Vanishing Libraries and reading the “readers”

“Vanishing libraries” is the trend of the decade.                            School libraries wither its sheen where the emerging technologies take over and rule the minds of users. Internet has been considered as the sole and primary source of “everything”. Where should the libraries/librarians reposition themselves?

Recently there was a news from Europe that a school library removed all its printed materials and replaced that with E-readers, where the users can download and read the e-books/databases (through the library’s subscription channel) as per their needs. Imagine a library filled with some gadgets, say kindles and a superfast wifi connectivity( think about internet cafes or computer centres). Now the users can take the E-readers any where in the campus and use it while they eat and chat at coffee joints. The physical library vanishes.

And where goes the Librarian?

Unless the Librarians think about the missing opportunities and find out the existing ones, they should consider the possibility to do a Indian rope trick which will help them to melt down own professional identities.

The report in the daily “The New Indian Express” on the Library blogs was an inspiring one for many professionals to consider the emerging web 2.0 tools as serious alternatives to reach out the users where they are. The library media centre at KV Pattom expresses gratitude to all who has been backing its efforts and enjoys its role in gaining accolades for the institution.