Role of librarian in internet and World Wide Web environment

Abstract

The transition of traditional library collections to digital or virtual collections presented the librarian with new opportunities. The Internet, Web environment and associated sophisticated tools have given the librarian a new dynamic role to play and serve the new information based society in better ways than hitherto. Because of the powerful features of Web i.e. distributed, heterogeneous, collaborative, multimedia, multi-protocol, hypermedia-oriented architecture, World Wide Web has revolutionized the way people access information, and has opened up new possibilities in areas such as digital libraries, virtual libraries, scientific information retrieval and dissemination. Not only the world is becoming interconnected, but also the use of Internet and Web has changed the fundamental roles, paradigms, and organizational culture of libraries and librarians as well. The article describes the limitless scope of Internet and Web, the existence of the librarian in the changing environment, parallelism between information science and information technology, librarians and intelligent agents, working of intelligent agents, strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities involved in the relationship between librarians and the Web. The role of librarian in Internet and Web environment especially as intermediary, facilitator, end-user trainer, Web site builder, researcher, interface designer, knowledge manager and sifter of information resources is also described.