This document discusses current trends in libraries and information services globally and how libraries must adapt to remain relevant. Key points include: 1) Advancements in technology have changed the roles of librarians and expectations of services; 2) Librarians must acquire new digital skills and move beyond traditional roles to curate and provide access to electronic resources; 3) Libraries are increasingly virtual and digital, providing remote access to vast collections of online information.

1. Current and Global Trends in Library and Information Services
Abstract
The advancement of ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) has
brought a lot ofchanges not only on the library and information services but also on
the roles and expectations ofthe librarians and information professionals. As a
librarian you are expected to do more and more especially in this age of information
explosion. There is a real danger that librarians and information professionalswill be
left behind if it still insists on the old role of the traditional librarians. So it is
important thatthere is a new change in paradigm. As the saying goes, change or
perish. This paper will attempt tounderstand what a successful, relevant and dynamic
librarians and information professionals mustbe in this Information Age. It will also
focus on the issues, trends and challenges in preparing new era librarians and
information professionals.
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2. INTRODUCTION
National development effort is simply any activity that raises real incomes,
therebyoffering new hopes of expanded opportunities for people, communities, and
enterprises. As boththe global and national economies become more and more
knowledge-driven, specializedknowledge has become the indispensable asset for
further economic development. Local businessesbenefit greatly in specific ways
from libraries, including access to new ideas, knowledge andinformation.
Inparticular, relocating businesses, start-up businesses, small businesses of all
kinds and infrastructural provision are perceived as enjoying the greatest benefits
from library products and services. Indeed,existence of libraries has been cited as a
reason for a business’ decision to relocate to a particularcommunity and the
strategic locations of beneficial infrastructural facilities. Studies also found that
business information resources were significantly morevaluable with expert help of
library staff. In other words, not only are information sourcesthemselves viewed as
important resources for people seeking mission-oriented information,
butprofessional services provided by librarians are believed by many to be critical
factors in finding,accessing and utilizing information resources to the fullest
extent, especially with regard toelectronic resources.
Democracy and national development demands that the masses, the source
of authority, should be well informed about all important matters. Although many
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3. are receiving this instruction in schools, the work of schools cannot be complete
without the backing of libraries. Libraries are an indispensable companion to
formal education. The librarymust give persons of all ages the chance to keep
abreast with their times in all matters: 'By offering them, impartially, works
representing conflicting points of view, it enables them to form their own opinions
and preserve that attitude ofconstructive criticism towards public affairs without
which there is no freedom.UNESCO Bulletin for LibrariesXV,(1961),
There will always be changes in the environment, and these changes will
affect librarians andinformation professionals: their role, job opportunities, self-
image, motivation and even survival.Librarians therefore need to find a solution to
timely repositioning and role claiming. We live in an Information society where
the development of information technology andtelecommunication networks is
accompanied by a corresponding increase in knowledge, with a rapidly growing
flow of information.
This new information environment requires new skills in seeking, processing and
dissemination of information. The base for a Librarian’s ability to understand and
use information is a qualitative, ongoing learning process.
CURRENT AND GLOBAL TRENDS
Before discussing on the current and global trend in library and information
services let’s first look at some current trends discussed in most recent literature of
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4. library and information management. These current trends somehow or rather will
have a bearing in shaping librarians andinformation services in the new era. They
are summarized as follows:
• Library functions in information and knowledge-based society
• Knowledge-based economy – information and knowledge as drivers to boost the
economy
• Information management recognized as an important discipline
• Information recognized as commodity (information brokerage, information
entrepreneurship, fee-based information)
• Information recognized as power/strength/weapon
• Information strongly link to decision-making, strategic management, competitive
advantage, innovation, R&D
• Knowledge management – leveraging organization
• Globalization of information
• Integrated and widespread ICT applications
• Mushrooming of information systems – need for Information System
Management (ISM)
• Growth of electronic / internet resources
• Role of digital/electronic/virtual library
• Librarians is designated as cyber librarians
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5. • Librarians expanded & changes in digital environment
• New breeds of information professionals: CIO, CKO, Information consultants
and analysts
• Competency- based assessment/training
• Leadership skills
• Access role replace custodial role
• Customer-focused/customer-centered, user oriented approach in provision of
services
• Strategic alliances, partnership and collaborations
• Librarians need new management knowledge and skills
• Specialized knowledge & skills in library and information management
• Double degree (major-minor concept)
• Trend to develop digital contents to facilitate access
In addition to the professional skills mentioned above, the librarians and
information professionals of thefuture must be equipped with a wide range of
personal and transferable skills in order to manage thechanging environment in
which he or she works. The importance of transferable skills over information
technology skillsshould be highlighted here.
Management and interpersonal skills willmake librarians more effective
managers of networked resources and services. As Hastings (1996)says "it is more
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6. important that digital librarians possess particular personal qualities (which
areinnate) rather than specific technical expertise (which can be learned). This is
not to say that the way to avoid the electronic age is for libraryprofessionals to
stick their heads in the sand. The information professional must change and adapt
to the newelectronic information environment, he or she must learn about new
technologies and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of them. Librarians
should not feel threatened by computers and technical developments but should
move forward with the new technology and take a pivotal role within
organizations. Information professionals within libraries are playing an increasing
role in dealing with information in electronic formats by creating Web pages to
promote their services to external customers and choosing automated library
management systems. Skills in information organization are more necessary in this
age of informationexplosion. Librarians and information professionals have a key
role to play in this era. For example, librarians are well equipped to take intranet
projects through the various stages of design and maintenance as they understand
their users and their organizations information needs and have the range of skills to
manage knowledge effectively. The role of the librarians in this context is to help
users find the information they require then provide them with the tools to assess
and use the resources for their individual needs. Creth (1996) suggests that
librarians achieve this by "actively seeking out users in a variety of settings" and
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7. by making "full use of information and multimedia technology" by offering
instruction in a variety of formats (including Web based instruction and online
tutorials). New era librarians and information professionals should be able to
manage the Digital Information System as this encompass the overall
competencies (knowledge, know-how, skills and attitudes) necessary to create,
store, analyze, organize, retrieve and disseminate digital information (text, images,
sounds) in digital libraries or any type of information.
Traditionally, libraries were collections of books, manuscripts, journals, and
other sources of recorded information. In the last 50 years, libraries have
increasingly developed into a provider of information resources and services that
do not even require a building. The terms digital library and virtual library are used
to refer to the vast collections of information to which people gain access remotely.
Digital Libraries
The world is going through an information technology revolution that has
drastically changed many facets of the human life, from education, industry,
economy, and politics to entertainments. In addition, the unprecedented
capabilities of the information technology to process, store, refine and disseminate
data, information and knowledge in a variety of ways across geographical
boundaries had dramatically changed the ways in which governments, the public
and the private sectors and libraries operate all over the world. As Ajayi (2002) has
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8. rightly put it, the emergence and convergence of information and communication
technologies (ICT) has therefore remained at the centre of global social-economic
transformations. As pointed out by Ogunsola and Okusaga (2008) libraries are now
extending their traditional roles of facilitating self-education and individual
enrichment by providing low-cost or free computer access to online resources. The
potential of what can be achieved in information generation, acquisition,
collection, processing, display and dissemination, was very exciting and
intoxicating, and resulted in futuristic dreams. All these electronic developments
form the basis of digital library which is equally termed virtual libraries. It is all
these technological developments which gradually give birth to what is now known
as digital library. At this juncture, one can ask what we mean by the term "digital
library". Digital library can be defined as one in which all the texts and spoken
books are stored as digital files, which will take a long time to achieve. A digital or
virtual library is the online access provided by other facilities or it may mean a
website which offers links to various sites with a large store of information in a
catalogued or archived form. The term may refer to all material related to any
subject that is available on the Internet. A digital library generally is part of a
network with linkages to other libraries.
The advances in the fields of telecommunications, computer technology, and
satellite communications have revolutionized information delivery services in
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9. advanced countries. As asserted by Akpan (2001), information can be delivered
across countries into houses and offices instantly. It must be realized that the
sharing, however, has been uneven across the globe. Countries with advanced
technology are years ahead of countries with developing economies. Within
developing economies, some have moved further ahead than others. In Nigeria, the
expression "virtual library" or "digital library" is relatively new, being a little more
than a decade old. One of the writers who coined it is Nancy Schiller, who defined
it in 1992 as "libraries in which computer and telecommunication technologies
make access to a wide range of information resources possible".
According to Irokwe (2001), a digital library is a library that harnesses digital
technologies as infrastructure to search, collect, organize, store and distribute
cultural, historical and scientific information whether it is text, visual images or
sound. The virtual library or digital library can be regarded as a child of necessity,
arising from need to use technologies in accessing the explosion of information for
human survival and development. This requires that all operations of the library be
computerized.
The Issue of Staff: The Right Staff
Staffing and getting the right staff is a major issue in e library in Nigeria just as it
was in the developed world when they stepped into electronic library system.
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10. Information professionals are now required to take on a wider variety of roles
requiring a broader range of skills than ever before and far more than their
exposures at the Library Schools. A number of e-Lib projects have helped to
successfully highlight these issues in recent years, (Stephen Pinfield) 2001. These
issues include how e library staff are obtained, trained and retained in order to
carry out this work. E-library projects in Nigeria are most likely to have problems
recruiting and retaining staff with the right skills across the sector because the
Library Schools do not offer relevant courses at the moment. Thought also needs to
be given to staffing structures which are currently biased in favour of traditional
library roles. There may be a need in many organisations to review the
fundamental organisational structure to see whether it is best able to deliver the
wide range of services required by e library.
A virtual or digital library can therefore be defined as a collection of library
resources in electronic/digital format at various locations, which can be accessed
and used with great ease using computer information technologies for the purpose
of teaching, study, research, learning, leisure, and decision-making.
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11. Electronic Resources
Taking Nigeria as an example, improving the quality of libraries in the
higher education system will improve the quality of the products of the system. In
recent times and as attested to by the findings of a 2001 Nigerian Institute of Social
and Economic Research/World Bank report on the quality of Nigerian Universities,
the competencies demonstrated by university graduates are "lowering at an
alarming rate". The poor state of academic libraries was implicated as a major
cause. The Nigerian virtual library project is a justifiable venture for bolstering
higher education quality. In another sense, the virtual library will enable students,
lecturers, and other scholars to profit more fully from electronic communications
revolution by having access to databases critical for their research and teaching.
Within the higher education system in majority of African universities, libraries are
far from being up-to-date. Books, journals, abstracts and other collections are not
current. The typical setting is to have a few fairly recent titles and a fairly large
collection of old titles. There are gaps in sequence which could be critical for
knowledge generation and dissemination. As a result of the above lapses, the
importance of virtual or digital libraries in African universities can never be
overemphasized. A digital library scheme will facilitate access to a vast collection
of books and journal, titles from as far as back in time as possible. A subscribing
library in Nigeria or any other African university will be several times richer and
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12. current in its collection of books and journals than presently the case. Estimates by
the www.virtuallibrary.com for 2001 showed that the installation and running cost
of a virtual academic library in a university is a mere .015% of the cost of
establishing a "real" academic library and less than 2% of the operating cost. All
the higher education institutions in Nigeria have physical libraries which require
about 1 billion Naira in capital, recurrent, and maintenance cost annually. This type
of electronic library resources can be shared by all institutions at a fraction of the
total cost required to support all the physical libraries within the higher education
system in the country (Ogunsola and Okusaga, 2008).
Furthermore, it is projected that 1,000 electronic databases/resources are
equivalent to 30,000 volumes of printed materials. These will require 2,650m2 of
shelf space alone. Thus, minimal resources can be mobilized for maximum
advantage in terms of library development in Nigeria and other developing
countries. In recent times, post-secondary educational institutions have been under
tremendous pressure for change as a response to demising budget, need to reach
students other than their traditional clientele, and adapt current development in
information technology for their delivery of institution. As a result many
institutions of higher learning worldwide have turned towards electronic
networking in academic services. The virtual or digital library also provides a
platform for sharing knowledge. It is not a one-way flow from resource-rich to
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13. resource-poor countries. Instead, it has been set up for uniformity in the
interchange of ideas. Consequently while universities in Nigeria and other
developing countries will take advantage of down loading materials from the
developed world, such universities will have the opportunity of uploading output
of research in the form of books, dissertation//theses and journals to the global
network of virtual libraries.
Also, differences in access to information technology and the ability to participate
fully in global electronic information networks is in itself a measure of the unequal
distribution of power in today's increasingly connected global economy and polity.
In Nigeria, for example, there are very few people with the advanced training that
enables them to contribute fully to new technology about electronic information
systems. It is precisely because of this situation of inequality that Nigeria and other
developing countries should be included in developing new knowledge in these
areas. It must also be realized that many of the print materials held in collections in
Nigerian Universities, particularly older historical manuscripts, are deteriorating
rapidly. Some materials cannot even be consulted by researchers for fear of
accelerating their decline. This is the trend in many other African countries. Many
research institutes and libraries, have suffered from deep funding cuts since 1980s,
and collections of all kinds have not been adequately maintained. Preservation is
central to maintaining the quality, longevity, integrity and accessibility of data.
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14. Digitalization within the framework of the virtual library project can be used to
create a high-quality copy of an item, thus protecting the original and ensuring that
the information that it contains is both permanently preserved and made accessible.
Although traditional channels of communication will remain important, the new
information and communication technologies hold great potential for broadly
disseminating knowledge at low cost, and for reducing knowledge gaps within
countries and between industrial and developing countries. In a broad sense as
revealed by Ogunsola (2004) access to the right information at the right time gives
people greater control over their destinies.
As a result of all these global technological changes, the purposes of higher
education have been transformed. According to Capron (2000), mail, telephone,
TV and radio, books, newspapers and periodicals are the traditional ways by which
users sent and received information. However, data communication systems have
been evolving since the mid-1960s.
It must be realized that Africa's development hinges on effectively participating in
the information society, and this requires low-cost Internet access. Yet Africa has
the most expensive Internet access in the world partly because its Internet traffic
transits through Internet exchange points in the US or Europe. As a result, Africans
must pay "long-distance" charges, and data transfer speeds are slow. Thus, the
digital divide continues to widen. This is one of the constraints militating against
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15. digital library development in our higher education institutions. As pointed out by
Rosenberg (2005), Africa has 13% of the world's population but only 2% of the
world's telephone lines and 1% of Internet connectivity. It is also noted that up
country or newer university libraries and (in multi-site libraries) branch libraries
lag behind in Internet connectivity. Programmes that assume all libraries within a
region or countries that have the same needs and aspirations are unlikely to
succeed. Therefore as most African countries still do not have good access to the
Internet; online resources like digital libraries or the Internet are not yet the
solutions to bridging the digital divide. Hence, one can confidently conclude that
traditional libraries are still alive and this will continue for a long time especially in
developing countries. The paper acknowledges that the Internet will eventually
take over in Africa as the means of providing access to digital academic
information. As such, African governments are urged to continue to look at ways
in which they can improve their national access to reliable and cost-efficient online
access.In addition, to paid resources, there are millions of open access sources that
are available with no cost to most of us. It is estimated that more one million full
text books are available in global market.
Furthermore, numerous government documents, academic pages, and
thousands peer reviewed open access journals are available via World Wide Web.
One of the well-known examples is “Directory of Open Access Journal” provide
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16. more than seven thousands academic journals. In addition, thousands of magazines
and newspapers from around glob are freely available via the internet.
CURRENT AND GLOBAL TREND OF THE NEW ERA LIBRARIANS
The new era librarian is a technology application leader who works with
other members of theinformation management team to design and evaluate systems
for information access that meet userneeds. Where required, the new era librarian
provides instruction and support so that end users canmake optimal use of the
information resources available to them. The new era librarian is capable of
working in the hybrid world of print and electronic media and providing the best
mix of informationresources in the most appropriate formats for the environment.
The new era librarian plays a key role in developing information policy for the
organization ensuring that access to all information resources -- from internal
records to external databases – is provided in the most strategically-Effective and
cost-effective manner. The new era librarian also plays another important role in
ensuring that contractual, legal and ethical obligations regarding information use
are met.
The electronic information age provides new opportunities fororganizations to
produce as well as use information products. New era librarians,
giventheirfamiliarity with the information marketplace, can be key contributors to
the development, marketingand use of information products.
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17. New era librarians are knowledge-based practitioners who use research as a
foundation for theirown professional practice and who support the conduct of
research through their professionalassociations. Research has shown that the
provision of appropriate information can lead to: betterinformeddecision-making;
the ability to proceed to the next step in a project or task; improvedrelations with a
client; and the exploitation of new business opportunities. The right information at
the right time can also benefit the organization by saving the time of highly paid
employees,avoiding poor business decisions, and even direct loss of funds.
In the information age, new era librarians are essential -- by responding with a
sense of urgency tocritical information needs they provide the information edge for
the knowledge-based organization.In order to fulfill this key information role, new
era librarians require two main types ofcompetencies:Professionalcompetencies
relate to the special librarian's knowledge in the areas of information
resources, information access, technology, management and research and the
ability to use theseareas of knowledge as a basis for providing library and
information services.Personal competencies represent a set of skills, attitudes and
values that enable librarians to workefficiently; be good communicators; focus on
continuing learning throughout their careers;demonstrate the value-added nature of
their contributions; and survive in the new world of work. The following sections
highlight the major professional and personal competencies of new eralibrarians:
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18. Professional Competencies
• has expert knowledge of the content of information resources, including the
ability to criticallyevaluate and filter them
• has specialized subject knowledge appropriate to the business of the organization
or client
• develops and manages convenient, accessible and cost-effective information
services that arealigned with the strategic directions of the organization
• provides excellent instruction and support for library and information service
users
• assesses information needs and designs and markets value-added information
services andproducts to meet identified needs
• uses appropriate information technology to acquire, organize and disseminate
information
• uses appropriate business and management approaches to communicate the
importance ofinformation services to senior management
• develops specialized information products for use inside or outside the
organization or byindividual clients
• evaluates the outcomes of information use and conducts research related to the
solution ofinformation management problems
• Continually improves information services in response to the changing needs
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19. • is an effective member of the senior management team and a consultant to the
organization oninformation issues
Personal Competencies
• committed to service excellence
• seeks out challenges and sees new opportunities both inside and outside the
library
• sees the big picture
• creates an environment of mutual respect and trust
• has effective communications skills
• Works well with others in a team
• provides leadership
• plans, prioritizes and focuses on what is critical
• committed to lifelong learning and personal career planning
• have personal business skills and creates new opportunities
• recognizes the value of professional networking and solidarity
• is flexible and positive in a time of continuing change
From the preceding section it would seem that there is an abundance of potential
roles for thelibrarian. To take up these roles will require careful and timely
preparation. Preparedness is a keyissue in repositioning ourselves for new roles.
Preparedness includes content knowledge and relatedskills but, more importantly,
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20. it includes survival skills. The following are a few suggestions thatcould also shape
the teaching approach, assessment methods, etc. Survival skills could include
theability to:
• carry out environmental scanning and rapid decision-making
• critically analyze the professional domain and where it is heading
• employ time management to keep librarians from putting off preparing for new
roles
• manage change
• work collaboratively (it is impossible to monitor new developments alone)
• study independently
• think creatively
• assess one's strengths, weaknesses and progress in continuing learning
When considering the roles that have been discussed and their requirements, it
seems that, apartfrom survival skills, new era librarians should focus more on
affective skills and characteristicssuch as:
• enthusiasm for life-long learning and new roles
• will-power (because nothing will come easily)
• assertiveness
• creative thinking
• self-confidence
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21. • innovativeness
Conclusion
Librarianship has undergone a radical change in recent years, which will be
continued in the future. As libraries have changed, so too, has the role of the
librarian. Increasingly librarians have assumed the role of educator to teach their
users how to find information both in the library and over electronic networks.
Public librarians have expanded their roles by providing local community
information through publicly assessable computing systems. Some librarians are
experts on computers and software. Others are concerned with how computer
technologies can preserve the human cultural records of the past or assure that
library collections on crumbling paper or in old computer files can still be used by
people many centuries in the future. The work of librarians has moved outside
library walls. Librarians have begun to work in the information industry as
salespeople, designers of new information systems, researchers, and information
analysts. They are also found in such fields as marketing and public relations and
in such organizations as law firms, where staffs need rapid access to information.
It must be realized that despite the changes in the roles and functions of libraries
over the course of history their cultural role has not. Libraries remain responsible
for acquiring or providing access to books, periodicals, and other media that meet
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22. the educational, recreational, and informational needs of their users. They continue
to keep the business, legal, historical, and religious record of a civilization. They
are the place where a toddler can hear his or her first story and a scholar can carry
out his or her research. New technologies are dramatically increasing the
accessibility of information, and librarians are adapting to the evolving needs of
users that emerge from the adoption of these new technologies. Technological
advances have presented the opportunity of automating some aspects of traditional
libraries.
By deciding to change to digital production, a traditional library would make it
much easier to cooperate with other libraries around the world. The more that a
library can communicate with others the more they will be able to learn what has
already been done. One of the ways we waste time and money is to try to invent
everything ourselves. Whatever you are trying to do in developing your library,
you can guarantee that somebody else has already done something similar. If we
are working with traditional methods and the only means that we have of sending
materials to other institutions is by the post, then it is understandable that libraries
tend to concentrate on their own affairs and their own public. It takes weeks to
communicate with other libraries then the efforts becomes too much and it is faster
to produce materials than to borrow it, if however, libraries can start to use the
Internet to exchange information and materials, the exchange can happen in
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23. seconds. The digital library offers more possibilities for enhanced scholarly
communication. The Internet and related technologies such as electronic mail
enable collaborative projects to be undertaken between geographically distant
groups. All developing nations can derive tremendous advantages from this
technology for updating the knowledge of its researchers and scientists. The entire
world is going online. The agenda for global preparedness includes the
development of telecommunications and Internet infrastructure.
Technology is the backbone of digital library, and the centre piece of preparedness
is the expansion of technology in Nigeria and other developing countries.
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