Libraries’ future ‘lies in media convergence’

One From India Convergence of media is the key, Mr. Ball told a group of academics and students of information science at Madras University on Monday.

A library should be able to provide a mix of both print and electronic media information. The processing should be flexible and access decentralised, he said in his presentation, `Innovative Services of a Special Library.’

Need for convergence arose from the fact that while the quantity of scientific journals went up, library budgets stagnated. In order to arrest the loss of quality of library holdings, there is need to subscribe to the increasingly available e-media, he said.