Abstract:
Never before in the history of the world have there been so dramatic changes in every aspect of human life, as ordinary people are experiencing today. Libraries and Information Centres too are rapidly changing and unlike the traditional libraries, the present libraries are equipped with a massive amount of information because of the technological advances and the changing patterns of user needs. Day by day, moment by moment, knowledge of man is increasing and available information is on the increase. The rapid growth and uses of emerging technologies has changed the traditional library into automated, electronic, virtual and digital library. This revolution has completely changed the library scenario, especially in an academic environment. The situation which mentioned above is common for university libraries also. Therefore, university libraries should deal with modern technology to give information for users very effectively. In this venture, library automation is very important for universities.
The main objective of this study was to identify the importance and advantages of an automated library to fulfill information needs very effectively and to identify the problems faced by the universities in the process of automation. For this study, three major universities were selected namely, Moratuwa, Colombo and Kelaniya Universities. The data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The population was staff members of the university libraries and library users. The sample was 15 staff members (Librarians & Department’s Heads of Acquisition, Technical Services, Reader Services and Periodicals division) and randomly selected 105 students. The data was analyzed by using excel and results were visualized graphically through charts and tables.
The conclusions of the study pinpointed that there is a lot of advantages of automation in university libraries. The automation software which is using in these universities has streamlined cataloguing, circulation and acquisition functions including serials control. In addition, this automation software provide users unprecedented and fast access to information stored in regional and international databases including access to resources in other networked libraries, electronic journals and to full-text articles and journal titles from various databases as well as access to other bibliographic services and resources. Although these universities are using automation software packages they face a number of software problems and drawbacks. Finally, all respondents were given a chance to give their suggestions to overcome the problems they face in automating their library functions.