Public Libraries and their Role in Modern Society

By
Bheemashankar S
Library Assistant,
SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies,
Bengaluru - 560 083. Mob: 98450 01597
Email ID: bheemashankar.avanty@gmail.com

Ameet Kumar Joshi.

Library Assistant,
SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies,
Bengaluru - 560 083. Mob: 9448981584.
Email ID: joshi.ameetbrahmapur@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Every social activity of modern society is institutionalized. Between the diverse kinds
of institutions advanced in present era, public libraries remain the utmost widespread as they
acquire, process, organize and disseminate information recorded in various kinds of
documents free of cost to the society at large. Public library acts as a social institution of
rudimentary knowledge having a task which evolves in giving collection and services to
meet informational needs of the community. It serves as local gateway to information and
knowledge and provides conditions for lifelong learning, civic growth and free choice
making by an individual and group. It has a mission of providing information for education,
leisure and recreation. Thus public library and its multiple services are essential to achieve
the all-round social development, improve the quality of social life, preserve and disseminate
the cultural heritage of society. As Indian society is a polyglot and has a very diverse culture,
it is very much important for wisdom of veneration and concern for other linguistic and
cultural assemblages is vital to reinforce the harmony in diversity. Public library should
require addressing itself in establishing purposes and gathering of diverse social groups to
provide outlet to the ambition and charities of diverse philosophies.

Keywords: Public library, Modern society, Roles and responsibilities of public libraries,
Future of public libraries

Introduction:
From religion and rituals to research and development, from education and training to
political and economic development, from health and hygiene to business and industry, and
from environmental protection to national defense, every social activity of modern society is
institutionalized. Between the diverse kinds of institutions advanced in present era, public
libraries remain the utmost widespread as they acquire, process, organize and disseminate
information recorded in various kinds of documents free of cost to the society at large. You
may understand public library as a social institution of rudimentary knowledge having a task
which evolves in giving collection and services to meet informational needs of the
community. It serves as local gateway to information and knowledge and provides
conditions for lifelong learning, civic growth and free choice making by an individual and
group. It has a social mission of providing information for education, leisure and recreation.
The UNESCO statement announces that the public library is apprehensive with the
sustenance of public’s essence by the facility of books for easing and pleasure. (1) Thus
public library and its multiple services are essential to achieve the all-round social
development, improve the quality of social life, preserve and disseminate the cultural
heritage of society in its multiple forms. It is equally essential for economic development. As
you know the Indian society is a polyglot and has a very diverse culture. In this background
the wisdom of veneration and concern for other linguistic and cultural assemblages is vital to
reinforce the harmony in diversity. Public library should require addressing itself in
establishing purposes and gathering of diverse social groups to provide outlet to the ambition
and charities of diverse philosophies.

Factors Responsible for Growth of Public Libraries:

The public libraries which we find today have been developed in centuries. The early traces
of library in society are found to be of religious institutions. The monastic libraries, cathedral
libraries and parish libraries of United Kingdom are some of the examples. Later various
Private Libraries, Book Clubs, Subscription Libraries, Social Libraries, Mercantile Libraries,
Mechanics Institutes Libraries and School District-Public Libraries were established in UK
and USA in 18th and 19th Century. These libraries were started mostly with voluntary
efforts and had limited financial provisions to meet informational need of the society and
could not sustain for a longer period. However, these libraries were able to create library
awareness and spread the importance of libraries in society. 3 There are various other factors
which have aided in the growth and development of public libraries worldwide. These are:
 Invention of Printing
 Spread of Universal Education
 Spread of Literacy
 Progress in Science and Technology
 Fertile utilization of Relaxation
 Role of Philanthropy
 Library Act & Copy Right Facility

Invention of Printing:
One thing which has the highest order of impact on the growth and development of public
libraries is invention of printing. Prior to ink, paper and printing, small libraries of
manuscript existed in personal capacity. Production of books was time consuming, and
costly. The invention of ink, paper and printing by the Chinese, enhanced by the Arabs and
progressed by Europeans have facilitated manufacture of books in great quantity, in less
time, better in quality and at lesser cost. These inventions have directly contributed in the
development and growth of public libraries. Spread of Universal Education The spread of
education in masses to progress through collective efforts and contribute to the national
progress has helped the development of public libraries to a great extent. The Public
Libraries were established to support life-long self-education in various walks of life. Spread
of Literacy The spread of literacy ratio worldwide has also contributed to the development of
public libraries. The increasing number of literate and neo literate citizen have emphasized
the demand for establishment of libraries for easy access to books and other reading
materials to satisfy the urge of knowledge. Advancement in Science and Technology Science
and Technology never stands still, it always advances. The advancements in Science and
Technology have contributed greatly to all walks of human life including the libraries. In
fact, it owes to the libraries and contributes to its development and strengthening. Libraries
support reading and research and all researches in the realm of books, journals and other
carrier of information have supported the development of libraries. The advancement in
Science and Technology has provided additional developments in information
communication technology, audio-visual materials and electronic information storage
capacity. The mass media like radio, film, television and electronic media like tapes,
cassettes, discs and Internet has made it possible to provide easy, quick and free access to
information. Thus, advancement in Science and Technology has greatly contributed in the
growth and development of public libraries.

Fruitful Utilization of Leisure

Healthy and fruitful utilization of leisure is a matter of boundless status in public life. Public
libraries are the most important social institution, where all the people of the community
could spend their leisure time fruitfully. They also supply to the entertaining requirements of
its users by providing suitable reading materials like novels, story books and other form of
literature, works of arts, books of travels, biographies, magazines and newspapers etc. Thus
public libraries as a social place for leisure reading have contributed a lot in community life.
This role of public libraries has greatly affected all the plans and policies of social
development and contributed to the growth and development of public libraries as a social
institution in turn.

Role of Public Library as Social Institution:

Public library is a social institution of basic learning having a mission which involves in the
collection, treating, conservation and distribution of recorded information in numerous
arrangements to meet informational needs of local community. It serves as a local gateway
to information and knowledge and provides conditions for lifelong learning, community
development and individual growth. It provides an inspiration space, a learning space, a
meeting space and a per-formative space to the society. As a social institution, public
libraries play important role in the following realm:
o Education
o Community Information Centre
o Preservation and Promotion of Culture
o Religious and Spiritual Activities
o Knowledge Economy
o Public Libraries and Multicultural Society.

Education:
The public libraries play very important role in fostering the intellectual growth of society at
large. They support both formal and non-formal education systems of our society. They are
considered as People’s University and serve as a center for self-education and lifelong
learning. They are reflected to be a knowledgeable power house which strives to fulfill and
meet the educational needs of the public through varied resources and services; in a formal
education system an individual enrolls himself in an educational institution like a school or
college or a university and there is a regular teacher-taught contact in class room
environment. All these institutions of formal education have libraries attached to them to
support the teaching and learning process. However, the services of these libraries are only
available during the working hours of the parent institution. The public libraries do play an
important role in supporting the formal education. They stock books and other reading
materials of academic nature suitable for teachers and students of educational institutions in
its area and provide library services at more suitable time and place. In non-formal education
system, the teacher-taught contacts are minimal. The students have to depend more on self-
study to acquire knowledge. Here comes the role of public libraries to support non-formal
education. Public libraries acquire books and other reading materials suitable to the
requirements of the students of non-formal education in their area and facilitate its
admission. The chief concern of supporting non-formal education reposes with the public
libraries. A comprehensive public library system is an important pre-requisite for the fruitful
application of all no formal education programs. As a center for self-education, public
libraries facilitate educational opportunities to working groups of the society. They provide
materials to different working group relating to their fields of specialization, activities,
professions and occupation and help them to become well informed and educated in their
regions of work and upsurge their work productivity. Thus public libraries greatly contribute
to the society. Besides, public libraries provide educational opportunities to children,
physically handicapped and even to illiterates. All public libraries have a children section
where educational resources for children are organized and served. Many public libraries
such as Delhi Public Library have a special Braille section to facilitate education to visually
disabled individuals of the society. The National Library for Blinds, Dehradun is yet another
example. Public Libraries also facilitate education to illiterates by organizing newspaper
reading and educational materials in audiovisual media.

Community Information Centre:

Public Libraries play an important role of disseminating information as per needs to all its
clienteles. They acquire, process and organize information and knowledge contained in
books and other materials to support the informational needs of the teacher, the student, the
researcher, the commissioner, the entrepreneur, the manufacturing and business manager, the
craftsperson, the farmer for the fruitful pursuit of their respective vocation. It serves as a
community information center. A dynamic information infrastructure in the form of public
library is essential for all round socio-economic development of the community. A public
library serves as information center for specialized sources of information. For example, a
rural public library collects and organizes information for dissemination to the local
community in the areas of employment opportunities, public utility services, facilities
provided by social welfare agencies, programs of development departments etc. A farmer
apprised of the programs and policies of the government is able to acquire agriculture loan
from bank, purchase quality seeds, purchase advanced agricultural equipment’s etc. The
local public library functions as an important / The local public libraries function as
important center in promoting developmental activities like construction of roads, dams and
canals, building of houses for frailer section, formation of hut and hamlet industries etc.
They play significant role in popularization of science and technology and disseminate
authorized statistics concerning to family rules, property laws etc. The local public library
collection is primarily in local language of the area. They also organize various forms of
performing arts. Thus, a local public library functions as a community information center.

Preservation and Promotion of Culture:

Culture is a key theme for creation of identity. The public library gives to cultural activities
the high class and substantial span, and it offers the outline for evocative meetings among
the users. The public library is humanity’s last non-commercial conference room which the
bulk of the populations use. A public library conserves the traditional inheritance of the
human race as symbolized by the books and other documents in its collection. It regularly
identifies and collects cultural materials of importance available in its jurisdiction. These
may be works of art or sculpture, paintings, musical instruments, literary documents etc. In
short, a public library goes in search of all such materials, collects and preserves them, which
links the people of the locality with its cultural past. In western countries like UK and USA,
public libraries have separate section known as „local history collection‟ which kindles a
sense of pride and achievement in the people of locality. Thus it preserves the cultural
heritage of the society. A public library also promotes the cultural heritage in its hold by
lending active support to many socio-cultural groups, such as children’s club, youth forum,
literary groups, dramatic club, film society and various associations etc. to conduct their
activities through its premises or through its rich informative cultural materials. It also
organizes cultural programs like music concerts, dances, dramas, painting etc. and enriches
the cultural life of the community.

Religion and Spiritual Activities:

Public libraries hold a good collection of inspirational, spiritual and religious books to meet
the requirement of its clienteles. Particularly the inspirational and spiritual collections play a
very important role in the social structure and individual upliftment. Such collections
motivate public to great principles in life and coach standards in them and facilitate social
integration. The worldwide growth of early libraries started with the religious collections.
The monastic libraries, cathedral libraries and parish libraries started the evolution and
development of libraries in UK. Similarly, during colonial period in USA the early libraries
had mainly the religious books in its collection. However, these libraries were mainly private
collections and not the public libraries in true sense of the term, but were instrumental in the
evolution and development of public libraries. Thus religion has played an important role in
the evolution and development of public libraries. The public libraries in turn are still
holding good collection of religious books to support the religious need of the community

Knowledge Economy:
The progresses in Information Communication Technology (ICT) have aided society to
travel to the Knowledge Society. The submission of knowledge in education,
entrepreneurship, modernization, and product design is now extensively assumed to be one
of the important bases for development of universal economy. Knowledge economy is one
that generates, circulates and practices knowledge to improve its development and
competitiveness. Public libraries are active strength for popular education, culture,
information and all round development of the humanity. They are the vital mediators for
nurturing socio-economic progress. They translate informational requirements of
commonalities into action. The improvements in ICT have altered the method of
procurement and diffusion of information. The expansion of the Internet has fundamentally
changed the framework conditions of the libraries. The availability of the world wide
information through Internet plus such other parallel expansions has not only altered the role
of public libraries but also their shape and terminology. Hence buzz words ‘’Knowledge
Centre‟, ‘’Information Kiosk‟ and ‘’community Information Centre’’ and so on. Thus the
scope and activities of modern public libraries are not restricted within four walls but have
gone beyond to reach the mass, act as community knowledge centers and support the
knowledge economy. The collection of public libraries of the knowledge society consists
partially a unified digital library and partially local physical library, frolicking more lively
role in guaranteeing that knowledge and skill possessions are oppressed to the full. It is
significant to worry that digital technologies have enabled the public libraries to offer the
users entree to importance making knowledge from anyplace in the world and at any given
point in time. The modern public library has become a motivational place, a learning place, a
conference place and a performative place.

Public Libraries and Multicultural Society:

Public library is an important tool of setting in practice the important human rights of
equivalent admission to information for the rich and the poor, women and men, the
handicapped and the healthy, people from the city and the country, the minorities and the
majority. It facilitates free interchange of information, unhindered improvement of
knowledge and able growth of ideas. You could easily find public libraries providing equal
opportunity of education and learning with their special collection in the form of Braille
Print, Audio Books, and E-text and by provision of latest ICT equipment’s to the
handicapped and disabled persons. Public library supports constant education, sovereign
choice making and intelligent growth. It satisfies the traditional requirements of all deprived
of any omission, offers dynamic practice of free time, endorses social amalgamation at local
level, supports development of local communities, disseminates human knowledge and
protects cultural heritage. The public libraries are thus intensively tangled in multiethnic
subjects. To make the people erudite, civilized and cultured, it requires an effective
educational system which is largely dependent on abundant reading materials. If they are to
be at the disposal of the whole population across the society, public libraries are inevitable.
The public libraries are catering to all possible needs of the community. They are a regular
intercultural conference place, a place where individuals can interconnect easily and study
each other and where participants of traditional and national minorities can study about the
mainstream civilization.

Future of Public Libraries

The public libraries are likely to be very valuable in the ICT enabled multicultural
knowledge society for planning and development of community based culture, organizing
and disseminating digitized cultural heritage in multimedia format, and community based
economic development. The public libraries of future will have wide social impact on both
individuals and local communities. The amount of information available in public domain on
Internet will breed, and much of it will be of dubious importance and precision. The public
libraries will have to play a progressively important part in providing information literacy
skills to empower public to choice, evaluate and use the public domain information that best
meet their requirements. The use of Internet will increase as a complement to and not a
substitute for public library use. They will continue to be hospitable dwellings for public,
both physical and virtual and will collaborate and work extra methodically with associates,
comprising private organizations and government, to assimilate new comers and socially
downgraded people and will continue to serve as informal system of learning to the society
at large.

Summary:
Public library is the most popular institution evolved by society in modern times. It
acquires, processes, organizes and disseminates information recorded in various kinds of
documents free of cost to the society at large. It is a local gateway to information and
knowledge and provides opportunities for lifelong learning. Public libraries and its multiple
services are essential for all round social and economic development. Public libraries have
been developed in centuries. The development of early libraries has started with religious
institutions. The early libraries were started with volunteer efforts and were able to create
library awareness among the masses. Besides, the following other factors were instrumental
in the growth and development of public libraries worldwide:
 Invention of Printing
 Spread of Universal Education
 Spread of Literacy
 Progress in Science and Technology
 Productive Utilization of Leisureliness
 Role of Philanthropy
Library Acts & Copy Right Facilities the Indian Society is of multi-lingual and multi-
cultural in nature and a complete public library system is essential to strengthen the unity in
diversity. The development of public libraries was slow in pre-independence India. In the
post dependence period Govt. of India has constituted various committees and commissions
to strengthen the public library services in the country. Ample resources and suitable plans
have also been developed during five year plan period to strengthen the public library system
and services in the country. Public Library as a social institution provides an inspiration
space, a learning space, a meeting space and performative space to the society. As a social
institution it plays important role in the following realm:
 Education
 Community Information Centre
 Preservation and Promotion of Culture
 Religious and Spiritual Activities
 Knowledge Economy
 Public Libraries and Multi-Cultural Society the public libraries will be very important in the
ICT enabled multicultural knowledge society for all round community development. It needs
to play an increasingly significant role in facilitating information in both real and virtual
environments

Conclusion:
Study of scientific publications exposed the association among the fluctuating people and
characters of the library. The variation of civilization is linked with its ever shifting
atmosphere. However, examining humanity’s technological, economic, social and cultural
surroundings, also when arranging of information, it is noteworthy that not only measureable
variations (like profusion of information) are happening, but also qualitative alterations:
industry fair’s necessities, approaching of fresh occupations, variations of the approaches to
domestic and communal relations. Variations of the atmosphere inversely disturbs diverse
followers of the public. Established on citizens and settlers of the digital biosphere idea, it
becomes flawless, that varying civilization has a diverse influence on them, for instance
current skills of information and communication are a requirement for the digital
communities, but for the digital immigrant it is just additional earnings, an instrument, to
bring out their labor. In this ever fluctuating civilization (societal arrangement) there are
societal institutes, and the library is one of them. Being openly comprehensible with the
societal scheme, libraries generate characters that equal the requirements of the people. The
library, as a social organization, can achieve many characters at a time (it depends on the
requirements of the serviced civilization). However, examining the effect of the
conservational variations, we can create an assumption, that diverse characters of the
libraries can be significant for diverse fellows of the public, for instance, while the amount
of data is snowballing, libraries as intermediaries of information becomes very vital for the
immigrants of the digital biosphere, because it lets them to easily contact and use superiority
data. On the other side, the natives of the digital ecosphere, that are continually being
enclosed by skills and an enormous quantity of data, might require the library as a space to
connect, to be in, share their capabilities etc. with their generations, contacts, and people
with mutual interests. The gifted examination has endorsed to hypothetically value the
impact to the characters of the libraries by the altering civilization. It is measured, that
additional experiential examination is required to sanitize the characters of the libraries that
equal the requirements besides anticipations of the varying civilization.

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