The Change In Meaning And Role Of The Library

THE CHANGE IN MEANING AND ROLE OF THE LIBRARY Otike Fredrick wawire I tend to agree with Augustine Birrell who once said, “Libraries are not made, they grow” and to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, a library should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas –a place where history comes to life. It is the shrine where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. Modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. In addition to providing materials, they also provide the services of specialists, Librarians, who are experts at finding and organizing information and at interpreting information needs. More recently, libraries are understood as extending beyond the physical walls of building, by including material accessible by electronic means, and by providing the assistance of librarians in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools. The term Library has itself acquired a secondary meaning: “a collection of useful material for common use,” and in this sense is in field such as computer science, mathematics and statistics, electronics and biology. The stakes are high, from a social, cultural and economic point of view. Libraries play a fundamental role in our society. They are the collectors and stewards of our heritage; they are organizers of the knowledge in the books they collect – adding value by cataloguing, classifying and describing them; and, as public institutions, they assure equality of access for all citizens. They take the knowledge of the past and present, and lay it down for the future. It is however, not to the museum, or the lecture room, or the drawing-school, but to the library, that we must go for the completion of our humanity. It is books and other information materials in the library that bear from age to age the