The Internet and the WWW: implications to libraries

Libraries adapting to meet demands of Internet age
by Richard Chang, Reuters
Business World Online


With the advent of technology, the old shushing librarians have slowly been replaced by social networks and books have gone digital as well. Librarians will be seen answering queries and posting updates of their latest acquisitions on Facebook and Twitter. Libraries are slowly accommodating  room for interaction (information commons) and even cafes to improve service and invite an atmosphere of sharing information with others. 


The internet presents so much information that it is impossible to compete with Google. Despite this, the role of librarians cannot be taken out of the picture. They aim to serve the community as content providers. Libraries have gone online, circulations in electronic format are growing rapidly in numbers and now information seekers are able to search at the comfort of their home or offices. 

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I know for a fact that librarians and libraries will remain essential to the community. It is good to learn that we are not lagging behind. If we think about it carefully, libraries have always tried to meet the demands of its users. It is our duty to present information to users whether it be in print format or electronically accessed. 

Ranganathan's fifth law states that the library is a growing organism. Growth must always be present in the libraries may it mean staff training, acquiring new information in various formats or changing the physical look of the library. 

So long as human beings continue to use the knowledge they have inherited from their ancestors and learned from their contemporaries, so long as human ingenuity and creativity increases the store of information, there will be a need for persons and institutions to collect, to catalog, to preserve, and to guide. Books, and libraries, have changed over the thousands of years since the invention of writing … But the essential task of the librarian has remained the same: to collect and preserve the record of human accomplishment and imagination, and to put this record in the hands of those who would use it. - Fred Lerner