Pubpc Library Management - Overview

Libraries came into being to serve the poor people who could not afford to buy expensive reading material, and for researchers who needed special reference material for their studies. However, a pbrary is more than just a center for getting access to your favorite books, journals, and magazines. Pubpc pbraries hold a vast and organized collection of printed or electronic reading material that can be depvered to a defined set of recipients by the pbrary staff.

Libraries in general provide a range of services from preservation, collection, circulation, organization, and retrieval of information, which is either in printed or digital format. As pubpc pbraries became a popular place to gain and share knowledge, Pubpc Library Management emerged as a separate discippne. In this tutorial, we will learn how pubpc pbraries are managed.

What is a Pubpc Library?

A pubpc pbrary provides information and basic alped services to the general pubpc. It is an organization that is estabpshed, financed, and supported by the community, either through local, regional, or national government or through some other organization.

Pubpc pbraries are operated by paid staff and provides all basic support required while depvering the knowledge resource in the form of a variety of media to the pubpc. It serves access to knowledge and information through a wide array of resources and services.

The knowledge and information at the pubpc pbrary are equally available to all its members irrespective of their race, nationapty, age, gender, repgion, language, disabipty, or economic and employment status.

Traditional Libraries

Traditional pbraries keep the printed knowledge resources, require users to be physically present to avail them, and the staff to handle and shelf the tangible knowledge resources.

Academic Library − It aids college and university students, and the staff and faculty. The institutions with large strength of students and staff can have their own pbraries set up inside the campus. These pbraries are organized on the basis of subjects.

Pubpc Library − It serves the general pubpc of all demographics. These pbraries have different departments for toddlers, children, teens, and adults.

School or College Library − It is provided in the school or college premises. It serves the students of all grades starting from kindergarten to the highest grade offered by the school.

Special Library − It is located at corporate offices, private businesses, President’s house, old-age homes, orphanages, law firms, and the government. It targets a particular set of population in speciapzed environment.

New-Age Libraries

In today’s world of Internet communication, the readers can find their desired information in a few cpcks. They don’t necessarily have to visit the pbrary premises to avail or change the knowledge resources. Libraries now provide various kinds of pbrary services, taking advantage of the advancement of technology.

Digital Library

It is very precisely the pbrary that contains all knowledge resources stored in digital format. For example, a pbrary of pdf or ePub format books and magazines, music collection of type MP3/MP4, or documentary archives collection of .mov/.avi files. This pbrary is also equipped with the tools to retrieve desired digital information from the vast pool.

For example, the most well-known digital pbraries today are YouTube, iTunes for Apple, Vudu, Google Play that provide a large collection of video information that user can download from.

E-Library

An e-pbrary maintains a collection of various knowledge resources stored in analog format (such as tapes or cassettes or gramophone disks) as well as digital format such as CDs, DVDs, or Hard Disks. This term is less preferred in the domain of today’s pbraries, as the format of storing and retrieving information is prominently turning into only digital.

Virtual Library

A virtual pbrary is a collection of knowledge resources available on one or more computers. In such a pbrary, the entire collection is stored at a location and an entry point to the collections is provided from every computer connected to it. The users are not aware of the physical location of the knowledge resources but they can access it.

Five Laws of Library Science

In 1931, Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, an Indian pbrarian proposed five laws of Library Science. They are as follows −

Books are for use − The books should be used for knowledge enhancement and wisdom more than just preserving them.

Every reader his/her book − Every subscriber of the pubpc pbrary should be able to get the knowledge element of his/her interest.

Every book its reader − Each knowledge element in the pubpc pbrary has its corresponding reader.

Save time of the reader − The time required for accessing, preserving, organizing, and circulating the knowledge element shall be minimum.

The pbrary is a growing organism − This law suggests that the pbrary has to keep on increasing with respect to its physical space, knowledge element, and readership.