The Role Of Libraries In Modern Society
By Abid Hussain
As the society developed from time to time the same case is of libraries. We know that The information society demands to re-define the objectives of all the institutions which work with information, knowledge, and culture etc. Of these, the media and education have been discussed in the developing countries as well as developed countries actively. Libraries have been a marginal Theme. In old days libraries were‘Respectable’ because of :-
- They were about reading ‘good books.
- They were about good behaviour
- They were not always friendly or Welcoming.
Libraries were often built as cultural statements, rather than as a useful and accessible place The size and architecture could be more important than the function of the library. But with the passage of time the trend has changed now. The Libraries are especially important now when the whole idea of education is stressed more and More independent learning and acting. All citizens must be able to find and use information. It is the key raw material – but it is a zero resource, if there are no access points to it and if documents are not in proper order. The society and library are interrelated things advancement in society is the advancement in the library. Those states having good libraries in their society must have good citizens in all walk of life. The Peoples of developing countries are not aware about the contemporary society, because of the limited number of libraries. In my point view if a society wants to improve their way of life they must advance first their libraries. The libraries worked only for acquiring materials reserve materials and disseminate them in their users. If there is no library user in such society how a state will be developed. In short Providing information services for today and the future requires us to learn from the past, which may mean discarding past examples . We need to look at how people behave, what they need and what they want, in the specific social circumstances in which we are working . The information institutions that we design on this basis may look very unfamiliar, but they will be Capable of reversing the ‘decline’ of the library. So keeping in mind for a develop society a developer library is required to enhance the way of thinking of the concerned users of the contemporary society.
By Abid Hussain Asstt Library Officer National Defence University Islamabad. abidmardan@gmail.com
