You are correct, Library users are empowered and changed. "The user now expects library services to be available 24/7. The transformed library focuses on customer service, and attempts to understand the customer experience and how it can be improved. This requires active collaboration between users and library staff ………" [Source: http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/user-expections-and-impact-changing...] Above note is deep-routed to the great library philosopher Dr. Ranganathan's five laws of librarianship. Learning is shifting to Learner centric (from Teacher centric), so Libraries should be shifting to User centric (from Librarian centric). ---------- Dr. J. K. VIJAYAKUMAR, Manager, University Library Collections and Information Services, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, www.kaust.edu.sa On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 11:22 AM, Emmanuel E (RBEI/ETI) wrote: Dear All, Sharing with you an article, appeared in ET. In India the public libraries are failing to attract their users whereas commercial Libraries are flourishing. A section of librarians also have the apprehension that e-books, online/offline are taking away their users, if this is correct then how these commercial services which are based on the printed resources are flourishing. We librarians must change our attitude towards Library users, understand their needs, preferences, convenience, user experience etc. We need to learn how & what new techniques, skills, services and technologies they have/using and if possible adopt them in our environment by customizing them according to our needs. Rather a researcher can also take up this topic and do a thorough study and publish the results so that large number of libraries get benefited with this. Following is the article appeared in Economic Times: "As books come home, startups bookmark book-lending siteshttp://isourceupdates.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f3ed553733dd66434afc52780&id=e39d39f1aa&e=0d12448bf4" The Economic Times (Bangalore edition) - 18.02.2015 Online book library startups first piqued interest among readers with the launch of Just Books and Librarywala.com. Their success ... http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31815&articlexml=As-Books-Come-Home-Startups-Bookmark-Book-lending-18022015006044 Regards Emmanuel -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.