This volume has been prepared by Dr, S.R. Gupta, a member of the Editorial Board. He has done a commendable job in a short period of time. He was ably assisted by the other members of the Board. The year 1996 being the Golden Jubilee Year for the Department, the main theme of this volume has been the ‘LIS Education'. We have received an excellent response from information professionals and teachers of Library and Information Science. As a consequence, we hope to close the gap in the publication of this prestigious journal in near future.
Twenty-first century is fast approaching. The question before us is, are our libraries and the library schools well equipped to met the challenges of the next century. The expectations of users from libraries have greatly changed over the years.
The demands of the users are today are varied, demanding and persisting in nature. To meet the changing demands, the need of the hour is to adopt new ways of thinking and perceiving, so as to find different solutions to the problems and issues. Otherwise, Indian librarians are bound to miss the bus. The future librarians shall be faced with totally different kind of environment, basically due to emerging information technology.
The upcoming society is going to be knowledge society, where knowledge shall be the basic input. To meet the challenge of the emerging society, digital libraries due being designed in developed countries and elsewhere too. National Digital Library has been initiated in USA . Such libraries are a new breed of libraries start thinking along these times. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has set up a digital library, the first of its kind in India . This is indeed a commendable effort and a pioneering achievement.
In the changing environment, information is fast becoming a central resource in many enterprise. There is a need for trained information professionals, who can manage information requirements of users in their day-to-day work. L&IS education programmes need to be overhauled keeping in view the needs of the needs of twenty first century. Thus, a great responsibility has with L&IS educators. They should train information professionals for the coming information professionals for the coming century, so that their products can respond to the challenges and suitably deliver the goods.
Through the editorial, the teachers of L&IS, information professionals and researchers are requested to send papers dealing with the issues likely to emerge during the next century, so that the information professionals are well equipped to make the best of the new century.