Convention On Digital Futures
H.K. Kaul, Director, DELNET (left) and Paul P. Appasamy, Vice-Chancellor of Karunya University releasing a book at a seminar on libraries at the university in Coimbatore on Tuesday. Internet facilities and digital library networks are helping librarians cope with the rapid growth of information.Future libraries may not require a vast area for housing shelves and books, Paul P. Appasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Karunya University, said here on Tuesday.
He was inaugurating a four-day convention on “Digital Futures: Strategies for Developing World-Class Libraries”, jointly organised by the university and Developing Library Network (DELNET), New Delhi. “The promise of digital libraries implies the possibility of disseminating materials and information far beyond what has ever been imagined.
“The availability and affordability of computers and telecommunication technology have played a major role in library automation and networking,” Mr. Appasamy said. The Internet and e-mail were playing vital roles in information sourcing and service and were reducing the distance between the reader and the document. Though libraries were faced with an increasingly unmanageable quantity of information, technology and the willingness of librarians to adopt it had helped libraries to meet the needs of the users.
“The librarian has donned the role of digital librarian for information management.” “Even though the process of computerisation of academic libraries is in the stages of infancy in India, we hope it will grow in leaps and bounds. “There is a need to formulate strategies for developing world-class libraries to satisfy the users,” the Vice-Chancellor observed. H.K. Kaul, Director, DELNET, said Tamil Nadu had the maximum number of member institutions of DELNET, wherein more than 200 libraries were part of the network that had nearly 1,350 libraries.
He lamented over the poor state of public libraries in the country and expressed the need to transform these into knowledge centres. “Librarians have to be good knowledge workers and should be well versed with the growing knowledge technology. “They have to assess the knowledge needs of the users and provide value-added services. There is much need to adopt global standards,” Mr. Kaul asserted.
