Chapter-1

Library Automation: An Overview

M. Krishnamurthy
DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute
Bangalore-560059
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
Library automation involves changes in the ways an
organization conducts itself and represents itself to
those to whom it provide services. Like any activity that
involves change, planning for it, implementing it, and
managing it are not simple tasks. Individual roles within
the organization, the organization structure, and service
patterns will change as a consequence of automation.
This paper describes the importance of library
automation and need for the automation.

1. Introduction
The technological advancement in the Information technology industry
is pressurizing the application of their products in every field. No field
is exception to this phenomenon; starting from mechanical application
to psychological application, it has pervaded the whole world. No
wonder if automation of libraries started in big way The term
Library Automation in the past, was used to refer the mechanization of
traditional library operations like acquisition, serial control, cataloguing
and circulation control. But today, it is used to computerization of not
only traditional library activities but also such related activities as
information storage and retrieval. Semi-auto indexing and networking
of automatic systems. Although computers play very important role in
the automation of libraries, telecommunication and reprography
technology also play an important role. History of information
technology in libraries, reaching back to the 1950s and early 1960s, as
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part of the revolution in science and technology. Yet for most academic
libraries, this technology first arrived in force in the late 1960s or early
1970s in the form of locally developed or commercial products
intended to automate library processes. Minicomputers were introduced
to automate circulation, and books were barcoded. Computer-based
ordering systems were introduced to pass orders to book and serials
jobbers. These changes simply made existing manual processes more
efficient and helped to control their costs. This was a period of
significant management challenge for libraries.

In United States, a loosely structured library network began at least one

hundred years ago with the funding of the American Library
Association (ALA) and the increasing national activities of the library
of Congress(LC). In 1990, with the initiation of the LC catalogue
production and distribution services, the nationwide network of
libraries received its first significant catalogue. Since then, many of
the libraries developed bibliographic control to share the data among
participating libraries. Rules for cataloguing and classification were
standardized in 1950s and 1960s. These standards are now widely
adopted. In 1950s and early 1960s, libraries became increasingly
aware of the computer applications for library automation. On-line
bibliographic retrieval systems were first demonstrated by the system
Development corporation in 1960, in 1966, sixteen American libraries
joined in experimental project known as MARC for distributing
bibliographic records on magnetic tape. The American National
Standard Institute (ANSI), approved MARC II as a national standard
in 1971 and international equivalent was adopted by the ISO in 1973.
In the very first year, Ohio College Library centre ( OCLC) started the
first off-line processing for its 54 members and in 1971, started on-line
operations; by 1978, OCLC has undergone a tremendous expansion in
number of libraries served as well as significant changes in its
structure and operations.

2. Need for Library Automation

Library automation is the general term that is used when information

communications technologies (ICT) are used to replace manual systems
in the library. The application of ICT may be to a single function only
as in the creation of an electronic catalog or index or to all subsystems
Library Automation: An Overview 3

in the library. The system may or may not be integrated and may or
may not be applied on a local area network. The functions that may be
automated are any or all of the following: circulation, cataloging,
acquisition, serials management, and reference.

Library automation refers to the use of computers in the routine and

important service of a library The objective of the early libraries was to
store and preserve the recorded knowledge on various types of media
and in various formats for posterity. These documents were accessible
to a privileged few. With lapse of time, the objectives of the libraries
are also changed. The basic objectives of Modern Libraries are :
• Acquisition of right information at the right time

• Organising the acquired information in a helpful orders for

almost instantaneous retrieval

• Communicating the required information to the users

exhaustively.

These objectives can be achieved to a large extent by the

application of computers to library application. This leads to
right information for the right reader in right time.
3. Advantage of Library Automation
Library Automation is basically a time and space saving
mechanism, repetitive use of data and exploitation of
international and local computer readable databases are easily
possible. Cost-effectiveness and improved management
information appeal to management. The real/exact advantages
of library automation are listed below.
• A machine readable record created in automated
environment may be used repetitively for several
purposes which in turn saves effort, time and resources
considerably compared to those involved in manual
process.

• It avoids duplication of work

• It helps to have effective control over the entire

collections which helps in collection development.
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• As the staff are relieved by the routine work, their

potentialities can be used for generate other services.

• A real –time access to library database is possible within

the institution in LAN environment.

• It facilitates effective resource sharing among the

libraries through a network which leads to access to
information in a cost effective way.

• The advances in IT industry, the decreasing cost of

hardware and increasing availability of powerful
software packages have made automation as a social
necessity.

4. Feasible Areas of Library Automation

The Library activities start with procurement of documents and finally

ends in serving the users. This cycle of action involves many other
activities. But all activities can not be computerized. The library
activities which are feasible for automation are :
• Acquisition Control
• Cataloguing
• Circulation Control
• Serial Control
• Information Storage and Retrieval
• Semi-auto /Auto Indexing
• Network of Automatic Systems
• Managerial Activities
The library catalogue or index to the collection forms the base for most
of the library activities such as acquisition, reference, bibliographic
service, inter library loan etc.
Library Automation: An Overview 5

5. What is an integrated library system?

When the library management system is sharing a common database to

perform all the basic functions of a library, the system is integrated. An
integrated library system enables the library to link circulation activities
with cataloging, serials management etc. at any given time. It makes
use of a file server and clients in a local area network. Most of the
library management systems have the following modules: cataloging
and OPAC, circulation, acquisitions, serials management and
interlibrary loan module (ILL).

5.1 Library Management Software

Computerised library management systems have long provided the

essential infrastructure for the delivery to customers of the services they
use most frequently –registration, OPAC, issue & return of material,
inter-library loans, serials and acquisitions. Consequently, the process
of acquiring or replacing a system is a key professional activity to
ensure appropriate functionality, accuracy in processing and ease of
use. A library Management Software is an Integrated Library System
(ILS) , also known as a library management system (LMS), which is an
enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items
owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
Library automation systems are sets of computer applications
characterized by large databases containing relatively lengthy textual
records. The Indexing that supports these applications is usually
extensive and the facilities that locate and display information are quite
complex. The bibliographic and other types of data stored in the
databases can vary greatly in length and single fields may be repeated
within the same record. These characteristics of basic data aside, the
applications themselves have all the complexities of major computer
application.

Libraries have always been the first of the organizations to adopt the
new technological changes; in the same vein librarians thought of the
automation of library activities after the onset of computers. Right from
the invention of typewriter to the later stages of modernization, libraries
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incorporated changes like the introduction of unit record equipment, the

move of offline computerization, use of online systems etc. Automation
of library services benefits not only the library patrons but also the
library staff members who are responsible for providing different
information services in particular and library in general. Several library
automation packages, commercial and non-commercial, are available
for the purpose; but the commercial packages are beyond the reach of
many libraries. In this situation, the only solution left for the libraries is
to use free library automation packages. Koha is an open source and
integrated library automation package, which can be used to automate
library house keeping operations.

For most of the history of library automation, library systems were

developed and maintained by private companies (CLSI, DRA,
Innovative Interfaces, Dynix, etc.) Libraries purchased the hardware
and licensed the software from the vendor, who then also provided
system maintenance and, over time, added features and capabilities to
the software). For libraries interested in automating, there was no other
approach (other than possibly developing your own system in-house).
In the late 1990’s, this model began to change, with the development of
the Koha library system in New Zealand. With Koha, libraries no
longer had to license software from a commercial vendor. It was free
to download off of the Internet. Because the underlying software used
to create the system was all itself open source, (While the full definition
of what makes a particular piece of software open source has many
different aspects, the most important one for our purposes is free access
to the program’s source code) there are no yearly licensing fees to be
paid to the vendor. System development is done by the users
themselves, rather than by developers working for the vendor (although
now LibLime, a Koha support organization, provides a much of the
software development). This approach offers several advantages. Most
significantly, because libraries have access to the underlying code, they
have far greater control over how their system works. They can set it up
in such a way as to need their individual needs, and can develop
additional functionality on their own. Also, because there are no
software licensing fees to be paid, the cost of operation can be lower
than with a commercial library system. In the early days of open
source, there were also risks, however. Because the systems were new,
they did not have the rich feature set of an established system (which
Library Automation: An Overview 7

meant funding lots of software development). They also required a

technical staff with the hardware and software skills to support the
system locally, as there were no commercial support mechanisms
available.

6. Transformation and Library Automation

The first part of the story is dominated by the theme of automation

(modernization): libraries applied a growing range of information
technologies to the management of collections of primarily print
information. This was a supremely rational period characterized by the
primacy of the systems analysis perspective— careful studies of cost/
benefit tradeoffs in the introduction of technology to modernize library
operations. Starting in the late 1980s or early 1990s, academic libraries
were confronted with environmental changes driven by information
technology, which quickly moved the focus of attention away from
automation toward a series of much more fundamental questions about
library roles and missions in the digital age. Libraries were forced to
react to developments in information technology (and their cultural and
economic consequences) rather than methodically exploiting them. The
emergence of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s is perhaps the
great symbol of this shift, with all of its implications for scholarly
communication; but there is much more: the rise of computational
science, the new role of databases in all areas of scholarship. At the
start of the new century, libraries are struggling to absorb innovation
and to recognize the implications and meanings of transformation.

7. Conclusion

The general lack of awareness of new technologies in the library

community is a real problem. The 'hybrid' (traditional/digital)
environment further complicates the situation. Not only do libraries
have to acquire or configure technologies to manage their internal
collections, but also to manage the resources made electronically
available/accessible beyond their own organisations. There has been
some significant progress in, and a number of projects on, the
development of functional specifications for managing the external
digital environment and on access to electronic resources on a large
scale. These initiatives, however, have largely ignored the functional
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and technical requirements for the internal management of resources. It

remains the responsibility of individual managers to acquire appropriate
systems technologies and software to manage local collections and to
integrate these with the external digital environment.

References:

1. Reynolds, D.( 1985) Library Automation Issues and

Applications. Newyork: RR Bowker Company

2. Cooper, MD.(1996) Design of Library Automation Systems.

Newyork: John Wiley

3. Martin, S.K (1980). The Professional librarian’s reader in

library Automation and Technology. Newyork: Knowledge
Industry Publications