|
|
Impact of IT on information services, with special reference to India ~ By Ms. Neeraj Karandikar Information is a vital resource & serves as an essential input to the effective pursuit of national policies on economic, scientific, technological & social development. It is a perennial resource, unlike natural & industrial resources & is characterized by its inherent potential for perpetual growth. The last few decades have witnessed incredible advances in information & communication technology (ICT) – which is the potent combination of computers in which information can be stored & processed & telecommunications by which information can be transmitted to anybody, anywhere in the world. We are living in an information-intense society, in which the quality of life as well as prospects for social change & economic development depends increasingly on information & its exploitation. Living standards, patterns of work & leisure, education systems & market place are all influenced prominently by advances in information & knowledge. To be in a position to exploit information, society will have to shift its perception & abilities related to information formats. Individuals will have to acquire a new bundle of information skills necessary to function in society. In practice, they will have to expand the traditional skills of literacy. This new level of literacy has to do with understanding the role & power of information in society, its use & misuse in society & most importantly understanding the systems/intermediaries involved in organizing & disseminating information, namely – libraries & information centers. As a fast growing & changing technology, IT is all-pervasive & has impacted the functioning of libraries in various ways. Implicit in this process of modernization is an increase in efficiency, effectiveness & reduction in cost per unit of library services. Traditionally dominated by print, libraries have been vast warehouses of published knowledge, storing publications “just in case” users might need them. But now with the evolution of the Internet, electronic databases, CD-ROM technologies, libraries are becoming access points to knowledge, which is not in print form & not held in the library itself. Distributed access of electronic information sources creates a scenario in which ownership of publications becomes less critical then acquiring access rights. The librarian may acquire access rights freely, at a fee or a mix of both. While some information is completely free, a lot of it is commercially priced. Free information sources include electronic newsletters & discussion groups, some electronic journals, reports & library catalogues. Highlighting the change in emphasis from collection to organizing, Kenneth Arnold refers to the librarian as a verb. “[This] is a useful image, I think, because it implies movement. In the past the librarian, unlike most professionals, has been associated with a place, the library, a building. In the future, the librarian will be a vector, searching for & establishing connections. The library in which this librarian works is more a state of mind than a location. It is a set of neural connectors. And that is why the place called library is not the sentence in which the electronic librarian dwells.”1 Digital technology incorporates multimedia & hypertext capabilities that allow the fluid combination of text, still & moving pictures, speech & musical sounds.
|
