Review of Library Information Services : Its Progressive Metamorphosis from Paper Library to a New Paradigm of Knowledge Hub

Abstract

An effort has been made to enumerate the steady evolutionary trend of the Libraries and Information Centres in context of its modernization and progressive changes in relation to its qualitative and quantitative aspects. A short retrospective has been given depicting the development of various conventional standards and tools. There have been three very basic stages of progressive evolution of the library structures, i.e. the Paper Library, Auto­ mated Library, and Electronic Library. During the transition era Hybrid Library struc­ ture, where both the Electronic structure and the Conventional structure co-exits side by side comes into existences. But, the real metamorphosis has come in the LIS after the advent of powerful PCs and high end servers along with high speed internet connectivity and interoperable client-server programming in the later phases of 90s, where the infor­ mation is no longer bound within the four walls of libraries, it can be accessed and re­ trieved from anywhere of the globe through internet connectivity. The focus of services has been shifted from so called Document Management to Information Management and finally to the value added Knowledge Management.