Intelligent Utilization of World Wide Web by
LIS Professionals to meet the Information
Needs in an Academic Environment
Mrs. K Kavita Rao
Librarian
Hindustan College of Arts & Science
OMR, Padur, Kelambakkam,
Chennai, - 603103,Tamilnadu,India
kavitamrao5@gmail.com
Paper presented at ICIDL 2010
International Conference on
Innovation Driven Librarianship: Expectations
of Librarians and Library Users
SRM University, Kancheepuram,
Tamilnadu, INDIA
June 17-19, 2010
Introduction
“Teach people to surf the Internet and they can tour the world.
Teach people to serve on the Internet and they can touch the world”.
(H.M. Kriz, 1994) 1
Universities and higher education institutions need
to create a relevant organizational structure to
adapt to new technology, while maintaining its
identity, values, principles and goals.
Academic libraries are more than repositories for
materials and knowledge; they are an access point
to acquiring knowledge and skills.
Introduction
WWW has brought a revolution in education. It has
significant potential for supporting active
learning and adventurous teaching.
The World Wide Web is evolving as a natural forum
for the presentation and delivery of information
resources in an educational institution.
Technology has revealed that librarians can no
longer be simply information providers or the
‘keepers of knowledge’.
LIS professionals now need to be web-
technology experts also and be able to use the
WWW for fulfilling the information needs.
The Significance of World Wide Web
Web technology is now used for information
literacy instruction; to enhance the goals of
conventional literacy instruction; to positively
transform literacy instruction; to prepare students
for the literacy of the future and to empower
students.
The key to promoting improved learning with the
Web depends upon how effectively the medium is
exploited in the teaching and learning situation.
The World Wide Web is also a means towards effective
scholarly communication.
The Significance of World Wide Web
Some features of the WWW namely motivation,
unlimited resources, global communication,
collaboration, authentic problems and hypertext
environment develop complex thinking skills in web
users.
When used in an authentic learning environment
with appropriately designed instruction Web can
have positive influence on student-learner’s
development of complex thinking skills, critical
thinking skills and information literacy skills thus
enabling them to intelligently and efficiently
navigate and use information.
Intelligent Use of World Wide Web
by LIS Professionals
For providing all kinds of library, research, documentation &
information services.
The academic librarian now uses WWW in all possible ways to fulfill
the information needs of the information-users.
To provide intellectual access to information sources available in
the form of websites.
To evaluate available sources of information available on WWW.
To organize and structure information.
To ensure the preservation of information.
To provide specialized staff to offer www instruction and assistance
in interpreting resources and access to resources on WWW.
To foster e-resource sharing.
To teach information literacy to the users.
Intelligent Use of World Wide Web by
LIS Professionals
To find out the latest developments in the field of library
technology.
To communicate and share ideas with others.
To provide user-education and information, digital and
reference services.
To provide research-assistance for self and others.
For e-learning and distance education.
For lectures, seminars, conferences, workshops and for creating
interesting Internet presentations.
For continuing education and self development.
Intelligent Use of World Wide Web by LIS
Professionals
Provide Interactive Internet and Web training packages using
image maps.
For maintaining web-portfolios and design updated library
homepage with improved use of graphics.
For providing a collaborative learning environment as well as
help individual reflective work.
For collaboration.
For improving learning and instruction.
Instructional resources are another area that could be
enhanced by various Web technologies.
to enhance creativity, communications, secure information
sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. The WWW is
a great help to catalogers because it promotes involvement
with standards that affect cataloging. Many of the standards
committees have sites on the WWW that accept comments from
non-committee members.
Teaching the use of World Wide
Web: some points for consideration
Teach students the language of library research and then
teach them the language of electronic library research.
Only when the language of research is understood are
students ready to move on to applying those terms to
electronic search methods.
Allow students to practice the specific
research/information skills needed to successfully
complete the course.
Encourage students to think about what information they
are looking for and how they will use it before they go
online, i.e., encourage them to plan a search strategy
before conducting a search.
Teaching the use of World Wide
Web: some points for consideration
Present to students strategies on how to use some of the
major search engines and directories, reference sources
on the Web. Students need to be taught to always use
more than one search engine for the same search.
Evaluation is necessary before information on the Web is
used.
Teach students to decipher what they see on their
monitors during the search process.
If problems remain, ask students to record, step-by-step,
the search process they are using.
Teaching Web surfers to evaluate their online discoveries
is a core mission for most reference and instruction.
Web information literacy
Not only educating the patrons about the [library’s
new Web-based] system, but by preparing them
for the world of the Internet – a world where they
are swimming at their own risk with no librarian on
duty (Koopman and Hay 1994) 4.
Web Information literacy is the ability to recognize
when web information is needed and to identify,
evaluate, and use the information available on
WWW effectively.
A key factor in ensuring students' academic
success is to make certain that they do not feel lost
or intimidated when using the World Wide Web and
help them to avoid plagiarism.
Suggestions for LIS Professionals
Empowerment of Library Web contributors to incorporate the
Web as one of their prominent tools.
As Web sites multiply at academic and research institutions,
there is a need for a set of working ideas towards ‘best design’
criteria for creating, organizing, and coordinating web resources
with the goal of integrating web technology into teaching
practices and information services to be followed. Web content
management and knowledge base management are necessary.
In large library systems the Web can be used to bring together
in one place, actually in many places via the hypertext links, a
myriad of information.
Making library Web sites into information portals helps
everyone. They benefit student learners by showing how the
seemingly chaotic world of the Web can be organized into
logical divisions to help them find what they need.
Effective communication skills and proper planning are the
success factors in library.
Suggestions for LIS Professionals
There is a need to develop flexibility to address a wide range of
user expertise and needs.
LIS professionals need to continuously update their Knowledge,
competence, and skills .
Awareness about web policy, Web committee formulated
policy, Webmaster developed policy, Respondent formulated
policy; Follow university’s policy, copyright issues, Right to
Information Act, etc is necessary. The best web policy can be
developed in a collaborative way involving librarians, library
administrators, and the campus community.
Based on the nature of student-learners and research scholars,
LIS professionals need to structure their services and resources
to support the variety of learning styles.
In the libraries, each student-learner needs to be given
personal encouragement and the confidence to use the World
Wide Web resources.
Suggestions for LIS Professionals
Librarians should be natural collaborators with teachers and
researchers at all levels to improve education and support
lifelong learning.
They can assist students in their learning and support teaching
faculty in their efforts to update skills and knowledge.
LIS professionals and researchers need to adopt information
visualization tools to facilitate exploration of very large data
archives.
Encourage students to interact with the librarian by e-mail or
in individual or small group follow-up sessions as they
progress through their projects.
Librarians have to create an agreeable environment for
electronic information retrieval by facilitating in electronic
information retrieval and consummating indexing.
Suggestions for LIS Professionals
Librarians need to move towards a borderless information
environment and remove all boundaries and barriers to
knowledge transfer and share.
To fully utilize the potentials of Web technologies, explore
new areas for improving library services.
Web 2.0 technologies need to be adopted by the group of
academic libraries to recalibrate the processes and the
paradigms of the library and information services.
Librarians need to be the Google experts in their community
since it enables librarians to be more competent in educating
users.
Carry out projects aiming to promote and facilitate use of the
World-Wide Web (WWW) among academic community.
References
Harry M. Kriz, 1994.Teaching and Publishing in the World
Wide Web. Available at:
http://learning.lib.vt.edu/webserv/.
Noruzi, A. 2004. Application of Ranganathan's Laws to the
Web. Webology, 1(2), Available at
http://www.webology.ir/2004/v1n2/a8.html
Smith, AG. 1994. Librarians and the web: a report on a
study tour. LASIE: Information bulletin of the Library
Automated Systems Information Exchange. 25(1–2): 4–
15.
Koopman, A and Hay, S. 1994. Swim at your own risk –No
librarian on duty: Large-scale application of Mosaic in an
academic library. In: Mosaic and the Web: Advance
proceedings of the Second International WWW Conference
1994: Chicago, October 17–20, 1994: 603–611.
Thank-you