I just returned to Trivandrum after attending MDP for librarians organised by DCSMAT.Many nice sessions were covered in that program including killer apps like web 2.0. Various sessions in the MDP evoked many thoughts in  my mind regarding librarianship in dynamic competitive environment.

The main thing I observed is that, new services in WWW changed the information and community building behavior of all types of library users. I don't think librarians vanish in the storm of these changes. But we must be more serious in the application of web 2.0 tools for marketing of library services and showcase information products. Are Indian librarians ready to make use of these services in their library environment?

Where do we get training in emerging technologies? Who will provide the training? Who are our competitors; search engines, electronic content providers? Can we be as fast as our competitors ? Lot of questions still remaining. Another interesting truth is that, library users are acquiring skills in effective information retrieval usinguser friendly tools (e.g. Yahoo Pipes, pipes.yahoo.com) without the help of information professionals. We still continue as custodian of physical documents.

What will happen to our profession, if a new killer application (think about Amazon Kindle) replace books and periodicals? We can hope that, things may not change within 10 years.But, we have to forecast the developments and have to equip our professional mind to accept the changes. We can observe the competition facing public libraries from television and online social networks. Most of the public libraries in Kerala (about 6000 public libraries in Kerala) is facing similar competition and they strive hard to survive. I would like to present some

thoughts for survival from David Lee King (http://tinyurl.com/lqz324), 

1. What do you do better than everyone else? Focus on that. Prioritize that.

2. You’re a natural community gathering place. Focus on your community. Feed it. Grow it.

3. Ask people why they don’t use your library. Use that information to improve your services.

4. Find your largest population segment of “potential patrons” and focus on growing patrons there.

5. Don’t focus on yourself or your stuff – instead, turn your focus on your customers and their needs.

6. Maybe it’s something as simple as rearranging your stuff so normal people can actually find things.

We can do better than LC or Dewey call number order. Really.

7. Work on improving the experience at your library – both in the library and digitally.

According to a user study (Time for a CHANGE: NEW approaches for a NEW generation of LIBRARY USERS by Tamar Sadeh), Internet tools and services provide ease of use, access and speed.Therefore, users prefer online information search tools despite their respect for and trust in the library’s resources. I think this the good time for change and we must follow new approaches for a new generation of library users.