Libraries

Introduction

This page is a collection of links and material on libraries. I want to learn more about:

Library initiatives in developing countries, both at the research and at the local level
The potential role of library digitization in such efforts, and the sorts of problems and bottlenecks they face
The role - actual and potential - of libraries in the West as partners in such initiatives: e.g. in terms of expertise, material, money, etc.
The situation of libraries in India: what they have, what it's like to use them. I'd love to collect "library experiences" from library users in India.
The history of library movements in different parts of the world

Its easy to take libraries for granted: despite having spent a great deal of time in them, I find I know very little about their history and how they work. This page is a partial effort to rectify that ignorance. It was motivated in part by a slightly bombastic letter (rant?) I wrote last year to the National Knowledge Commission, while I was doing research in India. (In retrospect, I'm slightly embarassed by the tone of the letter, and the fact that I hadn't done any research on libraries in India when I wrote it. One should know whereof one speaks!)

I have not read through all the information collected below, so it may be of uneven quality. I plan, in due course, to go through the material more carefully and write up notes on what I learn: at present, some of what follows is simply in the nature of notes to myself.

Library initiatives

With some exceptions, these intitiatives seem to be very local and small-scale: there must be hundreds, if not thousands, all over the world. I wonder if there are more large-scale examples? Are there any recent attempts at building "grand" research libraries (of the scale, e.g., of the British Library)? Or smaller-scale initiatives with a focus on academic and research activities? (One could imagine, for instance, kiosk-based library systems which gave students access to electronic resources, even if there isn't enough money to build bricks-and-mortar libraries).

Social Action for Advocacy and Research (SAFAR) has set up a program called "Kitabghar" (library) in the Sheohar district of Bihar, India: it is "more a resource center than simply a library. It is actually a place where the villagers can access reading material (books, pamphlets, documents, fliers etc.) of their taste and related to various government schemes for public welfare." SAFAR is seeking contributions of books for this venture: novels, textbooks, and material on caste, religion, gender, children's books, as well as relevant government and legal material. [Thanks to Reetika Khera for this link]
READ Global is an NGO founded by Dr. Antonia Neuebauer in 1991, designed to bring libraries to villages in Nepal. Here are my notes on a talk by Dr. Neuebaeur at the Sterling Memorial Library in January 2007. The talk was part of the Global Faces of the Yale Library program organised by the Yale University Library.
A Digital Human Rights Library in Kazakhstan.
The Kigali Public Library (Rwanda), built in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. The library is coming towards the end of a major fundraising campaign to raise enough money for the library to begin operations. [Thanks to Zachary Kaufman for this link; he is an important force behind the library]
Stop here for books: wonderful story about a retired NRI librarian who gave up on trying to build a public library in Punjab, and so set up a mobile book van/lending library which serves villages in rural Punjab. [Thanks to Trisha Gupta for this link]
The Community Library Centre at the Ajit Foundation in Bikaner, Rajasthan: unfortunately, there's very little about the library and how it works, but they have a wonderful photograph of their mobile library. [Thanks to Reetika Khera for the suggestion]
The Children's Library Project run by the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children. Their description says they began with nine libraries in 1983, and now have 114 all over India. [Thanks to Amitabha Bagchi for the tip]
'Talking library' records success: a report on an audio library for the visually impaired, based in Bangalore. It had 16,000 works (books?) as of March 2005! [Thanks to Kavita Srinivasan for this link]

Library digitization

An overview

As both Kim Parker and Joann Donatiello pointed out to me, "digitization" is a confusing word, because it conflates two things: (a) the conversion of non-digital material into digital format, and (b) the dissemination of material that is already in digital format. Initiatives such as Google Books would belong in the first category. But most material now published in journals is produced electronically, and so would fall into the second. However, the distinction doesn't map directly onto a books/journals distinction: for instance, JSTOR digitizes old journals that only exist in print format, and Oxford Scholarship online has full-texts of recent as well as older titles, many of which probably already exist in digital form).
Current initiatives
- The digitization of books
  - Project Gutenberg
- Journals
Problems and prospects

I haven't studied this, but I imagine the issues arising in these two enterprises are very different: for instance, the digitization of non-digital material must be quite a complex task - materials have to be selected, then scanned (which is presumably not a straightforward task, given worries about preservation, the need to provide searchable content, etc.).

Nor is finding and then reading this material a straightforward task - where would one look, to begin with? Are there central catalogues which aggregate this information across all the different initiatives? Or does each initiative just maintains its own separate catalogue? Google's 'Advanced Book Search', for instance, doesn't have keyword and subject searching - presumably one would use an ordinary library catalogue to do the initial research, and then see if Google or whoever has it.

Finally, even if one finds what one is looking for, printing out whole books is a non-trivial matter, as is reading them online. And so forth.

Partnerships

Between libraries

Center for South Asian Libraries: This is a partnership between a consortium of libraries in the US, and a selection of libraries in India, as well as one in Kathmandu. The primary goal seems to be that of preserving and cataloging content within these South Asian libraries: once the content is digitized, it is made available at places like the Digital South Asia Library. V. Sridhar has a nice interview with James Nye, (Chief Bibliographer for South Asia, University of Chicago Libraries), on the genesis of the project.

Between private bodies

There seem to be a few smaller-scale initiatives driven by non-profit organizations in the West, based on donations of books, which are subsequently sent to various other countries. I'm very curious as to how this ends up working: who chooses where the books go, for instance? What kinds of books end up in what kinds of places? It would be fascinating to find out.

Bridge to Asia: This is a non-profit organization based in the US which collects book donations in the US for use in libraries in China. The website doesn't have much on how this process actually works, though. [Thanks to Suchi Shenoy for the link]
The Asia Foundation: This is another non-profit organization which collects book donations (mostly university-level textbooks, donated directly by publishers). Their description of how this process works - based on "needs assessments" and "consultation with prospective recipients" is couched in pretty general terms. The list of recipients is pretty impressive: the Ministry of Higher Education and Kabul University in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Education in CHina, and so on. [Thanks to Suchi Shenoy for the link]

Libraries in India

Experiences

Reading rooms: Another lament on the lack of good public libraries in India, by Pradeep Sebastian. [Thanks to Trisha Gupta for this link]
Virgil and Plutarch in Sarojini Nagar (Shivam Vij): nice, though somewhat depressing, article on the Delhi Public Library [thanks to Anuj Bhuwania for this link].

National policy

Why India Needs Open Access: A transcript of a two-part interview with Professor Subbiah Arunachalam, conducted by Richard Poynder (Part II is entitled Open Access: Science in which no one is left behind). The focus of these interviews is mostly (as the titles indicate) on open access, and specifically in the context of science research.
The working group on libraries at the National Knowledge Commission. I took a very quick look at their report and recommendations, so it's hard for me to assess at present: they seem to be at a very high level of generality.

Technical stuff

A study of Library Networks and Network based Information Services in India, by Mr. Pawan Kumar Jha (2001). Chapters three and four seem to have interesting material on library networking in India.

Library history

Miscellaneous

Material of related interest.

On the Shelf - A Modern Love Affair with Libraries
An announcement of a panel discussion by three novelists on what libraries mean to them as "writers, scholars, and 21st century citizens." At the Brighton Festival 2007 on 19 May 2007, at 7:30 pm. [Thanks to Reetika Khera for this link]
E-LIS is an open archive for Library and Information Science. Much of it is pretty intimidating, and not completely relevant to my interests; but I'm confident that their search and browse capabilities will come up with very useful material.
The UNESCO Libraries Portal claims to be an "international gateway to information for librarians and library users." It looks quite interesting: it has links to libraries from all around the world, organized by country and by type (public, research, national, etc.). It also has material on library networks and cooperation. The rest of the UNESCO website is also worth browsing: see, e.g., information on UNESCO and libraries.