Library Portal : A Gateway of Information

Abstract

In the early days of the Net revolution most of companies launched their Net presence through corporate Websites. They used their websites to show their products and services with significant information content. As websites grew in number it became difficult for customer to locate or search the net for sites of their choice. Search engines thus emerged and went on to become key players, directing millions of surfers to various sites to get online search of their choice. However the phenomenal growth of search engines was accompanied by unprecedented choices opening up for the customer. This phase was marked by the transformation of search engines/directories into portals. Instead of competing on width offered by horizontal portals, players were forced to compete on depth. The libraries did not become aloof from the Net revolution. They also launched portals to attract the specific group of interest. This concept brought paradigm shift in the sense of “right information to right user from approaching relevant information”, “save the time of users from separating irrelevant information”, “educate the users for self search by arranging contents in specific manner”.