Re-Invent or become Redundant in Digital Era - Call for Action for Libraries in India and in Particular the National Library

摘要

Current trend of digitization activities in India is continued to be in fragmentary way focusing primarily on preservation of valuable printed resources available in different libraries. Besides the speed of growth of commercial e-publications worldwide and similar technological innovation over the last decade raised a few questions on the very role of libraries as practiced over a century. Information supplied through libraries can also be made available to users direct by the producers. Google, Amazon and others have joined in the game of supplying information including digitized multimedia resources through internet access supported by the proliferation of e-book reader and other devices. Many higher academic and research institutions have accepted these and other social network services, like Web 2.0 tools, to allow access to their own digitized resources. It was suggested that the National Mission for Libraries may recommend for the National Library of India to take the leading role of coordinating all individual efforts, to constitute a national digital library of India that would be in a position to offer comprehensive digitized India related information to all concern. To be able of undertaking such a task the new generation of librarians would require to be defined differently.