Digital Pen

Role of LIS Professional in Digital & Internet Age

Introduction : A librarian or information professional must be able to actively participate in theeducational process rather than gathering information and disseminate it to the publicthrough workshops, orientations, training etc. They must ensure that there is effectiveand efficient flow of information from the generators to users of information in the digitalenvironment. This is a complex communication chain with libraries and informationsystems playing an important, even critical role. Information professional must be able to address the changing and challenging environment for libraries and information systems and services in the digital age with an emphasis on examining contemporary problems, advances and solutions.Digital information is changing the role of librarians from a person who students ask for assistance in finding information in a place called a library to someone who needs to provide services and instructions regardless of place, time or format.

This is not to say that the way to avoid the electronic age is for library professional to stick their heads in the sand. The information professional must change & adapt to the new electronic information environment, he or she must learn about new technologies & be aware of the strengths & weaknesses of them. Librarians should not feel threatened by computers & technical developments but should move forward with the new technology & take a pivotal role within organizations. Information professionals within libraries are playing an increasing role in dealing the information in electronic formats by creating Web pages to promote their services to external customers & choosing automated library management systems. Skills in information organization are more necessary in this age of information explosion. Library & information professional have a key role to play in this era. For example, librarians are well equipped to take intranet/ the internet projects through the various stages of design & maintenance as they understand their users & their organizations information needs & have the range of skills to manage knowledge effectively. The role of the librarian in this context is to help users find the information they require then provide them with the tools to assess & use the resources for their individual needs.

Digital Libraries are not the Internet
A fundamental understanding of what the internet is & what it isn't can help more clearly define what a library is & why libraries are still extremely important. There is the difference between " online collections & the "Internet or Web Sources ". The internet is a mass of largely unpublished materials produced by organizations, businesses, individuals, experimental projects, entrepreneurial webmasters, etc. " online collections" however, are different. They are typically provided by libraries & include materials that have been published via rigorous editorial processes. Works selected for inclusion in a library catalogue undergo inspection from qualified staff. Types of materials include books, journals, documents, newspapers, magazines & reports which are digitized, stored & indexed through a limited - access database.

Internet Age : The period beginning around 1990 & noted for the abundant publication, consumption & Manipulation of information especially by computers & computer networks.

Digital Age : Refers to bringing compression & other processing enhancement of information or anything connected with communication among others. (707)

Freed of the need to store copies of sometimes rare documents they can focus more on services that will help the readers find & organic information in vast virtual collection.
Freed of the need to maintain collection in locations physically near their communities of readers, they can plan to aggregate virtual holding into more encompassing complete & up to date collection.
Freed of the dominance of static print ; digital library can grapple with the complexity of representing & cataloguing new multimedia documents.

Librarianship in Digital Age
To do the professional work effectively & efficiently informational professional need to develop skills like information professionals, information management skills, web designing, Search engineering basics & information seeking, open source software management, computer networks, as a library consultant, understanding the organizational culture, project management, change management, strategic management, financial management, Human Resource Management, communication skills, marketing skills, vision & creativity, liaison & negotiating skills has change the role of librarianship in coming days.

Librarianship in Internet Age
Internet & world wide web are very powerful & bringing changes not only in librarianship but also in his daily professional activities. Ever since the creation of united states machine readable cataloguing (USMARC) record in the late 1960's & the resulting proliferation of online catalogs, librarians have been spurred by technological developments to become more efficient organizers, indexers, abstractors, archivers, in addition to assuming new roles such as, intermediary, facilitator, end-user trainer/ educator, web organizer & designer, researcher, interface designer, knowledge manager/ professional & sifter of information resources. While the librarian plays many roles in an organization, it is difficult to identify a role as primary one as the same changes from time to time depending on the organizational objectives & requirements.

Role of LIS Professional & Skill Requirement
In the present information & communication technological era the professional have to change themselves as the information profession is being changed. Today information has become a major economic commodity. The LIS professional is responsible for locating, acquiring, disseminating & tracking information resources of many types. LIS professional & libraries & information centers (LIC), play a very crucial role in the education of people for effective & efficient information use by teaching them information skills at all levels of education to enables to be informed citizens of country.

LIS professional are key personnel in the implementations of resource base programs. LIS professional need to play a crucial role in the education process by making people aware of a need & motivating the use of information new knowledge. For successful implementation of digital library it is essential that LIS professional are well trained & possess requisite knowledge & skills in this respect.

New Role of librarian in E-AGE
Librarians have traditionally been concerned with certain functions, & most of these have their parallels in the internet & electronic publishing era. It is often suggested that some or all of these functions become redundant in an era when increasing amounts of information are availability directly to users via the Internet. It will not be correct to say that the role of the librarian will change entirely 360 degrees. Only those must be viewed in new light adding a new dimension to it. Librarians can play very important role in their organizations in following manner :

To create & manage library collections & services, several personal characteristics plus the new skills & competencies are essentials for the 21st century or new era librarian also. It is hoped we can stay focus in this fact changing environment which demand that librarians & information professional must be someone with multi tasking abilities & competent in areas of work such as management, communication, language, public relations & others.