Changing Role of Librarians from Disseminating of Information to Policy Informatics: An Analytical Study of Vernacular Collection Management of Government of Gujarat

Authors

LAVJI N. ZALA Dr., Assistant Professor, PG Department of Library and Information Science, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat

Date of this Version

2021

Document Type

Article

Comments

Acknowledgement:

I am indebted to the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, India for sanctioning of Rupees 450000 grants under Minor Research Project entitled Digital Library of Gujarat in Vernacular Language: A Model For Government of Gujarat on 19 November 2019 (F.No. 02/186/2019-20/MN/RP).

Abstract

The government of any country, county or state is considered one of the largest publishers and hence the publications published by such government should be preserved and it should be made available to its citizens to make them well-informed citizens. This study takes a systematic approach to address challenges and problems of existing mechanism in publishing various documents on government websites and provide solutions to these complex problems through investigating 119 entities of the Government of Gujarat. The study explores the existing mechanism of Searching & Retrieval, Browsing and filtering, application of metadata with special reference to more than 23000 Circulars, Government Resolutions and Notifications published by the Government of Gujarat. The aim of the study is to help the Government of Gujarat by recommending a comprehensive model to create a digital library of its vernacular collection in a citizen-centric language interface. The study highlights the role of librarians is not limited to four walls of the library but it goes beyond by extending help to the Government of Gujarat to transform Gujarat into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy through a flagship programme of the Government of India called Digital India.