The Role of Libraries in the Digital Information Age

Made by Muhammad Sakka Akdamana

In the digital era of information which makes it easier for people to provide false
information and news that has been modified, and now many people prefer to search for
information or news online, although it makes it easy to find information, it also has a
drawback. Therefore, the library has to provide information to the general public that is not
biased or fake due to political, racial, cultural, or gender views.

What is a library, according to George Eberhart library is a collection of resources that

is organized by information professionals or expert who provides access to physical, digital,
bibliographic, or intellectual access and offer service or program that aims to educate,
inform, or entertain a variety of audiences. 1 And now the arrival of the digital information
era enables the dissemination of information to be borderless and inseparable by geography,
society, and culture, which makes the dissemination of information occur quickly 2.
Therefore, libraries must develop with advances in technology, and provide services such as
digital libraries, which make it easier for people to find information through networks that
are trusted for the authenticity of the information.
With new implementation by libraries, there is a new role for the librarian, especially
for libraries that implement digital libraries, in addition, to doing the traditional selection
such as procurement of books and journals, they have additional tasks to do, such as
selecting from available digital collections or electronically available resources, both free and
subscription-based, and also the librarians change their role from only processing books to
processing CD-ROM collections, Audio-visual collections, etc. 3

With the arrival of the digital information era, libraries must advance with time and
form digital libraries, so that they can provide information from trusted sources, due to the
easy dissemination of information that is not hindered by geography, society, and culture.
This led to a new task for librarians that initially only selected books and journals and the
existing digital or electronic collections, whether free or subscription-based.

1
Library, “LibGuides.”
2
Sa’diyah and Adli, “PERPUSTAKAAN DI ERA TEKNOLOGI INFORMASI.”
3
Siahaan, “PERANAN PERPUSTAKAAN SEBAGAI AGEN PERUBAHAN SOSIAL.”
 References
Library, A. L. A. “LibGuides: Definition of a Library: General Definition.” Accessed December
14, 2022. https://libguides.ala.org/library-definition/general.
Sa’diyah, Lailatus, and M Furqon Adli. “PERPUSTAKAAN DI ERA TEKNOLOGI INFORMASI” 4,
no. 2 (2019).
Siahaan, Hotlan. “PERANAN PERPUSTAKAAN SEBAGAI AGEN PERUBAHAN SOSIAL,” n.d.