Library is an effective source of information to be shared by
people of all kinds. A good library hosts everything under the sun in the
form of words to enrich the knowledge of the users. Providing
information about everything under the sun, under one roof in one
geographical location is next to impossible. Hence there must be a way
to share information that is spread over, and that can be achieved only
through the effective use of electronic media. Complete
computerization of all the libraries and a dedicated, centralized server to
host information available at different libraries will help in effective
sharing of information. A library is completely computerized only if the
user irrespective of background or knowledge, is able to access
information available in the library from anywhere just by typing few
letters/words

Perera, Kamani

English

Librarians' Digital Library

Changing Roles of Library Professionals in the 
Knowledge Society 
 
Kamani Perera 
 
Regional Centre for Strategic Studies,  
410/27, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo7, Sri Lanka 
k_vithana@yahoo.com 
 
Abstract. Library is an effective source of information to be shared by 
people of all kinds. A good library hosts everything under the sun in the 
form of words to enrich the knowledge of the users. Providing 
information about everything under the sun, under one roof in one 
geographical location is next to impossible. Hence there must be a way 
to share information that is spread over, and that can be achieved only 
through the effective use of electronic media. Complete 
computerization of all the libraries and a dedicated, centralized server to 
host information available at different libraries will help in effective 
sharing of information. A library is completely computerized only if the 
user irrespective of background or knowledge, is able to access 
information available in the library from anywhere just by typing few 
letters/words. 
Key words: digital library, the Internet, digital revolution, world wide 
web, electronic information service (EIS), metadata, semantic web, 
ontology, knowledge organization systems (KOS), knowledge 
management 
 
Introduction 
Greater revolution has occurred in the library culture in recent years. 
Electronic journals are facilitating the more timely exchange of theory 
and research among scholars. New media not only add value to 
interactive communications, but also provide powerful new means of 
accessing information to support teaching, learning and research. 
 
It is not surprising that the academic library has witnessed more 
technological change over the past decade. With the ever-growing 
electronic availability of information on both national and global 
networks, many libraries have turned their attention to providing access 
rather than building local collections. With the advance of the 
technological revolution, librarians will play a major role to provide all 
types of information in meeting user’s expectation. 
 
Flesh-and-blood librarians undoubtedly continue to fulfill a very useful 
role for years to come. In particular, they will continue to refine their 
client-centered function as intermediaries and facilitators. 
 
While librarian will continue to serve some of their current roles, what 
are some of the new or changing roles they will play in an increasingly 
networked information environment? 
 
To effectively build this technological library – this electronic 
community librarians must collaborate more with personnel from other 
departments of the institution. In today’s networked information 
environment, any library action must be part of a wider institutional 
infrastructure committed to furthering new educational approaches. 
There must be a strong communication and an effective partnership 
between the institution’s library and its computing service. Librarians 
need technologists’ systems, computing, network, and other technical 
expertise, while information technologists can learn much from the 
library’s knowledge of users’ needs. 
 
The main goal of librarians should be to ensure all members of the 
institution know what information resources are available to them and 
how the library staff can facilitate access of them, within the physical 
walls of the library or elsewhere. 
 
As users are accessing more and more bibliographic and full-text 
databases as well as utilizing the vast resources of the Internet from 
outside the library, librarians will need to reach out to them to offer the 
help they need. 
 
Librarians can help in the design of technology based information 
services and share their intimate knowledge of what users want and 
need. As an example, the users could benefit greatly from database help 
screens that have been designed with input from library professionals. 
One reason why library users still seek the face –to – face assistance of 
librarians is that they understand users’ needs, and the difficulties they 
can encounter in learning new electronic tools. Skilled librarians now 
have years of experience in helping patrons utilize electronic media, an 
experience that equips them well to work closely with Information 
Technology personnel on the design of systems interfaces, help screens, 
computer instructional programs, and other software that user 
institution constituents will use. 
 
Librarians need to be polite, friendly and always able to behave in a 
courteous, patient and tactful manner. They need to give the user their 
complete attention. – with proper but not excessive eye contact – during 
the interaction. To deal with that interaction, even if it consists only of 
issuing a book, while simultaneously having a conversation with a 
colleague is extremely poor in terms of customer care. 
 
Electronic document selection as simply expressed and generally 
understood is a function which, relates to the choosing of reading 
material. It must be documents in all forms, and reading materials 
comprising not merely traditional forms, but also serials, government 
documents, manuscripts, reports, patents, statistical datasets, knowledge 
bases, software etc. which are the ingredients of a modern library’s 
holdings. Librarian must select material according to his user 
requirement. Librarian must possess reasonable knowledge of 
electronic resources and adequate grinding in the techniques of their 
evaluation and selection. Today more and more information is being 
stored digitally and disseminated electronically and all types of 
materials are available CD-ROM and online. The librarian should have 
knowledge of electronic sources of information, knowledge of users’ 
needs. While selecting electronic documents the librarian should 
obviously refer to the users of the library, both actual and potential, and 
their needs or demand for reading material, either expressed or 
anticipated. 
 
Librarians can request a publisher to test out the product on a trial basis 
to make decisions about the appropriateness of an electronic resource 
for his library. Trial periods help eliminate the guesswork in selection 
of electronic resources. The other option is to visit or talk to other 
librarians about how a particular electronic resource performs in their 
library. In addition to these options, there are a number of selection 
tools available in print and over the Internet for the selection of e-
resources. 
Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) 
The term Knowledge Organization System is intended to encompass all 
types of schemes for organizing information and promoting knowledge 
management. KOS include classification and categorization schemes 
that organize materials at a general level, subject headings that provide 
more detailed access, and authority files that control variant versions of 
key information such as geographic names and personal names. KOS 
also include highly structured vocabularies, such as thesauri, and 
traditional schemes, such as semantic networks and ontologies. Because 
KOS are mechanisms for organizing information, they are at the heart 
of every library, museum and archive (Hodge, 2000). 
 
Types of KOS 
Term lists 
• Authority files 
• Glossaries 
• Dictionaries 
• Gazetteers 
Classifications and Categories 
• Subject headings 
• Classification schemes 
• Taxonomies 
• Categorization schemes 
Relationship lists 
• Thesauri 
• Semantic networks 
• Ontologies 
 
Common Characteristics of the KOS (Hodge, 2000) 
• The KOS imposes a particular view of the world on a collection 
and the items in it. 
• The same entity can be characterized in different ways, 
depending on the KOS that is used. 
There must be sufficient commonality between the concept expressed 
in a KOS and the real-world object to which that concept refers that a 
knowledgeable person could apply the system with reasonable 
reliability. Likewise, a person seeking relevant material by using a KOS 
must be able to connect his or her concept with its representation in the 
system. 
 
The Internet 
The Internet can provide comprehensive information in a diversity of 
subjects for a variety of needs and to various categories of users at any 
point of time. The Internet is the largest single resource of information 
available on a network of computers, which can be accessed anytime 
through any Internet-connected computer irrespective of its location. 
The Internet is changing the roles of information professionals and way 
we process and transfer information. Information is everywhere on the 
Internet, existing in large quantities and continuously being created, 
revised and updated. This information exists in several formats and is 
created for multiple purposes. Various kinds of information exist on the 
Internet which comprises different levels of quality or reliability. It 
ranges from very high quality to low quality and includes every shade 
in between. Identification, location and selection of worthwhile and 
useful digital collections have become one of the important jobs of 
modern professional librarians. 
 
World Wide Web 
With the digital revolution, data and information can now be 
transmitted to all corners of the world, and that is significant for almost 
all humanity, and it is significant for libraries. The World Wide Web 
has many of the features of a digital library, and if the web did not exist 
our conception of digital libraries would be very different. The web is 
undoubtedly the means via which most digital libraries are accessed, 
but it is not a digital library itself as it lacks characteristics of a digital 
library. It is not a managed environment, it has no collection 
development principles and most significant of all, the digital objects 
are not perceived as having durable value.  
 
Librarians are always at the forefront of the latest technologies in order 
to find new ways to optimize the management of libraries and 
resources, and to provide improved services. 
 
Electronic Information Service (EIS) 
To establish a successful electronic information service (EIS), it is 
essential that you define the scope of the service you are establishing. 
This will require strategic planning, including an information audit of 
needs of the customers and management, which will require 
consultation with customers, both current and potential. 
 
You will need to agree who the users are, so as to be able to cater 
adequately for their information needs now and in the future. Your 
users will need some help in identifying how their needs can be met 
from electronic sources. 
 
Digital libraries offer new levels of access to broader audiences of users 
and new opportunities for the library and information science field to 
advance both theory and practice. Digital libraries can help move the 
nation towards realizing the enormously powerful vision of ‘anytime, 
anywhere’ access to the best and the latest of human thought and 
culture, so that no classroom, individual or a society is isolated from 
knowledge resources. Digital libraries bring the library to the user, 
overcoming all geographical barriers. 
 
Metadata 
This is defined as ‘data about data’ or ‘information about information’. 
In the other words, metadata is data that describe information resources 
(Safari, 2004). A short descriptive note on a book, an informal 
description of search hits by search engines, a catalog and MARC 
(Machine Readable Cataloging) record, are data that describe an 
information resources and hence metadata. To refine this popular 
definition, metadata is considered “structured” data about data. 
 
Metadata is any data that supports the effective use of data, including 
information that can facilitate knowledge management, knowledge 
access and analysis. The data that metadata capture to describe an 
information resource can be divided into two categories such as 
intrinsic and extrinsic data. Intrinsic data are characteristics extracted 
directly from the information resource such as title, author, and subject. 
The extrinsic data are those related to the administration and other non-
bibliographic data such as author e-mail, author department, password 
or digital signature. The first is useful for knowledge management and 
administrative purpose which the second facilitates resource 
descriptions, identification and discovery. 
 
Metadata therefore, captures the wide range of intrinsic or extrinsic 
information about a variety of objects. These intrinsic or extrinsic 
characteristics and features are described in the individually structured 
data elements that facilitate object use, identification and discovery 
(Safari, 2004). 
 
Taking the metadata definition as structured data about data reveals that 
metadata is not new. Standard bibliographic information, indexing and 
cataloging information and classifications are all structured data that 
describe the characteristics and contents of information resources to 
facilitate their discovery and use. But what is new, is a new information 
environment with new challenges and problems that have made 
metadata for more eminent than before, expanding the metadata efforts 
beyond the traditional library environment (Safari, 2004). 
 
In the traditional libraries, the user can consult with the librarian, as an 
intermediary, to interpret the metadata used for resource description; 
but in the web the story is different. The information provided by a 
wide range of resource description communities, each with his own 
metadata, and accessed through one portal. 
 
Semantic Web 
The next generation of web, called semantic web, is based on the 
machine-processable semantics of the information, stored in the 
machine processable metdata. This is not a separate web but an 
extension of the current web in which the information is given well-
defined meaning, better enabling computers and humans to work in 
cooperation (Berners-Lee, 1998). 
 
Ontology 
Ontology is a concept borrowed from philosophy where ontology is a 
systematic account of existence. This term has a different meaning in 
the context of knowledge representation: an explicit specification of a 
conceptualization (Gruber, 1993). 
 
The prerequisite of this web, as its definition implies, is metadata that 
explicity represent semantics of data which called ontology. This is the 
newest label to be attached to some KOSs. The knowledge management 
community is developing ontologies as specific concept models. They 
can represent complex relationships among objects, and include the 
rules and axioms missing from semantic networks. Ontologies that 
describe knowledge in a specific area are often connected with systems 
for data mining and knowledge management. 
 
Ontology as a new emerging form of metadata is revolutionizing the 
current classificatory approaches towards semantic metadata. 
Consulting the traditional metadata systems with ontological view, such 
as thesauri, and card catalog systems as well as converting the 
controlled vocabularies into the ontology indicates this change. 
 
The ontologies have the following add values (Qin & Parling, 2001) – 
• Higher levels of conception of descriptive vocabulary 
• Deeper semantics for class/subclass and cross-class relationships 
• Ability to express such concepts and relationships in a description 
language 
• Reusability and share – ability of the ontological constructs in 
heterogeneous systems 
 
Knowledge Management (KM) 
Knowledge management caters to the critical issues of organizational 
adaptation, survival and competence in face of increasingly 
discontinuous environmental change. Essentially it embodies 
organizational process that seek synergistic combination of data and 
information processing capacity of information technologies, and the 
creative and innovative capacity of human beings (Malhotra, 2000). 
 
Knowledge management is a systematic approach that ranges from 
technology-driven methods of accessing, controlling, and delivering 
information to massive efforts in transforming corporate culture. 
 
KM is not only about managing knowledge assets but managing the 
process including developing knowledge, preserving knowledge, using 
knowledge and sharing knowledge (Vinitha & Mymoon, 2005). KM 
involves the systematic process of finding, selecting, organizing, 
distilling and presenting information in a way that improves an 
employee’s comprehension in a specific area of interest. 
 
KM is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right 
people at the right time and helping people to share and put information 
into action in ways that strive to improve organization performance. 
 
Conclusion 
In Sri Lanka, most of the libraries use CDS/ISIS windows version for 
content organization. In this digital environment we do keyword 
indexing widely for knowledge management. It is very fruitful way of 
managing the knowledge. In this process it is very easy to locate a 
document without wasting precious time of its users. And also it helps 
to select the right documents for the right user. In the Regional Centre 
for Strategic Studies library, where I am the Librarian, do this task 
widely. It is the most practical way to give the better services to the 
user. 
 
In a digital environment librarian should familiar with search engines 
such as google, yahoo etc.  and relevant websites according to their 
users needs. In a traditional library system, librarian use d to compile 
cumulative indexes for the benefit of their users. But in a digital system 
librarians can use various databases, library networks, search engines, 
websites etc. to search information. 
 
In the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) library, we use 
traditional and non-traditional knowledge organization systems for 
content organization. In the digital environment, we use classification 
systems such as UDC, DDC to organize the knowledge. And also we 
use traditional card catalogue as well as electronic database. In a 
developing country like Sri Lanka, we have to face electricity failures 
and at that time physical catalogue is very useful. In the RCSS library 
we used to store documents electronically and physically available as 
printed documents. Both ways user can reach their needs. If the user 
can’t visit the library he can obtain visit the e-version of the documents 
after consulting the librarian through e-mail. In this environment KOSs 
act as a bridge in between users and their needs. 
 
References 
[1] Berners-Lee (1998). Semantic Web Road Map. 
http://www.w3.org/Design Isuues/Semantic.html 
[2] Gruber, T.R. (1993) Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies 
used for Knowledge Sharing. In: Roberto Poli Nicola Guarino 
(Ed.), International Workshop on Formal Ontology, Padova, Italy, 
1993. 
http://ra.crema.unimi.it/lenya/turing/live/know/knowpubs/gruber93t
oward.pdf 
[3] Hodge, Gail (2000). Systems of Knowledge Organization for 
Digital Libraries: Beyond Traditional Authority Files. 
www.clir.org/ 
[4] Malhotra, Yogesh (2000).  Knowledge Management & New 
Organization Forms: A Framework for Business Model Innovation. 
Information Resources Management Journal, 13(1), 5-1. 
[5] Qin, J. & Paling, S. (2001) Converting a controlled Vocabulary into 
an Ontology: The Case of GEM. Information Research, 6(2). 
http://InformationR.net/ir/6-2/paper94.html 
[6] Safari, Mehdi (2004). Metadata and the Web. 
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00005845/01/Metadata_and_the_We
b.pdf 
[7] Vinitha, K. and Mymoon, M. (2005). Knowledge Management: 
Emerging challenges for Library and Information Professionals. In: 
Proceedings of the National Convention on Library and 
Information Networking (NACLIN 2005). Eds. H.K.Kaul and 
Gayathri Sen, (pp122-135). 
 
 
 
 
 


Changing roles of library professionals in the knowledge society

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Changing roles of library professionals in the knowledge society

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Librarians' Digital Library