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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

Virtual Libraries and the Librarian

Somvir1, Sudha Kaushik2
1
Researcher, Dept. of Library & Information Science
Singhaniya University, Pacheri Beri, Rajsthan
E mail: somvirrathee9@live.com, somvirrathee9@gmail.com
2
Dept. of Library & Information Science
CDL University, Sirsa, Haryana
E mail: sudhakaushik2@live.com, sudhakaushik2@gmail.com

Abstract
In Modern era of digitalization, a wide range of online services are providing to the users by the most of the
Libraries. Now it is time for a library to be virtual and develop its on-line availability in order to further
facilitate and enrich the education process. And, the internet and web technologies are not the new things to
any academician. Virtual libraries are the new vision of libraries of the future. Virtual Libraries provide a
new way of serving the new generation users of the libraries. In this paper, authors provide an overview of a
Virtual Library System and narrate the purpose, features, functions, design and development of a Virtual
Library and Virtual Library Environment. Impact of ‘Virtual Library’ on ‘Lifelong Learning’ has also been
emphasized. They also enumerate principles of development of Virtual Library Collection and advantages of
Virtual Libraries.

Introduction

The concept of the virtual library has developed with the growth in telecommunication
networks, especially the internet. The virtual library emulates a 'real' library, but is
understood to be a product of the virtual world of the internet. The virtual library
environment encompasses the concept of the digital library but is more than a collection of
digitized resources. The virtual library provides access to an integrated collection of print,
electronic and multimedia resources delivered seamlessly and transparently to users
regardless either of their physical location or the location and ownership of the
information. The Virtual Library has changed the traditional focus of librarians on the
selection, cataloguing and management of information resources such as books and
periodicals. The virtual library is putting emphasis on access without the need to allow for
the time required by these technical processes.

Defining the 'virtual library environment'

Within the library field there is a tendency to refer to the 'virtual' library, the 'digital'
library, and the 'electronic' library interchangeably. Waters describes the phrase 'digital
library' as replacing earlier references to 'electronic' and 'virtual' libraries.[1] Graham stated
that 'virtual library' is a companion term to ‘digital library’ and that up to 1995 both terms
was 'used narrowly to define a quantity of databases available for use at a given time'.
Graham's idea that the virtual and digital libraries are synonymous is interesting, but as he
himself admits, the definition he provides is very narrow.[2]

A Virtual Library has been defined by Gapen [3] as, “the concept of remote access to the
contents and services of libraries and other information resources, combining an on-site
collection of current and heavily used materials in both print and electronic form, with an
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

electronic network which provides access to, and delivery from, external worldwide library
and commercial information and knowledge sources”. These definitions are concerned
with a purely digital collection and while there are increasing numbers of such, they do not
as yet form the majority and it does not appear practical or viable to equate the 'digital
library' with the library of the future where all valuable resources might be available
digitally[4].

Myth about Digital Collection

It challenges to combat the myth electronic resources and libraries. Library users think that
the web is suitable for the library and there is no need of librarian in the digital
environment. In fact, the librarian is a mediator between the huge sea of information and
its users. So, the need for trained mediator is more apparent than ever. Users are depending
on the librarians for seeking the information in the library. So we cannot deny that a library
cannot move or run without a librarian.

Features of a Virtual Library

• Time saving
• Speedy and wide access to updated information in a global manner is provided.
• Traditional library system of cataloguing only book materials has been changed and
cataloguing of NBM (Non Book Materials) includes not only databases but also
websites.
• Greater emphasis is on access and not on collection.
• It results in a creation of digital divide because only organization with strong funds
for automation and fulfilling infrastructural requirements for Virtual Library can
afford to support Virtual Library services.

Functions of a Virtual Library

The function of a Virtual Library is to ensure the systematic development of the means
• To collect, store, and organize information and knowledge in digital form;
• To provide easy and affordable access to it around the clock from various locations;
• Provide ICT-based access to a range of digitally available publications in the public
domain and other sources;
• Provide access to distance education materials;
• Contribute to the efficient delivery of information to the users of all universities
and other Educational institutions;
• Strengthen communication and collaboration between and among the research,
library and educational communities;
• Offer lifelong learning opportunities.

Virtual libraries Vs Traditional libraries

The advantages of virtual libraries over traditional libraries can never be over-emphasized.
The digital library has materials stored in a computer system in a form that allows it to be
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

manipulated and delivered in ways that the conventional versions of the materials can’t be.
An automated library is not necessarily a digital library. However, it is true that a digital
library must be automated in its essential functions. Because the material is in digital (or
computer readable) form, some new possibilities are opened to the digital library which are
not present or possible in a conventional library, even one with the same material. A good
example is the material delivery process, while this process involves removing a book
from a shelf and checking it out in a conventional library, the book in the digital library
can be copied to a users computer for reading, still remain in the computer stacks and it can
be loaned immediately to another user. This implies that holds (reservations) could become
a thing of the past for a fully digital library, at the expense of a very much more complex
usage tracking system. Its users will be connected to it for research and delivery via
computers. The mission of virtual library in Indian universities should be to provide, in an
equitable, cooperative and cost effective manner, enhanced access to national and
international library and information resources with libraries all over the world using
digital technology.

Advantages of Virtual Libraries

Virtual libraries provide immediate access to a range of resources not available in physical
collections and allow unprecedented access to information and ideas. While physical
libraries operate with designated hours, virtual libraries are available anytime and
anywhere there is an Internet connection. Virtual libraries offer opportunities for learning
that are not possible in their physical counterparts. Virtual libraries often contain more up-
to-date information than physical collections. Their sources can be searched more
efficiently than those in physical libraries, and the information they contain can be updated
more frequently. Well-designed virtual library collections are organized and managed to
increase productivity and efficiency of the user. Virtual libraries empower the user and
promote informal learning.

Any library must have a range of resources to meet the information needs of different
users. Resources in a virtual library can be organized so that sources for a particular group
of users are easily identified. Virtual libraries break down the physical barriers between
users and information sources. Through the use of audio and video, virtual libraries can
also make resources available to users that are visually and hearing impaired, and they
make these resources available in their homes. Technology exists to make virtual libraries
more accessible for the disabled: refreshable Braille displays, screen readers with a
synthesized voice output, closed captioning, and large buttons. Virtual libraries may
integrate voice, video, and text for users involved in distance education in remote
locations. Virtual libraries offered the potential for users to become authors and publishers
as well as readers in this online environment, blurring the line between reader and author.
This opportunity rarely presents itself in physical libraries. The potential of virtual school
libraries for changing learning practices, and called on media specialists in schools to build
a different type of library collection in virtual libraries, a new vertical file of student-
created art, photography, oral histories, local histories, and local survey data on the school
server, which would be used to support the local curriculum and compensate for the
inadequacies and inefficiencies of commercial clip art and the lack of local resources on
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

the Internet. These locally-produced materials change the nature of library collections, and
can influence the type of learning they support.

Economic impact
On the one hand, the ability to network resources and provide digital versions of
previously printed material provides the opportunity to reduce the costs of some resources
and services. On the other hand, libraries are facing immense increases in budget
requirements for the necessary equipment to provide access to electronic and networked
services. Another cost, which is less obvious and immediate, is the increasing demands on
librarians to develop and evaluate resources in new formats, often without a corresponding
increase in staffing to offset their 'new' responsibilities. The key attractions of the virtual
library are the more flexible methods of document delivery. A concept of just-in-time
information delivery, rather than just-in-case where library patrons can identify required
material from a workstation, order it, and wait for its delivery back to the workstation. [14]
In a library the cost of exorbitant serials subscriptions as well as the associated costs of
housing back runs of printed serials can be saved by using such a model.

Role of the Librarian

In ancient times, book collecting was an opportunity either to display one's wealth, or the
results of scholarship. It was not until the nineteenth century that library collections
became more universally available and library science began to codify standards for
describing and organizing resources and librarians began to move beyond merely keeping
and preserving books.[5] The role of the librarian grew from that of a collector and
preserver of information resources to a professional involved in very complex issues of
organization, the dissemination and access to information. The role of the librarian,
particularly during the past two decades, has further evolved to encompass the burgeoning
technological developments.

As Search Intermediary
Traditionally a human intermediary is a librarian or an information specialist. Librarians
are more efficient and more effective than end users are at performing their own
information searching activities. Librarians will continue to play a role in the newly
emerging digital information world. In an organization, though librarians began training to
end – users to perform their own searches, the demand for searches by information
professionals have not decreased. There will always be a role for the search intermediary.
Librarian acquire information resources relevant to their user population in whatever
format is available and appropriate; they organize the information within the library
collection; they provide a means for users to access that information; and they educate
users in accessing and interpreting information resources. Librarians are moving beyond
the traditional roles of collection maintenance and custodial duties to newer functions of
translating, accessing and marketing resources beyond the walls of the physical library
collection.

As End user Trainer Educator

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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

The librarian has a critical role in the virtual environment as educator or end user trainer.
The users in many cases have not been able to access to right information from the
different information sources available, whether locally or remotely via the www. end user
training aspect of librarian include organization of information resources, search strategies,
tools, information searching skills, awareness of resource constraints and alerts to users on
new resources in their subject area. Training is given by the librarian would include not
only the use of electronic primary journals from many different publishers, but also the use
of abstracts and indexing databases, databanks, CD_ROM publications and document
delivery services.

As Web site builder or publisher

The information about any organization provides by the organization at their own on the
Web site includes details of course information, directories, statues, annual reports, etc.
The information about the library and its services like hours of service, location of
services, details of library staff, library policies, an interface to the library OPAC, CAS,
SDI, DDS etc. can be provided by the web page and the librarian can do it better.

As interface designer
Interface design is going to become important to people to access and use digital
technologies. A beneficial way for librarians to collaborate in the work of computer and
information scientists in tasks such as design, an organization, development, and
maintenance of digital library repositories, interfaces, search engines, networks and web
documents. Librarian can help in the design of technology – based information services
and share their knowledge and experience in helping patrons to utilize electronic media
and using internet & world wide web.

As Researcher
LIS professionals who are undergoing research work are treated as library information
research scholars. Their main aim is to reach on new innovation and new finding in the
sphere of LIS. This research work leads the scholars into the depth of the knowledge of
LIS. In long run it fulfills basically the aim of society as well as the goal of nation.

As Knowledge Manager
Knowledge Management involves the identification and analysis of available and required
knowledge, and the planning and control of actions to develop knowledge assets to fulfill
organizational objectives. Librarians as a part of KM system can effectively participate in
the process of knowledge creation; the creation of the knowledge center in an organization
normally involves contributions from three groups of experts such as users, knowledge
professionals and technology experts. As knowledge professional, they include librarians,
managers, archivists, and others. Librarians to become Knowledge Manager or
professionals should possess variety of talents and perform the work with high level of
skill and expertise.

As sifter of information resources

The term “sifter” is uses for the skilled librarian who helps users make sense and order of
the resources. The future belongs neither to the conduit or content players but to those who
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

control the filtering, searching, and sense-making tools to navigate through the expanses of
cyberspace. In another words, the librarian can be a key player in the emerging scenario.

As Facilitator to provide intellectual access to information

For a long time, librarians are providing intellectual access to information. During the
second half of the twentieth century the range of available resources expanded to include
microform, video and audio formats. There was an explosion in formats in the final
decades of the twentieth century, and libraries can now offer information in the form of
print, audio, video, microforms, numeric, computer programs, or multimedia composites of
each. The information needs of users can not be attempted with just one format. The
traditional librarian has play to role of facilitator in identification, gathering and arranging
information infrastructure such as network access, software access, licenses and passwords
to use charged resources, due to the availability of electronic documents on internet and the
support extended by world wide web to access these documents have recently increased
tremendously and most of print journals have shifted their platform to web, which includes
free and paid publications. University and research libraries especially, find the option of
providing electronic access to journal subscriptions to be a means of dealing with complex
multi-campus organizations where the client population comprises an increasing mixture
of on- and off-campus students. With electronic subscriptions, libraries pay for access to
the journals rather than ownership, and at the end of a subscription a library may no longer
have the right to access a title. The need to negotiate continuing access with publishers is
becoming a significant responsibility for librarians.

As evaluator to evaluate available sources of information

Batt observed that there is an increasing diversity of information resources from which to
choose the most appropriate vehicle, and that librarians must widen their selection
processes in order to decide on the right medium for each situation.[6] The objective in the
evolving virtual library is 'to develop information systems providing access to a coherent
collection of material, more and more of which will be in digital form as time goes on'.[7]

Young observed, 'the computer will not replace the book any more than the book has
replaced speech'.[8] He also contends that printed resources and digital media are not
alternatives. This is an important distinction and forms a significant issue for librarians.
Electronic sources of information are excellent for data which must be timely and is
subject to frequent change, such as stock market data, weather reports, and population
statistics. It is also valuable for the ease in which information such as full-text articles from
newspapers and journals can be delivered. Printed resources may continue for a long time
to be the most efficient form of delivering ideas and theories as opposed to data in subject
areas such as history, philosophy, and literature.

There are numerous free resources available on the web, to say nothing of the full-text
journals now available. Whether or not to include these in the library catalogue is a
challenge facing librarians in the virtual library environment. This issue became apparent
at the University of Melbourne Library when a new single gateway connection from public
access PCs to local CD-ROM networks, stand-alone databases and the internet was
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

developed.[9] The new gateway, named Buddy, created new challenges for the Library's
selection policies, according to Cunnington.

As information Manager to organize and structure information

Traditionally, librarians have organized and managed information resources through
classification schemes. The retrieval of information relevant to a user's enquiry has been
facilitated by standardized methods of describing resources, such as MARC. Many of the
challenges facing those attempting to organize and structure information in the virtual
environment is its nature. One significant management problem in the networked
environment compared to traditional library management issues, is coping with the nature
of the 'information space'. Working with such resources requires an understanding of
traditional library management issues, but also the ability to adapt these to the new
environment, and even to go beyond these skills and develop news ways to organize and
structure information. Professional boundaries between computing professionals and
librarians are overlapping and becoming more blurred. For librarians to effectively
organize and structure information available on the internet, they require more than basic
IT skills. The organization and structure of information within the virtual library is critical
to ensure the easiest path for the library user to access and use resources. Within the
developing virtual library, users are presented with information resources in traditional
formats but also in formats made possible through technological developments.
Increasingly, libraries are providing access to web-based resources, either those freely
available or for which the library has paid a subscription. It is essential that users can
access all of these through a single interface, usually the library's catalogue.

To ensure the preservation of information

The issue of preservation in the virtual library environment is a complex one. Librarians
and archivists have long-established standards and guidelines for the preservation and
storage of print materials for long-term survival. The preservation of electronic and digital
information resources creates new dilemmas for librarians and archivists.

As Klemperer and Chapman observe, digital media have not been around long enough for
fail-safe archiving and preservation procedures to be developed. One of the significant
issues affecting preservation of digital information resources is the very technology which
creates them. These technologies have an increasingly rapid obsolescence and the
preservation of digital information is dependent on ensuring that the software and the
mediating technology is also preserved. Many research initiatives have been directed to the
preserving of digital information resources. [10]

Cathro states: The ability to access and read digital information in the future will depend
on strategies such as migration or emulation.[11] In tandem with developments in
preserving digital information resources is the issue of preserving digital resources
available on the internet. Berthon and Webb (2000) describe preservation developments
with web-based resources so that they remain findable. 'URLs serve to identify resources
and describe their location on the World Wide Web, [but] they are notoriously unreliable
as they must change whenever a digital resource moves to a new location'. Methods of
providing persistent and comprehensive resource discovery on the internet are being
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

explored and librarians are playing an important role in these initiatives. Berthon and
Webb describe a meeting of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries in 1998
chaired by a librarian from the Library of Congress to investigate these issues.[12]

In Australia, the PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information) Working Group has
been formed and the National Library of Australia maintains its website. The aim is to
identify the main issues being addressed, the main groups involved, and the main
directions being explored.

To provide specialized staff to offer instruction and assistance in interpreting

resources and access to resources
Information retrieval is the most obvious skill a librarian demonstrates to the public. The
increasing sophistication of search engine design is creating an environment where anyone
can, at varying levels of efficiency retrieve information from the internet. The skills of the
reference librarian are becoming superfluous [13]. However, without professional guidance
many searchers, particularly novice internet-users, do not exploit the full potential of
search engines and consequently do not retrieve all the relevant information available to
them. Internet users for successful searches need at least a basic understanding of internet
searching concepts, but also very high levels of support - from a librarian or other
experienced internet searcher.

Librarians working at integrating new technologies to form the virtual library are
discovering an increasing demand for their professional skills. The virtual library
environment provides both an opportunity and a requirement for librarians to develop
greater familiarity with IT-type skills. Librarians are moving into database development,
courseware, open learning and academic staff development and need a combination of
knowledge, skills, aptitudes, and personal qualities in order to fill their multi-faceted roles.

Conclusion

The practice of librarianship in the virtual library environment will not be very different
from that in the traditional print-based library. Librarians are professionals trained in the
acquisition, organization, retrieval, and dissemination of information. Librarians will
continue their role in the broader area of society in representing issues of access to
information to governments and other decision-making bodies. The librarian's role will
continue to include selection of suitable resources, providing access to such resources,
offering instruction and assistance to patrons in interpreting resources, and preserving both
the medium and the information contained therein. Issues that are new to librarians in the
virtual library environment are related to the new technologies making digital libraries
possible, and the techniques necessary to deliver new forms of information resources and
services. In providing access to information, the librarian in the virtual library environment
must consider the requirements of any digital resources - any hardware or software
necessary, the most effective way to refer patrons to the resource, and whether availability
is limited to a defined user group. The virtual library environment requires a new technical
set of competencies for librarians which were not previously required. Skills such as
creating web pages, building and maintaining computer networks, designing search
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National Conference on “Impact of e-Resources in Education” Conference Proceeding, March 11, 2011 (pp. 211-216)

interfaces are sought after in today's library employment market. The level of technical
sophistication required by librarians in the virtual library environment is already leading to
a blurring of distinctions with computing professionals. As the virtual library environment
continues to develop there may be an even greater demand for professional staff with either
computing or librarian qualifications. Along with the need for technical skills is the ability
'to cultivate a level of comfort with ambiguity and change'. One characteristic of the virtual
library which librarians must accommodate is the rapidly changing and evolving nature of
the environment. This environment is subject to immense change very quickly, and a key
role for the librarian in the future will be the ability to adapt and to work effectively in such
an environment.

References:

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Also available online: http://www.clir.org/pubs/issues/issues04.html#dlf
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Libraries 56, July pp 331-339
3. Gapen, K. G. (1993). The virtual library: Knowledge, society, and the librarian. In:
L.M. Saunders (Ed.), The Virtual Library: Visions and Realities, pp.1-14.
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4. Crawford and Gorman (1995) provide a hypothetical example of digitising the New
Yorker and PC Magazine to 'prove' the impracticality of universal conversion of
printed resources into digital resources.
5. Encyclopaedia Britannica at http://www.britannica.com
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VALA Biennial Conference and Exhibition, VALA, Melbourne. Also available

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