LIBRARY, CULTURE AND

SOCIETY

WE WILL DISCUSS

• WHAT IS LIBRARY• SOCIETY• CULTURE• CULTURAL COMPLEX• INSTITUTION• SOME FUNCTIONS OF

INSTITUTION• SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS• LITERATURE• INTERRELATIONSHIP

OF SOCIAL INSTITUION

• EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

• RESOURCES• ROLE OF EDUCATION

IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• FUNCTIONS OF A LIBRARY

• NATIONAL LIBRARIES• ROLE OF AUTHORS,

PUBLISHERS AND LIBRARIANS

• CONCLUSION

WHAT IS LIBRARY????

LIBRARY

• Library is Collection of information resources in print or in other forms that is organized and made accessible for reading or study.

(Encyclopedia Britannica)

• A library is a collection of information, sources, resources, books, and services, and the structure in which it is housed: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. The term can mean the collection, the building that houses such a collection, or both.

(Wikipedia)

• Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. In addition to providing materials, they also provide the services of specialists, librarians, who are experts at finding and organizing information and at interpreting information needs. (Wikipedia)

• Libraries are cultural Complex. Nations develop their intellectual repository, consisting upon their historical events, Economic growth, Technological development, Business, Commerce, and Trade progress etc., for the future generations. This reflects their Ritual, customs, norms, traditions and mores also.

SOCIETY

• A society is any group of people who have lived and worked together long enough to get themselves organized and to think of themselves as a social unit with well defined limits (Ralph Lanton)

• Society is a system of usage and procedures of authority and mutual aid, of any grouping and divisions of contests, of human behaviors and of liberties.

(Maciver & Page)

• Generally a society is an aggregate of people living in a geographical boundary, having a common way of living. It is our needs which make us create social relations with others. We satisfy one’s need from the help of others. Mason, Carpenter, Cobbler, Goldsmith, Barber, Tailor, etc. are all required by every person of society from time to time. We get our children taught from schools and educational institutions. Educational system must need reading material. Libraries are one part of that triangle of educational system.

CULTURE• The Culture is a social heredity which is

transmitted from one generation to another with the accumulation (increase) of individual experiences. (Lanton p.108)

• Culture is “the mass of learned and transmitted motor reactions: habits techniques, ideas, and values and the behavior they induct. (Kroeber)

• What we receive as social heritage from our ancestors is called our culture. We make changes in it by performing our roles and leave it for the coming generation. Culture is the guiding star of our social life. What we learn and how our life is, the answer of our culture. Culture teaches us how to behave and play certain role in a certain social situation. (Taga)

CULTURAL COMPLEX• A simple unit of culture may conveniently be

called cultural trait (mannerism). Those cultural complexes, which develop quickly, and are needed by the society very urgently and badly, are more influential then the others. In the growth and development of culture and cultural complex scientific inventions and discoveries have considerably great role to play. Cultural growth is continuous process. It passes on from one generation to the other and in each generation some new elements is introduced. Culture is the heritage of man which he has got from one generation and passes that on to the other.

INSTITUTION• Institution is a group of people united by

common interest endowed with material equipment, following rules of their tradition or agreement (charter) and contributing to the work of cultures as a whole.

(Malinowski)• Is the social structure and machinery

through which human society organizes, directs and executes the multifarious (diversity) activities.

(H.E.Barnes)

NATURE OF SOCIAL INSTITUTION• Permanent association of peoples: It is more or

less a permanent association of peoples centered round a specific objective.

• Preserves values: The institution preserves the values, sentiments, ethos (Culture), customs, beliefs, ritual (formal procedure) and traditions of culture. These ways of life are called the ‘core’ of culture and are stored and preserved by institution.

• Possess material objects: The institution being a group of people has national resources and material objects also. The building, furniture, books, and other material objects of social life are a part of institution.

SOME FUNCTIONS OF INSTITUTION• Schools and colleges provide education to the

students. Similarly, religious institutions impart religious education to the students. It means social institutions fulfill fixed needs of the people and continue their respective aims.

• All the institutions are embodiments (sketch) of cultural configuration (pattern). The store of culture remains dead if not transmitted with a change. Every generation adds something into it from its experience while passing on to the next generation. This process of transmission is done by education-formal and informal through various social institutions. (Tagas)

SOCIAL INSTITUTION• The family, markets, mosques, madrasa of religious

education, fairs, games and plays, cinema, theatre and national celebrations are the institutions of socialization. A school is one of the socializing institutions of education. The school, college, and university are the formal institution of education. An individual learns his cultural norms, the values, beliefs, sentiments, habits, customs, rituals and other ways of life through these agencies of socialization. Education is itself a process of socialization. Education teaches the techniques of life to enable an individual to meet his needs of life. This is called socialization. It means socialization is done through these social institutions. Hence, the whole society is itself a learning group.

LITERATURE• This is, of course, found only in literate

societies and that is literature. The civilization that we share is constructed of words or literature. “Words rush at us in torrent (stream) and cascade (flow); they leap (fly) into our vision, as a billboard and newspaper, magazine and textbook; and assault our ears, as in radio and television”. The words are always written by some one and these people too-authors and editors and advertisers join the teachers, the peers and the parents in the socialization process.

(Taga)

INTERRELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL INSTITUION

• The whole society functions as a whole. Society is composed of institutions. These institutions fulfill the needs of the peoples. Human needs are multiplying day by day due to expansion of education, technology and industry. Similarly, the number of institutions to satisfy these needs is increasing. Human needs are not independent from one another but they are interrelated together. The institutions, in the same way, are mutually related together to such an extent that one supports the other. The family depends upon schools and educational institutions while educational institutions depend upon literature and reading material and the Reading material published by different stake holder through out globe. The libraries are also vital part of educational system of all the societies. (Mukhi)

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

• Institution dealing with students, teachers, curriculum, socialization of individuals and fulfilling the needs of the society is called Educational Institution. (Taga)

• Today education is not individualistic but a social concept. Today education is needed to the advantage of the society because it is only then that the society shall be in a position to enforce social controls. (Mukhi)

• The aim of education is to provide equipment and techniques for meeting various needs of life. Educational institution shapes our attitude and prepares us for behaving in a certain manner in defined situation. Education supplies us instruments by which we can realize our social goals. Hence education socializes an individual into a useful member of society. (Taga)

RESOURCES

Human resources

Material Resources

Fina

ncia

l res

ourc

es

Education

Teachers

Students

Lite

ratu

re

ROLE OF EDUCATION IN HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

• The mechanism through which the transformation of skill in human being is carried out is called education. Education, therefore, forms the basis for the prosperity of a nation(4). In various empirical studies, education has been regarded as the vehicle for social transformation(5), as essential for nation-building(6), for modernization(7), for political development(8), for economic growth(9), and for instutionalization of political freedom(10). The word education has been derived from a Latin word "educare" which means to develop form within. According to a UNDP expert, education has two purposes : i) development of physical skill and intellectual competence of men; and ii) pursuance of humanity and the cultivation of character in every person(11). http://www.isesco.org.ma/english/publications/islamtoday/13/P7.php

FUNCTIONS OF A LIBRARY

• It acts as a centre of information collection, storage, retrieval & dissemination for students, lecturers, & administrative staff.

• It actively participates in the provision and dissemination of information for academic excellence and quality education while aspiring to remain relevant and vital in the university.

• It also acts as a centre of education and research services to the clientele. It creates and nurtures a reading culture through the expansive information resources that are housed in the library http://www.kuct.ac.ke/content.php?com=81&com2=&com3=&item=50

NATIONAL LIBRARIES• National libraries have special responsibilities, often

defined in law, within a nation's library and information system. These responsibilities vary from country to country but are likely to include:

• the collection via legal deposit of the national imprint (both print and electronic) and its cataloguing and preservation

• the provision of central services (e.g., reference, bibliography, preservation, lending) to users both directly and through other library and information centres

• the preservation and promotion of the national cultural heritage. http://www.nl.sg/NLWEB.portal?_cn_nodePath=NL/AboutNL/NLStatutoryFunctions&_nfpb=true&_cn_bookLevel=1&_cn_bookTitle1=Abt+NL&_pageLabel=NL_CMSPage1&_cn_pageTitle=NLS+Statutory+Functions

• Any cultural institution (library, archive, museum, historic site, or organization), which maintains a permanent, non-living collection of unique materials held for research and/or exhibit purposes and open for the use of the public will be surveyed. Denominational/associational collections will be surveyed, but individual church collections will not. Art museums will be surveyed but galleries will not. Zoos, arboreta, and parks will not be surveyed, unless as a part of their mission, they hold collections described above. http://www.inherentvice.net/?p=146

• The chief social institution that the modern library has contributed to society and which constitutes its most enduring cultural legacy is not the social organization which it created, but rather an exceptionally profound and unique idea that in reality has resided behind the social organization--that making available to the members of a society the widest possible array of information-bearing entities and doing so in a value-added but efficient way with respect to the selection, organization, and delivery of those entities, and with respect to aiding in their use, is absolutely necessary for the society's survival; that in this context information accessibility is not merely a social nicety but constitutes a "right" of the members of the society.

• It would be facetious to claim, of course, that the modern library has been the sole champion of this social institution, this idea about information accessibility in society. Nevertheless, the modern library has been an exceedingly strong and significant voice--in many respects, perhaps, the strongest and most significant voice--giving shape to the idea. It has promoted the idea under many different guises--for example, in its early emphasis on reading guidance; in its long-term partnership with public education; in its critical role in the rise of the modern university; in its support and its advocacy of the social betterment goals of the country over the past seventy years and, especially, since the 1960s; and finally in its adoption of new information technologies.

http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~miksa/six.html

Role of Authors, Publishers & Librarians

• In the first place, everything in our society can be seen under the aspect of the producer, the consumer and the general public. In this case, the authors and publishers are producers, the librarians more like di- stributors, the readers consumers, while the outside world constitutes the general public in so far as it is in- directly affected by the integrated activities of the first three groups. The most essential of these relationships are those among the writer, publisher, librarian and reader. Mirja Ryynänen, member of the Finnish Parliament7 th Catalan Congress on Documentation, 5 th November 1999

THE ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN MODERN SOCIETY

• It is clear that the function of the library can be seen under the aspect of the various social institutions which make up our society. The library can be seen from the religious or ethical viewpoint, in its legal aspects, as an economic institution, as a social factor, etc, while these aspects as can be restarted in regard to various types of library as: general, public and special libraries http://www.archive.org/stream/socialfunctionso007968mbp#page/n13/mode/2up

• Through the instructional staff of the academic institutions the knowledge and ideas conserved by a library are revitalized arid put to use in the education of youth who are to be leaders in society and workers in the field of research, and through the methods of research the students are given an opportunity for independent works, and then the libraries and laboratories become unescapable and vital aids in an endeavour which is directed toward the expansion of man’s fund of knowledge. While the library makes this direct contribution to the advancement of knowledge, it serves as the principal training ground for those who undertake investigations in the fields of science, technology, industry, and the like.

• Thus the libraries have an essential and close bearing upon the advancement of education and learning at all levels for all the times to come.

• http://www.infosciencetoday.org/library-science/the-role-of-libraries-in-education.html

Conclusion

• Each society need literate population for development of its structure. Education is the backbone of society. Libraries have pivotal role in Promotion of Education, Research, Ethical Values, Character building and moral values. It also provides major support to each level of transformation of education. No society could imagine to prosper without education and basic requirement of educational system is book and literature. Libraries acquire reading material, organize it and plays inevitable role in all levels of educational structures. In this way we could say that Libraries plays an important role in development of society.

Thank you