LIBRARIES IN THE PRESENT ERA:IS INTERNET A SUBSTITUTE FOR

LIBRARIES ?

Sangita GuptaProfessor, DLIS

University of JammuJammu

Present Scenario of Libraries

• Not place based. Information can be accessed irrespective of place.

• Accountability and responsibility has increased .• Print-based publications to electronic documents • Stand-alone libraries to networks. • Monopoly to competitive environment. • Passive user to active user.

• Authority based decision to user based decision• Institutionalization to deinstitutionalization• Possession to access. • The traditional concepts of organization,

bibliographic description and dissemination of information are to be fine-tuned to new environment. One who does it matures into a competent professional; one who does not, collapse.

• With these writings on the wall, the professionals have to develop a host of new competencies so that they are able to deliver the goods in the automatic, cyber environment.

• Internet is a network of computer networks, a global web of interconnected organizations like schools, libraries, hospitals, research institutes, etc into a single large communication network that spans the globe. It ensures information

Internet Is a strong medium of communication

• Cheaper• Faster• Anywhere• Anytime • Any one• Any information• Any format• More users• Time saving

No. of Internet users in India (IAMAI)

1998 2 lac users2000 1.5 million 2003 8 million2007 35 million

Is the internet a substitute for libraries ?

• The answer is No…………..

1. Everything is not available on the internet

• Google Book Search

• Gutenberg Digitization Project

• Copyright Laws

2 Digital libraries are not the internet

The internet is a mass of largely unpublished materials produced by organizations.

Online Collections provided by libraries and include materials that have been published via rigorous editorial processes.

3 Search in the web is like needle in the grass

• The Internet is like a vast uncataloged library.

• search is not updated daily, weekly, or even monthly, regardless of what’s advertised.

• articles on these sites are often missing, among other things, footnotes

4 No Quality control in Internet Information

• Drain of waste information

• Any fool can put up any thing on web

5 The cost of Digitized library very high

• Questia Media, the biggest such outfit, just spent $125 million digitizing 50,000 books released (but not to libraries!)

• At this rate, to virtualize a medium-sized library of 400,000 volumes would cost a mere $1,000,000,000!

6 The Internet is not free

• A very few substantive materials are on the Internet for free

• Subscription needed to download Numerous academic research papers, journals and other important materials

7 Printed materials Readability

compatibility more than The Internet

• More than 80 % people like buying paper books over the Internet, not reading them on the Web

8 Everyone does not have access to the internet

• Online access may be much more difficult to attain than library access. A public library may have but one computer console, while other internet access points may charge.

• even if internet access is obtained, the lack of technological education in poorer areas of the world will render the technology much less useful than it would be for the person who has more experience navigating the web

9 The internet is a mess

• The web is like an overpopulated Wild West .

• A jungle of questionable pages still appear in many search results,

10 Digitization is going to take time.

• The majority of Information lies outside the internet.

• Since 2004 Google Book Search has been plugging along through a series of fits and starts. By 2007, they have managed to index a million books.

• Digitizing 100 million books would take about…200 years.

11 Libraries aren’t just books

• Technology is integrating itself into the library system.

• Technology is revealing that the real work of librarians is not just placing books on bookshelves. Rather, their work involves guiding and educating visitors on how to find information, regardless of whether it is in book or digital form

12 Mobile devices aren’t the end of

books, or libraries. • Google’s plan to download e-books on mobile

devices • Japanese train commuters are reading entire

bestsellers on their cell phones.• Radio lives on despite TV, film is still in high

demand despite video . • We had said about microfilm (“It would shrink

libraries to shoebox size”), or when educational television was invented (“We’ll need fewer teachers in the future”) ?????????

13. Library attendance isn’t falling – it’s just more virtual now

• With approximately 50,000 visitors a year, attendance at the American History Archives at Wisconsin Historical Society has dropped 40% since 1987.

• The full story is that the archives have been digitized and 85000 visitors visit library online yearly.

14 Libraries can not disappear

physically

• Many libraries aren’t digitizing yet and many may never digitize. As it is expensive

• others still depend on this traditional, effective approach to pinpointing information with onsite computers or librarians available to assist them.

15 Google Book Search “don’t work”

• far off from such user-friendliness

• Copyright Lawsuits

• Google’s own desire to be top dog.

16 Eliminating libraries would disturb

process of cultural evolution

• The library that we are most familiar with today – a public or academic institution that lends out books for free – is a product of the democratization of knowledge

• Today there are tens of thousands public libraries in the United States and 61000 public libraries in India

17 Libraries’ collections involve a system of citation

• Books and journals found in libraries will have been published under rigorous guidelines of citation and accuracy and are thereby allowed into libraries’ collections.

18 It is difficult to isolate concise information on the internet

• Certain subject areas like medical science, law or financial advice are very well mapped on the web. But not for more marginal subject areas.

• Google does not serve you exactly what you are looking for.

19 Libraries can preserve the book experience

• The book provides a focused, yet comprehensive study that summarizes years of research by an author.

• The information is often snack-sized or the overall experience cursory – a sort of quick-reference browsing.

20. Libraries are stable while the web is transient

• Websites commonly go offline or their addresses change.

• Other sites that point to these resources (which were once good) could easily and unwittingly house a number of “broken links”.

• These sites can remain unedited for years. • Whereas Libraries have a well-accounted-for stock of

available resources and a standard indexing system that deliver stable, reliable results consistently.

21. Libraries can be surprisingly helpful

for news collections and archives • Online TV, radio and newspaper sources –blogs

referencing and commenting on daily events around the world

• libraries continue to subscribe and stock a certain list of newspapers, and archive the back issues

• Libraries often provide freely accessible issues of major periodicals that would otherwise require online subscription, like many sections of the New York Times

• In addition, archives often disappear offline, or become increasingly expensive online. (Try Google’s news archive search). This can leave libraries with the only accessible copies.

22 Old materials tough to find

• Not much on the Internet is more than 15 years old.

• Vendors offering magazine access routinely add a new year while dropping an earlier one.

• Access to older material is very expensive

23 School libraries and librarians

improve capability of students.

• Acc to a study of the Illinois School Libraries conducted in 2005 students who frequently visit well-stocked and well-staffed school libraries perform better on reading and writing exams

24 Digitization means survival

25 Digital librariesstill need manpower

26 The internet complements libraries, but it doesn’t replace them

• The library can provide access to the resources like news, journals, books and others.

• Interestingly, the World Wide web is among these resources as yet another approach to finding information. But it’s not a replacement.

Thanks…………