EMPATHY IN PUBLIC LIBRARIANSHIP:
A SUBJECTIVE AND QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS
v. L. Kalyane
and
Rajashekhar S. Devarai
[Problems and prospects of public librarianship are discussed
from a personalised. human. subjective and critical point of
view in this paper. It is suggested to both Librarian and public
to empathise for each others benefits and get prepared to step
into the year 2)01. It is hypothesi sed that empathy in public
librarianship may lead towards paving way for a fullfledged
library information profession and an effective information
literate society.]
Key Words :
Empathy; Public Ubrarianship; Ubrarianship; Profession
Empathy:
Empathy is a stable approving attitude of one person
towards other people, groups or socjal phenomena that takes the
form of affability I goodwill, and admiration and stimulates
communication* reciprocal att9ntion and mutual help. Sympathy
normally arises on the basis of common views, values, interests,
anq moral ideals. In interpersonal relations, sympathy is a factor
of human integration and maintenance of psychological comfort.
Rapport is designated as close interpersonal relations based on a
high degree of community of thoughts, interests and feelings.
Empathy:
The term 'empathy' was introduced by Edward Tichener,
who combined in it various similar ideas about sympathy and.
Theodor Lipps' concept of imaginative entry into another
person's feelings. The following specific forms of empathy are
distinguished: common emotional experience, i.e., experiencing
1.
2.
Scientific Officer, SO (Publication), Library and Information
Services Division, BARC, Trombay, Bombay-400085.
Assistant Librarian, Directorate of Oilseeds Research, RaJendranagar,
Hyderabad 500 030. India
K-31
-
v. L. KALYANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEvARAI
by an individual of the same emotional states as those experienced
by another person by identifying oneself with him, and
sy~~athy, i e., emotions experienced by an individual and
elicited by another person's feelings. An important characteristic
of e~pathy which distinguishes it from other forms of comprehension
(taking roles, decentration, etc.) is its weakl'l developed
reflexive aspect, or closure within immediate emotional experience.
Empathic abilities of individuals were found to grow with
greater life experience. Empathy is actualised more readily when
individuals' behavioural and emotional responses are similar, and
also in highly anxious. individuals. In a system of interpersonal
relations characteristic of a developed collective, the subject of
empathy develops a stand of active interference designed to
eliminate frustrations in other members of the collective.
An attempt is made in this paper to apply concept of
empathy in public librarianship towards reading public.
Every man is a unique being, Along with the features and
characteristics shared with other people i.e., the universal ones,
but only gradually, with the help of adults and through his own
activity, becomes an individual through socialisation. As for the
adults influence" the decisive role in this process is played by
education w~ich is purposeful, planned, professional and institutionalized
Besides Jhe educationar influences, there are also
environmental agencies affecting the developing individual.
These are external influences However, the development of the
individualism is also" influenced by its own self inner activity,
throtJgh individual characteristics and the way external influences
are interpreted, which- results in internal attitudes affecting the
way further, and external influences are understood.
Worlds of Knowledge
Popper ( 1972) characterized three "worlds" of knowledge :
we can call the physical world (world 1); the wor1d of our
.conscious experiences ( world 2) and the world of the logical
contents of books, libraries, computer memories, and such like
88 I ndian J our, Inf. Lib. & Sac.
EMPATHY IN PUBLIC LIBRARIANSitip
(world 3). It can readily be seen that popper's world 3 is the
province of the librarian; moreover, librarians act as intermediaries
between the documents comprising world 3 and .the information
needs of their patrons, needs that Popper would characterise as
belonging to world 2, or the world of thought processes. Using
Popper's typology, one can say that information seeking behaviour
is an- attempt to incorporate world 3 objects, i. e., products of
thought, into world 2 states of mind, i e., thought proccsses.
Furthermore, if the information seeker is a scholar, information or
knowledge retrieved from world documents may be used in the
creation of new knowledge that when recorded, published,
acquired. and stoied, .will in turn become part of Popper's world
3~ Librarians are responsible for acquiring. guarding, grading,
organising and keeping humanity's inteflectual and cultural
heritage for continuous usage of generations to follow.
Needs:
Taylor (1968) distinguished between four levels of needs
giving rise to the inquiries put by the user :
1. Visceral need, which is the vague sense of a gap in
knowledge and is expressed only in terms of vague dissatisfaction.
2. Conscious need, which is mental description of an ill-
'defined area of indecision. 3. F (jrmalized need, where the user
has a better appreciation of the ambiguities and can give a more
precise and formalised statement of his question. 4. CQmpromised
need, where the user reformulates his need in terms of the
capabilities of the source.
Need is tricky to define. It may sometimes be expressed
in demands and then in circulation statistics. But if it remains
unexpressed, then the responsibility falls upon the librarian to
know what is needed by public, common man. The responsibility
assumed here by the librarian towards his client is
tremendous,
The task of assessment of information needs of common
man is a tedious job as the category is so heterogenous a group.
V7, NI-2, J anuary-J une 1994 89
v. L. KALYANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEAVRAI
No agency is working towards this end. Though; Radio, Films,
Audio & Video cassettes carry lot of information value, they are
being used more and more for entertainment by the common
man. Due to information explosion in every endeavour of human
life and due to availability of alternative sources of information
in different forms. it has become highly impossible for the
common man to take his own decisions. Only a library,
information professional can come to his rescue either by adding
economic value to information or by governmental provision of
information in a large scale (Devarai and Damodaram, 1993).
Australian Library Journal of September, 1964, reported the
following principles as basic and distinctive of the obligations
and responsibilities of a librarian within a democratic
community:
1. The Librarian has a responsibility to keep open the
channels of communication at tlis disposal so that he may
discover and serve the needs and interests of his community.
2. Having regard to his resources, to the special needs of
his locality and the purpose of his library the librarian should
not, in the acquisition and use of library material, exercise
discrimination against an author or a reader on grounds of race,
sex, religion or political affiliation.
3. The function of the Librarian is to promote reading
and to cater for interest in all facets of knowledge, literature and
contermporary issues, including those of a controversial nature,
but not to promote or ;;uppress particular ideas and beliefs.
4. The selection of books for libraries is not a form of
censorship. It presumes the right of the reader to read books
widely and to form his own judgement, and it is designed to
achieve this.
5. The librarian should resist attempts by individuals or
organised groups within the community to determine what
library materials are to be or not to be, available to the users of
the library.
90 Indian Jour. Inf. Lib. ~ Soc.
EMPA Tgy IN PUBL[C LIBRARIANSHTP
6. The Librarian must obey the laws relating to books
and libraries but it the laws or their administration conflict with
the principles put forward in this statement he should be free to
move for the amendment of these laws (statement of principles
on freedom to read, 1964).
To enhance usage and readership of the library, Librarian
should on a continuous basis take up the work of research into
the needs and interests of his community. Need based
collection becomes meaningful and hence -leads to more usage
and participation. librarians should come out with objective
methodologies of book selection by which they can keep themselves
away from discrimination against an author or a reader on
grounds of race, religion or political affiliation. As mentioned
above at point 3, Librarian should not use..his judgement on
whether or not people should read particular titles. Let people
or rather the actual readers and members of the library decide
what they actually want to read in the Library.
The public library serves a geographic/political region
usually quite diverse in constituency. This is the source of much
difficulty in collection development. Should the comm.unitY to
b~ given exactly what it asks for ? What if different segments of
the same community are at odds in what they demand of the
library ? It may be impossible to buy everything "they'l want
assuming it is possible to determine what it is. Community protiling"
became a :-popular method of determining the order to
predict its needs and wants. Decisions still must be made concerning
the priorites whenever there is a conflict. Will only the
loudest requests be heard ? What about those who are unable
to attend the library or those who are unaware of all the services
available to them ? Reflecting the predominent community, views
might have no room for the expression of minority intests. The
selection of each alternate must reduce the overall depth to
which the predominant view can be explored or some minority
views may be edged out completely Society will pay for what
it needs and that library budgets have been restrained because
V7. Nl-2. January-June 1994 91
V. L. KAL y ANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEV ARAI
libraries have not been ke"eprng abreast of society's needs for
information. The problem is of librarian and the members
(citizens) to understand each other and to assume roles in empathy.
This could be one of the best theoretical models by which
best results could be expected. Librarians should educate people
about what they can do to help people for their welfare. He has
to educate people as to how he can participate in the very process
of development and struggle for existence by his tools and
techniques of acquiring and organising information. The phenomenon
of sociological determinism should prevail both over the
librarian and the public so that they start realising their mutual
dependence for survival. Hov"ever, very little is known of users
needs for information, of rhe uses of library information, 'of the
characteristics of users.
Public Library:
Comte (1977) gives us two definitions of the public
library. The institutional definition corresponds to the legal
conception of the latin countrie.;, where those institutions dependent
upon adm!nistrative authorities are qualified as "public".
The functional definition is linked to the Anglo-American tradition
of the "Public Library" and refers to any library "whatevar
its origin or legal status, working towards the creation of a
reading public. "Here it is no longer a question of public
libraries but of libraries for the reading public where the main
objective is giving immediate and direGt service to all the members
of a given community whatever, their educationai intellectual or
cultural level, and irrespective of ethnic group, religion, philosophic
or political conviction (wiele, 1991 ).
From the fifties onwards, modern public libraries were set
up almost everywhere chaiacterised by: 1. an educational function,
2. a cultural function and 3. the information function.
Libraries should strengthen the process of negating the tenden..
cies of cultural monism by their vast stoie house of information
and knowledge "systems. Public libraries alone can reach everyone
In the dissemination of information. as they are -open for
.92 Ind.ian Juur. Inf. Lit..& Soc~
EMPA.THY IN PUBLIC LlBRARTANSHIP
common man or for that matter anyone and everyone. The
future status and position of librarians and their practice depends
on how keenly and sincerely they address and focus themselves
on the information needs of common man (Devarai and Damodarm,
1993). The Delhi Public library, which was opened in 1951 with
the supcort of UNESCO and of the Indian Government, was- the
first modern public library in India. III the developing countries
emphasis is on the spread of literacy and primary education. No
public library can be considered satisfactory, unless it provides
facilities for children's lending reference and local history department.
These four departments involve the handling of all types
of library material, .a~dthe staff are called upon to discharge
some of the responsibilities for the flow of.; information which
are associated with the general librarian, documentation officer .
archivist and information officer .
Public Library Mission Statement (PLMS)
American Library association ( 1979) issued the public
library mission statement which is an important document in
redefining the library and librarian's function in the overall information
process. It outlines access not just as subject a-ccess but
also from myriad of directions aliowing not only the facts but
also the wisdom in the record to be retrieved. The agenry (i. e.
the library) would facilitate cross connections within the record,
among many disciplines, literacy forms, and period of history.
The. catalogue as the mechanism of access has an even more
demanding job to perform. The indexer is to indicate whatev:er
about a book is significant representative, and relevant, shows
its character, wisdom or subject usefulness. Access to information
has evolved into access to wisdom. Whereas any pocket of
facts and data can be considered information, it requires judgement
to deterime what is wisdom. This is a call for many steps
beyond current professional responsibility. Librarians should
build up their plofessional knowledge base and value system in
such a way that they deal with ease the problems of clash of
moralities between the right to privacy, the need to know and
V7 r ,,~1-2, J anuar.v' .J une 1994 93
V. L. KALYANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEVARAI
the freedom of access to information explained by Chipman
(1990). Yet as if in compensation for the increased load the
librarian must bear the long-term goal of comprehensiveness in
collection development is set to rest. The library is to house
"authentic information" of sound factual authority, and to help
people to separate ecological truth from the accel6rating currents
of propaganda and special interest. In light of the information
professional's special position and abilities, his or her responstbi-
Hties are expanded officially through the mission statement to
include erasure of unimportant things. What is preserved is that
which is significant relevant and representative. These are
intriguing words because they bank steeply against the open
doo~ nondiscriminating trend of the library. Significant,
representative and relevant all require selectivity and alter the
overall balance of the collection. A minority view may be
significant for example in its opposition to the main view or in
being indicative of a new trend. The Librarian is mediator and
populariser respectful of the total record but selecting the best
on every side of an issue. Though at no time is the Librarian
released from the responsibility of fair treatment to all difference
in view, yet he is released from the troublesome notion that (5)
he must be neutral.
.~
The responsibility of Librarians i~ .greater than ever before,
because in order to select representative' portions of the overall
picture of knowledge, they must be aware of the totalityof
universe of knovv'ledge.
The Public Library Mission Statement can be seen as a big
,step towards the resolution of value conflicts in the profession
and specifically in the task of collection development. Considerably
more thought must now be given to establishing a firm
professional value base. This measure is not only essential to
our decision making process but also provides a firm stand from
which to assess equitably the fair representation of the diverse
value systems lying for expression in our collections. Other value
~4 Inaian Jour. lnf. Lib~ &.Soc.
EMPATHY IN PUBLfC LIBRARIANSHIP
systems can be represented fairly if vv'e are open in our understanding
of our non professional values.
The Librarian cannot merely be an informer but naturally
is an educator as well. An educator must evaluate and make
decisions answayed by community interest. Contrary to the se.fimage
as neutral transmitter' the Librarian/educator must use
some independent system of value upon which to base decisions.
Desire for neutrality yet necessity for evaluation causes tension
between practice and policy decisions.
Case ( 1984) says, "The Library clinging to supposedly
objective and autf1oritative materials is boring and has an
artificially limited clientele. Libraries can be and should be
controversial, inspiring, and infuriating",
The American Eibrary Association ( 1985) announced goars
that include "ameliorating or solving the criticar problems of
society. This means making decisions regarding the revel of the
Ubrary's invorvement in particurar social causes. rntense
professionar debate revolves around the major themes of sociar
responsibirity. The outcome affects the bias with which
Librarians decide which views are important for their Library
corrections. Pr ins ( 1991) reported that the generar pubric is
unaware of the sociar responsibirities of ribraries for instance
regarding the individuars rights of access to information, therefore,
the status of the profession is low. Users of ribraries have
row expectations as to the quality of the services of Libraries
resurting in a row statu s of the profession. There is a severe
rack of professionar readership. And if there is, it is dependent
on persons instead of 'Professionar culture'. Wirson ( 1988)
\A.hife examining the reasons for the low profire of libraries and
low expectation of the community of its library service suggests
fer low librarians to participate activery in local government
programmes and in decision making.
Access to information must be unimpeded and that its
flow should be assured. There can be no denial of this
V7 J NI -ZJcl anuary-J 'tIne 1994 ')5
Vo Lo KAt VANE AND RAJASHEKEAR S DEVARAI
individual opportunity in a truly free societY, no withholding of
information whether by intent or by dereliction in provision.
Censorship :
Censorship-the purposeful, systematic denial of access
to certain works or ideas-is repugnant to Librarianship. To be
meaningful, librarians' vigilance against censorship can embrace
even discomforting ideas.
Censorship is on the rise across the country, in the form
of challenges and subsequent removal of books from Library
shelves, as well as throughout the world in more explosive
forms, such as the Salman Rushdie death threat. But there also
are more subtle forms of censorship involving the erection of
barriers to access that stem the free flow of ideas and their
Incorporation, for better or worse, by individuals.
The relationship of censorship and librarians probably is
clearest and most immediate to those whose responsibilities lie
in collection development, especially in selection of materials.
Hence, the tensions inherent among conflicting professional
goals and idea's that ask librarians to be simultaneously neutral
and proactive, objective and subjective.
In making c:hoices, a librarian fails to select a great many
books. He is bound by budget and space restraints to do so.
This is not an act of cencorship in and of' itself. It is censorship
only when there is a celiberate attempt to suppress alternate
views. Censorship can be taken to mean removal of a book from
the Library's collection; locking it away in a vault for safekee~
ping; failure to select it f.r professionally unjustifiable reasons;
or hiding access to it through incomplete or wrong classification
or poor indexing or poor shelving.
Although the Library profession uphord strongly' the principle
of free expression, sometimes difficulties arise when
individuals or groups of individuals within the profession do not
wish to endorse the views expressed in the books they select.
96 Indian Jour. Inf. Lib. & Soc
EMPATHY IN PUBLIC LIBRARrANSHTP
The Freedom to Read Foundation, an organization techn ically
sQparate yet associated with the Intellectual Freedom Committee
of the American Library Association, produce d the Freedom to
Read Statement (.American library Association, 1953). The most
relevant of its statements are: .'Publishers, librarians, and bookselrers
do not need to endorse every idea or presentation
contained in the books they make available. It would confrict
with the public interest for them to establish their own
political, moral, or aesthetic views as the sole standard for
determining what books should be published or circulated.
Access to Fiction Literature.
For some reason, Librarians who would stronglyoppose.
denying access to a work of literature because its content being
controversial are nevertheless indifferent about having the same
work made content accessible, forgetting perhaps that inade.
quate or incomplete indexing can be as much of a bar to access
suppression. If a user who wants to find fictional depictions of
insanity cannot do so due to lack of subject access, has not
access been denied as effectively as if the material had been
censored ? Similarly, if a user knows only that he would like
tO read a novel "about" a given subject, how will name8and.
title access help that user.
In a recent article about the biblio;Jraphic control of nonbook
materials, Richard Smiraglia describes Patrick Wilson's
conceptual framework for bibliographic control and contends that
it can be seen as the basis for a theoretical construct. Of Wilson,
Smiraglia (1987) writes: He suggests the existence of two
domains of bibliographic control, which he refers to as descriptive
and exploitative. Descriptive control is used to organise a bodyof
bibliographic objects. Exploitative control is the ability to make
the best possible use of a body of knowledge. Wilson sees
exploitative control as the superior, if unattainable, of his "two
kinds of power"; descriptive control as the inferior, if more
readily available.
V7, NI-Z, J anu1ry .June 199'f 97
v. L. KAL y ANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEV ARAI
Exploitative control is what users need. Descriptive control
is what we have in our libraries to guide them. The various
orderings of the objects provide pathways to understanding the
relationships among the works they contain, thus offering the
user some opportunities to make the best possible use of a body
of knowledge.
Extending Smiraglia's thesis to fictional materials, one can
argue that names, title and single generic access for multigeneric
works do not constitute appropriate descriptive control for fiction.
Without enhanced catalog access, what Smiraglia terms the
user's "Pathway" to works of the imagination is partially
obscured, with name, title and sometimes genre as the only
signposts. Name and title access, though immensely valuable,
especially to those already knowledgeable about literature, is
simply not adequate for the non-experts needs. For example, a
reader interested in fictional works "about" the British Raj might
easily find works such as the 'Raj Quartet', or even' A passage
to India', whose title gives clues to their common subject, but
without topical access, the same reader would probably not know
that the novel 'Staying On', the Comic Sequel or ironic postscript
to scott's monumental tetralogy # also- geals with the conse.
quences of British rule in India. Finally, it does not say much for
present day bibljographic control practices that public library
users should have to depend on a marketing device of the
publishing industry, namely a book. dust jacket, to gain
descriptive control of fiction, while users of academic libraries,
fiction collections do not even have dust jackets to guide them.
It must be remembered, however, that in order to be
retrieved from documents and used in the creation of new know~
ledge, information has to be found, but unless fiction is indexed
according to topical content, as non-fiction is, information
contained in it may remain forever undiscovered.
If enhanced catalogue access to fiction were provided,
however the objectives of the subject catalogue as enumerated
by Cutter, would at last be achieved. At the same time, "the
Indian Jour. Inf. Lib. & Soc.
98
EMP A THY IN PUBLIC LIBRARIANSHIP
convenience of the public". whose members often approach
fiction by topic, would truly be served. Whether used for escape,
entertainment, experience or enlightenment, as a source of
pleasure, knowledge, information, or art, fiction merits more
comprehensive access than it is presently accorded in our
libraries, and more particularly in public libraries.
Document Supply:
Document supply is a basic, although comparatively small
part of the freedom of access to information to which librarians
and information scientists are so dedicated. The fact that a
particular document is. not available in a given geographical area
should not prevent the. person wanting it from obtaining it. This
is part of the basrc work of the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA) programme for Universal
Availabilityof Publications (Line, 1978).
Objective Neutralism
Librarianship is a phiIasaphicalIy independen~ profession,
as far as librarians disaffirm explicitly allegiance with any particular
interest group, so as to serve all groups equally. .Berninghausen
(1979), suggested that professional statements are geared
towards developing a "view of the librarian as a neutral professional
functioning in a neutral institution. The Latent Social
Id'entities* of Librarians (e.g., sex, religion and ethic identifications
etc.) hinder this process of objective nutralism. As average
social beings Librarians confirm themselves to the peoples'
conception (society) and rating of themselves and that they find
it increasingly difficult to come out of their Looking Glass
Selves*"{: where by theyare pictured in a low social profile.
* Concept discussed by Sociologist A. W. Gouldner for conveying a
social identification or role held by a member of a formal organisation
that is officially regarded as irrelevant to the organisation but
which nevertheless influences the organisations functioning.
"* "* Concept developed by C. H. Cooley in his work "Human nature
and the Social Order -1902".
V7, Nl-2' January-June 1994 99
V. L. KAL y ANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEV ARAI
However, Miller (1955) had expressed the hope that "objective"
views of an issue should be collected: "We can and must see
that the public is provided with unbaised material on the
subject". The necessary alternative, however, is to priorotise
between all the choices, to decide what merits a place.
Public Libraries for All =
In democratic societies governments are obliged to
provide access of information to all of their citizens throughout
the world through a network of libraries. The year 2001 will be
characterised by:
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
demand by people for a library information centre at their
clan, tribe, colony, village, street and so on;
demand by people for access to information from wherever
it is available;
demand by people to get the desired information in a
desired form and format instantaneously;
demand by people to expect librarians active involvement
in the generation of diverse tailor made information
products;
demand by people to the'library information professionals
to participate actively in development programmes as an
"
active participant;
People expectation of librarians 10 assume the roles of
knowledge system experts and knowledge engineers;
a sitllation of information sociery wherein library information
professionals scale high in their social profiles;
a situation of helplessness and a state of chaos on the
part of general and specialist people in the wake of
tremendous information being generated every moment;
a stage of development wherein the librarian has to retain
best of his conventional knowledge (Library techniques
and procedures) and the best of contemporary information
sciences;
jOO Indian Jour Jnf. Lib. & Sac.
EMPA THY ]N PUBLIC LIBRAR I ANSIiiP
10.
1;c1
12.
a- ~tage of development wherein information is consolidated
and packaged into different levels of understanding
and technicality sold out for money like any other goods,
in the market;
a'stage of development wherein in the absence of relevant
information living in the year 2001 i.e. in an information
society becomes practically impossible;
a point 1 stage ot take off for library profession by proving
their social relevance, necessity and-indispensibility.
Hence the year 2001 is full of hopes for the Librarians.
Librarians have to shoulder the greatest of the responsibilities to
enter into the 21 st ceh~t1Jry. The secret of the success lies in
servicing and reachIng anyone and everyone in society.
"
Librarians should make their presence felt in every nook and
corner of the ~Iobe, The long wish of the librarians to acquire
the status of a fullfledged profession remains a dream if we
enter into the year 2001 can information society) unprepared. It
is a time for every Librarian to make a bit of personal sacrifice
both in cash and kind. This is the only way by which Librarians
can convince people and clients that the year 2001 will be an
information society and that V'.'ithout a minimum level of information
living becomes horrible. Librarians have to convince
people and make them understand the vital importance of informati.
on and libraries. Librarians should take up a mass campaign
for people regarding awareness about information and libraries.
Librarians should pledge to educate people and make them
information literate before entering into the year 2001.
.Public Library movement should become a peoples movement.
As long as people don't reali se the importance of
information and the importance of being literate to use
information, public library movement would not become a people's
mov;ement. Here..lies the role--of the" librarians to make, people
realise,the.importance of being literate and the importance of
us~"g information fot culture, development and entertainment. A
day should come when people realise that without information
V7. N-I-Z.Jan'tIary-June 1994 101
v. L. KALYANE AND RAJASHEKHAR S DEVARAI
in-the form of a book, casette or in the form of a radio or a T. V.
programme, living a meaningful and purposeful life is impossible.
This dream could be realised only by having a library information
centre at every street, village, town and city and in every slum
and colony and moholla. It is enough if Librarians convince the
general public that they need information for their own development
and welfare. Once they get convinced the problem" is
solved for ever. Public library movement becomes a peoples
movement. People will come forward to pay for library services
in the form of tax and they will not allow any form of diversion
of funds from library head to some other heads. That day should
be marked in golden letters for Library and information profession.
From that day onwards there will be no necessity of
looking back for library and information professionals. People
themselves will come forward to recognise the services of
librarians by way of according the status, salary and recognition
long due to them.
EMPATHISE
The future status and position 01 librarians and their
practice dep&nds on how keenly' and si ncerely they address and
focus themselves on the information needs of common man.
..
Professiologists are. still not' convinced ~bout the fullfledged
status of Librarianship as a professional calling (Devarai and
Damodarm, 1993). Out of the two systematic studies/research
done on library profession in India, one considers I ibrary science
to be a semi-profession (Jaiswal, 1990) and the other observes
it to be a fast developing profession (Chopra, 1986). The
reasons for the low profile libraries and librarianship are many.
The future is hopeful in the wake of new support of information
technologies for accelerating library services.
All these days people have suffered a lot allover the world
in the absence of a well developed up-to-date library service
and secondly in absence of proper support, patronage and
102 Indian J our. Inf. Lib. ~ Sac.
EMP A THY IN PUBLIC LmRARIANSHlP
recognition of public in general. Alas t Even to this date
somebody has to awaken them and make them understand that
they had undergone a lot of suffering1.
Librarians are still not clear as to why people don't accord
due status and recognise their servjces. And people are still not
clear about the potentials of information and to what the
Ubrarian is upto and as to why he needs more and more of their
attention, money, recognition and status. Answer lies not in
accusing each other. Empathy is the only answer. Both
Librarians and people have to empathise. The sooner they do it,
the better. This can. lead them towards unlimited possibilities of
understanding each" other, paving way for a healthier Library
Information Profession and a better library.;.information service to
public.
REFERENCES:
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Conference, ALA and American Book of Publishers Council.
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Goals, Guideline~ and Standards Committee, The Public Library
Mission Statement and its imperatives for service, Chicago.
American Library Association (1985). Goals and Priorities, ALA
Handbook of Organization. Chicago. p. 203.
Berninghausen (D.K.) (1979). Intellectual Freedom in Librarianship :
Advances and Retreats, Advances in Librarianship. V 9. New York :
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4.
Case (P). (1984). Libraries shoqld be controversial! Reprinted in
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5.
Chipman (Lauchlan). (1990). Access to information: social and
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Chopra. (H. R.). (1986). Study of Librarianship as a profession in
India. P. 85-92. Iff Library and Information Science in India: Current
trends in India: Prof. S. N. Srivasta.va Festschrift Vol. edited by
Pavan K. Gupta & Usha Pavan. Jaipur, RBSA.
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Comte, (H). (1977). Les Bibliotheques publiques en France, Presses dB
L' ENSB.
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Deva1"ai, (R, S.) and Damodaram. (T). (1993). Information for the
common man and the future of Librarlanship : a critical analysis.
Indian Journal of Information, Library and Society ,6 (1-2). P. 84-92.
Hayes, (S). (1992). Enhanced catalogue Access to Fiction, A Prelimina1'
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Jaiswal, (P. K.). 1990. Librarianship and bureaucratic organisation
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Line, (M. B.). (1978). UAP aI\d inter library lending, IFLA Journal.
4 (2) : 118-121.
Miner, (M). (1955). Citizens too: Librarians as Disseminators and
Guardians of Knowledge Must Help Communities Meet their
problems, Library Journal, 80 : 834.
Popper, (K. R.). (1972). Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary
Approach, London: Clavendon, p. 74.
Prins, (H). (1991) Status, image and reputation of Librarianship s
results of an empirical study, J. of Lib & Inf. Sci.16 (1), 11-24.
Smiraglia. (R). (1987) Bibliographic Control Theory and Nonbook
Materials,'. in Policy and Practice in Bibliographic control of Nonbook
Media, Chicago: Americ.an Library Assn., p. 11.
Taylor, (R. S.). (1968). Question-negotiation and information seeking
in Libraries. Colle~e & Research Libraries, 29, 178-194.
Wiele, (Nic Van de). (1991). Public Libr.aries, J. of Lib. & Inf. Sci.
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Wilson, (Gray). (1988). People, puzzles and public libraries :
challenges facing public libraries. Australian Public Libraries and
Information Services 1 (3) : 186-194.
20.
.
104 Indian Jour. Inf. Lib~ & Sac.
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