Future of Academic Libraries in India: Challenges and Opportunities

This paper is based on the assumption that the future of academic libraries is in our own hands. It further emphasizes the need for change in academic libraries in the context of the emerging knowledge economy. It underlines the mandate of the National Knowledge Commission and gives the present scenario with regard to higher education and access to knowledge and information. It also highlights the impact of ICT on, and paradigm shift in academic libraries Appreciates library consortia, institutional repositories, and open access archives as strategic response to the paradoxical situation of growing digital documents and declining library budgets. Emphasizes that more important than the name of a library (traditional or digital), is the mandate and the context of the library. It also enlists the challenges and opportunities facing the academic libraries. The paper concludes that the future of academic libraries is in our own hands