21st Century Library Professionals in Dynamic Role in Digital Era

Abstract

As technology continues to advance at phenomenal speed, library professionals have to play a speedy and dynamic role to keep themselves up to date and learn new set of skills to keep pace with the technological developments. The explosive growth and wide usage of web resources has made it imperative for the library professionals to equip new skills in the use of latest techniques and tools to cope up with new generation libraries. The fast-tracking pace of new technological developments, development of digital reference services demand different types of professional, managerial and communication skills, personal competencies and self assessment skills. There are many technological trends that impact the job of the library professionals. The automation of the library, the use of CD-ROM's and the Internet has dramatically changed the role of the library professionals, making their job more demanding. The present paper highlights the role of library professionals in the era of change. An attempt has been made to observe the impact of ICT on librarians. States how the librarians cope up with the advance technology by acquiring different types of competencies. It also throws light on the challenging role of librarians in E-Learning age.