DVRS as a catalyst for transforming L&I services

Abstract

Digital and virtual reference services have (DVRS) have been there in libraries in the developed world for more than a quarter century now. There have been a few experiments in India with regard to provision of DVRS, and education and training for DVRS for a few years. This paper explores the need for a collaborative effort by academic libraries in India for digital and virtual reference services, and briefly describes SandarbhSoochna: a DVRS training initiative at PunjabiUniversity. Such efforts are a sine qua non for developing qualified and tr ained manpower that would transform the L&I services scene by managing knowledge and information resources effectively in a global electronic village. Trained manpower is the most crucial resource to act as catalyst for knowledge discovery and management from diverse sources. The paper also proposes that collaborative DVRS, especially among academic libraries in India is needed to develop and manage knowledge and information resources effectively to satisfy the five laws of library science and to meet the increasing demands of users’ in a global electronic village.