Indian libraries mostly organized in institutional silos. In universities with multiple campuses, each has its own separate library and automation systems which are posing a direct challenge to consortia or large university systems with shared library concepts. This has been stated by Marshall Breeding, Founder-Editor of Library Technology Guides. Marshall was speaking in an international webinar organized in association with MyLOFT (My Library on Finger Tips) on Librarian’s Day on August 12, 2020.
Talking about trends and technologies in library space, Marshall said, “Library facilities have seen a shift to the user and collaborative spaces. The shift is from stand-alone implementation to shared infrastructure because of cooperation and cost-effectiveness.” “The shared infrastructure has increased resource sharing by increasing collection management and to provide a greater universe of content for patrons but at a lowered cost per institution,” said Marshall in the webinar organized by Readers Club International (A Public Library Network) on the theme “Library Technology & Library Innovation” in which more than 2,500 registered users have participated in the event which went live on YouTube.
Referring to a whitepaper published by OhioLink, Mark Ritchie, Vice President of Eclat Engineering said, “It’s not what libraries hold, but who libraries serve”. Talking about the shift in content delivery, from an outside-in model in the pre-COVID era. But after the Coronavirus pandemic, now the model has shifted to an inside-out model where libraries need to meet patrons and users, wherever they might be and ultimately in a state where they can interact, access content and technology on their own terms.
Prof. Partha Pratim Das, Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT, Kharagpur, shared the importance of National Digital Library of India (NDLI) during the Covid-19 period. He said, “NDLI is designed to hold content of any language and provides interface support for leading vernacular languages. It is designed to provide support for all academic levels including researchers and learners of all disciplines”.
Prof Prahlad Jadhav, Associate Director, Library Management, Khaitan & Co. explained very basic but useful tools to manage library functions.
Jatin Baraiya, CEO, Eclat Engineering said, “Librarian’s day has always been special for us since our entrepreneurial journey took off because of a visionary librarian. Insights shared during the webinar reinforced our mission to collaborate with the library community and build world-class seamlessly integrated SAAS offerings that are cost-effective, easily scalable and fundamentally centre around users’ needs regardless of their institutional affiliation and information ownership.”
