School Library Automation in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka: A Preliminary Survey

Abstract

This study presents the findings of a survey undertaken to determine the current status of library automation in school libraries of Northern Sri Lanka. In the Sri Lankan context Library automation started in the eighties. The real boost in library automation came after the Introduction of CDS/ ISIS (Computerized Documentation System/ Integrated Information System) software by UNESCO in 1986 and the designation of SLSTIC (Sri Lanka Scientific and Technical Information Center) as the national distributor for the software in 1987 changed the scenario (Talagala & Gamge, 2003). Ravikumar M. N & Ramanan, T. (2014) studied status and prospects of Library Automation in Sri Lankan Universities. A number of seminars were organized on the library automation and they are still being continued. National authorities are finding various ways to finance their library automation projects. This study tries to analyze the various factors that directly or indirectly affect the progress of library automation such as Infrastructure issues, management issues, resources available with the libraries, level of skill of staff, availability of suitable software and the overall status of library automation in school libraries