Resource Sharing in Libraries -1

INTRODUCTION:
There was a time when library was nothing but a store room where the reading materials were kept under lock and key and the person, who was called Librarian, was supposed to be a care taker and custodian. Mostly these libraries were owned by the kings, Royal families, and a few scholars. And they were the users of the libraries. However as time changed the concept of the library also has changed. The importance of library has come to the recognized everywhere. Library maintenance, upkeep and running were accorded the status of science and now it has become Library and information science. The necessity of Libraries was realized by one and all.
The present age aptly described as information age characterized by information explosion. The universe of recorded information and the number of the knowledgeable persons have increased tremendously. A new piece of research keeps coming up every second. The technologies known as current technologies today are going to be outdated within a very short time. In such changing situation the concept of Libraries also has to change radically. Acquiring all published material is impossible for any one library.
Resource constraint is an important limiting factor in collection development. On the other hand inflation, budgetary cuts resulting in reduction of buying power has became a critical and a important problem for libraries. Therefore a co-operative system of libraries to share resources as an alternative to the present system has to be thought about and fortunately new technological developments have distinctly rendered this possible and we would do well to take advantage of this. However before planning for such resource sharing we should try to understand barriers and solution of at least very important issues.
WHY RESOURCE SHARING?
(a) Non uniform Distribution and underutilization of fund:
Unfortunately in our country uniform policy if fund distribution is lacking. In every state different norms are observed. It is also need based distribution. The most important drawback is that the Govt. financial planning authorities discriminate between Govt. institutions and aided institutions even when they run the same course. Sometimes Government institutions are provided ample funds with the stipulation to spend the fund within a time limit and they returns the funds to the Governments. On other hand needy institutions with proper planning and machinery to utilize funds gets inadequate funds for their libraries. Steps must be taken to formulate and implement a uniform fund distribution policy. Of course this may take time but as an immediate step we can think of resource sharing to help our readers.