Library Co-Operation in a Networked World

The libraries and information centres in India are facing unprecedented resource building problems in the recent days. On one side, there is severe fiscal resource crunch while the prices of information sources and services are escalating exponentially. The changing dynamics of information space, the recent developments in the digital world, the revolutionary advancements in computing as well as the communication front, all have direct impact and implications on the library profession, providing tremendous opportunities with numerous challenges. In this IT era, the library is viewed, not as a centerpiece in information transfer, but as one of the major players in that transfer process with the internet, community information services, the IT industry, commercial information aggregators and government agencies. Now-a-days the library users are increasingly enlightened and their needs are ever increasing and uncompromising. The following facets are included under the broad framework of the present book: enabling technologies for library co-operation; electronic, digital and virtual libraries in the networked environment; the emerging metadata standards and database design in the context of library co-operation; information retrieval effectiveness, usability studies and search strategies in the networked environment; legal, ethical, social, cultural and behavioral aspects of networked world; developing information policies for the knowledge age in the context of library co-operation; need for knowledge and skill formation of information professionals in the networked world; managing information technology in the networked libraries; library collection development choices in the networked era and digital information services in the networked world.