Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:39:09 -0500
From: Ghulam Jeelani Shah
Respected Sir
It is here to mention the deteriorating situation of libraries in cities
in general and far flung areas in particular.I am from Srinagar,J & K.The
district library here although is a huge building but unable to satisfy
the basic needs of its users.Same is the situation of city central library
and other public libraries.The main cause is the lack of professional
interest and desire to enlighten the name of our profession.Our colleagues
working in such libraries work there for the sake of duty but not for the
sake of their profession.We actually have forgotten the importance of our
profession and we are still treating it from its traditional
perspective.Perhaps either we do not know or we deliberately keep our eyes
closed in front of the fact that western world went for full automation of
their collection in the last century.But we are not able to provide the
satisfactory reference services to our users.It is not the case that there
is nothing in our hands although we have financial barriers and we have
limited manpower,we can go for the cooperation-cooperation with our
colleagues,with other libraries either at local level or regional level and
even at national level.This can at least help us to reach that satisfactory
level where our users will feel that their needs are fulfilled to some
extent.So have a pause-THINK-and join hands.Remember if we will let our
users to read,we will let our Nation to lead.
Thanks,
Yours Obediently
Ghulam Jeelani Shah
Teaching Assistant
Deptt. of Library & Information Science
University of Kashmir
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