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— Photo: H. Vibhu

RARE SIGHT: Teenagers at a library.

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has made another attempt to revive the fortunes of libraries. Will it work?

The NKC has clearly laid out the path to reform. It has suggested that a network of public libraries be built in a phased manner within a period of five years.

To boost Research & Development, the Commission has mooted a separate well-equipped institution for advanced training and research in library and information science and services, called the Indian Institute of Library and Information Science (ILIS).

On financing, the Commission has recommended that a specified percentage of Central and State Education budgets be earmarked for libraries. It also wants a Central Library Fund to be instituted to upgrade the existing libraries over a period of three to five years.

To optimise resources, the NKC is clear that the strengths of different types of libraries should be synergised. The manpower requirement has to be assessed on the basis of job description, qualifications, designations, pay scale, career advancement and service conditions.

The Commission also recognises the need to capture knowledge about the local community, and finds libraries the perfect vehicle to do that. “Libraries need to expand their role to include community information. In the rural sector, each village library would play a critical role. The responsibility for this must lie with the panchayats,” says the NKC.

All these recommendations have their obvious merits. But the tricky part is in the implementation. As Ranjeet S. Thakur, Librarian at the Delhi-based Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, puts it, “Most of the recommendations made by the commissions and committees remained unimplemented. The condition of libraries vis-À-vis librarians remained pathetic.”

Dr. Thakur finds that there is a long list of unaddressed and unresolved issues concerning the Library and Information Sciences sector. College librarians are still struggling for their status all over the country. Libraries are considered as the “money-eater monsters.”

Despite all efforts, public libraries are in a dismal position. Libraries are still considered as the least important component of an institution.

It is not surprising then that all those concerned have laid great hopes on the NKC recommendations. Besides proposing a National Commission on Libraries, it has also asked for the launch of a National Mission on Libraries to work for a period of three years.

In another key recommendation, the NKC has proposed a national census of libraries. Says the Commission: “This would provide baseline data for planning. The task force that has been set up by the Department of Culture for this purpose should be given financial and administrative support to complete the survey on a priority basis (within one year). Survey of user needs and reading habits should be periodic at the national level as part of the National Sample Survey.”

Technology is also a tool for the Commission’s library reform plan. “Promote Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications in all libraries,” recommends the Commission. It has proposed that the catalogues of all libraries be put on local, state and national websites with necessary linkages.

“This will enable networking of different types of libraries and setting up of the National Repository of Bibliographic Records and a centralised collaborative virtual enquiry handling system using the latest ICT.”

Eventually, the development plan for libraries brings in the critical Public Private Partnership (PPP), the mantra for today’s liberalised economy.

“Philanthropic organisations, industrial houses and other private agencies should be encouraged through fiscal incentives to support existing libraries or set up new libraries,” says the Commission.

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