With libraries undergoing digitisation, the conventional role of the librarian had been rendered redundant.
Automated libraries do not need resource persons to catalogue books or check the identification of the visitors. Instead, they needed to reinvent themselves, said Jagadish Arora, director of INFLIBNET Centre, Gujarat.
“In the era of e-format, footfalls will decrease in libraries. The library employees don’t have the privilege of user interaction or resource interaction. They now have a new role, as their work would increase,” Mr. Arora explained.
The job of a librarian will increase in the automated library. More books were being delivered due to automation but the human mind continued to be limited by its ability to absorb knowledge accessed from books, he said. The library would now use automation to identify a person’s research areas, interests and supply need-based information.
Anna University, with as many as 31 lakh e-books and 15,000 e-journals, had a large resource base but it is impossible to know if a book or journal article had discussed a subject.
Sometimes, it may be information on whether a particular aspect was discussed in a book. It could just be a paragraph, requiring a search for information by simply using key words, instead of skimming through the entire book, said T.V. Geetha, dean, College of Engineering, Guindy.
Anna University is hosting a three-day Convention on Automation of Libraries in Education and Research Institutions. Mr. Arora said the aim was to evolve a system by which radio-frequency identification process, which is currently used to check pilferage and identify a library user, could be used to help researchers in their work.
So far, as many as 1,55,555 theses have been uploaded to Shodhganga, the online repository for Ph.D. theses in the country.
Interlinking libraries
Higher Education Minister K.P. Anbalagan, who inaugurated the 11th edition of the convention on Wednesday, said the project of interlinking of libraries across 13 State universities that had been announced last year was almost complete and would be introduced shortly.
The project was given to the Tamil Nadu Open University and Anna University.
The three-day event will have sessions on plagiarism. Representatives from Microsoft and Google will make presentations.
