Indian Library Association wants government to give impetus to public library system

VADODARA: The Indian Library Association would approach Centre seeking thrust on the public library system under ' Digital India' mission and to select libraries as partners in the digitisation of knowledge and heritage.

This was one of the recommendations made during the three-day international conference on sustaining excellence, transforming libraries through technology, innovation and value added services in the ' Google era', held in Rajkot, ILA president Prof Ashu Shokeen said.

The other resolutions adopted at the conference included those on ILA reviving its vision to initiate professional skill development programme with stakeholders in academic and public libraries, filling up of vacancies of librarians in schools, colleges and universities and recruiting more professional librarians to provide services to one and all.

Besides, another resolution was adopted to launch a national-level programme to inculcate and promote reading habits among people.

Shokeen highlighted ILA's contributions and achievements for the library and information science profession in the country since its inception in 1933.

It was pointed out at the conference that libraries are not equipped well to reach people in villages and need to be revamped in terms of infrastructure and human resources with more allocation of funds.

It emphasised that provisions under library legislation be given due attention to develop a network of libraries to serve people in need of information, knowledge and cultural heritage.

Over 110 delegates from various parts of country, and from countries like Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Bhutan attended the conference.