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LR
54,3 The public library system in
India: challenges and
opportunities
180
Maitrayee Ghosh
Sardar Patel College of Engineering, University of Mumbai, Mumbai,
Received February 2004
Reviewed April 2004 Maharashtra, India
Revised August 2004
Accepted November 2004
Abstract
Purpose – The current situation of Indian public libraries has been viewed by some as follows: the
public library system in India is condemned to remain peripheral to the actual information needs of the
masses; that it is in a depressed state, and serves as little more than a warehouse of recreational
reading materials, a majority of which are in regional languages. This paper suggests possible
remedies on how to transform the situation, and details new technological developments which are
already showing the potential to change public libraries in rural India for the better.
Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive account of the contemporary situation in India
with regard to public libraries, digital technologies and development possibilities, using official
statistics and the LIS literature.
Findings – The challenges that face public libraries in India are listed and a vision for their future
based on the concept of “ICT for development” is sketched out.
Research limitations/implications – It is difficult to get an overall view of this topic: authorized
statistics on public libraries in India as a whole are not collected, because these libraries are the
responsibility of a variety of agencies who, for various reasons, never disclose such information on a
national scale.
Practical implications – The author details new technological developments, the practical
outcome of which would in particular facilitate the establishment of digital library services in rural
India.
Originality/value – This paper provides a useful overview of a library scenario on which
aggregated statistical data is hard to find; and, from this summary of the present situation, goes on to
suggest possible ways to transform the “digital divide” into “digital opportunities”.
Keywords Public libraries, India, Rural economies, Economic development
Paper type General review

Introduction
India can now claim to be the world’s largest democracy: its population growth has
made it the second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark[1]. As
its population grows, it is faced by enormous challenges in areas such as literacy and
education, areas in which it has long been acknowledged that the public library has an
indispensable role to play. This role accords with the definition in the UNESCO Public
Library Manifesto (UNESCO, 2004), which declares that the public library is “the local
Library Review gateway to knowledge, [and] provides a basic condition for lifelong learning,
Vol. 54 No. 3, 2005
pp. 180-191 independent decision-making and cultural development of the individual and social
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0024-2535
groups”. In this vision of public libraries, they are seen as people-oriented institutions
DOI 10.1108/00242530510588935 which should service the widest population possible.
 However, public libraries in India are in an abject state. Possessing neither regularly The public
renewed print collections nor vibrant non-print multimedia resources that could lure in library system
illiterate or semi-literate folk, they suffer from a variety of infrastructure, manpower
and monetary constraints, as well as being low in the priorities of policy makers and in India
implementing bodies.
At the same time as India’s expanding population looks for innovative support and
services from its libraries, the country has emerged as one of the global leaders in 181
information technology and one of the largest exporters of knowledge workers. In this
digital era, the people of India should thus come to think of the public library not only as
a champion of books and knowledge but as a major access point to the benefits of the
digital age. But again, as a developing country, the economic conditions for libraries and
information centers are poor in this regard, especially by comparison with the developed
world. On the one hand, there has been a significant degree of implementation of
automation and networking in special and academic libraries. But rural public libraries
are almost wholly dependent on financial support from central or state government for
their collection development, infrastructure and human resources, and as a result
planning for modern tools and IT facilities in public libraries has not taken place.
Despite this, public libraries have a major role to play in bridging the “digital divide”.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the capacity to open up new
ways of interactive communication between the citizen, public libraries and civil society
at large. But before this can happen, modernization and upgrading of public libraries in
terms of ICT applications and also staff proficiency is required, with the view of meeting
the informational, cultural and leisure needs of the underprivileged rural masses in order
to increase the numbers of them who are registered library members.

Current state of public libraries in India

The state of public libraries varies between different parts of the country. In particular
the condition of the majority of public libraries in rural areas is poor. Many of them do
not have their own buildings, being located in no more than small thatched huts; or
they have to share the premises of other institutions. Storage facilities are very poor
and the stock of reading materials is small.
According to the Constitution of India, public library development is a State
responsibility. Therefore, all States are vested with the mandate to set up libraries at
different levels within each State. But out of 29 States and 6 Union Territory
Administrations, only 11 states have so far passed library legislation, enabling their
respective state governments to provide a public library system. So, as a response to
this variability in the level of development in the States, the Department of Culture of
the Government of India has set up the Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation
(RRRLF). It is intended to act as a nodal agency for development of public libraries in
India and has also been given the responsibility for resource mobilization for
modernization of the State and District central libraries, the development of
infrastructure and training of personnel (Table I).

State Central libraries 28

District libraries 451 Table I.
Taluka libraries 501 Public library system in
Rural libraries 29,820 India
LR In consequence, there are now 28 State central libraries situated in different cities
54,3 which are funded by the RRRLF. Presently the RRRLF is working to spread library
services all over the country in active cooperation with State governments, Union
Territory Administrations and voluntary organizations (NGOs) working in this field.
It is clear then that the public library scenario is not uniform in India. It is difficult to
collect authorized statistics on public libraries in the country, as they are under the
182 responsibility of a variety of agencies who, for various reasons, never disclose such
information on a national scale. This forces us to guess about the state of a vast
number of public libraries, though it is not hard to imagine the difficulties they face in
facilitating information and library support to the mass of over a billion population,
spread over 32 lakh[2] square kilometres, with a spectrum of literacy, intelligence,
money, cultural and caste values. And just as States differ in size, population, literacy
rate, status of books produced in the particular regional language, and economic
growth, so does the public library system also differ from State to State. Also there are
administrative problems such as the fact that rural libraries in some States form a part
of the public library system and in some other States they came under the jurisdiction
of the Adult Education Department or Public Relations Department. Wide-spread
illiteracy is the greatest handicap for developing library services, both in certain urban
and rural areas set in the traditional pattern.
The RRRLF’s program of assistance is most helpful to the cause of public library
services in the countryside. The program provides the best example of resource
sharing of public library services at all levels and the Foundation has made great
strides in promoting library service across the country. During the last 28 years, out of
60,000 public libraries scattered over the country, the Foundation has helped more than
31,000 libraries at different levels (Bhattacharjee, 2002).
But a great number of these public libraries (of which approximately 70 per cent
may be rural) are merely reading rooms with neither a generous supply of books, nor
adequate infrastructure nor trained staff. According to the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) standards, there should be one public
library for every 3,000 people. Thus, with over one billion people, India needs more
than 343,000 public library units. India has around 568,558 inhabited villages and there
may be just one public library for eight to ten of them. Yet one of the IFLA standards
stipulates that the nearest library unit should not be more than a mile away from the
residential area it serves. The discrepancy is clear.
To summarise, the major constraints faced by the public library system which
militate against effective dissemination of information are:
.
A considerable percentage of the population is illiterate or functionally literate
making libraries of minimal use to them.
.
Poor resource allocation for infrastructure improvement and collection
development for public libraries.
.
Lack of sufficient sanctioned posts, forcing most services to be operated by voluntary
non-professional staff, which damages information organization and services.
.
The problem of educated professionals preferring to work in special and
academic libraries than public libraries.
. Little emphasis on the adoption of information and communication technology
for public library systems and services.
ICT driven public libraries – the need of the hour The public
Libraries are the ideal place to offer public access to ICT resources as they are found in
nearly every community and they are staffed by professionals whose job is to help library system
people meet and manage their information needs. The public library can be understood in India
as the public access point to the “Information highway”. If the government is serious
about breaking down the digital divide it cannot ignore a sector that provides free
public access to these services thus befitting it for the role of major access point to the 183
benefits of the digital age.
H.K. Kaul, Director of the Developing Library Network (DELNET), New Delhi, has
opined that “Our public library system in the country failed totally in bringing
knowledge to the doorsteps of every individual. It is advisable for us to look at the
problem afresh, especially when the computer and communication technologies have
now become available to us at a minimal cost” (Kaul, 2002).
It is to be hoped that, with the help of the relevant technologies, public libraries will
foster partnerships throughout the country to promote sharing of resources. People
need to understand how to locate and evaluate the information sources available to
them. The objective is to promote the free flow of information and ideas in the interest
of all citizens, thus creating a thriving culture, economy and democracy.
ICT-driven public libraries should act as an intermediary centre with suitable
awareness programs for improving literacy, awareness, welfare and cultural
awakening (Figure 1). It is the intention that public libraries could offer a single
integrated environment for the dissemination of information concerned with all aspects
of human life. “Public libraries can act as an offline relay by downloading and sending
network available information to those out of network reach, or by attracting people to
nearby libraries to access [the] internet” (Miao, 1998).

Figure 1.
A proposed model of
ICT-driven Public Library
LR The emergence of rural digital libraries in India
54,3 The emergence of intranet-based “Gyandoot” digital libraries (DLs) in the Dhar district
of Madhya Pradesh has changed the lives of its underprivileged rural communities.
“Gyandoot” is a unique form of G2C (Government to citizen) DL activity which is
intended to address the hardship imposed by transaction costs associated with
government services. It connects 21 cyber cafes called “Soochanalayas” which provide
184 services to about 10 to 15 “gram panchayats”, each of which consists of a group of
20-30 villages with aggregate populations of between 20,000 and 30,000 people. The
Soochanalayas are located at block head quarters, haat bazaars and bus depots and
also on the roadside where people normally travel. These cyber cafes are operated by a
local operator called a Soochak, who is a local volunteer not a government person
(Figure 2).

Factors inhibiting the development of public libraries

Access to ICT for many in India continues to be marginal due to the high cost of
connectivity, which results in the exclusion of many from the emerging global
information system. So despite advances in ICT, its benefits have not reached the
majority of the population, particularly the economically backward classes.
The main reason why the public library movement has not yet reached take-off
stage is paucity of funds, lack of prioritisation for it on the part of government,
and absence of an integrated approach to social welfare and community
development.

Figure 2.
Government network
infrastructure to support
rural digital libraries
Lack of national policies promoting ICT as a tool for development The public
The Government of India has started framing its IT policy but it may take time to put library system
these policies into action. One thing is sure, early indications are that the involvement
of public libraries is very small. It may be that there is concern about the inertia in the in India
system and the huge investments which would be required to rejuvenate public
libraries. But, because library IT creates a multidimensional service facility, ICT
introduction here will benefit the community in the long run, unlike many other single 185
purpose service arms of the government.

Political aspects
We are living in a highly politicized time and democracy is a “numbers game” in which
all political parties try to tailor their social commitments to suit their own interest
groups. In many cases, high profile decisions aim to woo a particular part of the
electorate – they are taken with vested interests in mind and may not be for the benefit
of the people for whom the underlying policy has been designed.

Linguistic and cultural diversity

There are many languages in India, and even in one place more than one language may
be spoken. Any information required might not be available in the language in which
one is proficient. We need fast and good translation mechanisms to get over this
problem.

Lack of resources constrain developing library services

The need of the hour is the compulsory provision of free public library services. In the
wake of the slogan “Education for All” follows the complementary battle cry of “Books
for All”. As a consequence of making education a fundamental right, free, unhindered,
easy access to books and libraries also becomes essential and should be ensured. In the
case of public libraries resources should be sufficient to cover print and non-print, text
and pictorial, multimedia sources, films, and so on to attract all types of persons in the
vicinity.

Inadequacy and problems in transfer of funds

The funds required for undertaking developmental projects and forming consortia of
public libraries need to be pooled from government, charitable societies, public trusts,
and individual donations, as well as from subscription charges from the member
libraries. However, this can be problematic, as Jagdish Arora, the national coordinator
of Indian National Digital Library of Engineering Science and Technology (INDEST)
Consortium has noted: “administrative problems are involved in transfer of funds from
various participating libraries to the consortia” (Arora, 2001).

Lack of a joined up approach

Public library authorities must develop strong and sustainable working relationships
with other information centres, special and academic libraries in the region in order to
develop collaboration for promoting and modernizing public library services in the
country.
LR Possible solutions
54,3 There are many challenges facing those committed to the implementation of ICT in
public libraries in India, a country of one billion people where millions of Indians are
connected to the internet but millions more are not yet even connected to electricity.
Despite all of these daunting contrasts, the Government of India is convinced that ICT
applications can help revolutionize life in rural regions for a minimum cost.
186
Official guidelines
Arun Shourie, Union Minister of IT and Telecommunications, India suggested the
following four projects in his address to the World Summit on Information Society on
11 December 2003 in Geneva:
(1) use of ICT to abolish illiteracy;
(2) develop a universal networking language – so that a person in India can put his
data or message on to the net in any of our 18 languages, and the machine
translate it into this universal networking language[3];
(3) bring text-to-voice and voice-to-text software to perfection for the print disabled
(for further background, see also Williamson et al., 2001);
(4) one of the severest impediments today that stops people availing themselves of
the benefits of the information society is the expense of laying a network
infrastructure to their door step. We should complete research that would
enable wireless signals to go to a significant multiple of the 50/60 kilometers
they traverse at present.
It is high time for action, and with these clear guidelines for us to follow and implement
we can see how public libraries can act as a “safety net” for those groups of people who
otherwise might not have access to the networks. This would include low-income
individuals, people in remote areas, and people who are not familiar with networking.
The expectation should be that eventually everyone would be able to trawl the internet
to find the information they require for personal, social and economic development
needs.

Consolidation and expansion of the public libraries network

It is acknowledged that government should take steps to provide public access to the
internet, but it also should encourage the development, specifically in public libraries, of
communication access centers that will play an important role in bridging the digital
divide. There are proposals from the telecommunications ministry to open cyber-cafes – it
would be a good idea to put them in public libraries wherever there is one in the vicinity.
Public library authorities have a responsibility to ensure that library and
information networks are as comprehensively available as other public utilities and
provided at reasonable cost. The hope should be that the number of networked public
libraries in our country will cross the one lakh mark within a couple of years and then
reach the level as specified in the IFLA recommendations by the year 2020. Both
existing and new libraries should have infrastructure that is at least capable of access
to electronic information over national and international networks and to access local
information in multiple formats. The social entrepreneurs who are actively working on
ICT may, with the appropriate incentives, undertake pilot projects to connect rural
villages to the internet and to the established rural public libraries network.
Work for target groups; collections of special materials; specialized information services The public
The public library has to serve as a cultural and educational centre for the community in library system
which it is located. In a developing country like India, public libraries should have a
vigorous extension programme in order to make information more usable to their clientele. in India
Public libraries have to play a direct role in local development – it cannot stop at just the
mere technical processing of literature, some further manipulation may be needed. Specific
information required by the public is beyond the reach of ordinary reference services. 187
Public libraries also have to play a crucial role in both controlling and facilitating access to
a growing number of local and remote electronic information resources and . . . “in guiding
users to find the most reliable and relevant information for their needs, what has been
called as the librarian as knowledge navigator” (Shourie, 2003).
Librarians working in public libraries can help people “navigate” through
information. For example, by creating pathfinders and/or offer training sessions on
how to use e-mail, search engines, or do word processing. They can also help people to
develop and use new resources and forums: for example, if individuals wish to be more
actively involved in an electronic medium, such as creating a public forum on local
issues, librarians can help to get access to both local and remote resources. Second
generation software allows portal building within a web site budget, opening up the
possibility for librarians of their developing e-groups for inter-communication at
different levels, and a variety of community portals.

Access to health information through public libraries

The days of a passive one-way relationship between doctor and patient are gone with
the advent of initiatives such as the UK National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH),
which opens up a one stop gateway to quality assured and up-to-date health
information on the internet. Katy Lancaster has written that “the public library also
has an important role to play in the provision of health information. People see libraries
as familiar and accessible and as a reliable source of information” (Lancaster, 2003).
During a pilot project electronic health information services were set up in public
libraries in Birmingham and Hampshire. Although a variety of problems and barriers
to effective use of the NeLH in public libraries were identified in the period of
investigation between December 2001 and May 2002 (such as the levels of information
provided, visual appearance, search facilities, the need for staff assistance and staff
training), the initiative remains a valuable example of what can be achieved.
Another relevant UK National Health Service (NHS) initiative would include the use
of “touch screen” information kiosks located in health centres and libraries (Nicholas
et al., 2002). The recommendations that have come out of these pilot projects may be
used by public libraries in India, who should try to implement similar initiatives of
their own for the benefit of health professionals as well as patients.
Such health-information initiatives are particularly vital, given that India has the
largest number of HIV cases in the world. As of now approximately 5 million people
are affected with this disease, and the figure could accelerate further if urgent action is
not taken. Realizing the seriousness of the problem, public libraries have to serve as
powerful agencies for creating awareness and dissemination of relevant information
among the people of the country. The public library can support HIV/AIDS education
services and prevention-based AIDS program by working to a clearly defined concept
of what the community needs in terms of information provision in this field.
LR E-learning through public libraries
54,3 In a country like India e-learning now has great relevance, especially for extending
higher education into new, previously neglected areas of its people. A large percentage
of the target population is beyond the reach of formal education channels due to a
variety of inherent weaknesses in the teaching system, including the lack of traditional
educational infrastructure in many areas. E-learning initiatives may benefit rural folk
188 who leave formal education channels either due to lack of locally available facilities or
due to other economic commitments.

Public library as knowledge centre/multi purpose community centre

As mentioned earlier public libraries are considered as “the local gateways to
knowledge”. The Indian federal government has recently granted permission to
educational institutions to set up and run community radio stations. This low cost
technology can really reach out to the common people who are still battling poverty
and illiteracy. The federal government has decided to give community broadcasting
licenses to “Well established educational institutions or organizations recognized by
central government or the state government” (Noronha, 2003). It is essential that
government should allow public libraries across the country to set up similar facilities.
Similarly, a number of knowledge centers (KC) have been established in our
country. KnowNet[4] is a virtual network for recognizing, evaluating and sharing local
knowledge. It has created some simple and easy to use online resources to enable
communities and individuals to take full advantage of the ICT revolution. The
KnowNet initiative is a virtual help point that acts as a two-way communication
system for extracting and hosting information on the net with its entire range of
activities being carried out through the help of remote volunteers.
These centers differ from ordinary libraries not just by name but also by function.
KCs are making full use of computing and communication technology and repositioning
themselves as learning centers. Public libraries in India should assume a similar
function, emulating their role as knowledge servers by interfacing people and
knowledge, consolidating information and networking global knowledge. So far, public
libraries have not yet involved themselves fully in the knowledge revolution in this way.

E-governance through public libraries

Internationally, there is growing awareness of the capacity for ICT to transform the
relationship between the State and the citizen (Grimshaw, 2003; Stoker, 2000; Nath,
2001). There are specific examples of such e-government initiatives in India also, which
have implications for public library services. For example, the State Government of
Kerala has deployed a project called Akshaya – the country’s largest rural wireless
network (using wireless VINE technology) run by the gram Panchayats and offering
e-governance and utility services to citizens of the State. Each Akshaya centre caters to
between 1,000 and 1,500 households. Such centres have potential to be established
within public libraries.
This project will allow citizens to use a service called “Friends”. This is a single
window distribution point for 35 services such as electricity bill payment, tax bills and
university fees, and use of VOIP for making long distance calls. Services like online
rural banking, online technology resource centres, e-enabled education centers, call
center-assisted health care and e-post are in hand (Pasha, 2004).
 The PRAGATI project of Pravara village of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra The public
aims to connect a hundred villages covering a population of more than 2.5 lakh with a library system
wireless MAN solution (WMAN). It will empower rural populations, especially women,
and improve quality of life: “[This]. . .program will help the villages in establishing in India
local IT centers, dissemination of Information regarding Government schemes,
marketing of Agricultural products, health care, education, agro-processing, economic
development” (Pasha, 2002). As with the Akshaya project, this initiative shows as how 189
there is potential to establish such local centres within public libraries.

Education and training for staff

Training is crucial in opening up online services for people using public libraries. Staff
working in public libraries must be encouraged to attend continuing education
programs and skill enhancement to use ICT technologies to the fullest extent in
delivering public library services. Public libraries must be under the control of a full
time library professional and they should get allowances and service conditions
comparable to their counterparts in academic, research and special libraries. What is
needed most is a competent librarian who can organize services in a balanced manner
for all sections of the community served by the library.

Developing national consortia for licensing and procurement

Inter-library cooperation and coordination of resource-sharing is facilitated in the
network environment – it is obviously easier for libraries to form consortia and share
electronic information resources over networks. In India, Engineering Libraries have
established the INDEST consortium (Arora, 2001), which is centrally funded by the
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), of the Government of India. This
model can be transferred to the public library system, with the RRRLF central funding
agency acting as a national coordinating body on behalf of public libraries with the aim
of developing partnerships among public libraries and forming a national consortium
across India.

Conclusion
There is much optimism about the potential beneficial impact on society of public
policy in relation to IT and to public libraries (Evald, 1996; Fors and Moreno, 2002;
Yilmaz, 2002). Public libraries are often talked about as the possible solution to
information poverty as they are in a position to provide free access to the internet for
their communities. We look to them to promote the use of convergence technologies
which reduce the disparity in knowledge distribution between rich and poor, educated
and uneducated, rural and urban, men and women.
Public libraries in India do have the potential to use new information and
communication technologies to create online facilities and services which will further
transform our lives. Although information and communication technologies in India
were first made a part of rural development in the 1980s, rural public libraries
remained largely forgotten in the dissemination of information to rural populations.
Moreover, IT policy formulated since the year 2000 has shown little interest in the
development of rural libraries. This scenario needs to change: we the information
professionals need to come forward and study the present system of operation and find
a better solution to transform straightforward reading rooms into an
LR information/knowledge centre where people, weighed down by illiteracy or limited
54,3 education, find value.
Edwards (2001) has rightly pointed out that, “Providing access to information has
traditionally been about buildings, based around institutions offering services to onsite
users. Building tomorrow’s libraries will not simply be a matter of installing rows of
computers with internet access: our users will increasingly expect to be able to access
190 material from where they live and work. Providing access will increasingly be about
developing electronic information services such as internet portals and acting as a
broker between content providers and remote users”. This is the challenge for public
libraries in India today.

Notes
1. The population of India was 1,027,015,247 according to census of the year 2001.
2. Lakh ¼ 10 to the fifth power, i.e. 100,000.
3. As background to this statement, it should be noted that a Chennai-based company has
developed a language software package called “Shakti” and launched it as a viable bilingual
application. It offers word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, database management, and web
authoring tools with additional options to switch to Tamil or Hindi from English at the click
of a mouse. The application works with existing keywords and transliterates the text typed
in English. Available at the web site: www.chennaikavigal.com/products.htm (accessed 19
December 2004).
4. KnowNet, available at the web site: www.knownet.org (accessed 19 December 2004).

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Further reading
Sharma, A. and Yurcik, W. (2000), “The emergence of rural digital libraries in India: the
Gyandoot digital library”, Proceedings of the ASIS Annual Conference (ASIS 2000),
Chicago, IL November, available at: www.asis.org/Bulletin/May-01/sharmayurcik.html
(accessed 17 December 2004).