UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

A university stands for truth, reason, tolerance and humanism. It helps in the progress of the society in general through advancement of knowledge. The functions of university are: creation of new knowledge through research and interpretation with existing knowledge (research); to impart knowledge to students in all fields of universe of knowledge and give professional and vocational training (education and

training); dissemination of knowledge and reduce the social and cultural gap (publication); to diffuse and foster the real values and attitudes in society through various extension activities (extension). A university is rightly described as a community where scholars and teachers are the head, students are the body and

library its heart. In India, the importance of library in university education has been often emphasized by educationists, librarians, scholars and committees. Report of the Radhakrishnan Commission on University Education (1948-1949) stated that: “The library is the heart of all University’s work, directly so, as regards its research work, and indirectly as regards its educational work which derives its life from research work. Scientific research needs a library as well as its laboratories, while for humanistic research the library is both library and laboratory in one. Training in higher branches of learning and research is mainly a question of learning how to use the tools, and if the library tools are not there how can the student learn to use them?” The Kothari Commission in its Report on Education and National Development (1964-66) further emphasized that: “No university, college or department should be set up without taking into account its library needs in terms of staff, journals, space, etc. Nothing could be more damaging to a growing department than to neglect its library, the library should be an important centre of attraction on the college or university campus.” Thus the university library system is established to strive for fulfillment of the ideas and objectives of the university. Since the university library functions as an integral part of university, its growth and development is solely dependent on the growth and development of educational and research programmes of the university. Therefore let us have a brief overview of the objectives of university education in India. Though the university system in India has its roots in ancient and medieval centres of learning like gurukulas, parishads and viswavidyalayas, centres of ancient Brahmin, Buddhist and Muslim cultures, the Western model of university system, that is in

practice now was initiated in 1857 with the establishment of three universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. There were 18 universities in existence before independence and now the number has increased to above 300, including deemed universities. The modern university, characterised by large number of faculty, tremendous enrolment of students and huge resources, has a library attached to it to support its objectives and programmes.

Objectives

The university library strives for the fulfillment of objectives of its parent body – the university. Therefore it is necessary to understand the objectives of university in general. The objectives of university are to:

Ø  seek and cultivate new knowledge, to engage vigorously in pursuit of truth, and to work towards new discoveries;

Ø  provide intellectual managerial leadership in all walks of life and imbibe the people with a sense of social purpose;

Ø  strive and promote equality and social justice and to reduce social cultural difference through diffusion of education; and

Ø  guide research workers in all the areas of universe of knowledge and to disseminate the research results for the benefit of mankind.

The university library’s objectives reflect that of their parent institution, as they

have been established to support fulfillment of parent body’s goals. Hence, the

objectives of university library are to:

Ø   set up policies, procedures, and standards for acquisition and accessing information

/knowledge that support teaching;

Ø   create collections both print and online, including expertise from outside the

library to support research;

Ø  explore funding opportunities and collaborative projects with other institutions;

Ø   provide services that meet the pertinent information needs of members of university; and

Ø   to conserve knowledge and ideas for posterity.

Functions of University Library

In order to achieve the objectives of university education, university libraries should design their activities in such a way that they prove to be significant partners in conservation of knowledge through teaching and learning, research and interpretation and application of research results for the benefit of society, extension and service programmes. The library exists to help instructional and research programmes of

the university. Hence the basic function of library in a university is educative and, as Gelfand puts it, a library also functions “as a dynamic instrument of education, to feed the intellect of student, encourage researchers of the faculty and invite all who enter its house to partake fully of its intellectual and cultural contents”. The Kothari Commission on Education (1964-66) laid much emphasis on university library system and recommended that the library should:

Ø  provide resources necessary for research in the fields of interest to university

Ø   help the university faculty in keeping abreast of developments in their disciplines

Ø  provide library facilities for the success of all formal instructional programmes

Ø   open the doors to the wide world of books that lie beyond the borders of one’s

            own specialization; and

Ø   bring books, students and scholars together under conditions which encourage

Ø  reading for pleasure, self-discovery, personal growth and sharpening of intellectual curiosity.

Malcolm S. Adiseshaiah expressed that “if the purpose of all education is learning, then the library is the fountain source of all learning and there is no replacement to it. If the purpose of higher education at the higher levels – post graduation, doctorate and post doctorate – is to develop new sources of knowledge and new knowledge, then there should be no alternative to the library. The scholar will have to plough his way through to attain the end of knowledge acquisition and knowledge building.” Paul Buck has stated that quality of education in universities is impossible without a quality library; further quality faculty is not possible without a quality library and library is essential to maintenance of free access to ideas. He classified the functions of university library under the heads: resources; retrieval of information; coordination and staff capability. He summarizes them all in the word ‘responsiveness’ to the university needs. Nigel Cox analyses the functions of university library under five headings as follows:

Ø  control – covering acquisition, accession, processing and shelving;

Ø  archive – building up collection;

Ø  service – including professional guidance to the readers;

Ø  cooperation – linking the local and national network of library resources; and

Ø  research and development – enhancing the library techniques.

Thus the purpose of university libraries is expansion of knowledge for truth, enlightenment and standards of excellence, etc. Srivastava and Verma sum up the functions of the library in university as – “it serves the adult scholarship”. On the one hand there is knowledge explosion and heavy inflow of information, on the other there is heavy demand for pin-pointed information without the loss of time. Manual methods for the retrieval and dissemination of information are becoming inadequate, and these are being replaced. Information technology is being applied increasingly to provide access to information. Libraries are not operating in isolation now, but are becoming partners of various networks for mutual benefit.

Information Resources

Quality of education depends on the quality of information. The information materials in university libraries exist to support the curriculum and related research of the University. The university library has to acquire and organise reading material with the advice of the faculty and in accordance with the goals and objectives of university. Acquisition of, and access to , information resources, which have multiple

uses, are the chief responsibility of university libraries. The collections should strike a balance between traditional print formats and emerging electronic formats. The collectins are usually a combination of textbooks, reference books, manuscripts, monographs, theses, manuals, conference proceedings, scientific and technical reports, periodicals, institutional serial publications, patents, etc. in print, microform, audio -

visual or electronic formats. In addition the collections include programs or data files, software, etc. The library must have access to appropriate equipment for the use of materials requiring readers, players, projectors, computer systems or other devices.

Services

The nature and efficiency of services of university libraries vary from one to another owing to the nature of curricular programmes, research activities and local needs of users. Traditionally the libraries are offering reference, current awareness and lending services to their users. With the application of information technologies now they are able to offer a wide variety of information services. While continuing to provide many traditional information services, librarians are developing new skills and accepting the new roles that are necessary to support technology-based services. They include:

Ø  Reference service

Ø  Current Awareness and SDI

Ø  Lending and inter library loan

Ø  Newspaper clippings

Ø  Reprography

Ø  User education and information literacy

Ø  Internet access and assistance in searching the websites; and

Ø  Access to e-journals through e-journals consortia.

The buzzword of present day digital environment is ‘consortia’ that is intended to share the resources though collaboration within the member libraries. This helps academicians in acquiring information quickly at affordable rates. An e-consortium harbours a large number of content creators sharing a common interest through a set of interlinked web pages.

REFERENCES

Adiseshaiah, Malcom S. (1992). Role of the Library in the University. University

News.30(35),13.

Gelfand, M.A. (1971). University Libraries for Developing Countries. Paris:

UNESCO, 24.

Ghanch, D.A. (1992). The Library in the University. University News. 30(35),

19-20.

Gupta, O.P. (1998). Library Services in University and College Libraries in

India. New Delhi: Reliance Publishers.

Paul, Buck (1964). Libraries and Universities. Cambridge: Harvard, 56.

Sahai, Shri Nath. (1990). Academic Library System. New Delhi: Allied.

Srivastava, S.N. and Verma, S.C. (1980). University Libraries in India. New

Delhi: Sterling Publishers.

Wilson, L.R. and Tauber, M.F. (1958). The University Library: The Organization,

Administration and Functions of Academic Libraries. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia

University Press, 16