Perception and Use of Semantic and Social Features of Digital Libraries among Library and Information Professionals and Users: A Comparative Study

The paper identifies the perception and use of Semantic and Social Features of the digital library among library and Information professionals (LISPs) and Users and presents a comparative study of their competencies in tune with the semantic and social features. As part of the survey of the special libraries in NCR of Delhi, the questionnaires and personal visits were made to 48 libraries (spread over 16 categories) to collect the primary data. The requisite data of 48 special libraries, were collected, collated and analyzed accordingly. The study has made clear that library and information professionals and users of digital libraries in SLICs have a fair knowledge and understanding of semantic and social solutions of digital libraries. There are a lot of semantic and social features available in the digital libraries and there is an urgent need to increase its familiarity and use among LISPs and users both. The study hopefully has given an understanding of the semantic solutions for the digital libraries based on semantic web technologies and results of the study can be accepted as a pointer for further experiments and training to improve these features of DLs to a new height