LIBRARY SCIENCE LAWS IN THE AGE OF BIG DATA & MILLENNIAL INFO THIRST!

It is more than 123 years since the birth of S.R Ranganathan, the gentleman who gave us the 5 Library Laws.

Rule 1. Books are for use.

Rule 2. Every reader his / her book.

Rule 3. Every book its reader.

Rule 4. Save the time of the reader.

Rule 5. The library is a growing organism

Times have changed the frame/ platform on which the five cardinal rules where premised. Technology has not spared in its path to transform society in terms of culture, academics, politics, economy and all other forms of human engagements. Books (paper-based) which where the yesteryear’s pride man have had to assume different forms – forms which have mutated considerably in short periods thus not giving enough time to those involved to reinvent and position themselves to take it on. As such, it has been a catch up game for most of traditional experts. In library science, things have not been rosy. The word ‘book’ has multiple frames of references.

In a time when gadgetry is a big time preoccupation with the millenniums, the industries have had to shift their focus of operation. Libraries have not been spared either. Mobile libraries are no longer that big truck that used to bring books to the village town and then bewildered exhilarated locals would team around to catch a glimpse of the book or even perhaps borrow or return that book. Mobile libraries have now become ubiquitous as mobile devices with extensive storage capacities, extreme processing power and Gigahertz connection speeds are used to source from millions knowledge bases for data and information urgently required by industries that are information driven.

A great %age of Library collections is of non-book nature

In light of the above, men and women who sit behind the circulation desks, work tirelessly in Reference sections, acquisitions, technical areas, user areas etc. within the libraries have to learn new ways. Librarians have in the past faced challenges and have sorted out their environment with lots of alacrity. The challenge in the bucket this time is in no way similar to past challenges. There is every reason the urge a reinvention of these esteem noble knowledge workers. When the patrons seems to be ahead of the librarian in the way of seeking and interpreting knowledge sources, then the former may not find it prudent to keep seeking the same services from the library. Remember, this saying…”a librarian in a room will make a library but a collection of books in a room will make a bookstore”. It is the librarian who breathes life into book collections or even builds the library from the scratch. It is the librarian who is expected to come up with solutions to information seeking in the new age. Providing leadership requires accurate and up-to-date grasp of prevailing data search and presentation skills. Technologies involving Big Data handling, content management, re-representation, curation, taxonomy, folksonomy, analysis, access, etc. are key in reestablishing the vanishing valuable rapport between the librarian and the millennium user.

NEW LIBRARY SCIENCE LAWS

Will you fit in the times when the 5 library science laws have been revised to reflect the times as below?

 

Restated library science laws in our times

Rule 1. Knowledge is for use in ‘all’ forms

Rule 2.Every citizen has the right to access ‘all’ knowledge

Rule 3. Every piece of knowledge is for access by ‘all’ without discrimination of any kind

Rule 4. Save the time of the ‘all’ knowledge seekers

Rule 5. A library is one that evolves with time to achieve all of the above laws

 

Our program which marks the journey to becoming a cybrarian (Cyber savvy librarian) runs between 25th-26th January, 2016. The value this workshop brings into your works life is going to be self-transforming as well as a revolutionary step in the way academic, special and public libraries handle today’s form of information. Book today while slots still exist.

https://www.kenvisiontechniks.com/kenwp/event/digital-librarianship-workshop-going-beyond-the-usual/

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