In the digital era, Government’s libraries can no longer work in isolation either geographically or by sector and there is a need to take measures to meet the challenges posed by services or products like Google, Wiki, Quora, Social Media, E-Resources, etc, a Parliamentary panel has noted as it stressed on introducing new innovative technologies.
The Union Culture Ministry, therefore, should endeavour to keep reinventing, reshaping services, redesigning spaces and above all, de-learning age-old practices before adopting new models of providing information, said the panel in its report submitted to Rajya sabha recently.
Led by MP TG Venkatesh, the panel also took exception at the government’s failure to fill the vacant posts in many of its major libraries and also asked it taking steps to permit the general public to join/ renew/ cancel the membership via submission of an online form along with the online payment of membership fees in its central libraries across the country.
“Doing so would give a major boost to the membership figures of all the Central Libraries. The Committee further recommends that the Libraries may conduct special membership drives at local schools, universities, NGOs etc. in order to get students and researchers to join the library. This would permit increased utilization of the resources available at the Central Libraries,” said the panel as it found that the membership had been declining and many libraries were in poor condition.
Expressing unhappiness at the vacant posts, the Committee said that, “fails to comprehend how the National Library in Kolkata could be expected to function to its maximum potential when the top-level post of director-general of the library has been lying vacant for years. The Committee recommends that the post of the Director-General in the National Library should not be kept vacant for long and steps be taken to fill it up immediately.
The Committee also noted that there was no regular director in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna, for five years (2014- 2019). There was also no board there for a while. The Board was reconstituted in 2020.
Regarding Delhi Public Library status, the Committee noted “that membership of Delhi Public Library has witnessed decrease in recent times , one of the reasons being Covid-19 pandemic. It has come down to 1.5 lakh membership from what it was prior to the corona period i.e. 1.85 lakh. Being a model library created in 1951 in Asia with UNESCO’s technical, financial assistance, it should lead other libraries in the country and extend all possible help in their growth. Delhi Public Library should make all out efforts to increase its membership/ viewership in the interest of the general public.”
The panel also pointed out infrastructure shortage and called for a special exercise across all the Central Libraries in the country in order to assess the need for infrastructural improvement therein. The 7 Libraries/Organisations financed by Ministry of Culture are National Library, Kolkata (Subordinate Office), Central Reference Library, Kolkata (Subordinate Office), Central Secretariat Library, Delhi, Delhi Public Library, Delhi (Autonomous org.), Rampur Raza Library, Rampur in Uttar Pradesh (Autonomous Org.), Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna in Bihar (Autonomous Org.) and Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata (Autonomous Org.)