SERVICES AND ISSUES IN LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE
INTRODUCTION
An academic library undertakes some important activities such as acquisition of new books and developing a balanced and up-to-date collection, recruitment of library personnel, designing and developing physical infrastructure, etc. All these elements are the basic and lay the foundation of library services from the perspective of the user. The superstructure of the library services comprises the circular reference, and information services
PLANNING OF ACADEMIC LIBRARY SERVICES
When planning academic library services it is imperative to work clearly within the parameters of the objectives and mission of the parent institution. For example, the objectives of colleges and universities are to enhance the educational capabilities of students and undertake research in different subject fields to extend the boundaries of knowledge. The academic libraries therefore have to do planning of such services as would help the teachers, research scholars, and Post-graduate students to develop and increase skills in searching the required material/information from the vast library collection.
Factors in Planning of Academic Library Services
- External Environments
- Technological Forces
- Social Forces
- Economic Forces
- Internal Environments
- User Community
- Governing Framework
MANAGEMENT OF LIBRARY SERVICES
Once library services have been planned on the basis of the information needs of the user community and the expanse of the subjects studied in the institution, these need to be managed for their proper delivery in an effort towards solving the problems. Girija Kumar affirms that the principles of management of library services are best understood in terms of the „classic management‟ cycle as advanced by Peter Lawrence. In his cycle, Lawrence has identified the following three stages:
1. Planning: includes forecasting, making policies and priorities, setting objectives, and determining the means to achieve these objectives;
2. Organizing and Coordinating: includes deploying resources, developing structures, and integrating activities; and
3. Controlling: includes setting up a feedback mechanism to ensure that the things are going according to plan.
On the other hand, management guru Peter Drucker has also identified similar stages with some additions:
1. 1.Setting objectives;
2. Organizing;
3. Motivating and communicating;
4. Measuring; and
5. Developing people.
Drucker has added two new categories to Lawrence„s stages. These are:
1. Motivating and communicating, and
2. Developing people.
ORGANIZATION OF ACADEMIC LIBRARY SERVICES
The following types of library services are generally organized in a large academic library such as a university library: Reference Service and Work
Ready Reference Service: It is based on the nature of information sought by the users. Mostly the users would ask a reference librarian such ready reference questions as “Where was Kalidasa born?”, “What is the capital of Cuba?”, “Where can I find a book on Simla Agreement?”, and so on
Long Range Reference Service: It is generally based on research questions which are more complex in nature. They may, therefore, take much longer time than that in answering ready reference questions. The research questions also require the librarian to provide to the users a variety of sources. The users can look into those sources to cover different viewpoints of scholars to draw conclusions from them at a later time
Bibliographic Services:In the present times of information technology (IT) and its impact on library housekeeping operations, the utility of various types of traditional bibliographic services is still intact in most of the academic libraries in India. The application of IT has facilitated the efficient compilation of these services and thereby provided better access to the whole range of resources.
List of Additions: A list of new additions to the library may be brought out regularly, say on quarterly basis. This will update the faculty and the students about the latest books and other documents available in the library for their use. Thus it serves as an important current awareness service.
List of Contents:Larger academic libraries may also venture to bring out such a list based on the contents pages of the journals/periodicals. It may be an unannotated list of the contents pages of journals on different subjects and, if possible, may be circulated among the faculty for their use and suggestions.
Ad-hoc Lists: Some ad-hoc reading lists may also be compiled on the occasion of holding a seminar, conference, etc. Such lists prepared in anticipation or on demand serve a useful purpose and unfold the treasure of information to the participants.
User Education:The importance of user education lies in providing the library user necessary skills and knowledge in making the optimum use of library resources and services in the changing education scenario. There have been many terms in vogue such as library instruction, orientation, bibliographic instruction, initiation, user education, user instruction, that explain this library programme and its various activities
Orientation:In most academic libraries across the globe, library orientation remains the most popular method of imparting user education. Library orientation is mostly targeted at the freshly admitted students in academic institutions so that they could be familiarized with the layout of the library building, information system and its services, location of various information sources, and other library tools used in obtaining information.However, the most popular methods are as follows:
1. Direct Methods: These include:
a. Lecture method
b. Library (guided) tour
c. Individual help
d. Practical exercises
e. Tutorial/seminar/demonstration
2. Indirect Methods: These include:
a. Film
b. Video tape
c. Tape/slide
d. Audio tape
e. Printed guide
f. Self-instructional material
Bibliographic Instruction
It is generally said about bibliographic instruction programme that it is designed and planned by the librarians to teach students about library resources and information sources so as to motivate them to make effective use of library resources and information sources and satisfy their information needs.
Bibliographic instruction programme, when designed and developed may have three guiding principles, that it is:
a. course-related
b. demonstrated, and
c. graduated
Information Literacy
The concept of information literacy is not new to the extent that it has its roots in user education and/ or user instruction. Information literacy, according to Bruce and Candy, therefore, “is the ability to locate, evaluate, manage and use information from a range of sources for problemsolving, decision-making and research”.
Referral Services
Academic libraries have been providing short-range and long-range reference services from the documentary sources in their collection in order to meet information requirement of their users.
Resource Sharing
In academic libraries occasions arise when their users ask for documents not available in their immediate collection. Libraries at individual level are unable to acquire, due to high increase in published information, shrinking budgets and costly material, as many information resources as they require in their collection.
Library Networks: This concept of cooperation and sharing of resources has been further extended through participation in networks at international and national level such as INFLIBNET, DELNET, ERNET, INDEST, etc. and through them to distant databases.
INFLIBNET is providing a significant programme for academic world, particularly for colleges, known as National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST) programme. Colleges in the country can register to obtain this service from INFLIBNET to have access to e-resources including more than 6,000 e-journals and above 97,000 e-books.
Many academic libraries have been using computers for various housekeeping activities for quite some time now, and they have developed own computerised databases, hence their participation in these networks will make them information rich.
Library Consortia: This has led to the development of another concept of consortium where a group of libraries join hands with common interest, say sharing of information resources. It is, therefore, a cooperative arrangement among groups or institutions formed to increase the purchasing power of the participant institutions to expand the resource availability and to offer automated services. Library consortia may be formed at local, regional, national, or international level on a subject basis or functional basis.
Indexing Services
Indexing and abstracting journals are most frequently used sources of scientific and social science information. The value of indexing services lies in furthering the cause of research.
Reprographic Services
According to C. V. Penna and others, reprographic facilities have other usages also. Microforms, for example, fulfill the following basic reference and information purposes:
a. preserving material issued on poor quality paper,
b. providing readable copies of very rare or precious material,
c. increasing the accessibility of documents which are unique or few in number,
d. reducing storage problems, and
e. providing a means of publication for specialist material uneconomic to publish commercially
IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON LIBRARY SERVICES
