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The automated scenario of most of the Indian academic libraries has not been worth stating, though UGCs initiative of sufficient funds and development of SOUL software by INFLIBNET paved the way for automating housekeeping operations of college and university libraries. Automation in Indian libraries initially received cold response, nevertheless, with the declining costs of hardware, readily availability of library software and rising curiosity of librarians, academic libraries are observing an incredible shift from traditional to automated system of information access. Nonetheless, the selection of suitable software for automating libraries has been a testing task for Indian librarians. Though many indigenous software were designed, however, only few of them sustained while remaining didn’t last long because of their incompatibility with international standards. These limitations of indigenous packages led many libraries to switch over to foreign software.

This book presents an entire picture of library automation from its historic to modern period both at national and international level. It highlights the automated library system of two institutions of national importance and one of the first ISO certified university libraries in India. Besides describing the several modules of one of the leading indigenous and international library management package, the book also focuses on user satisfaction on automated systems and the proficiency of librarians in handling these packages for effective automation. An attempt has also been made to highlight several challenges faced by the Indian librarians in automating libraries. It is, thus, expected that this book will serve as a guide for Indian librarians in selecting suitable integrated library management system for effectual and well-organized automated libraries.

Contents: 1. Overview 2. Related past studies. 3. Surveyed institutional profile. 4. Research methodology. 5. Librarians perspective of library automation. 6. Users perspective of library automation. 7. Discussion, findings and conclusion. Index.