Library and Society

A panel discussion
Bangalore Social Science Forum
DR. H N Hall, National College, Basavanagudi,
Bangalore
April 13, 2009 ; 6.00 pm

M S Sridhar
Former Head, Library & Documentation
ISRO Satellite Centre
Bangalore
 Introduction
• Libraries existed as records room and collection of
clay tablets since 3rd millennium BC
• Later forms included other perishables like papyrus
and parchment (leather)
• Destroying such libraries in war and building new
ones and at times, from war booty were common
• Most were private individual possessions of rulers,
rich and aristocrats (later that of religious
institutions) with access to selected few
• Renaissance generated zeal for learning with
demand for books, which handwritten manuscripts
could not meet
• Johannes Guttenberg invented ‘movable printing
press’ in 1439, which gave boost for mass
production of books and brought books and
libraries to the reach ofMcommon
S Sridhar
man
Library and Society 2
 Library and Society
• Library and society are inter-linked and
interdependent
• Library is a well acknowledged ‘social agency’
• The social role of library is complex and its
responsibilities are stupendous
• There is a strong communication between library
and society
• Library plays pivotal role in molding and shaping
society (a training school for democracy)
• Holds cumulated and consolidated intellectual
output of society (authors are alive in books and
libraries!)
• Transmits and disseminates accumulated
experience of society to its individual members
through the instrument called ‘book’
Library and Society M S Sridhar 3
 Library
• An effective means and strategy for handling
explosion of information and knowledge
• A ‘social (& public) institution’: a product of
society for its cultural development enabling
group to survive and conserve the past
• Library is the ‘mind of society’, ‘house of
wisdom and learning’, ‘community’s
intellectual center’, ‘common stock of
knowledge’, ‘roots and fruits of great
civilization’, ‘product of our cultural
maturation’, etc.
• “Without public library support there can be no
true democracy, no real freedom of mind or of
body” - Unesco
Library and Society M S Sridhar 4
 Information Age
Agricultural Industrial Information
Age Age Age
Duration Thousands of Centuries Decades
years
Contributio Steep falling Steep Fast increasing
n (55 to 25% in falling (46% from
to GDP 50yrs) service
Economy)
Employme slow falling (70 slow falling fast increasing
nt to 66% in 50yrs)
Learning parents schools self
from
Inputs men machines mind

Library and Society M S Sridhar 5

 Types of Libraries: a strategy to
meet diverse needs of Society

• Public libraries (common man’s university)

• Academic libraries (hub of learning)
• National libraries (repository of nation’s
heritage)
• Special libraries (information service
centers)
• Others like Private, Digital, Hybrid, etc.

Library and Society M S Sridhar 6

 Role of Libraries in Society
• Educational needs
Formal and non-formal
Life long self-education for self improvement
and well informed citizenry
Literacy promotion; in-service trainings
• Entertainment/ Recreation & Cultural and
Ideological needs
Purposeful and useful utilization of leisure
time (needs to compete with aggressive
players of digital media like TV, Internet, etc.)
To preserve and encourage cultural and
intellectual activities of the community
Library and Society M S Sridhar 7
 Role of Libraries in Society contd.
• Preserving heritage for posterity
• Information Services – business, economic,
social and other information to needy
• Support to R&D and industrial developments
• Others
Providing a quite place
New roles like filling tax forms, magic show,
reading clubs, internet, etc.
A move in American libraries is to provide
even video game clubs for teenagers

Library and Society M S Sridhar 8

 Place of Library in Society
Those meeting esoteric requirements like
religious service, art, etc. as well as those
considered extremely precious/ essential
resources like money, health, food, etc. are
certainly on top
Books and libraries are neither esoteric nor
essential for existence
But library services should be at least on par
with other welfare services
Unfortunately, a striking characteristic of all
under developed nations is their paucity of
libraries

Library and Society M S Sridhar 9

 Provision for Libraries: Some Facts
As per IFLA standard, there should be one public library
for every 3000 people & the nearest library unit should
be not more than a mile away
Accordingly, we should have had 330,000 public library
units; But we actually have 60,000 (In 1954, we had
32,000; During next 48 yrs 28,000 were added, i.e., @
600/yr, we require 500 more years to create remaining
268,000!)
Russia has 325,000 libraries for 22 crore population,
i.e., 1 per 677 people & 6 b books (27 books/ head) in
70 languages
India has 1 library for every 16,000 people; In Karnataka
per capita books is 0.26 & per capita expenditure is
Rs. 1.23
Karnataka is the 3rd state to enact P L ACT (1966); Since
then , in 36 yrs established 3000 libs with 1100
personnel (at least 17,000 lib units are required)
M S Sridhar
Library and Society 10
 Libraries in India (Estimate for 96-97)
Public Libraries 54845

University / Deemed to be University Libraries 267

College Libraries 8000

Science and Technology Libraries 1200

Social Science Libraries 450

Government Department Libraries 800

Art, Culture and Humanities Libraries 500

School Libraries (Higher secondary / Secondary / 404128

Primary and Upper Primary)
Total
Source: 1. India, Planning Commission. Report of the working group of the Planning
Commission of Libraries and Information for the Ninth Five Year Plan, 1997-2002.
New Delhi, May 1996.
2. India, National Council of Educational Research and Training. Sixth All India
Educational Survey. New Delhi, 1998.
Library and Society M S Sridhar 11
Statistical miscellany – 16 M S Sridhar, Head, LDD (Dec. 1, ’02)

Biggest Libraries of the World (Volumes in millions)

RANK NAME PLACE VOLS IN M
Nati onal l i br ar y of I ndi a 3 1 Llibrary of congress Wash, DC 23
2 N.L. of China Beijing 16

Yal e Uni vi ver si ty Li br ar y 9.5 3 N.L. of Canada Ottawa 14.5

4 Deutsch bibliotek Frankfurt 14.4
5 British Library London 13.0
New Yor k Publ i c Li br ar y 1 0. 5 6 Harvard University Cambridge 2.9
7 Russian State Library Moscow 11.8

Nati onal Di et Li br ar y (J apan) 11.3 8 Nat.Diet Library Tokyo 11.3

9 New York Pub. Lib. New York 10.5
10 Yale Univ. Library New Heron 9.5
Russi an State Li br ar y 1 1 .8 Note: Indian National library claims to
have several million items
including 3 m books
Har var d Uni ver si ty Li br ar y 1 2. 9

Br i ti sh Li br ar y 13

Deutsch bi bl i otek (Ger many) 1 4. 4

Nati onal Li br ar y of Canada 1 4. 5

Nati onal Li br ar y of Chi na 16

Li br ar y of Congr ess 23

0 5 10 15 20 25
Library and Society M S Sridhar 12
 Special Libraries
• Special library is a 20th century phenomenon
• Industrial revolution, world wars, industrial &
scientific research followed by tremendous
increase in publications, need to know what has
already been done & published in a given area
have led to the idea of information service
• A sort of 'intelligent department' with the duty to
get to know all other possible sources of
information & organise the literature came into
existence
Library and Society M S Sridhar 13
 Special Libraries contd.

• ‘Putting knowledge to work' is the mission; serves as

a source of knowledge rather than recreation and
collects all the information in wide variety of forms
that will help its organisation to fulfill its policy/
mission and bring its work to fruition quickly and in
some cases, at least, profitably
• They serve limited highly specialised customers
• Normally not open to public
• They emphasise unit of information rather than
complete document

Library and Society M S Sridhar 14

 Organise wide variety of forms
No. of Records
Database (As of Dec 2006)
Books 42374
Conference papers 58802
Seminars held at ISAC 171
Reports (Hard Copy) 15433
Reports (Microfiche) 144897
Standards 8500
ISAC Reports 4892
ISAC papers 725
Hindi / Kannada / Govt. rule
books 2595
Non-book Materials 2344
Student Reports 1227
Bound Journals 24282
Journal Articles 4000
310242
TOTAL
Library and Society M S Sridhar 15
 Digital Contents (Full Text E-Resources)
A. Owned/ held (born-digital)
CDs Floppies Total
• books 779 340 1119 Non-book materials
• journals 654 41 695 • Video cassettes 120
• reports 37 1 38 • Motion pictures 35
• standards 1 7 8 • Maps 78
• Others 6 - 6 • Charts 12
• Slide sets 6
Total 1477 389 1866
• Globes 2
B. Not owned (Cyber copies)
• Audio files 108
• e-journals 145
• e-books / reports 3
• Online books stores 57
C. Specially digitised collection
• Internal reports
• Papers of ISACians
• In-house Technical Journal JST at
www.j-gate.informindia.co.in
Library and Society M S Sridhar 16
 No. of visitors to Library Home Page –Dec 2006

2247
4 2
3 1338 1 4
4 3
6 4
7 9 2
8 1
8 1
8 153 2
1 1
1 6
1 7
1 1
0 50 26 1
13
10 6
5
3 2
103 7
4 2
9 23 1
30
8 1
27

Library and Society M S Sridhar 17

 Reading Habit
• Ours is more a ‘chatting society’ than ‘reading
society’; Cultural habit is to listen and chat than
serious reading
• One who does not read books has no advantage
over one who cannot read (An educated who is
not having reading habit is in no way better
position than an illiterate)
• In children, 8 to 13 years age is considered to be
the golden age for developing reading habit as a
leisure activity
• Reading habit is like ‘passport’ to many different
new ’worlds’ like the world of past, future,
technology, nature, outer space, other countries
and above all the innermost part of human heart
(personality)
Library and Society M S Sridhar 18
 Reading Habit contd.
• Parents (particularly father) and teacher are the role
models for children in acquiring the habit
• If the child is exposed to more books, it helps him to
develop a strong liking for reading
• In India hardly 28% of educated have reading habit; Of
which 16% do light/ rare reading and 7% occasional
reading
• Average American reads < 1 book per year; 58%
never finish a nonfiction book after high school; more
than 50% of adults have not read any book for last 6
months;
• In Britain, 25% of adults have not read any book for
last 6 months; In last 25 years, reading time has
increased from 3 to 7 minutes per day and readers
have gone up by 17%
• In Brazil, only one-third (25%) of educated have
reading habit M S Sridhar
Library and Society 19
 Reading Habit & Digital Explosion
• Digital invasion is the main enemy
• TV with easy access and massive instantaneous
dissemination capacity needs no efforts and
consumption skills; it is powerful hypnotic
gadget and a cultural melting pot
• Considered as a third parent to children
• Cuts margin between childhood and adulthood
• As violent and ‘hot’ medium exposes to
unrealistic and provocative life (about 1 lakh acts
of violence are seen by an average American
child before attaining the age of 13)
• TV has scant respect for intelligent viewers
• Internet has created ‘digital nomads’
Library and Society M S Sridhar 20
 Reading
• A multilevel cognitive mental process
• A tool of learning; Exemplary form of learning (a
good reader is a good learner or improved reading
ability improves learning ability)
• No more a privilege of small cross section of society;
Provides life-long self-education (In 100 years 80%
doing manual vocation changed to 80% doing
intellectual profession)
• Good readers like reading (Non-readers read poorly
& find reading a difficult task)
• Makes full use of individual’s capacity
• Broadens & creates life-long interest
• Books are bearers of knowledge from generation to
generation & they can hardly be superseded by any
other medium in passing on intellectual
achievements
Library and Society M S Sridhar 21
 Reading contd.
• Reading is ‘cool’, provides lasting experience, allows
flexibility in use, no health hazard, upholds cultural
values, perception independent (as against perceptual
constancy of TV), demands careful mental processing
and analysis leading to analytic mode of learning (as
against synthetic mode of TV)
• Reading supports drive for self improvement, breaks
loneliness and isolation created by technology,
provides freedom & autonomy, respects individuality,
supports diversity. It leads to purposeful & fruitful time
spending, sponsors rational thinking and
dispassionate analysis
• Research has shown that reading improved
performance as well as behaviour of school children
Library and Society M S Sridhar 22
 Market Penetration of telecommunication,
Internet, PC, Pay-TV and Public Libraries

2005 2008
Fixed line 4.0 5
Mobile 2.1 9.1
Internet 1.8 6.9
PCs 1.3 2.6
Pay-TV Subscribers 3.9 5.7

Public Library <2

(Source: The India Telecom rep 2005 by Business Monitor

Int. ltd)

Library and Society M S Sridhar 23

 Media in Karnataka
Urban Rural Total
Newspaper 45.2 19 27.9
TV 80 46.4 68.7
Radio 22.9 23.3 21.8
Cinema 9.6 5 13.5
Internet 2.3 0.3 1.5
Mobile 3 0.2 1.1
Total 86.6 60.5 79.0

(Source: Maxes, Bangalore; Figures are coverage in

%; Urban: Rural 30 :70)

Library and Society M S Sridhar 24

 Reading Habit & TV
In Japan with the advent of TV, time spent on reading (150 m/ day) in
60’s is reduced to 33m/ day in 1995.
In America, hours spent per person in 2000 (In another survey, about 5
hours per day)
Television 1633
Radio 961
Recorded Music 263
Daily Newspapers 151
Internet 124
Magazines 107
Books 90
Video Games 70
Home Video 59
Movies in Theaters 12
Total 3470
(Source: Veronis, Suhler. Quoted from Liebowitz Accn no. 38954, p126 & 134)
Library and Society M S Sridhar 25
Statistical miscellany-11 M S Sridhar, Head, LDD (Sep 16, ’02)
Percentage of time spent on print medium remained
same over the years - National Readership Survey
1995(%) 2001(%) PRINT
16.0%
2001
TV 62 72
INTERNET
RADIO 22 11 1.0%
INTERNET 0 1 RADIO
11.0%
PRINT 16 16
80 TV
70
1995(%) 72.0%
2001(%)
60

50

40 Note: 2001 survey had

212,000 adult
30
respondents; average
20 urban Indian spends 2
10
hrs a day on media
consumption
0
TV INTERNET
Library andRADIO
Society PRINT M S Sridhar 26
Statistical miscellany –13 M S Sridhar, Head, LDD (Oct. 16, ’02)

Web Characterisation & use surveys

T ype of sites Effectiveness of sites
clearly
designed
brochure
Provisional sites
w are
38% 2%
Public sites
41% 40%

Private no sites
21% found
58%

job related % of time spent

3
information

chat 10
• the ‘invisible’ or ‘deep’ web is over Internet use in India
500 times larger than ‘surface’ web
academic • ½ hr to 2 hrs per day (av: 86.1 min.)
• 25000 'mega sites' represent 50% 8
contents information • 97% for e-mail purpose
• mean size of a public site is > 130 • top of mind recall : yahoo 22%
pages general
7 hotmail 13%
• no engine is indexing > 16% 0f information
publicly accessible sites
• over 8000 search engines; >800 m e-mail 38
pages ; >8 m sites

0 10 20 30 40
Library and Society M S Sridhar 27
 Book Buying Habit
• As per income elasticity of demand, books are
‘inferior’ goods of leisure industry
• Over a century, income distribution became more
skewed, spending on leisure increased from 1%
to 6% and is more evenly spread (leisure
spending is no more a luxury)
• For every 10% increase in income, there is 20%
increase in spending on leisure and most leisure
goods except books, magazines and newspapers
are income elastic
• Ten preferences of 100 sample teachers in
spending UGC arrears did not include books or
journals
• In Europe, there are more couples who own two
cars than buying two books a year
Library and Society M S Sridhar 28
 Book Buying Habit contd.

• 95% of books sold in America are bought

directly by individuals and remaining 5% by
libraries. Borrowed use of books of American
libraries is almost equal to 95% of books
directly bought and read by individuals.
• In contrast, book buying is poor in India.
Despite having second largest literate
population (after China) and large middle class
literates almost equal to US population,
individual purchases of books account for
less than 25% of total sales of books
• Per capita purchase of books in New Zealand
is more than 75 times that in India

Library and Society M S Sridhar 29

 Book Market
• Book production in India is down from 7th in
the world in 1960s to 17th in 1990s; third
largest for books in English (US & UK have
over a lakh titles per year)
• Official estimate is around 22000 titles where
as IPA estimates as about 57000 titles (40%
English books) with Delhi contributing 25%
• Only 2% or 18 m read English; English books
account for 21% of sales & almost 100% of
imported books are in English and mostly
from US or UK

Library and Society M S Sridhar 30

 Use of Libraries
• Use of library is a minority event
• A survey in one university revealed that not
even 5% of the teachers take books from the
library
• “The common experience is that library
facilities are often asked for, insisted upon,
but rarely made use of”
• “The lack of adequate library facilities is both
cause and effect of our low educational
achievement” – Moulana Azad

Library and Society M S Sridhar 31

 Conclusion : Future?
• Librarywala: Mumbai Karishma Merchant currently has
8,700 books with more than 1,100 members; the
cheapest plan costs Rs 139 per month for three books
• A new generation library for community in Whitefield
that would combine a book store ambience with a
traditional functioning of a library with effective usage
of technology including RFID tags called Just Books –
R Sundararajan
• There is strong tradition of voluntary and philanthropic
library service in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarath,
Kerala, Manipur and Mizoram (Kerala Granthalaya
Sangha has over 5000 libraries)
• In Karnataka, Ramakka-Padmakka Trust spends Rs. 6-7
lakhs a year & over 200 village libraries established
with this aid
• INFOSYS Foundation assisted thousands of school
libraries
Library and Society M S Sridhar 32
 Thank you

Library and Society M S Sridhar 33