March 17-19, 2015, India International Centre, New Delhi
IPLC 2015 FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS – DRAFT
(For private circulation and comments)
1. Public libraries in India should make every effort to conform to the
guidelines prescribed by UNESCO in its Public Library Manifesto.
i. Public libraries will have to respond to the changing needs of the public,
serve them with necessary information resources and contribute to
developing a knowledge society.
ii. Library services should cut across gender, language, literacy and age
barriers so as to make libraries, spaces for ‘social inclusion’.
iii. The community should have a say in the functioning of individual
libraries; and, carrying out community needs assessment and their
satisfaction level must be made an annual feature of every public library.
iv. The community should be the focus of collection/service development
of each library.
v. Public libraries should conform to UNESCO guidelines and look after the
communities besides books and journals.
vi. Every district library should be linked to all the rural and branch libraries
in the district in a hub and spokes model with responsibilities to support,
nurture and promote service delivery.
vii. Libraries should offer physical and content access to people with
disabilities on the basis of their special needs.
viii. Libraries should involve the communities served in the management
and monitoring of services.
ix. Creating and strengthening reading habit among the communities,
especially among the children, should be one of the main objectives of
every public library.
2. Model Public Library Act/guidelines should be developed.
i. Developments in ICTs in changes in society are transforming every facet
of every public service. Taking these into consideration, Ministry of
Culture (MoC), Govt. of India, should develop a new model public library
act or a broad set of guidelines for the effective management and
sustainability of public libraries, which the states should be encouraged
to follow.
ii. There are major variances in the practice of public librarianship amongst
the different states in India. The Ministry of Culture should develop
some basic guidelines to ensure the minimum service standards and
certain accountability mechanism for the provision of public library
services.
iii. The States that have enacted public library legislation should be
encouraged to implement the provisions of the legislation.
3. The apex body, Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, requires
remodeling and reshaping with multi-stakeholders engaged in the
process.
i. There needs to be a national body to provide leadership to the public
library system in the country. The MoC may consider restructuring and
strengthening the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation to undertake
this new role.
ii. The Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation should be encouraged to
develop a Forum where multi-stakeholders are asked to support the
organization.
iii. A cost-benefit analysis of RRRLF schemes is required to be carried out to
assess its effectiveness.
iv. RRRLF functionaries require to be supported with the capacity they require
to manage the Indian Public Library System, reporting to a multistakeholder group, and that their capacity development should be modeled
on other national systems around the world.
4. An India Public Library Fund (IPLF) should be created to make way for
funding support from public and private sources.
i. Ministry of Culture should establish an India Public Library Fund (IPLF) on a
priority basis, and such a Fund should be managed by multi-stakeholders.
ii. IPLF should attract funds from various resources, including that of tapping
the 2% CSR funds in the Companies Act.
iii. IPLF should seek contributions from various central ministries which directly
or indirectly benefits substantially from public library services such as the
iv.
Ministry of Human Resources Development, Ministry of Rural Development,
Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Skill
Development.
The Ministry of Culture should help obtain IT exemption for individuals who
donate funds to IPLF.
5. An India Public Library Association/Council requires to be formed.
i. India Public Library Association/Council, led by the library professional
should be established towards strengthening all public libraries in the
nation, and, should include all stakeholders of public libraries.
ii. All stakeholders of public libraries should be encouraged to join the
association/council as members and associate members.
iii. IPLA/C should be recognized by the Ministry of Culture as a professional
body that helps to improve, innovate and steer the public library movement
responding to the changing needs of the community.
iv. Considering such public library associations have been found to be effective
for the development of public library system in various nations, the Ministry
of Culture should pro-actively encourage setting up of similar associations
in India.
v. State level stakeholders should be encouraged towards establishing statespecific associations, and all such state level associations should be
encouraged to be a part of the IPLA.
6. An India Public Library Campaign should be initiated by the Public.
i. Media houses, citizens, the private sector and the government to
spearhead the movement to create awareness on the use of public
libraries.
ii. A concerted effort to engage citizens, encourage corporate involvement to
tap resources, including that of tapping the 2% CSR funds.
7. Community needs and aspirations should form the basis of
service/collection development; hence, a judicious blend of centralized/
decentralized procurement is to be encouraged.
i. Public libraries should respond to the changing needs of the communities
by engaging them as well as fulfilling the same with services that are
demands-driven.
ii. Public libraries should be supported to develop its collection/holdings that
are relevant to the needs of the specific population, each public library
serves.
iii. The current system of collection development, managed by the RRRLF is
totally ineffective. A blend of centralized/ decentralized purchasing of
library materials should be developed to meet the needs of the community.
iv. While the local stakeholders of each of the libraries should have a say in the
collection/service development plans, to optimize resources, the state level
administrative bodies should develop a transparent and user-centred
procurement process.
v. While books, including the text books should be purchased by public
libraries, non-book materials such as tablets, eBooks, and other audio and
video collections should also be included in the procurement policies.
vi. Access to online resources and library networks should be introduced in
public libraries as a priority. The Ministry of Culture and RRRLF have to
immediately look into the resource needs of the libraries supported by
them.
vii. All public libraries should initiate special services aimed at children, with
materials that promote joyful learning techniques among them.
viii. All public libraries should serve people with disabilities and those with
special needs.
ix. While purchasing digital material, all public libraries should adhere to
international access and usability standards such as WACG 2.0, ePub3
accessibility guidelines and those materials in Unicode format to ensure
accessibility by all including the print-disabled.
x. A policy for weeding books/reading materials should be developed and
implemented.
8. Refurbishment of Public libraries should be carried out throughout the
nation on a priority basis.
i. Library should become inviting places for reading, reference and research in
commensurate with the local environment. The national body to oversee
the functioning of public libraries should develop prototypes and adopt
already established standards to suit different types of public library
environments.
ii. The Ministry of Culture should issue guidelines to ensure that public
libraries are accessible to all including persons with disabilities by providing
infrastructure and relevant content useful for all segments of the society.
iii. A specially designed children’s corner/section should be an integral part of
each and every public library.
iv. All public libraries should have proper seats, reading tables, flooring, lights,
and facilities like drinking water and toilets to facilitate public to spend
some creative time in libraries.
v. Public libraries need to redesign their library spaces to attract 21st century
users. Innovative approaches to redesigning the public space should be
considered with the help of professionals and architects and there should
be a redesign competition engineered, specially aimed at public libraries.
9. All public libraries should offer free WIFI and Internet access and all
relevant web resources.
i. All Public libraries in India are to be connected to the National Knowledge
Network, with 1GBPS bandwidth and resources that are accessible to all
members of the community.
ii. All public libraries should be equipped with ICT infrastructure that includes
appropriate hardware, software, internet access, digital archival facilities in
all public libraries.
iii. Cataloguing of resources available in public libraries should get made in
machine readable form.
iv. State Centre Libraries and District Libraries must be modernized as a
priority, and that these libraries should connect with all libraries in their
districts in a hub and spokes model.
v. All important and rare copyright-free publications should be digitized
through national and private agencies specialized in the job.
10. State Governments should make provisions to organize regular training
programs to equip library professionals with right skills, knowledge and
attitude for the future.
i. In coordination with various training providers and professional public
library associations and institutions, continuous professional and leadership
development so also skill-development program should be regularly
designed and implemented.
ii. Every library professional must undergo a minimum of ten days of training
each year, and be assessed on the basis of a performance assessment
criterion.
iii. There is an urgent need for upgrading curriculum in library schools for
preparing public library professionals for the future.
iv. Performance based incentives should be considered for the staff in public
libraries.
v. Public library training modules should be evolved to look into specific
requirements in different states.
vi. States that provide training in regional languages should ensure that latest
best ICT content becomes available in the vernacular for use by the library
staff.
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