This V-book is a travelogue by a professional
designed, for students of library and information
science, LIS professionals, planners and decision
makers. The whole concept of presenting information
in a Digital Format used as a source for learning
and orientation to perform better information services
to readers in library and information centers. The
technical information is presented in both text and
hypermedia forms. A computer based learning process
involves reading text on half computer screen with
scrolling facilities, and other half on computer screen
has still images with videos to view technology and
information system in their proper perspective.
Shailendra Kumar. "European libraries
in new millenium (a travelogue by a professional)".
New Delhi :Softlink Asia Pvt. Ltd., 2003. 112p. 2 hypermedia
CDs.
The advent of information technology (IT) has profoundly
influenced libraries in general and library activities
in particular. Some of our libraries have also started
undergoing the change more or less the same way the
libraries of the developed countries have undergone.
Some of us are fortunate enough to see those changes
with our own eyes. But, most of us are not that fortunate.
But, everybody is interested to have at least a glimpse
of the changes that IT has brought about in the domain
of library and information. Here is a book that provides
a rare opportunity to witness those changes in virtual
reality.
Dr Shailendra Kumar had an opportunity to visit some
libraries of Germany as a member of the team sent
to that country by Max Müller Bhavan, New Delhi
in the year 2003. Apart from the German libraries
he also visited a few libraries of Great Britain .
He not only took note of various aspects of the libraries
but also captured them along with some of the vital
activities through his powerful video camera . One
can read about the libraries in the book and then
see the library through multimedia enjoying the narration,
colourful pictures and the animation. In the sphere
of library science this is most probably the first
V- book in India , may be in the world which have
most extensively used hypertext and the multimedia
facilities.
The book embraces four libraries of UK covering one
school library, one college library, the British Library
and the Bodleian Library, i.e. the library of the
University of Oxford. Under the Pimlico School Library,
the author describes the curricula of lower school,
for the years 10 and 11, and of the sixth form apart
from the description of the library. The British Library
and the Bodleian Library have been discussed at greater
length compared to other libraries. The British Library
has been described covering among others the collection
(not in terms of quantity); inter-library loan; admission
requirements for academic researchers; postgraduates
and undergraduates; admission process; online catalogue;
reference desk for humanities; access to material;
Internet access; facilities provided for disabled
readers; maintenance, safely and security; and finally
the public facilities. Bodleian Library has already
completed 400 years of its active existence in 2002
. It has 163 km of shelving space to house six million
books and, 29 reading rooms to seat around 2500 readers
at a time. Apart from the missions and objectives
of the Library, the important services, users’
responsibilities, regulations governing the library,
electronic resources, library finance, etc. have been
described.
The German libraries which the author had the opportunity
to visit are Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes library;
Bavarian State Library; Stuttgart Public Library;
The Wurttemberg State Library; the Hochschulbibliothekszentrum,
Public Library, Cologne; and the State and University
Library, Hamburg. Salient features of each library
have been described in about two – three pages
along with coloured photographs which help a reader
to a general idea about the German libraries, their
functions, state of automation, and so on.
The author had the occasion to visit the Departments
of Library and Information Science of the Stuttgart
University of Applied Sciences; University of Applied
Sciences, Cologne ; and the Hamburg University of
Applied Sciences . Going through the syllabus, one
get an idea that they are not ahead of us excepting
the fact that they are possibly laying greater emphasis
on information technology, media technology and information
economics.
One important feature of the book is that it has dealt
exclusively with some technology-based activities
of those libraries such as circulation system, OPAC,
conveyor belt system, and compact-shelving system.
Considering the fact that this is the first book Softlink
Asia Pvt. Ltd , the production has been of very high
order. In fact, printing, paper and the quality of
colour photographs are excellent as we see in this
book are rarely seen in Indian LIS publications. A
detailed alphabetical index at the end has enhanced
the value of the book to a great extent.
V-book in the form of two CD-ROMs is the unique feature
of this book. The video-recordings embedded in the
CD-ROMs take one virtually to the real world of some
of the European libraries for 80 minutes and show
you bit by bit how the libraries look like, what they
are doing and how they are doing.
Reviewed by B K Sen
About Author
Dr. Shailendra Kumar did Post-graduation from the
University of Delhi and obtained his Ph. D in Scientometric
Studies from the University of Rajesthan Jaipur. He
is the recipient of the “Young Information Scientist”
award of the Society for information Science for the
year 1992-93, His major contributions include creation
of computer database, use of CDS/ISIS software package
and development of Alice for Windows Library Automation
Software Package, evaluation of recent scientific
research output by bibliometric method, teaching of
computer applications in information activities, scientometric
analysis of History of Science in India and Development
of Computer Laboratories for Library and Information
Science teaching.
Presently he holds the position of Head of the Department
and Reader in the Department of Library and Information
Science, University of Delhi Earlier he worked in
IGNOW and INSDOC, having 22 years of professional
experience. He has 33 publications to his credit in
the field and had a number of professional visits
to libraries in UK German, Australia, Hungary, Sri
Lanka, Nepal.
