Future role of Librarian

Here is an example of evolution/development in the field of librarianship: we stared from register system, shifted to ledger system and reached at Browne/Newark charging system. For years together we got stuck in the issue, return, comma, full stop, semicolon, spaces and what not. Let us boldly admit that it took us approximately quarter of a century to travel from register system to Browne charging system for issuing books. For decades we kept stuck to ALA or AACR rules. But during last three decades, the end of 1960s that Microfilm appeared. In no time, it got extinct and before us was the Microfische. It vanished in no time again giving way to floppy. We started working on floppy but within few years, it was replaced by CD; now we are not happy with CD and prefer the DVD for various reasons. We cannot predict or visualize for how long we will be in the company of DVDs and pen drives. Same is the case with hardware and software. All these developments took place within a span of three decades and definitely had a direct bearing on librarianship and libraries. Under such circumstances, what role the librarians will be playing.

          As the things stand today, any person who is conversant with theory and operations of information and communication technology, if given some basic training in librarianship, can safely perform the duties of a librarian and that too in a very dignified manner. The alternative will be to give a conventional librarian some training in IT and transform him into modern librarian. Our main concerns are:

(i)                Dynamic speed of technology.

(ii)             Intrusion of technology in the regime of librarianship.

(iii)           Contents of new teaching modules of library and information science.

(iv)           Expectations and preferences of our readers.

As the word is continuing and time is reducing, our reader aspires for more information and that too in less time. Under the circumstances, librarians have to work hard, more with time to make a respectable niche in changed scenario of digital environment. In the digital environment, the librarian’s role will shift from acquisition, preservation and storage to an emphasis on teaching, consulting, researching and preserving democratic access to information and collaborating with computer and information scientists in the design and maintenance of information access system.

          The new role of the librarian in the digital environment is supposed to be that of a Project Manager or Network Consultant, but by all means he will act as a catalyst to provide information to readers. The librarian is supposed to perform following functions:

(i)                Intermediary: Take a query and provide a packaged answer, drawing on a range of resources print, online bibliographic databases, and internet.

(ii)             Guide: Provide pointers to aid user in search, critical evaluation of relevant resources.

(iii)           Facilitator: Arrange information infrastructure: network access, software, licenses to use charged resources.

(iv)           Educator: Provide training in internet use: tools, information searching skills, awareness of resource constraints. Alerts users to new resources in their subject area.

(v)             Web-site builder: Locate, evaluate and provide links to information resources relevant to organisation. Provide information about library/information service on the web.

It is the fact that we can define the role of a librarian of academic, public or special libraries in present context, but the pace at which technology is changing, we will have to admit that future role of a librarian is a never ending story. More and more pages of the script are being studied and rehearsed, but just as the role is about to be mastered, a new act is added in the story of the future role of the librarian.