Knowledge Society and Role of Libraries : Recommendations of The National Knowledge Commission

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Knowledge Society and Role of Libraries
Recommendations of The National Knowledge
Commission

• Sangita Gupta
• Professor, DLIS
• University Of Jammu
• Jammu

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National Knowledge Commission (NKC)

• The National Knowledge Commission has been set
  up by the Prime Minister with the challenging
  mandate to transform India of the 21st century
  into a knowledge society. It is expected to
  advise the PM on matters relating to knowledge
  creation, knowledge dissemination and knowledge
  application within the diversity of the Indian
  scenario. Acc. to the PM The time has come to
  create a second wave of institution building, and
  of excellence, in the fields of education,
  research and capacity building so that we are
  better prepared for the 21s century.

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Objectives

• To build excellence in education system
• To promote creation of knowledge in S T
  institutions and laboratories.
• To promote more knowledge applications.
• To promote the use of knowledge capabilities in
  making Government an effective ,transparent and
  accountable service provider to the citizens .
• To ensure equitable access to knowledge cross all
  sections of society.

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• Institutional frameworks require to be developed
  to strengthen the education system, promote
  research and innovation and facilitate knowledge
  application in various sectors like health
  education, agriculture, water, energy and
  industry.

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WHAT IS AN INFORMATION SOCIETY ?

• According to Cawkell Information Society can be
  defined as a society in which ultimately most of
  the people are engaged in brain work rather
  than physical work.Martin and Webster have
  identified following criteria for the
  development of information society

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Criterion identified for Development of inf.
Society

• Technological
• Introduction of IT has provided an important
  break-through in acquisition, processing, storage
  and dissemination of information. Continuously
  decreasing cost and increasing improvements in
  technological devices have an added impact
•  

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• Economic
• Knowledge becomes key to economic power and
  success. Growth of information (knowledge)
  industry has resulted into five broad groups
• Education (e.g. schools, colleges, libraries)
• Media of communication (e.g. radio, T V,
  advertising)
• Information machines (e.g. computers, fax
  machines, mobile phones, etc)
• Information services (e.g. law, insurance,
  medicine)
• Other information activities (e.g. R D).
•        

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• Occupational
• 50 population is involved in information work
  leading to professional society where labour
  market is dominated by knowledge workers such as
  scientists, inventors, teachers, librarians,
  authors, journalists
• Spatial
• Dissemination of information by crossing
  all the geographical boundaries to anyone,
  anywhere, anytime with the help of networks

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• Cultural
• It is a media-laden-society. Information,
  entertainment and educative programmes on media
  are available round the clock, helping an
  individual in self-development.
• Social
• Information as an enhancer of quality of
  life, creating greater information consciousness
  among end-users.
• Political
• Freedom of information leading to a political
  process characterized by greater awareness about
  democratic rights.

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What is Knowledge Society

• It is a stage beyond information era.
  Knowledge society is about creating,using,applyin
  g and sharing of knowledge for economic, social
  and spiritual ,cultural and other purposes. It
  is a society where knowledge is the primary
  production resource instead of capital and
  labour. Intensive utilization of knowledge can
  create extensive wealth for nation.Knowledge
  Society is a society which had institutions
  support in the form of R D institutions,
  school, colleges, information institutions,etc.
  It should be supported by information society. So
  Information society is a part of Knowledge
  society.

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FACTORS

• Universal access to information
• Skilled citizens who heavily rely on ICTs.
• Occupations- Creativity and management.
• Equal access to education
• Preservation and promotion of cultural diversity
  including multi lingualism
• Freedom of expression
• Network of Knowledge organizations and corporate
  culture
• Team work ,collaboration and standardizations are
  the norms for knowledge sharing

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NKC covers five focus areas of the knowledge
paradigm

• Access
• Concepts
• Creation
• Application
• Services

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• Access- Easy access to knowledge
• LiteracyLanguageTranslationLibrariesNetwork
  sPortals

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Concepts

• School EducationVocational EducationHigher
  EducationMedical EducationLegal
  EducationManagement EducationEngineering
  EducationOpen and Distance Education

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creation

• Science and TechnologyIntellectual Property
  Rights (IPRs)InnovationEntrepreneurship

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Application

• Traditional KnowledgeAgriculture

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Services

• e-Governance

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Role of Libraries

• As the prime focus of NKC is on five areas of
  knowledge paradigm
• Access to knowledge
• Knowledge concepts
• Knowledge creation
• Knowledge application
• Development of better Knowledge services

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• To fulfill the goal of knowledge society,
  information poverty in India must be overcome.. L
  IS sector is committed to support the knowledge
  society by providing equitable high quality cost
  effective access to inf. and knowledge resources
  to meet the institutional, educational,
  recreational and cultural needs of the community.

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• A key task in this initiative is to open doors
  to knowledge, skills, imagination, and ideas
  available or accessible to the people. The
  libraries stand as a rich repository and
  resource. So it is the central objective of NKC
  to examine the present standards and services of
  the various types of libraries

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Working Group on Libraries

• To redefine the objectives of libraries.
• To identify constraints, problems and challenges.
• To recommend changes and reforms
• To explore possibilities for innovations and
  initiate need based new programmes.
• To promote excellence in L I S education.
• To assist in setting up more facilities to
  preserve and provide access to knowledge.

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Recommendations

• 1 Libraries should be included in the
  Concurrent List of the Constitution of India by
  an Act of Parliament. This will facilitate the
  coordinated development of libraries across
  different sectors.

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2 National Commission on Libraries

• National Commission on Libraries.
• As an interim measure, a National Mission on
  Libraries should be set up for a period of three
  years which should be converted into a permanent
  Commission.

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• 1. Advise the government on Libraries and
  Information Sector
• 2. Set standards for collection, services and
  technical processing
• 3. Encourage public/ private participation
• 4. Interact with State Governments
• 5. Conserve cultural heritage
• 6. Review and assess LIS education In-service
  training needs
• 7. Support RD/ technological development
• 8. Ensure access to all publications including
  government and institutional public documents

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3 National Census of Libraries

• A national census of all libraries should be
  prepared by undertaking a nationwide survey.
  Collection of census data on libraries would
  provide baseline data for planning
• A survey of user needs and reading habits should
  be conducted at the national
• level as part of the National Sample Survey.

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4 LIS Education

• The LIS education and training (including
  in-service) should be revised and revamped. The
  Mission on Libraries must assess as soon as
  possible the manpower requirements of the country
  in the area of LIS management, and take necessary
  steps to meet the countrys requirement through
  LIS education and training.

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5 Promote Research

• Necessary encouragement should be given to
  research after evaluating the research status in
  this field. A separate well equipped Institution
  for Advanced Training and Research in Library and
  Information Science and Services should be set
  up.
• Indian Institute of Library and Information
  Science

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6 Finance /Funds

• A specified percentage of the Central and State
  education budgets must be ear-marked for
  libraries. In addition, a Central Library Fund
  should be instituted to take care of upgrading
  existing libraries over a period of 3-5 years (
  Initially 1000 crore rupees)

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7 Re-assess staffing of libraries

• B.Lib.Sc (for 50 students)
• Professor I
• Reader I
• Lecturer 2
• M Lib.Sc (for 20 students)
• Professor I
• Reader 2
• Lecturer 4

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8 Promotion of ICT application In Libraries

• Catalogues of all libraries on their websites.
• Networking of libraries
• National repository for Bibliographic records.
• Server to Central, State, District and sub
  division level libraries
• Broad band connectivity to block/village libraries

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9 Networking of Libraries

• Networking of 54000 Public Libraries by 2011
• 1 Phase I 1000 as a pilot project by DELNET
  and INFLIBNET.
• 2 Phase II 10,000 libraries.
• 3 Phase III Remaining Libraries

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Collection Development

• Public Libraries
• Local requirement based
• 60 of Budget on Library Collection
• 10 of collection less than 5 years old.
• Academic Libraries
• Need based
• 6-10 of total institutional Budget on
  Collection

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10 Greater Community Participation in Library
Management

• Community based Information system.
• Involvement of local community to conduct
  cultural and educational community based
  programmes.

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Conclusion

• It is the high time that libraries and librarians
  have to realize their critical role in creating
  knowledge society by providing equitable high
  quality cost effective access to inf. and
  knowledge resources to meet the institutional,
  educational, recreational and cultural needs of
  the community. To attain this goal they have to
  change the present strategy of collection and
  acquisition of knowledge to the strategy of
  Knowledge access.

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THANKS