Expert Committee on College Libraries

Importance of library and information services in higher education was emphasized in India by many committees of Government of India from 1917 including Calcutta University Commission under Sir Michael Saddler, University Education Commission (1949) chaired by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Ranganathan Committee (1958), Education Commission (1966) chaired by D.S. Kothari, as well as Sen Committee, Mehrotra Committee etc of UGC. But as education being a State subject; union government could not go beyond giving advice. Implementation remained as discretion of State. In this context that the Report of the Expert Committee on College Libraries constituted by Government of Kerala under the Chairmanship of Sri. V.P. Joy, IAS in 1994 first of such attempts by any State assumes importance. The committee makes its recommendations on the three main aspects for improvement of the college library; general aspects, procedural reforms and technical matters. The committee identified the causes for inefficiency of college libraries, and makes recommendations for quality assurance of information services in colleges stressing qualification and status of staff, development of need based collections, use of computers for storage and processing of information, and ensuring proper management. Joy Committee considers that the successful performance of the college librarian demand in him a clear understanding of academic objectives, a significant level of academic expertise and working partnership with heads of teaching departments. The Committee recommended bringing librarian also under the definition of teacher, revising qualification of the library staff as per UGC norms, granting academic status and service conditions to librarians on par with those of teachers, amending purchase rules to enable acquisition of electronic documents, qualitative development of the collections, staff formulae based on user strength and levels, and methods to ensure participation of users in library development