Library Automation in Malaysia & Asia

Information Technology (IT) has been embraced as the enabling tool to create an information-rich Malaysian society so crucial to sustain the country's phenomenal economic growth, and to achieve developed nation status by the year 2020. The IT-oriented thrust is evident in the building of sophisticated communications infrastructure and the call for greater IT utilization. Underlying the objective of creating an information-rich society is the need to nurture an information culture for the development of human resources to meet the increasing demand for IT knowledgeable citizens and workers, who can harness the technologies to use information effectively. Efforts towards achieving the objectives should start at the schools. Computer literacy has been promoted, but computer literacy by itself is not sufficient to achieve the desired results in the Information Age, when knowledge of information searching skills is essential. The paper suggests that the teaching information searching skills should start in the schools. The information literacy programs must be complemented with the implementation of a school automated library system. The paper discusses the development of a CDS/ISIS-based system which provides capabilities for creating bibliographic records as well as information retrieval. The information retrieval capability of the system offers user-friendly features and a powerful keyword search capability. The system developed will undergo enhancement and further testing, before it is used in a pilot trial in selected schools. It is hoped that the system can be an effective method of teaching online keyword searching shills that will help school children to harness and use information information effectively. This paper suggests that education IT strategy must embody a long-term plan to automate the school libraries to contribute towards the objectives of building an information-rich Malaysian society.

To achieve success in any major policy shift that will have profound impacts on society and the nation at large, policy planners have invariably always directed their efforts at the education system. This is to ensure that changes start at the schools with children who are more receptive and responsive to change. Also the education system is one sector that can respond faster than any other sector of the society to any major changes. This means a greater participation and a more prominent role for the educational institutions in the country.

The present infrastructure in schools needs to be developed rapidly to meet the wide-spread utilization of IT. Various strategies have been formulated or are being implemented by the Ministry of Education to promote the wider utilization of IT in the schools. Under the Sixth Malaysia Plan (1991-1995), a computer literacy program was launched as a pilot project in selected primary and secondary schools in the country. The objective was to expose students to the basic knowledge in computer literacy. Schools were encouraged to set up computer clubs as part of the co-curricular activities. Under the present Seventh Malaysia Plan (7MP) every school in the country will be equipped with at least one microcomputer by the year 2000. Computer laboratories will be set up for schools with a student enrollment of 750 or more by the same period (Star, 1996). There are already plans to create smart schools that will use a wide array of information tools. Schools have been encouraged to connect to the Internet. At the latest count, more than 50 schools have their own World Wide Web or Web homepages. Indeed, this is an indication of some degree of success of the computer literacy programs.

It needs to be cautioned that all such efforts should not be construed as promoting computer literacy per se. It is all too evident that to create a knowledge-based and information-rich Malaysian society, computer literacy by itself is not sufficient to achieve those objectives. Rather, to face the full onslaught of the Information Age today, more focus should be on the access and effective use of information. Thus, computer literacy programs must be complemented by parallel efforts in promoting information literacy to teach the relevant information-related skills.

Barriers of library automation:
Following could be the few possible barriers of library automation:

i . Fear of adverse impact on employment
ii . Apprehension that the technology could be too expensive
iii . The library staff have to undergo extensive training.
iv. Lack of support from the management, may be owing to budget constraints
v. Fifth reason could be retrospective conversion of data.