Foundation of Library and Information Science

Concept of Library

The word `library comes from the Latin word librarium. which in trun from liber meaning a book. Liber.......... libraire (French) means collection of books ....... Librarie (Anglo - French) ............... Library.

In literal sense, therefore, a library is a collection of books. Many years ago a well-known librarian said, `A library consists of books, brains and a building, by which he meant stock, staff, and accommodation ‘Actually there must be a fourth element readers. Actually, the English word 'library' refers to a collection of books gathered for study, research, reference and recreation

An early meaning now obsolete, is that "a library is a place where books are written." During the letter half of the 14th century the term 'library' was defined as a place where books are kept for reading, study, or research, reference and recreation.

By the 19th century the word 'library' denoted ``a building, room, or a set of rooms containing a collection of books for the use of public or some portion(Ask) of it, or the member of society.

The library is the chief instrument for the purpose of ''accumulating and using man's intellectual heritage.''

According to ALA Glossary of LIS-

Library as ''a collection of materials organized to provide) physical, bibliographical and intellectual access to a target group, with a staff that is trained to provide services and programmes related to the information needs of the target group''

According to UNESCO-

Library as ''any organized collection of printed books and periodicals or any other graphic of audio-visual materials, with a staff to provide and facilitate (mnRZi Kiv) the use of such materials as are required to meet the  information, research educational and recreational needs of users.''

According to S.R. Ranganathan-

''A library is a public institution or establishment charged with the care of a collection of books, the duty of making them accessible to those who require the use of them....''

According to Pierce Butler-

The library is social organization a necessary unit in the social fabric effectively planned and organized for transmitting the accumulated experience of society to individual members of the society through the instrumentality of books and other graphic, acoustic  and materials- map, charts, phono-records, microfilms etc.''

On the other hand, as pierce Butlar has observed, ''Books are one social mechanism for preserving  the racial memory and the library is one social apparatus for transferring this to the consciousness of living individuals''

According to Encyclopedia Britannica-

Library is a collection of information resources in print or in other forms that is organized and made accessible for reading or study.

According to Wikipedia-

A library is an organized collection of resources made accessible to a delineate community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material and may be a physical building or room, or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts films, maps, prints, documents, microform, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, e-books, audiobooks, databases and other formats.

Today's libraries frequently contain periodicals microfilms, tapes, videos, compact) discs and other materials in addition to books. The growth of on-line communications networks has enabled library users to search electronically linked databases worldwide.

More recently libraries are understood as extending beyond the physical walls of a building by including material accessible by electronic means, and by providing the assistance of librarians in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools.

Library Science

Library science is the study of principles and practices of library operation and administration. It emerged as a separate field of study in the second half of the 19th century. The first training program for librarians in the U.S was established by Melvil Dewey in 1887. In the 20th century, library science was gradually subsumed under the more general field of information science.

The Librarian's Glossary (1971) defines library science as '' the knowledge and skill concerned with administration of libraries and their contents; library economy and bibliography

[Library economy as the practical application of library science to the founding, organizing and administering of libraries.

Since any science concerns itself with knowledge, library science in particular, can embrace only the fundamental phenomenon) of librarianship which is the transmission of accumulated experience of society to its individual members through the instrumentality of the book. The use of books is only a process of learning by reading and its effect is 'knowledge'.

Library science consists in the transmission to this 'knowledge' by bringing books and readers together and by personalized service by librarians through scientific management of libraries.

Library science is branch of science in which the purposes, principles, content, system, and forms of the public use of books are studied.

The basic Divisions of library science are:

Ø  General library science, in which problems of the organization of the public use of books are considered (including the place and role of the library in society, principles of the organization of library service, and principles of constructing network of libraries and their typification )

Ø  Library collection (problems of acquisition organization and storage of library collections).

Ø  Library catalogues (the description and classification of published works and methods for compiling, catalogues.

Ø  Work with readers ( a system of serving readers in the library and forms and methods of working with them, guiding their reading, raising the cultural level of their reading, including habits of reading for self-education, and studying the interests and requests of readers).

Ø  Organization of library work ( organization and rating of library work, the accounting and planning of library activity, construction and equipment of library buildings, mechanization and automation of library proceduresand others)

Ø  History of library service, in which the content, forms, methods and organization of the public use of books under conditions of various socioeconomic structures are studied.

Concept of Information

Information is assemblage of data in a comprehensive form, recorded on paper or some other medium and capable of communication.

The dictionary meaning of the term is 'knowledge', 'intelligence', 'a fact', 'data', a 'message', a 'signal', 'a stimulus' which is transmitted by the act or process of communication.

On the other hand, data are raw materials, when they are processed and converted into a meaningful, intelligible and useful form for the users, we called it information.

According to Davis and Johnson, ''The data are potential information but when data are actually used (processed) they are called information.

According to Chen and Hernon- Information is ''all knowledge, ideas, facts and imaginative works of mind which have been communicated, recorded, published and/or distributed formally and/or informally in any format.''

So we may define  information is a body factual knowledge or ideas, or a resource or an asset or a message understood by the recipient. Information is human product and flow from experience, observation interaction) and reading.

Information Science

Very simply information science is a study of recorded knowledge and its transfer in the wider sense.

According to C. K. Sharma- Information science is an extension of library science and expansion of reference service.

According to V. Slemaka- Information science is an interdisciplinary field of study of the nature, properties, control and use of information.

According to Robert J. Taylor- Information science as the study and technology of processing information for optimum accessibly and use.

American Society for Information science (ASIS) in 1975, defined Information science is concerned with the generation, collection, organization, transfer and use of information with particular emphasis on the application of modern technologies in these areas.

Librarianship

Librarianship has been roughly defined as the practice of collecting preserving and organizing graphic and printed records and making them useful.

According to Encyclopedia of Librarianship-  ''Librarianship as the collection, preservation organization and use of recorded communication.''

According to Irwin- Librarianship as '' that branch of learning which has to do with the recognition, collection, organization, preservation and utilization of graphic, printed recods''

Functions

The basic function of librarianship may be categorized into three main groups:

i) Acquisition: It is a process by which a library collects books with the demand of library users according to the annual budget of a library and the library acquires books and other library materials one or two times per year. Besides, the library acquires books by gift, donation etc.

ii) Organizing/Processing: Usually al library is responsible for locating its own resources at macro-level, i.e. giving its users the location of publications, not the content of publications. For this purpose processing of library materials is inevitable, Processing is concerned with classification and cataloguing. The content exploration is possible by using proper indexing and abstracting which is seldom adopt in the processing unit of a library.

iii) Dissemination: The information dissemination programme in a library usually confined within its collection. Library service is seldom concerned with external resource. Though library provides reference services they cannot come up to meet the full satisfaction of its users due to the limitation of its collection, processing mechanism and above all the objectives. Another characteristic of library service is that the service channel usually remains until its users' requests for information.

Role and responsibilities of library professionals

Library and information professional treated as:

Ø  Librarians in academic, research, commercial industrial and public contexts(cÖm½ ev welq).

Ø  Library manager/information center manager

Ø  information manager

Ø  information officer

Ø  library and information specialist

Ø  office manager

Ø  Record manager

Ø  Computer or data processing manager

Ø  IT executives

Ø  Communication manager

Ø  Network manager

Ø  Consultant and information broker

Ø  Information system analysis and designer

Ø  Information worker

Ø  Documentarist

Ø  Archivist etc.

1. Library management and administration:

Ø  Library and information planning

Ø  Formulation of policy and strategy

Ø  Library and information administration

Ø  Management of library and information centres

Ø  Organization of library and information centres

Ø  Personnel management

Ø  Financial management/Budgeting

Ø  Record management

Ø  Coordination and controlling

Ø  Personnel training and education

2. Collection development and maintenance:

Ø  Selection of appropriate library materials

Ø  Acquisition of selected items

Ø  Organization of library meterials

Ø  Building a balanced collection

Ø  Maintenance of library collection

Ø  Weeding of outdated, unnecessary and unused materials

Ø  Binding and repairing

3. Service oriented funtions:

Ø  Identify users' needs

Ø  Dissemination of information

Ø  Preparing and maintenance of bibliography

Ø  Indexing and abstracting

Ø  Circulation of library materials

Ø  Lending/Interlibrary loan

Ø  Current awareness service (CAS)

Ø  Selective Dissemination of information (SDI)

Ø  Reference service

Ø  Resource sharing activities

4) Communication and Network management

Ø  Library and information communication

Ø  Internal and external communication

Ø  Network and telecommunication

Ø  Library network and cooperation

Ø  Selection of communication and network media

Ø  Communication network security and administration

Ø  Resource sharing activities

5) Technological management:

Ø  Application of modern IT in library and information system

Ø  Evaluation, selection and maintenance of computer hardware and software

Ø  Database management and administration

Ø  General management of IT

Ø  Internet and telecommunication

Ø  Technology replacement

6) Social as well as professional responsibilities

Ø  Continuing education

Ø  Stimulation of reading

Ø  Research

Ø  Social integration

Ø  Marketing of library and information products

Ø  Public relations

Ø  Building a knowledge society.