In order to promote the use of the resources and services they provide – and to establish the library’s role in the development, selection, and provision of them – libraries will name or “brand” their resources and services. For example, a database will be known as ‘XYZ Library’s Database’ or something similar. The library’s Web site then must balance the seamless provision of such resources and services with the library’s desire to underscore its role in creating, choosing, and offering them. Evaluating the presentation of resources and services through library Web sites has been the subject of a number of usability tests in past years. While Web site usability tests usually uncover a host of information about the placement of links, color schemes, and site architecture, testing can also measure responses to library branding efforts.
In the last few years, Facebook has emerged as a significant and useful method for professors, librarians, and campus administrators to reach students before, during, and after their collegiate experience. Libraries in particular have been eager to capitalize on Facebook’s potential for building and maintaining relationships with students. Libraries have created search bar applications (e.g., for JSTOR), communication tools, and more comprehensive virtual library service applications. Research on Facebook use in libraries has encouraged librarians and other library staff members to create their own profiles and join Facebook groups as a way of sharing information amongst colleagues and with patrons. “Friending” students from instruction sessions and customizing profiles to highlight library resources are other recommended methods of library Facebook usage.
7. Challenges:
Libraries are supplementing and replacing print resources with electronic resources at a fast pace and almost all of the electronic resources are now available on the web. One of the advantages of web environment as compared to print environment is that you can link from one document to another logically related document very easily. For example, it is very important for researchers to be able to link directly from a citation or abstract to the full-text of the article and from a reference at the end of a full-text article to the referenced full-text article without any navigation. As more information resources become available electronically on the web, linking becomes even more important to researchers. Retrieval methodology on the web has developed within this open and unstructured environment, where tools have purposely developed to provide simple and easy to understand interfaces based on word searching and simple directories. This is an environment where retrieval services can produce results irrespective of the skills of the client, where the medium itself, hypertext linking, can provide the retrieval method and deliver the actual results, and where the provision of intuitive options and visual cues are critical to the effectiveness of retrieval tools. The need to accommodate user behaviour is made more challenging because users do not necessarily exhibit a single approach when adopting retrieval strategies on the web. Instead it must be assumed that users may act differently when searching for different types of content, or when assuming contextual persona. Their behaviours will reflect different states of knowledge in a given subject area, different assumptions about content, and the different social and emotional contexts that generate specific user needs. The solution to this issue is to provide a variety of discovery tools and to design the web site so as to present them all as equally accessible alternatives. The libraries all over the world are now responding with adaptability, creativity and flexibility. Indian librarians of today serve in a society which is actually in flux, torn by the technological revolution and rapid political changes. Librarians and information professionals in India are now experiencing both excitement and anxiety as a result of the sweeping societal changes. The major challenges faced by present college librarians are:
-Complexity in locating and analyzing and linking of Information;
- Overloading and redundancy of information;
- Lack of Standardization of hardware and software ;
-Financial investment for setting and maintaining the technology;
- Interpretability of Intermediary and end users;
- The existing technology may be insufficient to accommodate the tremendous growth of information on Internet.
8. The Future of the Library Professional
The future appears to be characterized by continuing dynamic changes in terms of content resources, technology, and information service/management models. Successful information professionals are moving closer to information consumers in two ways. Firstly, as information professionals are integrated into business units or teams, adding value means being credible. In order to be credible, information professionals must possess or add specialized subject knowledge to their information management skills. Secondly, in some cases, information professionals are themselves the information consumers, responsible for analysis and presentation of information to their colleagues. In both cases, it is critical that information professionals understand their roles and the decision-making processes within their organizations. Failure to “step up to the plate” in such a dynamic business environment means being relegated to a back office function that will likely disappear. This is not to say that the way to avoid the electronic age is for library professionals to stick their heads in the sand. The information professional must change and adapt to the new electronic information environment, he or she must learn about new technologies and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of them. Librarians should not feel threatened by computers and technical developments but should move forward with the new technology and take a pivotal role within organizations.
Information professionals within libraries are playing an increasing role in dealing with information in electronic formats by creating Web pages to promote their services to external customers and choosing automated library management systems. Skills in information organization are more necessary in this age of information explosion. Librarians and information professionals have a key role to play in this era. For example, librarians are well equipped to take intranet projects through the various stages of design and maintenance as they understand their users and their organizations information needs and have the range of skills to manage knowledge effectively.
9. The Value of the Librarians in the process of academic excellence and accreditation:
The new era librarian is a technology application leader who works with other members of the information management team to design and evaluate systems for information access that meet user needs. Where required, the new era librarian provides instruction and support so that end users can make optimal use of the information resources available to them. The new era librarian is capable of working in the hybrid world of print and electronic media and providing the best mix of information resources in the most appropriate formats for the environment. The new era librarian plays a key role in developing information policy for the organization ensuring that access to all information resources -- from internal records to external databases – is provided in the most strategically- effective and cost-effective manner. The new era librarian also plays another important role in ensuring that contractual, legal and ethical obligations regarding information use are met. The electronic information age provides new opportunities for organizations to produce as well as use information products. New era librarians, given their familiarity with the information marketplace, can be key contributors to the development, marketing and use of information products. New era librarians are knowledge-based practitioners who use research as a foundation for their own professional practice and who support the conduct of research through their professional associations. Research has shown that the provision of appropriate information can lead to: better informed decision-making; the ability to proceed to the next step in a project or task; improved relations with a client; and the exploitation of new business opportunities. The right information at the right time can also benefit the organization by saving the time of highly paid employees, avoiding poor business decisions, and even direct loss of funds. In order to fulfill this key information role, new era librarians require two main types of competencies: Professional competencies relate to the special librarian's knowledge in the areas of information resources, information access, technology, management and research and the ability to use these areas of knowledge as a basis for providing library and information services. Personal competencies represent a set of skills, attitudes and values that enable librarians to work efficiently; be good communicators; focus on continuing learning throughout their careers; demonstrate the value-added nature of their contributions; and survive in the new world of work. The following sections highlight the major professional and personal competencies of new era librarians:
(a) Professional Competencies:
• has expert knowledge of the content of information resources, including the ability to critically evaluate and filter them;
• develops and manages convenient, accessible and cost-effective information services that are aligned with the strategic directions of the organization;
• assesses information needs and designs and markets value-added information services and products to meet identified needs ;
• uses appropriate information technology to acquire, organize and disseminate information ;
• develops specialized information products for use inside or outside the organization or by individual clients;
• evaluates the outcomes of information use and conducts research related to the solution of information management problems;
• continually improves information services in response to the changing needs;
• is an effective member of the senior management team and a consultant to the organization on information issues.
(b)Personal Competencies
• committed to service excellence;
• seeks out challenges and sees new opportunities both inside and outside the library;
• creates an environment of mutual respect and trust;
• has effective communications skills;
• works well with others in a team;
• provides leadership;
• plans, prioritizes and focuses on what is critical;
• committed to lifelong learning and personal career planning;
• have personal business skills and creates new opportunities;
• recognizes the value of professional networking and solidarity;
• is flexible and positive in a time of continuing change.
10. Conclusion:
Library and information professionals should add new ICT skills to their current capabilities in order to help users overcoming their anxieties about the new world of networked and digitized information, and assist them to navigate through it. For which training is indispensable to bestow the professionals with the skills, knowledge and confidence to use ICT effectively in their day-to day work, and to the benefit of their clientele. Above all, making library staff competent locally and globally necessitates greater ‘investment in staff’ for raising their level of technology skills and preventing skills obsolescence. The libraries all over the world are now responding with adaptability, creativity and flexibility. Indian librarians of today serve in a society which is actually in flux, torn by the technological revolution and rapid political changes. Librarians and information professionals in India are now experiencing both excitement and anxiety as a result of the sweeping societal changes. In preparing the future librarians of India, in making them more proactive, the library and information science departments of different universities can definitely play a significant role.
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* Dr.Ramesh .R.Naik
Reader, Department of Library & Information Science, Karnatak University, Dharwad. rrnaik@gmail.com
** Shri.Mahesh.D.Horakeri
Selection Grade Librarian and Research Scholar, Department of Library & Information Science, Karnatak University, Dharwad.
Abstract.
The advancement of Information, Communication and Technology has brought a lot of changes not only on the library and information services but also on the roles and expectations of the librarians and information professionals. With the global shift from storing the information to knowledge era, the tents of library profession have also changed .This paper narrates the changing role of modern academic librarian in the web environment and also focuses on the trends, opportunities and challenges.
1.Introduction
Education and library have been inseparables since centuries and civilizations. Evidences are plenty where library has been one integral part of all education, more so in the institutions of higher learning. In India, Nalanda and Takshashila Universities and even the gurukula type of education has highly dependent on their libraries. The Higher Education in India, during the last sixty years or so has been expanding primarily for social and political reasons rather than on economic and manpower considerations. On 28th December 1953 the University Grants Commission (UGC) was established in India. U.G.C brought out reforms in college education by relaxing several colleges from the rigid regimentation of traditional course structure. As a result of the schemes initiated for restructuring courses in its Sixth Plan Development proposals, there has been a great expansion of libraries in most colleges on the development of library collection during the last twenty years. The UGC provided generous funds for purchase of reference books and textbooks as well as grants for library buildings. The UGC also sponsored the College Humanities and Social Science Programme (COHSSIP) and College Science Improvement Programme (COSIP). As a result, the classroom teaching using latest teaching methods and techniques, which provides exhaustive knowledge of the subject to the students. The UGC has also provided assistance for introducing community Service Scheme and Summer Institute for development of college libraries in India. A well –established library with qualitative collection suitable for study and research is a sine-qua-non for modern higher education like in University. There are many college libraries, which provide education to the students up to graduation levels in order to achieve the objective of college education. College libraries should redesign their activities in such a way that they may prove to be significant partners in conservation of knowledge in the form of information.
Libraries of today have assumed a new role in modern society, by that they integrate educational technology, information and communication technology and the new media. The libraries since their existence have also adapted to changes that have influenced them from outside as well as within. The moveable type brought the first landmark change in the content of libraries. Since that time the libraries started acquiring new media and also a new role to support academic programmes of all educational Institutions. Libraries with changing media enhanced the needs and wants of the learners and the facilitators of learning – the teacher and the librarian. This implies, the changes seen in the education have definite impact and brought transformation in every domain of libraries. The knowledge resources of libraries have changed from time to time, the methods of handling have also undergone significant change, with the changing media and the users also adopted this process of continuous change. Needless to say that the new media in which knowledge resources are emerging are equally accepted by the users of today.
In the late 1990’s, the Internet became the life blood of information sharing not just for libraries, but for commerce, education, government and the general public. High-speed networking availably created an efficient and fast way to move both text and graphics from one server to another in a matter of nanoseconds. The Internet is the most democratic, yet confusing information tool ever devised. On one hand, storage and access issues are eliminated, yet since anyone can place anything they want on the World Wide Web, users frequently find erroneous or false information and use it as “fact”. While the Internet is a wonderful thing, it is not a substitute for the campus library, or more importantly, the librarian. Librarian’s guide and teach students and other users how to find the best sources of information, whether print or online. In fact, most of the world’s knowledge before 1970 does not appear on the Web in any organized or holistic fashion.
2. Changed Role of LIS Professionals :
The role of the academic librarian in the information age is to promote access to appropriate and accurate information to serve the needs of users. This has been the librarian’s mission for generations. However, the information age has made this mission much more challenging and complex. It has also demanded that librarians and library support staff bring or develop new technical skills to promote information access. The technology revolution has brought many changes to the way librarians and library staff manage their day and provide information to users. Up until ten years ago, libraries were book focused institutions. There were just print card catalogs; online vendor databases had barely become tools in the librarian’s arsenal to answer questions; the Internet as we know it now was still years away from practical use. Library acquisitions, cataloging and circulation were done via paper or managed by using print ledgers, pens and card pockets. Spreadsheets, internal databases or other productivity software was never used to manage library data.
The wealth of conventional wisdom related to traditional information management has been subjected to drastic changes. Today’s information technology has transformed the generation of knowledge and its management to explore various utilities for the benefit of mankind. The global communication technologies created several avenues to many. The instance communication around the globe has revolutionized the world society in many ways .The instance accessibility of information significantly changed the scenario to greater heights. The library in an educational institution is now considered as actively participating medium between the learners and the vast store of knowledge resources, between classroom lecture and the vast sources of information where the content of the lectures are drawn. The librarian has an extended role from keeper of knowledge resources to become a true friend and a perfect guide for the learners in an academic setting. The gist of the above deliberation is to highlight that libraries continue to adopt new media from time to time- from manuscript to electronic media. Similarly the media has also influenced the learners and the learners of different dimensions. The new education technology becoming part of every education has also become the part and parcel of distance education. So the institutions like libraries have influencing factors to both formal and non-formal type of education by adopting the changes. At the contemporary changing scenario of information storage media transformation from paper to electronic base, university and college libraries around the world are forced to move strategies of offering access to information rather then building up library holdings, due to reasons of economic, technological viability in transforming them in to store house of knowledge base. Academic libraries should be considered as a research tools, co-evolving with technology. The Internet has changed the way in which universe of knowledge is communicated and hence also the role of libraries.
Librarians are the ultimate search engines. Their level of technological expertise extends past the simple reference interview and selection of materials for the collections. Librarians interface with faculty to design and teach their students appropriate research skills; they manage and select digital collections and services; they serve on a variety of committees with the College; they conduct outreach and perform a vital role. Libraries are information portals and librarians are the guides who connect need with satisfaction. Librarians are the glue that binds successful, efficient and excellent library services to the students, faculty and staff that require library information resources. Traditional values associated with librarians include precision, discipline, attention to detail, and helpfulness. They may be seen as curators or custodians of books and other sources of information, but librarians are not usually regarded as publishers of information.
3. Paradigm Shift:
Over the past few years, academic libraries have changed considerably as bibliographic utilities, online catalogs, automated circulation systems, and other new technologies have been implemented in a majority of library operations and services. These changes have created rising costs for libraries in a time of tight fiscal constraints, particularly in the area of telecommunications, buildings, furniture, and electronic equipment. The increased access to electronic information systems not held locally and to other new technologies such as CD-ROM, laser technologies, interactive multimedia packages, Optical character recognition and imaging systems, satellite communication and teleconferencing, laptop computers, packet telephone switches, and cellular telephones have also been making an impact in a few libraries along with LANs (local area networks) and WANs (wide area networks) for interconnecting local computing resources. The new technologies have required not only different expertise and training requirements for personnel but have required new types of personnel and more personnel, even though shifts in existing personnel could be made to meet new demands when the newer technologies made some activities obsolete and others less labor intensive.
Librarians are usually seen as consumers and information seekers, whether for themselves or on behalf of students and other library users. While most librarians probably use the web and Google routinely in their work, the impact of the ubiquitous use of Google on librarians is still unclear. It is widely known that Google along with most other search engines does not make use of information held in HTML <meta> tags when indexing and ranking documents. However, this does not mean that metadata is irrelevant to Google. On the contrary, it increases the significance of the one metadata element that Google does use: the HTML <title> tag. It is tempting to state that the universal availability of fast and easy access to online information is devaluing, and perhaps undermining, the traditional role of librarians as intermediaries. Funding is needed for online network memberships and connections to local, national, and international networks. These network relationships require new and expanded licensing agreements with updated copyright procedures and related issues. New formats and access tools require revamped policies and procedures, rules, and regulations. Expanded training (of staff and users) and continuing education require increased travel budgets for participation in new professional associations and continuing education and training opportunities. Fund-raising has become far more commonplace in all types of academic libraries than ever before in history- and not just through state and national granting agencies but through approaches to foundations and corporations, as well as individual benefactors. Priorities have changed; funding methodologies have expanded; resources (budget, personnel, space, equipment, responsibilities) have had to be re-examined and reallocated. All of this requires that far more personnel time be devoted to both short- and long-range planning within libraries, across campus, and with the consortia of a local, state, and even national nature. Yet almost all libraries do publish, on a small scale at least. For some libraries this may amount to little more than details of opening hours and location posted on a website. For many others it will extend to making available their catalogue of holdings online, along with guidance notes, while an increasing number of libraries are digitizing some of their collections and publishing them online. The Libraries organizational structure has undergone several changes in recent years in response to the dramatic changes and opportunities in the information environment.
Libraries are in the retail end of the information revolution. It is important to note that even with all the technical complexity and additional responsibilities, a librarian’s core role as gatekeeper to information is unchanged. We still select books and pint periodical titles, we still teach users one-on-one and in classroom settings how to do research; we still answer questions from students and other users. Except we now answer questions via phone, fax, and email as well as in-person. Through technology, we select, manage and maintain complex computer and web-based information systems and we teach via distance by creating on-line tutorials.
The card catalog which was replaced in the early 1990s has itself been replaced with a Web-based interface. This means that the maintenance of the information, typically handled by library support staff, has to be accurate and the level of sophistication and technical expertise to handle the amount of information added to the library’s own knowledge base increases yearly as the capacity to store and access information has increased. Also important to note, the online catalog is accessible from anywhere as it is a web-based catalog. Over the past ten years librarians have grown accustomed to what they might call Web 1.0, that is, by using the Internet they have been able to look at thousands and thousands of documents, look at pictures of land, sea, and people, listen to music, and even watch movies. Web 1.0 is very similar to the Libraries of yesterday. Libraries and Web 1.0 has been a passive relationship. Even though it is a passive relationship, for many people Web 1.0 replaced the library: Instead of going to the library to get things to look at/read or listen to, user can go on the web from homes and get the same information whether for recreational, basic information or authoritative research information.
But Web 2.0 is something very different. Web 2.0 is commonly known as a collection of websites and tools which allow people to participate with others or to work by alone to create, change, and publish dynamic/changing content of all kinds on the Internet with the knowledge that what user has done becomes the property of the world. In the Web 2.0 world user still go to websites but each site has ways of sensing who we are and it changes itself to more closely align with our needs. In the Web 2.0 world we don’t just look at things, we participate with others in the creation of information. In the Web 2.0 world most things are free but there is a lot of advertising revenue being generated to pay the costs of interactive activities. Web 2.0 allows people to interact with each other and with the informational resources they find on the Internet. Many people (millions of them) like to do this sort of thing. These people prefer interaction to passively looking at information.
4. Knowledge Management: An emerging concern
Knowledge management is emerging as a key concern of organizations, particularly those who have already redesigned their business processes and embedded a total quality approach into their practices. What does this mean to library and information service professionals? Does it mean that the nirvana of public appreciation and value is here? After all, don't librarians organize and provide access to knowledge? Knowledge is increasingly seen as a primary business asset and knowledge management as a key differentiator between firms in the late 1990s. Integral to the implementation of knowledge management is understanding the organization's information flows and implementing organizational learning practices which make explicit key aspects of its knowledge base. Knowledge management is not about managing or organizing books or journals, searching the Internet for clients or arranging for the circulation of materials. However, each of these activities can in some way be part of the knowledge management spectrum and processes. Knowledge management is about enhancing the use of organizational knowledge through sound practices of information management and organizational learning. The purpose is to deliver value to the business. Knowledge management practices aim to draw out the tacit knowledge people have, what they carry around with them, what they observe and learn from experience, rather than what is usually explicitly stated. In firms that appreciate the importance of knowledge management, the organizational responsibilities of staff are not focused on the narrow confines of traditional job descriptions. Managing knowledge goes much further than capturing data and manipulating it to obtain information. Even among information intensive companies, librarians and information professionals do not typically have high visibility or influential positions. Service levels have contracted in some consulting firms, even those once thought to have been in the vanguard of using librarians and information professionals for “knowledge” work.
5. Current Trends:
Before discussing on the opportunities and challenges of College librarians and information professionals in the new era, let’s first look at the current trends discussed in most recent literature of library and information management. These current trends somehow or rather will have a bearing in shaping librarians and information professionals in the new era. They are summarized as follows:
• A vision towards information and knowledge rich society;
• Library functions in information and knowledge-based society;
• Knowledge-based economy – information & knowledge as drivers to boost the economy;
• Information management recognized as an important discipline;
• Information recognized as commodity (information brokerage, information entrepreneurship, fee-based information);
• Integrated and widespread ICT applications;
• Mushrooming of information systems – need for Information System Management;
• Role of digital/electronic/virtual library;
• Librarians are designated as cyber librarians;
• Competency- based assessment/training;
• Access role replace custodial role;
• Customer-focused/customer-centered, user oriented approach in provision of services;
• Strategic alliances, partnership and collaborations;
• Librarians need new management knowledge and skills;
• Specialized knowledge & skills in library and information management;
• Trend to develop digital contents to facilitate access.
6. Opportunities:
Online libraries or information systems will be only a part of tomorrow's library. Access to recorded knowledge will not be completely online. Subject experts disagree with the increasingly popular belief that the computer's widespread use means online libraries will replace the library building along with its books, journals, and other printed material. The march of electronic technology in the library gives incentive to the idea that click and drag will replace brick, mortar, and paper. Computers have replaced the card catalog. People increasingly have the option of going online to search for books and journals, to check out material, to find the due date for returns, and to order interlibrary loans. However, these options have not replaced human librarians or paperwork. Consider what has happened in society.
Outside the library, electronic technology has not eliminated brick, mortar, and paper. The Indian Postal System continues despite email. Banks and human tellers continue to deal with paper currency, alongside online banking. People still pay bills with checks and at payment centers even with online options. Online education probably will not replace school buildings and human instructors. In tomorrow's library as with society, human beings, buildings, and paper will have important functions. The future library will see recorded knowledge existing in terms of a four-fold social-electronic complex: the library building; online access to recorded thought; students, teachers, and librarians in classrooms updating recorded knowledge; and online access to classrooms updating recorded knowledge. Tomorrow's library will be an amalgam of books, journals, databases, images, and other as yet unknown technologies. Human beings are social beings who need to be in buildings, and handle and learn from physical objects such as books and journals. People are not merely robots or neurological systems. Virtually everyone can find recorded information by using a computer instead of having to always visit the library. Online access is important for locating library system.
The classroom adds a dimension to the library building. People attend classes and interact with librarians and departmental instructors outside the library. These interactions allow updating recorded knowledge. Where the library building and online resources give access to recorded information, the classroom is for thinking and recording of new knowledge. Online learning will not replace the classroom. Instead, classrooms will be an important link in the library system. Students and teachers bring recorded knowledge to the classroom so they can have a basis for their interpersonal discussions. These discussions including lectures, dialogue, and other forms of classroom learning can comprise ongoing or recording of information to advance recorded thought for storage and retrieval. Librarians will interact with students and teachers in order to help them understand the discipline under discussion, but also relate this to the liberal arts including all other knowledge. Librarians can help students and teachers find disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Students and faculty will learn about accessing information about their field, but also orient particular fields with general knowledge and information.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) have the potential to offer vast advantages to users. ICT could bring broad and in-depth information to those who have been denied such knowledge and thus opportunities for social and economic mobility. Libraries are pressed to demonstrate their worth, both to their parent organization (the college or university) and to their users. Librarians frequently observe that users are accustomed to relying on Internet resources found through freely available search engines such as Google or Yahoo. The library provides access to excellent scholarly material, but users are often unaware of these resources. In order to promote the use of the resources and services they provide – and to establish the library’s role in the development, selection, and provision of them – libraries will name or “brand” their resources and services. For example, a database will be known as ‘XYZ Library’s Database’ or something similar. The library’s Web site then must balance the seamless provision of such resources and services with the library’s desire to underscore its role in creating, choosing, and offering them. Evaluating the presentation of resources and services through library Web sites has been the subject of a number of usability tests in past years. While Web site usability tests usually uncover a host of information about the placement of links, color schemes, and site architecture, testing can also measure responses to library branding efforts.
In the last few years, Facebook has emerged as a significant and useful method for professors, librarians, and campus administrators to reach students before, during, and after their collegiate experience. Libraries in particular have been eager to capitalize on Facebook’s potential for building and maintaining relationships with students. Libraries have created search bar applications (e.g., for JSTOR), communication tools, and more comprehensive virtual library service applications. Research on Facebook use in libraries has encouraged librarians and other library staff members to create their own profiles and join Facebook groups as a way of sharing information amongst colleagues and with patrons. “Friending” students from instruction sessions and customizing profiles to highlight library resources are other recommended methods of library Facebook usage.
7. Challenges:
Libraries are supplementing and replacing print resources with electronic resources at a fast pace and almost all of the electronic resources are now available on the web. One of the advantages of web environment as compared to print environment is that you can link from one document to another logically related document very easily. For example, it is very important for researchers to be able to link directly from a citation or abstract to the full-text of the article and from a reference at the end of a full-text article to the referenced full-text article without any navigation. As more information resources become available electronically on the web, linking becomes even more important to researchers. Retrieval methodology on the web has developed within this open and unstructured environment, where tools have purposely developed to provide simple and easy to understand interfaces based on word searching and simple directories. This is an environment where retrieval services can produce results irrespective of the skills of the client, where the medium itself, hypertext linking, can provide the retrieval method and deliver the actual results, and where the provision of intuitive options and visual cues are critical to the effectiveness of retrieval tools. The need to accommodate user behaviour is made more challenging because users do not necessarily exhibit a single approach when adopting retrieval strategies on the web. Instead it must be assumed that users may act differently when searching for different types of content, or when assuming contextual persona. Their behaviours will reflect different states of knowledge in a given subject area, different assumptions about content, and the different social and emotional contexts that generate specific user needs. The solution to this issue is to provide a variety of discovery tools and to design the web site so as to present them all as equally accessible alternatives. The libraries all over the world are now responding with adaptability, creativity and flexibility. Indian librarians of today serve in a society which is actually in flux, torn by the technological revolution and rapid political changes. Librarians and information professionals in India are now experiencing both excitement and anxiety as a result of the sweeping societal changes. The major challenges faced by present college librarians are:
-Complexity in locating and analyzing and linking of Information;
- Overloading and redundancy of information;
- Lack of Standardization of hardware and software ;
-Financial investment for setting and maintaining the technology;
- Interpretability of Intermediary and end users;
- The existing technology may be insufficient to accommodate the tremendous growth of information on Internet.
8. The Future of the Library Professional
The future appears to be characterized by continuing dynamic changes in terms of content resources, technology, and information service/management models. Successful information professionals are moving closer to information consumers in two ways. Firstly, as information professionals are integrated into business units or teams, adding value means being credible. In order to be credible, information professionals must possess or add specialized subject knowledge to their information management skills. Secondly, in some cases, information professionals are themselves the information consumers, responsible for analysis and presentation of information to their colleagues. In both cases, it is critical that information professionals understand their roles and the decision-making processes within their organizations. Failure to “step up to the plate” in such a dynamic business environment means being relegated to a back office function that will likely disappear. This is not to say that the way to avoid the electronic age is for library professionals to stick their heads in the sand. The information professional must change and adapt to the new electronic information environment, he or she must learn about new technologies and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of them. Librarians should not feel threatened by computers and technical developments but should move forward with the new technology and take a pivotal role within organizations.
Information professionals within libraries are playing an increasing role in dealing with information in electronic formats by creating Web pages to promote their services to external customers and choosing automated library management systems. Skills in information organization are more necessary in this age of information explosion. Librarians and information professionals have a key role to play in this era. For example, librarians are well equipped to take intranet projects through the various stages of design and maintenance as they understand their users and their organizations information needs and have the range of skills to manage knowledge effectively.
9. The Value of the Librarians in the process of academic excellence and accreditation:
The new era librarian is a technology application leader who works with other members of the information management team to design and evaluate systems for information access that meet user needs. Where required, the new era librarian provides instruction and support so that end users can make optimal use of the information resources available to them. The new era librarian is capable of working in the hybrid world of print and electronic media and providing the best mix of information resources in the most appropriate formats for the environment. The new era librarian plays a key role in developing information policy for the organization ensuring that access to all information resources -- from internal records to external databases – is provided in the most strategically- effective and cost-effective manner. The new era librarian also plays another important role in ensuring that contractual, legal and ethical obligations regarding information use are met. The electronic information age provides new opportunities for organizations to produce as well as use information products. New era librarians, given their familiarity with the information marketplace, can be key contributors to the development, marketing and use of information products. New era librarians are knowledge-based practitioners who use research as a foundation for their own professional practice and who support the conduct of research through their professional associations. Research has shown that the provision of appropriate information can lead to: better informed decision-making; the ability to proceed to the next step in a project or task; improved relations with a client; and the exploitation of new business opportunities. The right information at the right time can also benefit the organization by saving the time of highly paid employees, avoiding poor business decisions, and even direct loss of funds. In order to fulfill this key information role, new era librarians require two main types of competencies: Professional competencies relate to the special librarian's knowledge in the areas of information resources, information access, technology, management and research and the ability to use these areas of knowledge as a basis for providing library and information services. Personal competencies represent a set of skills, attitudes and values that enable librarians to work efficiently; be good communicators; focus on continuing learning throughout their careers; demonstrate the value-added nature of their contributions; and survive in the new world of work. The following sections highlight the major professional and personal competencies of new era librarians:
(a) Professional Competencies:
• has expert knowledge of the content of information resources, including the ability to critically evaluate and filter them;
• develops and manages convenient, accessible and cost-effective information services that are aligned with the strategic directions of the organization;
• assesses information needs and designs and markets value-added information services and products to meet identified needs ;
• uses appropriate information technology to acquire, organize and disseminate information ;
• develops specialized information products for use inside or outside the organization or by individual clients;
• evaluates the outcomes of information use and conducts research related to the solution of information management problems;
• continually improves information services in response to the changing needs;
• is an effective member of the senior management team and a consultant to the organization on information issues.
(b)Personal Competencies
• committed to service excellence;
• seeks out challenges and sees new opportunities both inside and outside the library;
• creates an environment of mutual respect and trust;
• has effective communications skills;
• works well with others in a team;
• provides leadership;
• plans, prioritizes and focuses on what is critical;
• committed to lifelong learning and personal career planning;
• have personal business skills and creates new opportunities;
• recognizes the value of professional networking and solidarity;
• is flexible and positive in a time of continuing change.
10. Conclusion:
Library and information professionals should add new ICT skills to their current capabilities in order to help users overcoming their anxieties about the new world of networked and digitized information, and assist them to navigate through it. For which training is indispensable to bestow the professionals with the skills, knowledge and confidence to use ICT effectively in their day-to day work, and to the benefit of their clientele. Above all, making library staff competent locally and globally necessitates greater ‘investment in staff’ for raising their level of technology skills and preventing skills obsolescence. The libraries all over the world are now responding with adaptability, creativity and flexibility. Indian librarians of today serve in a society which is actually in flux, torn by the technological revolution and rapid political changes. Librarians and information professionals in India are now experiencing both excitement and anxiety as a result of the sweeping societal changes. In preparing the future librarians of India, in making them more proactive, the library and information science departments of different universities can definitely play a significant role.
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