New Delhi Problems of Library Automation in India

IN OLD CIVILIZATIONS LIKE India and other Asian countries, libraries have been in existence since early times. Recent political and economic developments which have brought about various types ofchanges in these countries are also reflected in the evolution of information systems. India's educational system had a definite elitist slant in medieval times and the legacy of feudalism during the British period nurtured this trend. Libraries with very rich collections of manuscripts and other rare reading material were mainly the property of the elite. The infrastructure of the country was, moreover, not congenial for the kind of wide-ranged library system which one can envisage today. Library development has shown a marked change since 1947. It is estimated that India now has approximately 90,000 libraries of different types. The Indian library system can be divided into four broad categories: public, academic, special and national libraries.