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Preface
Globalization has tremendous influence on all walks of life including library and information services. The former prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair almost decade ago remarked “The biggest changes in the public libraries over coming years will arise from the development of Information Technology”. To improve the quality of library services, to have greater access to the sources of Knowledge and information to reduce knowledge gap in the developing countries, the globalization of library services is need of the hour. To provide library services to the rural community at root level, the universalization of library services is must. It makes attractive opportunities and rapid growth of knowledge and innovation. Human knowledge is now growing at a pace which was indeed unthinkable two decades ago.
Most of the information sources are being published in the digital form all over the world. A digital library can revolutionize dissemination with respect to access, speed and availability. Internet has revolutionized and has brought sea change in the information storing, dissemination and retrieval i.e. Information handling. Internet is a global resource centre containing information on any topic includes e-Journals, e-Books, digital libraries, Institutional Repositories, Databases, Open access phenomenon, Information Networks, Social Networks etc., Federated search Engine ,Web2.0 tools like Identity 2.0, Library 2.0, Law 2.0, Media 2.0, OPAC 2.0, tagging ,mashup, News Feeds, Instant Messaging, Synchronous Messaging, Blogs and Wikis, MARC 21 standard World catalogue, etc. proposes to bring revolutionary changes in libraries due to globalization. The institutional repositories are to create visibility for an institutional scholarly research material globally. Globalization and technological advances are leading to greater international interaction and cooperation amongst librarians on a worldwide scale. Through the Internet, email, large file sharing abilities, VOIP, open source software, Blogs, Messaging, and other almost immediate sources of information exchange, librarians are truly able to collaborate and have worldwide colleagues and partnerships not imaginable thirty years ago.
There are of course still proprietary and legal restraints as to what databases, journals, and other materials can be exchanged between libraries, but ever increasingly these barriers are being reduced or redefined. Some libraries even in this globalize context may feel a need to still hold onto or protect their “turf”, while any other libraries are coming more and more to see the valuable of shared resources. International in person librarian conferences such as the series hosted by Globenet, have proved extremely popular with librarians from international locales. These international conferences have provided important opportunities for librarians from around the world to get together and share ideas, views and information in a face to face context. As such these are all positive indicators of closer and increased relationships of librarians and libraries on a global scale.
Now more than ever, thanks to capabilities made available by the Web and Internet, libraries are making materials available to patrons on an almost immediate basis provided those patrons have Internet access. Many journal articles are now made available online by libraries, provided patrons have the right entry id or password, these articles can now be accessed without any need to go to a physical library. The OCLC’s Open Worldcat Libraries, Google Scholar, Google Book Search and Yahoo Subscriptions have also greatly expanded patrons abilities to look up books and articles they may want to have sent to their local library from another library. These sorts of globalized innovations have made it possible for students to live in one country while actually being the student of a school in another country. Many libraries are still suspicious and reluctant to offer their materials in such an open context, while other libraries feel this sort of instant patron service is a must in order to stay relevant and viable in the face of real threats such as Amazon and Google. One can conclude that we are in the golden age of easily accessible library information thanks to technology and globalization. In as much as a resident of a given community has a computer and Internet access, it can be argued that there is some legitimacy to this position. However one is remiss if they don’t also consider the harsh realities of the digital divide. It is true that a large percentage of people in the Developed World have easy access to computers and the Internet. These people therefore have the ability to harvest the bounty of information now available from libraries on the Internet.
Preface
Globalization has tremendous influence on all walks of life including library and information services. The former prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair almost decade ago remarked “The biggest changes in the public libraries over coming years will arise from the development of Information Technology”. To improve the quality of library services, to have greater access to the sources of Knowledge and information to reduce knowledge gap in the developing countries, the globalization of library services is need of the hour. To provide library services to the rural community at root level, the universalization of library services is must. It makes attractive opportunities and rapid growth of knowledge and innovation. Human knowledge is now growing at a pace which was indeed unthinkable two decades ago.
Most of the information sources are being published in the digital form all over the world. A digital library can revolutionize dissemination with respect to access, speed and availability. Internet has revolutionized and has brought sea change in the information storing, dissemination and retrieval i.e. Information handling. Internet is a global resource centre containing information on any topic includes e-Journals, e-Books, digital libraries, Institutional Repositories, Databases, Open access phenomenon, Information Networks, Social Networks etc., Federated search Engine ,Web2.0 tools like Identity 2.0, Library 2.0, Law 2.0, Media 2.0, OPAC 2.0, tagging ,mashup, News Feeds, Instant Messaging, Synchronous Messaging, Blogs and Wikis, MARC 21 standard World catalogue, etc. proposes to bring revolutionary changes in libraries due to globalization. The institutional repositories are to create visibility for an institutional scholarly research material globally. Globalization and technological advances are leading to greater international interaction and cooperation amongst librarians on a worldwide scale. Through the Internet, email, large file sharing abilities, VOIP, open source software, Blogs, Messaging, and other almost immediate sources of information exchange, librarians are truly able to collaborate and have worldwide colleagues and partnerships not imaginable thirty years ago.
There are of course still proprietary and legal restraints as to what databases, journals, and other materials can be exchanged between libraries, but ever increasingly these barriers are being reduced or redefined. Some libraries even in this globalize context may feel a need to still hold onto or protect their “turf”, while any other libraries are coming more and more to see the valuable of shared resources. International in person librarian conferences such as the series hosted by Globenet, have proved extremely popular with librarians from international locales. These international conferences have provided important opportunities for librarians from around the world to get together and share ideas, views and information in a face to face context. As such these are all positive indicators of closer and increased relationships of librarians and libraries on a global scale.
Now more than ever, thanks to capabilities made available by the Web and Internet, libraries are making materials available to patrons on an almost immediate basis provided those patrons have Internet access. Many journal articles are now made available online by libraries, provided patrons have the right entry id or password, these articles can now be accessed without any need to go to a physical library. The OCLC’s Open Worldcat Libraries, Google Scholar, Google Book Search and Yahoo Subscriptions have also greatly expanded patrons abilities to look up books and articles they may want to have sent to their local library from another library. These sorts of globalized innovations have made it possible for students to live in one country while actually being the student of a school in another country. Many libraries are still suspicious and reluctant to offer their materials in such an open context, while other libraries feel this sort of instant patron service is a must in order to stay relevant and viable in the face of real threats such as Amazon and Google. One can conclude that we are in the golden age of easily accessible library information thanks to technology and globalization. In as much as a resident of a given community has a computer and Internet access, it can be argued that there is some legitimacy to this position. However one is remiss if they don’t also consider the harsh realities of the digital divide. It is true that a large percentage of people in the Developed World have easy access to computers and the Internet. These people therefore have the ability to harvest the bounty of information now available from libraries on the Internet.