Libraries in India II: the LIS Profession and its Ethics; Professional Associations and the Roles of UGC, RRRLF and UNESCO; LIS Education in India; Public Relations and Extension; Users, User Studies and User Education; and Information Literacy
2. Professional associations, and the roles of UGC, RRRLF and UNESCO
| Association | Founded | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Indian Library Association (ILA) | 1933, Calcutta; now based in Delhi | National body; annual conferences; publishes the ILA Bulletin |
| IASLIC (Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres) | 1955, Kolkata | Special libraries and documentation; seminars and the IASLIC Bulletin |
| IATLIS (Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science) | 1969 | LIS teachers and education standards |
| IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) | 1927, Edinburgh; headquarters The Hague | Global voice of libraries; World Library and Information Congress; standards such as ISBD and the LRM |
| ALA (American Library Association) | 1876, Philadelphia; headquarters Chicago | Oldest and largest; accredits master's programmes; Library Bill of Rights |
| CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) | 2002, by the merger of the Library Association (1877) and the Institute of Information Scientists | UK professional body; chartership; the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals |
| ASLIB (Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux) | 1924, UK | Special libraries and information management |
| SLA (Special Libraries Association) | 1909, USA; founded by John Cotton Dana | Information professionals in business, government and research |
The University Grants Commission, set up in 1953 and made statutory by the UGC Act 1956, develops academic libraries by funding buildings, collections and staff under its plans, laying down qualifications and pay scales for librarians, supporting INFLIBNET (its inter-university centre), e-ShodhSindhu and Shodhganga, and framing regulations such as those on plagiarism (2018). The Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture set up in 1972 in Kolkata, promotes public libraries through matching schemes (shared with state governments, for books, buildings and equipment) and non-matching schemes (fully central, for example for libraries celebrating anniversaries or for children's corners), and it is the nodal agency of the National Mission on Libraries. UNESCO promotes libraries worldwide through the Public Library Manifesto, first issued in 1949, revised in 1972 and 1994, and reissued jointly with IFLA in 2022; the School Library Manifesto; its Memory of the World programme (1992) for documentary heritage; the Delhi Public Library pilot project (1951); and its work on open access, media and information literacy and the Universal Copyright Convention.
3. Library and information science education in India
| Milestone | Year |
|---|---|
| First library training class, Baroda (W. A. Borden) | 1911 |
| Punjab University, Lahore, training course (Asa Don Dickinson) | 1915 |
| Madras Library Association's summer school (Ranganathan) | 1929 |
| Madras University takes over the course (certificate, then diploma) | 1931 |
| University of Delhi department of library science, with India's first doctoral degree in the subject awarded in 1957 | 1946-47 |
| Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC), Bangalore | 1962 |
| UGC Review Committee on Library Science (Ranganathan) | 1961, reported 1965 |
| UGC model curriculum (Karisiddappa CDC) | 2001 |
Today LIS is taught at certificate, bachelor's (BLISc), master's (MLISc), integrated master's, MPhil (now discontinued under NEP 2020) and PhD levels, in regular and open and distance modes (IGNOU and state open universities). Issues include uneven quality, outdated curricula, shortage of ICT labs and internships, and the need for data, digital and research-support skills. The National Knowledge Commission recommended revamping LIS education, and NEP 2020's four-year undergraduate structure and the discontinuation of the MPhil have changed programme designs.
4. Library public relations and extension activities
Public relations is the planned effort to build and keep goodwill and understanding between the library and its public: users, non-users, the parent body, funders and the community. It works through publicity (making the library known), good service at every point of contact, and two-way communication. Extension activities take the library beyond its walls and beyond lending, to draw in people who would not otherwise come. They serve Ranganathan's third law in particular: every book its reader.
- Publicity tools: newsletters, brochures, library guides, notice boards, displays of new arrivals, press releases, websites and social media accounts.
- Extension activities: book exhibitions, book talks and author meets, story hours for children, reading clubs and discussion groups, lectures, film shows, competitions, library weeks (India observes National Library Week from 14 to 20 November), mobile libraries, and outreach to hospitals and prisons.
- Community links: friends of the library groups, partnerships with schools, NGOs and local bodies, and adult literacy and career guidance programmes.
5. Types of users, user studies and user education
Users can be classified in several ways: actual and potential users (those who use the library and those who could); by category (students, teachers, researchers, professionals, policy makers, the general public, children, persons with disability); by the nature of their information need (current approach, everyday approach, exhaustive approach and brush-up or catching-up approach, a classification Ranganathan and his successors used); and by place (in-person and remote). User studies investigate who the users are, what information they need, how they seek it, and how satisfied they are, so that collections and services can be planned. Methods include questionnaires, interviews, observation, diaries, analysis of circulation and transaction logs, citation analysis of users' own writings, and critical incident technique.
| Information behaviour model | Key idea |
|---|---|
| T. D. Wilson (1981; revised 1996) | Information need arises in a context of personal, role and environmental factors; intervening variables affect seeking |
| David Ellis (1989) | Behavioural features: starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring and extracting (later verifying and ending) |
| Carol Kuhlthau, Information Search Process (1991) | Six stages with feelings, thoughts and actions: initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection, presentation; uncertainty peaks at exploration |
| Brenda Dervin, sense-making (1983) | A person meets a gap in a situation and seeks information to bridge it |
| Robert Taylor (1968) | Four levels of question: visceral, conscious, formalised and compromised need, which the reference interview must uncover |
User education is the set of programmes that teach users to make full use of the library and information resources. It ranges from library orientation (a tour of the building, rules and services for newcomers), through bibliographic instruction (how to use catalogues, indexes and databases for a subject), to information literacy (the broader capacity to find, evaluate and use information anywhere). Methods include lectures and tours, hands-on workshops, printed and online guides, video tutorials, embedded librarianship in courses and credit courses.
6. Information literacy: areas, standards, types, models and trends
Paul Zurkowski coined "information literacy" in 1974. The American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (1989) defined an information literate person as one who can "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information". The Prague Declaration (2003) and the Alexandria Proclamation (2005) made it a basic human right in the information society, and UNESCO now joins it with media literacy as Media and Information Literacy (MIL). Related literacies include computer, digital, media, visual, data and health literacy; metaliteracy (Mackey and Jacobson, 2011) is an umbrella concept for participating in social, collaborative information environments.
| Standard or model | Components |
|---|---|
| ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) | Five standards: determine the nature and extent of the need; access it effectively; evaluate it and its sources critically; use it to accomplish a purpose; understand economic, legal and social issues and use it ethically |
| ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (adopted 2016) | Six frames: authority is constructed and contextual; information creation as a process; information has value; research as inquiry; scholarship as conversation; searching as strategic exploration |
| SCONUL Seven Pillars (1999; revised 2011) | Identify, scope, plan, gather, evaluate, manage, present |
| Big6 (Eisenberg and Berkowitz, 1990) | Task definition; information seeking strategies; location and access; use of information; synthesis; evaluation |
| Empowering 8 (South and Southeast Asian workshop, 2004) | Identify, explore, select, organise, create, present, assess, apply |
Trends in information literacy include the move from skills checklists to threshold concepts (the ACRL Framework), integration into the curriculum rather than one-off sessions, digital and data literacy, fake-news and misinformation awareness (with methods such as lateral reading and the SIFT moves: stop, investigate the source, find better coverage, trace claims), AI literacy for generative tools, and online, self-paced modules. Assessment has moved to authentic tasks and rubrics rather than attendance counts.
Key takeaways
- Librarianship has a body of theory, formal education, associations and codes; the IFLA Code of Ethics (2012) and ALA's Code and Library Bill of Rights (1939) centre on access, privacy, neutrality and intellectual freedom.
- Associations: ALA 1876, SLA 1909, ASLIB 1924, IFLA 1927, ILA 1933, IASLIC 1955, IATLIS 1969, CILIP 2002; UGC funds and regulates academic libraries, RRRLF (1972) supports public libraries through matching and non-matching schemes, and UNESCO issues the Public Library Manifesto (1949, 1972, 1994, 2022 with IFLA).
- LIS education in India began at Baroda (1911), Lahore (1915) and Madras (1929, 1931), with Delhi's first PhD in 1957 and DRTC in 1962; programmes run from certificate to PhD.
- User studies use questionnaires, interviews, logs and citation analysis; information behaviour models include Wilson, Ellis, Kuhlthau's six-stage ISP, Dervin's sense-making and Taylor's four levels of need.
- Information literacy (Zurkowski 1974; ALA 1989) is set out in the ACRL Standards (2000, five) and Framework (2016, six frames), SCONUL's Seven Pillars, the Big6 and the Empowering 8; trends include misinformation, data and AI literacy.
Practice questions (10)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
Who coined the term "information literacy" in 1974?
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Answer: D — Paul Zurkowski
Paul Zurkowski, president of the Information Industry Association, used the term in a 1974 report. Kuhlthau developed the Information Search Process, Eisenberg co-created the Big6, and Dervin the sense-making approach.IASLIC, the Indian association for special libraries and information centres, was founded in:
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Answer: A — 1955
IASLIC was founded in Kolkata in 1955. The ILA dates from 1933, IATLIS from 1969 and IFLA from 1927.How many frames does the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education contain? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: 6
The Framework, adopted in 2016, has six frames: authority is constructed and contextual; information creation as a process; information has value; research as inquiry; scholarship as conversation; and searching as strategic exploration.In Kuhlthau's Information Search Process, at which stage does the searcher's uncertainty typically peak, often with confusion and doubt?
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Answer: D — Exploration
Kuhlthau found that uncertainty rises after selection and peaks in exploration, when inconsistent information confronts the searcher; it falls once a focus is formulated. The six stages are initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection and presentation.Which of the following are pillars in the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy? Select all that apply.
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Answer: A — Scope; D — Manage
The seven pillars are identify, scope, plan, gather, evaluate, manage and present. Chaining is one of Ellis's behavioural features of information seeking, and synthesis is a stage of the Big6.Assertion (A): The Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation assists public libraries through both matching and non-matching schemes. Reason (R): The Foundation is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture set up in 1972. Choose the correct option.
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Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both are true, but R does not explain A. Being an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture is a fact about its status; the reason it uses matching schemes is that public libraries are a State subject, so central assistance is shared with state governments, with non-matching schemes for fully central support.Robert Taylor's four levels of information need, from the unexpressed to the question actually put to the system, end with the:
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Answer: C — Compromised need
Taylor (1968) described visceral, conscious, formalised and compromised needs; the compromised need is the question as reshaped to fit what the user thinks the system can answer, which the reference interview works back from.Which statements about international library associations are correct? Select all that apply.
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Answer: A — IFLA was founded in 1927 and has its headquarters at The Hague; C — CILIP was formed in 2002 by the merger of the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists; D — The Special Libraries Association was founded by John Cotton Dana in 1909
CILIP (2002), IFLA (1927, The Hague) and SLA (1909, John Cotton Dana) are stated correctly. The ALA was founded in 1876 in Philadelphia; 1927 and Edinburgh belong to IFLA.The IFLA-UNESCO Public Library Manifesto was most recently reissued in which year? Type the year.
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: 2022
UNESCO first issued the Public Library Manifesto in 1949 and revised it in 1972 and 1994; the current IFLA-UNESCO Public Library Manifesto was issued in 2022.A new undergraduate is taken round the library to learn its layout, rules and main services. This is best described as:
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Answer: B — Library orientation
Orientation introduces newcomers to the building, rules and services. Bibliographic instruction teaches the use of catalogues and databases for a subject, SDI is a personalised alerting service, and referral directs a user to another source or agency.