2 History and Development of Special Libraries

Dr S L Sangam

1. Introduction

Generally speaking the expression “Special Library “means a library which is concerned almost exclusively with the literature of a particular subject or group of subjects (Wright, 1968). Special Library is a service unit devoted to the information requirements, both present and future, of a specific organization and serviced by at least on professional special librarian who has administrative as well as technical and professional duties. Although each special library is unique according to the needs and interests of its parent organization, there are some general characteristics : materials are collected and organized to meet the requirements of specific groups of users: services are developed to assist these some specific users; the librarian assumes an active rather than passive role in the flow of information by taking the initiative in calling users’ attention to new and pertinent information ; and the library is generally small , necessitating great selectivity in the collection and versatility on the part of the staff (Landu,1967) .

2. History and Development of special Libraries

The development of special libraries, essentially a product of the twentieth century, has been characterized by the rapid increase in their number, from 50 in 1907 to 3,473 in 1962, and by significant changes in their functions. The growth of services offered by special libraries has been directly related to the expansion of research and development programs, reflecting especially the impetus given to such programs by the two world wars and the major emphasis accorded research since World War II. The United States-Government and industry combined-spent some $18 billion for R & D that total was matched in the five-year period, 1950 to 1955, and almost matched again in the single fiscal year of 1962. This mushrooming of research stimulated the development of new libraries as well as the expansion of existing ones. Research organizations, businesses, governmental agencies, and similar enterprises established libraries in order to centralize materials housed in individual laboratories and offices and to unify information like activities. Initially, therefore, the special library’s role was restricted to that of a repository. Due in part to the librarian’s effort to provide additional justification for the existence of the library, the idea of an information or reference function emerged. Leading to the establishment of reference services, the librarian gradually assumed responsibility for assisting the user to obtain the information he needed, first helping those who were unable to manage alone and then providing assistance in order to save the time of the research worker. Special librarians have slowly expanded the service role, and in some libraries service now includes active collaboration of the librarian in the conduct of specific projects or research activity (Anders,1964).

The special libraries are a recent phenomenon, although it is difficult to determine when they began to be recognized as a distinct subset of libraries due to the highly individualistic and independent nature of most special libraries. Perhaps the closest date to assign to the beginnings of special libraries in the modern sense is 1909, the year that the Special Library Association one of the oldest and largest library advocacy groups specifically concerned with special libraries, was founded. Describing the history of special libraries in the modern sense of the word is therefore difficult, as the only criteria for defining a special library is that it is a library – itself an often nebulous term – that is not a national, research, reference, public, academic, children’s, or archival library. As a result, one view of the history of modern special libraries is that it is what the history of other types of libraries does not include.

Libraries established to support specific private interests or institutions are likely the oldest in existence. The first known libraries, dating back to the beginning of known history, recorded commercial transactions and inventories. Today, these fall under the different headings of corporate libraries. Likewise, a substantial number of the cuneiform tablets recovered from the Library of Ashurbanipal detail Babylonian religious beliefs and myths. Again, in a modern context, religious libraries are often considered special libraries.

3. Role of Special Library Associations

Associations played a vital role in the development of special libraries. Many Special Library associations were formed since 19th century in the world. One major professional association for special libraries is Special Library Association (SLA) which has chapters in Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. The UK based Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) also have focus groups devoted to special libraries. More special library associations around the world can be found in the Associations. These are nonprofit organizations guiding special libraries in recording, retrieval and dissemination and use of such information and knowledge in areas such as the physical, biological, technical, and social sciences and humanities and to promote and improve the communication, dissemination and use of information and knowledge for the benefit of libraries or other educational organizations. It has its slogan “putting the knowledge in to work”. Association of special Libraries and Information Bureaux (Aslib) was founded in 1924.The purpose set for it was to facilitate the coordination and systematic use of knowledge and information in all public affairs and in industry and commerce and in all the areas in sciences (Landu, 1967). The Special Libraries Association (SLA) serves more than 12,000 innovative information professionals in 83 countries. Its members include corporate, academic and government information specialists and their strategic partners. These associations published directories, guide books, Union catalogues, and reports, conduct training programmes and provide different services time to time to update and enriched the special libraries, Librarians and members.

The Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres (IASLIC) formed in 1955 at Kolkata. It is a non-profit organization based in India that supports development in the entire field of special librarianship in India. The IASLIC undertakes, supports, coordinate research and studies, conducts short term training courses; organizes general/special meetings, and hold seminars and conferences in alternate years on current problems of Libraries and Information services and other allied areas are selected as themes for discussions on these occasions. It also publishes journals, monographs, manuals, newsletters, papers, proceedings and reports.

4. Meaning and Definition

The Encyclopedia of Library and information science (1980) provides 29 definitions in a chronological order 1910-1976.On the basis of these definitions, libraries may be “Special” on account of a specific subject (e.g. law, medicine, agriculture and economics), form of collection (maps, pictures, digital and e-resources), services (e.g. and R&D related), institutional affiliation (e.g. government, business houses, hospital) and class of users (e.g. blind, children and lawyers).

Elizabeth Ferguson’s interpretation amplifies the “special group of users”: Special libraries are set up to serve the specialized interest s of organizations- business, professional, governmental and industrial, and they operate as units of these organizations.

Librarians’ Glossary (1977) stated the special library in these terms:

A Library or Information centre, maintained by an individual, corporation, association, government agency, or any other group; or a specialized or Departmental collection within a library.

A collection of books and other printed, graphic or record material dealing with a limited field of knowledge, and provided by a learned society, research organization, industrial or commercial undertaking government department or educational institution.

A special library is broadly one which is academic, commercial, national or public Libraries. It is intended to serve the needs of a portion of the community requiring detailed information respecting a limited subject field. Users of such libraries often require up-to-date information promptly and their requests may be for information rather than for a book or periodical known by the enquirer to contain the information required.

Ranganathan considered specialization in a subject to be the characteristic that makes a library a special library ELIS, 1980).

Special libraries are also known as Documentation and Information centres. They are generally staffed by librarians, although many librarians employed in special libraries are specialists in the library’s field rather than generally trained librarians, and often are not required to have advanced degrees in specifically library-related field due to the specialized content and clientele of the library. But a clear distinct and generally acceptable definition is still awaited (Singh, 2006).

5. Objectives Special libraries

The main objectives of the special Libraries are:

i) To provide research to doctors that help them develop new forms of treatment;

ii) To connect attorneys to case law that can be used in litigation;

iii) To locate experts who can assist a company (industries) with new product development;

iv) To help an architect uncover the history of a building before it is renovated;

v) To work with legal counsel to locate reasons (prior art) that a patent should not have been granted;

vi) To help organizations (Research institutes) ensure that they do not spend time “reinventing the wheel” ;

vii) To connect the research of two parts of the organization (Linguistic Institutions) that may speak different languages;

viii) To administer the centralized engineering  database for a construction project;

ix) To investigate (and play with!) new technologies and new applications of existing technologies to see how they can be used to benefit an organization; and

x) To ensure that their organizations know who the movers and shakers are in their industry.

6. Collection and Users of Special Libraries

  Special libraries often have a more specific clientele than libraries in traditional educational or public settings, and deal with more specialized kinds of information. They are developed to support the mission of their sponsoring organization and their collections and services are more targeted and specific to the needs of their clientele. Special libraries may or may not be open to the general public. Those that are open to the public may offer services similar to research, reference, public, academic, or children’s libraries, often with restrictions such as only lending books to patients at a hospital or restricting the public from parts of a military collection.

Special libraries are “special” in their collections, users, and services. For example, a research institute’s library may supply information to scientists who lack the time to visit the library. Current Awareness Service [CAS] and Selective Dissemination of Information [SDI] are very common. The listing of special libraries in this article is not comprehensive. Special libraries as a field are defined by not being public, school, academic, or national libraries. Special libraries may be called libraries, information centres, information resource collections, or other names, typically decided by the institution that the library is attached to, and may or may not have a generally trained and qualified librarian or staff.

7. Characteristics of Special Librarians

For many special librarians, their users aren’t just those who visit the library physically; they also interact with the library and its staff via telephone, e-mail, fax, and an increasing number of social media tools. Understanding the needs of their users—including resources, types of interaction, information-seeking skill levels, etc.—helps special librarians ensure their continued relevancy. It is important that special librarians be relevant to their users both today and in the future. Therefore, understanding user requirements is vital for their continued existence.

A special library may house physical and digital resources that will be important to its users but is trending more toward the virtual. The ability for users to access materials virtually has led special librarians to use an increasing number of digital resources that can be accessed from any location to meet their users wherever they are. An unintended result of the ability for users to share digital resources and to use library staff physically located at other locations has been the closure of some special libraries. Organizational budget tightening led some to encourage users to rely on library resources housed elsewhere. In some cases, those resources were made available through third-party companies (e.g., information brokers or independent information professionals). In some cases, although the physical library may have closed or been reallocated, the librarian was integrated into the user base so the organization didn’t lose the skill set of the special librarian.

Although special librarians will certainly continue to exist, how they operate will continue to change, possibly dramatically. Technology will continue to have a major influence on how users interact with library materials and alter user expectations. The need to be subject focused will continue, but there will be an even more increased need for these practitioners to work virtually, embed themselves into organizational units, and meet user requirements no matter where that user is.

Every organization is drowning in information, even those that do not feel they have enough. It has become easier for organizations to capture as well as acquire information and to do so more quickly than ever. This, however, does not mean it is useful to the organization; while they are drowning in information, they lack knowledge. Knowledge can be described as synthesize information. It is information that a person has ingested and merged with other known information and then finally put into context with that person’s specific spin. Although it can be effective to use information to build your own knowledge, most organizations do not have the time or resources to do that. Instead they need to tap into the knowledge of others.

Special librarians, whether embedded or in a separate library, can help their organizations acquire information as well as connect the organization to people who already have the needed knowledge. Organizations value those who are seen as “connectors.” Although librarians are generally seen as connecting people to information, special librarians also need to connect people to people; people who want knowledge to those who already have it. This is a skill that is not taught in library science programs, yet special librarians learn quickly that it is a skill they must have. Special librarians dive into topics that are important to their organizations, learn the resources and the people behind those resources, and then create networks that will allow them to locate the right knowledgeable expert when needed. They are, if you will, the keepers of the organizational memory net.

8. Types of Special Libraries

 8.1 Corporate Libraries 

The specialized corporate libraries are in the competitive environment; in which global companies are operating to provide market intelligence- viz. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, GE, etc. The libraries need to reinvent the processes to achieve the highest standard of excellence in product and services (Ray and Walvekar, 2009). A corporate library is a collection of resources contained within a corporate entity. Corporate libraries help to organize and disseminate information throughout the organization for its own benefit. They often support areas in the company relating to finance, marketing, administration, and technical specialization. In terms of size, they are seldom very large, and most library departments employ less staff. One major issue in corporate libraries relates to the difficulty of putting a dollar value on the intangible services the library provides to its parent company i.e. Return on Investment (ROI). The information services provided by corporate libraries save employees time, and can aid in competitive intelligence work .However, neither of these values can be easily measured, a fact that is further complicated by the understanding that knowledge may be useful immediately upon acquisition, or at any unspecified time in the future. For these reasons, the budgets of corporate libraries are often challenged.

8.2 Law Libraries

Law libraries are designed to assist law students, attorney, judges and their law clerks and other individuals conducting legal research. Most law libraries are attached to law schools, private law firms, or government courts for the use of the respective institution’s clientele, though some university libraries also maintain a dedicated legal section. Typically, the collections of law libraries are tailored to the specific legal interests and purview of the institution they are attached to and include limited to no collections of legal material outside that designated range. Most law librarians have advanced degrees in law, library science, and frequently both. However, legal reference services available to the general public are typically extremely limited due to legal restrictions on non-attorneys providing legal advice. We have Bar Association Libraries, High court and Supreme Court Libraries. The Libraries established by Legal Agencies for consultancy.

8.3 Medical Libraries

Medical libraries, also known as hospital libraries or health libraries are designed to support the needs of physicians, health professionals, medical researchers, medical students, patients, and consumers interested in the medical field. Most medical libraries are intended to assist active medical professionals, researchers, and the public interested in researching the medical science field and are attached to hospitals, medical research facilities, medical schools, and similar institutions. Similar to law libraries, most medical librarians have degrees in a biological or medical field instead of or in addition to formal library training, and the specific nature of the medical library collection is tailored to the field or type of care that the library’s institution specializes in. Some hospitals also maintain a library specifically for the entertainment and leisure of patients rather than research, education, or professional development, and these libraries tend to function similarly to Public libraries though their collections may be weighted towards medically related or themed works.

8.4 Military Libraries

Military libraries are designed to support the needs of members of a nation’s armed forces and other personnel attached to the unit or base that the library is a part of .The primary responsibilities of military libraries are assisting military personnel with access to resources for professional development, personal education, and leisure. Military libraries attached to military bases often include collections and services for families of personnel assigned to the base and may also maintain information on the history of the base, units assigned there, and notable personnel. Other military libraries are tasked with directly supporting military operations by providing access to pertinent resources or organizing and disseminating information directly related to a military unit or organization’s activities. Depending on the specific responsibilities of the library, military libraries may be staffed by civilian librarians, military personnel with library or organizational training, or both. For example: DESIDOC, NAL Information resource centre, ISRO Information centre etc.

8.5 Transportation Libraries

Transportation libraries are established to support the study, research, and dissemination of information related to transportations. They provide resources related to policy, regulations, operations, and other aspects of transportation. Users of transportation libraries include engineers, city planner’s contractors, builders, academic and research libraries which are located at the federal, state, and local levels of government, as well as at universities and research institutions. Major transportation libraries can be found in the USA, Canada UK, Australia and Japan.

8.6 Museum Libraries

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public. The continuing acceleration in the digitization of information, combined with the increasing capacity of digital information storage, is causing the traditional model of museums (i.e. as static “collections of collections” of three-dimensional specimens and artifacts) to expand to include virtual exhibits and high-resolution images of their collections for perusal, study, and exploration from any place with Internet. The city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries (Tony, 1995). Some of the notable museums of the world are:

Capitoline museum is the oldest public collection of art in the world, began in 1471 to the people of Rome. The Vatican museumthe second oldest museum in the world, traces its origins to the public displayed sculptural collection begun in 1506.The Royal Armories in the tower of London is the oldest museum in the United Kingdom. It opened to the public in 1660.In Indonesia Rumphius built a botanical museum in 1662, nothing remains of it except books written by him. The British Museum Library in London was founded in 1753 and opened to the public by its variety of reading resources. The Hermitage museum was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852.The Charleston museum was established in 1773, the first American museum. Indian Museum Library was established in Kolkata 1814 is the oldest museum in India. It has a collection of 1, 02,646 artefacts. The purposes of museum library vary from country to country and institution to institution.

8.7 Archives of News Paper Libraries

News paper Libraries maintains collections of news articles and news-related items. Archives of newspapers, magazines and other periodicals in print for consultation in public libraries.. The term also refers to an archive or a collection of newspapers, magazines and other journalistic publications of a specific type such as document archives of publishers. The term is also used for archives of recent web-pages. Most of leading news papers of the world is having their own library Viz. Hindu, Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Times of India etc.

8.7 Contact Libraries

The name contact libraries not used in USA, it is widely used in India, to identify concisely the kind of literature that many countries establish in foreign countries to provide publications about their own country for the information of the people for other country. Such libraries provide contact between two countries. British Council Libraries and USIS are well-known in the world (MoCabe, 1964).

8.7.1. USIS Libraries

The United States Information Service (USIS) libraries—are cultural arm of the United States Information Agency (USIA). As special libraries they are charged with the assignment of building understanding of the United States as a nation, its institutions, culture and ideals; a need based basis for the respect, confidence, and the support that the U.S. world role today requires.

In June 1942, responding to the wartime need for the dissemination of information, President Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI). Its objectives had never been clarified and, although it nominally functioned under the direction of the State Department, cooperation with other government agencies was virtually non-existent. Overseas OWI centres operated under the name of the “United States Information Service” and in combat or occupied areas they were under the control of the military theatre commanders who were aware of the value of propaganda and psychological warfare.

The USIS library comes under the authority of the cultural affairs officer and is responsible for providing back-up information for any USIS project. At present there are 133 U.S. Information Centers and 35 Reading Rooms throughout the world. Each centre is unique and tailors its program to meet the special needs of its own community. The problem of personnel has always existed in the USIA at all levels. Top leadership particularly has had an extremely high rate of turnover. The USIA and the IIA together have had twelve different heads since 1949, while the country has had only four secretaries of state. Many of the best officers’ transfer up and out to positions in the Department of State’s foreign-service corps, private industry, and education.

The Information Centre Service (ICS) acts as a support for the overseas information centres and binational centres. The ICS maintains four types of programs abroad: 1). libraries or cultural centres for the study of American political, economic, and cultural affairs, history or science, and technology; 2). a commercial book program intended to place more American-written books in English and translation in bookstores and classrooms; 3). the teaching of English overseas among the influential and potentially so (students) to increase their ability to read American publications or listen to English

broadcasts; and 4). exhibitts, the different sizes, demonstrating American achievements and know-how in such varied fields as medicine and public health, transportation and industry, or the graphic arts.

Maximum Promotion–those books that treat a political subject as the USIA would be normal use–books having some relevance and concurring with or not directly opposed to U.S. foreign policy. Conditional Use–books which may require special knowledge for understanding or interpretation; suitable for teachers, but not judged satisfactory for general public use. Not Suitable–books dealing critically with contemporary American political leaders or strongly advocating a policy line contrary to American foreign policy. Now we have UNO Depository centres in India along with print materials E-Resources (E- books and E-Journals) and free online access.

8.7.2. British Council Libraries

The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. The British Council was established in India in 1948. New Delhi is the headquarters of the British Council in India and it also have offices in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. Council also have libraries and cultural centres in five cities: Ahmadabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Pune which are run in association with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). The iconic building in New Delhi has been designed by renowned architect Charles Correa and was opened in 1993 displaying a unique mural by Howard Hodgkin on the façade symbolising the banyan tree – an enduring image of India — along with a sculpture by Stephen Cox in the Charbagh called the Descent of the Ganges. The British Council is recognised across India for its network of 9 libraries and cultural centres. It offers a range of specialised projects in arts, education, exams, English language and society to audiences across India and more than 100,000 members. IT also provide access to English language training and learning for both students and teachers, offer UK qualifications in India and enable opportunities to study in the UK.Council manage prestigious scholarships and training awards, including the Jubilee scholarships, the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan and the Charles Wallace India Trust awards. English language teaching centres in Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Kolkata provide a range of general and business English classes, specialised skills based programmes and young learner courses. It work with a wide range of Indian partners in cities all over India enabling British and Indian experts to meet and collaborate and to nurture mutually beneficial relationships. The British Council Library and Information Services is a gateway to a world of opportunities. It reaches millions of people across India through British Council Network centres. Become part of the British Council family today and gain access to high-quality books, workshops, events and activities carefully designed to meet the needs and interests. In addition to the wide range of books at British libraries, you can also gain access to more than 85,000 Online Academic Books and 14,000 e-journals through online membership.

8.8. Libraries for Disabled Reader

8.8.1 Visually Handicapped Libraries

Visual Handicapped known as vision impairment or vision loss is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means, such as glasses. Some also include those who have a decreased ability to see because they do not have access to glasses or contact lens. Visual impairment is often defined as a best corrected visual acuity of worse than either 20/40 or 20/60. The term blindness is used for complete or nearly complete vision loss. Visual impairment may cause people difficulties with normal daily activities such as driving, reading, socializing, and walking. As of 2012 there were 285 million people who were visually impaired of which 246 million had low vision and 39 million were blind. The majority of people with poor vision are in the developing world and are over the age of 50 years. Rates of visual impairment have decreased since the 1990s. Visual impairments have considerable economic costs both directly due to the cost of treatment and indirectly due to decreased ability to work.

Books for school or work to recreation many who are blind or visually impaired—or who have reading or other physical disabilities—often cannot use printed materials, depriving them of reading materials that most take for granted. Braille Institute’s Library Services—the Southern California branch of the National Library service (NLS), a network coordinated by the Library of Congress—has solved this problem for more than six decades by providing free books, periodicals and other texts in Braille and recorded formats. With a Reader Advisor’s help, choosing books is easy; patrons select from more than 100,000 titles and 1.2 million volumes accessible from the Library’s collection. As a result, tens of thousands each year use the Library to fill all of their reading needs, ranging from and leisure.

The Braille Institute Library has numerous services that can benefit everyone, encourage visiting and can take advantage of the services available. Most of the Indian Universities are having a special Braille section in the library. National Institute for Visually Handicapped, Deharadun (NIVH) Library, India is giving good services to blinds.

8.8.2. Hearing Handicapped libraries

Library is a comprehensive repository of literature in various media on all aspects such as social, psychological, educational, medical etc. and allied fields of Hearing Science/deafness/audiology/otology/hearing handicapped/– impaired, speech and language disorders, non verbal communication, sign language, communication disorders, etc. Acquisition, assimilation and dissemination of information to individuals and organizations/institutions working in these areas on ongoing basis is a major activity of the Library. Information and Documentation Services link effectively; by Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH), Mumbai and its beneficiaries directly and indirectly. Its objectives are acquisition, assimilation and dissemination of information to individuals and organisations working in the area of the hearing impairment.

8.8.3. Mentally Handicapped libraries 

According to Murray (2009), “approximately one in four adults has a mental illness” and notes the lack of services available to them. Murray also offers a four step way to develop a policy on dealing with these library users. These include creating policies and procedures that address these issues, training staff, connecting with other libraries, and addressing security issues, if any. Understanding the mentally handicapped patron is very difficult. There is no correct answer; it is a balance between respecting all who walk through that door and also being mindful of the safety of staff and other patrons. These informal tips are offered in addition to those above, and are based on personal experience. i) be polite and treat the person as you would any other patron. ii) Be aware and communicate, if someone seems to be acting oddly, wait and observe. Let other staff know if necessary, they may be familiar with the person and know the best way to approach them, but often, the person will come and go without incident.iii) Set boundaries: The rules apply to all patrons, and some may need to have this reiterated. It’s also important not to allow staff to be bullied. iv) Use staff knowledge: If one staff member seems to be better at dealing with a patron, have them talk with him/her, or at least confer with each other on the best way of handling a given person/situation) Consult the proper authorities: If faced with a new situation, don’t be afraid to ask what you can do to address it before calling on security to do so. Mentally handicapped libraries need to develop the collection which attracts them with pictures, sound, graphics and paintings.

9. Development of Special Libraries

Ranganthan’s (1931) Five Laws of Library Science still remains the basic tenets of library science and they have relevance in the information age. Understanding these principles in the context of a wired world, if rightly applied, can guide special libraries in remaining relevant (Pauline, 2010). The five laws are: (1) books are for use; (2) every reader its book; (3) every book its reader; (4) save the time of the reader; (5) the library is a growing organism. The word “book” is used here in its generic form based on the time the principles were conceptualized. However, within the wired information environment books refer to the resources, information and services in all formats.

Books are for use (resources are for use) this law addresses the fact that library resources (print and non-print) should be made freely accessible to the library clientele. Access to resources should not be limited to time and place but the patrons should be able to use the resources from anywhere in the world, 24/7. Since resources are for use, librarians should not seek to limit access through the various types and levels of censorship including closed stack, fees or passwords. Every reader its book (every reader his/her resources) Implied in this law is the fundamental human right of all users having access to information irrespective of age, ethnic group or religion. The information, in whatever format should be appropriate, reliable, credible and adequate and meet the expectations of all its users. As information experts, are able to evaluate the needs of patrons and to design library services that satisfy those needs. The needs of the users are paramount in order to retain and increase usage. Every book its reader (every resource its user) this law supports both the first and second laws and it is about providing pathways or lead in tools to the information. This expresses the need for librarians to proactively deliver the available, appropriate resources and services to the readers through the creation of links and clear directions. Frequently new software will be developed in the market, which will foster this connection and the creation of knowledge. It is important for the users to be provided with relevant high quality resources and that the library not be cluttered with materials that no one wants.

The challenges before the Special Librarians are many, to identify those patrons who can make the best use of a particular information resource and develop mechanism for its delivery in a manner that provides user satisfaction. Save the time of the reader, the user’s time is very precious and librarians should recognize that this is the key to every user. Users, especially top managers, are not desirous of wasting time sifting through the vast amount of information in the cyber-world or in print in order to satisfy their information needs. The library system should allow the users to find accurate information quickly. Librarians should be cognizant of the fact that a great proportion of its users are at remote sites. Therefore, virtual service is a priority. The library’s responsiveness to users’ requests should be evaluated on a regular basis and modified accordingly. The law, save the time of the users, also addresses the use of the higher-level information skills such as analysis and synthesis in order to repackage information for easy and quick access. This should be of special interest to special librarians. The library is a growing organism is the library system of life and so its changes should be responsive to the changes in the society and the practices adopted should reflect those of the society. Often the perception that a library is irrelevant is due to the library’s inability to make these changes and thereby fulfill its mission. It is the desire of each librarian to see his/her library expand in resources, services, and clientele. So there should be constant training and re-tooling for the librarians.

The Special libraries must seek to offer services to satisfy the needs of its customers (management, internal and external clientele and the library staff). Special librarians have always prided themselves in being special, hence, librarians must redefine their role by developing proactive strategies that will create new value in the organization or allow the organization to remain on the cutting edge. Through strategic alignment, cooperation and the librarians’ immersion in the plans, goals and project of the organization it is possible for the Special Libraries in India and in the world to remain relevant and play important roles within the organizations of the twenty-first century. This is high time special libraries should think about latest Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as web technology, networking technology, digital library, Institutional repository, E-Resources, Free and Open source technologies (FOSS) , social networking sites, cloud computing and mobile technology.. Adopting scientific management techniques viz. Knowledge Management; Knowledge based systems, tools, techniques and technology, The Human Resource management etc. would also help in new and better ways of handling the information.

10. Conclusion

A special library is expected to meet the information needs of its parent organization. Most of them have a small clientele, although with specialized requirements. Propelled by the ideology that we are living in a web world and that everything is freely available at the click of a button, librarians are required to demonstrate to the top management that they are getting a good return on their investment (ROI) in the library. It has become prudent for special libraries to cut budgets in some cases, examine priority services and demonstrate value to the organization.

Special libraries, although having a number of things in common with other types of library and information service, do not have the same shared objectives from which to work – as is the case, for example, in public libraries which have they set out in the Public Libraries and Museums Act each country differently. There is no similarity of operation in all special libraries. The term “special libraries” covers library and information functions in a variety of settings, each of which dictates the type of service required and, increasingly, the mode of operation to conform to organizational standards and procedures. However, as in other sectors, special libraries have been faced increasingly with decisions about performance and quality. Such concepts are being considered across organizations, involving all departments and functions. Library and information services in organizations as diverse as firms of accountants or lawyers, charities, health centers, industries and government departments have all found themselves involved in the implementation of total quality management (Webb, 1995) to provide need based and effective services.

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