Traditional Library

Traditional / Manual Library

Traditionally, libraries were collections of books, manuscripts, journals, and other sources of recorded information. The collection of the traditional libraries are mostly print media, manuscripts etc. and are not well organized. The documents are deteriorating at a rapid rate, the collected information is not easy to locate and procure. Such information does not reach the user of the libraries on time. It is difficult to get such publications in the absence of personal influence and contacts. There are certain restricted publications containing highly informative materials but may not be easily available. Sometimes the information is published after many years. By the time it is published, the information becomes obsolete and then abandoned. Since it is not properly indexed or listed, the researcher is forced to go through long and tedious process to ascertain whether any material of his/her interest is available or not. Here the collections are not well organized and some reports are deteriorating at a rapid rate. Preserving them in their original form is difficult and it is not cost effective. Again the traditional libraries are confined itself within a physical boundary.

In traditional libraries, user cannot easily locate a piece of information and have to spend more time in searching information. But in this age of Information Communication Technology (ICT), computers are being used for day to day housekeeping activities of the libraries, to read and download of texts of articles, reports and other materials. Thus, it saves the time of the library professional and end user and makes the library service smooth and effective.

Features of Traditional Library:

All traditional libraries have some features. There are

• Generally libraries are the place to preserve and distribute the physical forms of resources, such as books and magazines, journals, periodicals.
• To maintain these resources with cataloguing and classification.
• Physical Searching method is using to retrieve the resources.
• Information is stored in physical format. The users may be borrowed the resources and make use of it.
• A traditional library consist details of available stock in books and subscription of periodicals.

References: (This document is collected from materials and books available on internet)

1. Giridhari Singh, N., 2008. Library and present society. In: Ibohal Singh, Ch. (ed.), Importance of Libraries in knowledge Society. Imphal: Manipur Library Association.
2. Gujarati, B.S. , 1964. Librarianship. New Delhi: Sagar Publication.