Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:39:09 -0500 From: Ghulam Jeelani Shah <jeelani4@lycos.com> 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 --