Changing Role of Information and Communication Technology in Library Services: Its Usage among The Students of Government Saitual College: A Case Study

INTRODUCTION

Exponential growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) inflict a great influence over the way in which teachers teach and students learn. The Information and Communication Technology has penetrated in all walks of human life in the modern era. The emergence of Internet has further revolutionised the educational process. Today technology of education is being developed with the aim not only of making education more widely available, but also of improving the quality of education which is already available. In the 21st Century there is a paradigm shift in the teaching methods and learning styles with the advent of Information and Communication Technologies. Integrated use of technology in education institutions has received an unforeseen attention within the last decade in the developed countries. The internet has lately become the focus of attention especially with regard to its significance as coveted instructional tools in a student-centred environment. Pedagogical use of ICT for enhancing academic performance has become the main centre of attraction in educational research so as to improve quality of instruction. It is necessary not only with a view to meeting the challenges emerging before the society but also enhancing human potential beyond capacity.

The various information and communication technology tools such as web resources, educational CDs Computer, multimedia, etc. find place in teaching, learning, research, administration and data management. These ICT tools have changed the learning styles of the students. Learning in the higher education level is not simply knowledge acquisition but knowledge ‗managing‘ and knowledge ‗creating‘. Hence, the present study attempts to find out the impact of ICT tools in the learning styles, and awareness about these tools among the students and its impact on libraries.

Information and Communication Technology can be defined as those processes and technologies which are used in acquisition and dissemination of information based on some electronic technology. The library is an institution that acquires, manages and disseminates information – both provides educational resources. The advent of the information revolution could alter both the way libraries operate and their role in Higher Education and society at large.

The main functions of library are acquisition, technical processing storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. The traditional methods of doing these result in slow. The traditional methods of doing these result in slow laborious and repetitive manual routines. With the advent of modern technologies and its application manual routines have transformed into machine services, which libraries can avail themselves of an offer to supplement existing ones to users. Some of the areas to which the ICT could be applied in day-to-day activities of the libraries are acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, indexing and abstracting, etc.

ICT has influenced the very nature of libraries. The conventional set up of brick and mortar libraries that store information within a constrained physical space have given way to data centres that integrate data sources around the globe by the means of networking. With the advancement in technology and its direct application to libraries, they are becoming lean and agile libraries that streamline information supply. One of the distinct gift of information technology has been the invention of devices with huge storage capacity. Online access to information has turn many libraries into ‗Virtual Libraries‖ CD-ROMs, DVD and flash memory cards have changed the face of libraries. Libraries are also changing the way in which information is stored and disseminated to users. According to Singh (2005), Information Services are generated using new tools and techniques to facilitate the right users to the right information. Information has always been prime factor for the development of the society and is often regarded as a vital national resources. Information has become important part of our lives and should be available when needed. Information services try to meet this objective, ICT has had a significant impact and has successfully changed the characteristics of information services being generated in libraries.

Once the public-access on-line catalogue is in operation, member libraries intend to investigate electronic delivery of materials between their institutions. Online Catalogue Library Centre (OCLC) network is an example of a major computer-based cooperative network that is employed by all types of libraries nationally and internationally.

There are two major problems that confront higher education in the 21st century namely, ―Information Explosion and Population Explosion‖. To combat these two problems learners are to be made familiar with and use ICT tools in their learning process. and usage of various communication and technological tools by the students. • To compare the awareness about the usage of ICT tools among male and female students.

The study is based on a questionnaire survey of the undergraduate students of Govt. Saitual College. The ICT usage questionnaire on a two point scale (yes or no) constructed was used to collect data from the respondents.

There is no significant difference between male and female students in the usage of ICT tools. Sample: 60 students from first, third and fifth semester B.A. in Govt. Saitual College constitute the sample for this study and include both male and female students.

Simple percentages were computed for analysing data. The percentage is given only for the response to ‗yes‘.

2. 61 % of the total sample had access to P.C. in the institution/college. 3. 61 % of the sample are able to operate computer by themselves. 4. 22 % of the total sample had access internet through P.C. The percentage of both male and female is same. 5. 100 % of the sample had access to internet through their own mobile phone. 6. 100% of the sample have participated in Social Networking like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc. 7. 100 % of the total sample are familiar with internet and had browsed.

8. 88 % use internet for educational purposes. Percentage of female students browsing internet for educational purpose is found higher than that of male students. 9. 55 % use internet for news update. The percentage of both male and female is equal. 10. 16 % of sample browse internet for e-shopping, female percentage is higher than male percentage. 11. 100 % of the students use internet for sharing purpose with friends. 12. 61 % use internet for entertainment. Percentage of male students is higher than female student‘s percentage in this case.

13. 77 % visited educational sites, 72 % visited information sites. Only 22 % visited sports sites – in this case it is surprising to note that the percentage of female students visiting sports site is higher than that of male percentage. The percentage of male and female visiting MP3 songs site and film site is equal and the total percentage is 55 and 22 respectively. 33 % visited magazine site, male percentage (44%) is higher than female percentage (22%). Feeling towards Various Features of the Internet: their ability to solve problems. 66 % revealed that these web resources helped to obtain information unavailable elsewhere. 27 % of the sample are of the view that these web served as an entertaining companion. In all these cases the percentage of female is found to be a bit higher than that of male percentage.

15. 44 % use internet at institution / college, and 94 % use internet at home. Here, percentage of male student using internet at the institution is found to be higher than that of female percentage while percentage of female student using internet at home is found to be higher than male percentage. The study clearly indicates that technology does play an important role in the learning process at the higher education level. In order to utilize its maximum potential infrastructure facilities and availability of various technological tools in educational institutions i.e. its library, are need to be improved.

It is now being more and more recognised that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be a frontier area of knowledge in the 21st Century and a crucial enabling tool for assimilation of different processes and for providing value addition to all spheres of knowledge. Academic institutions and their libraries are experiencing a massive change in the way they function. In order to meet the growing needs of information we must use the best possible services in our profession which can benefit a lot of its users. Information technology innovations have found their way into application in libraries. The accelerating pace of information technology continuously raises the standards of users‘ anticipations and expectations of new value added services. Information technology provides the advantage of, benefiting academicians, ordinary information seekers by making the right information available at the right time. Information technology changed the total information scenario and it has become the need of the day and demands its worldwide acceptance for meeting the enormous growing information needs.

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College Librarian, Govt. Saitual College, Mizoram