Digitization and New Role of Library Professionals

Abstract

Digitization is an electronic process of converging information from a print format to a digital format. Digital libraries are electronic libraries in which number of geographically distributed users can access the contents of large and diverse repositories of electronic objects. If the future libraries are to survive, they have to be switched over to electronic mode because the information is fast changing and mostly resources are born digitally. The mission is to create a Universal Library which will foster creativity and free access to all human knowledge. Librarian is no more simply a custodian of reading material, but is a collector and evaluator of information. Librarian need to possess knowledge in the field of computer, networking, information analysis, Internet surfing techniques, digital sources, various web sites and organization of data embedded in them. This paper is an attempt to discuss on the issues related to the management, opportunities, advantages and problems of Digital Library.