Concept of user and user community

the idea of creating internal customer service expectations that demand the same level of
performance and attention as that given external customer service is key to our success.

In order user-centric library may have to also be fairly librarian-centric in the end.

I. The Digital Information Seeker / User Community

The most crucial component of the 21st century library is the user. Every
effort put into the establishment of a 21st century library is wasted if the
library is not meant for use. According to Nwalo (2003) the library user is
undisputedly, the most important person in any library setting. The library
user is the focal point to the 21st century library and information services, as
the library primarily exist to satisfy the user (Aina, 2004). This is the reason
why the mission statement of any library always reflects the determination of
the other components of the library to render excellent services to library
users. As such, a library is said to be productive when the library users are
satisfied.

Who is a library user?

Nwalo (2003) defined him as anybody who visits the
library with the purpose of exploiting its resources to satisfy his information
need. The underlined word "visits" as used in the 21st century, include
remote access to the library portal or website.
Aina (2004) sees the term
"user" to include all those who avail themselves of the services offered by a
library. The term encompasses various terms such as patrons, clients,
information users, information seekers, consumers, readers, etc. these terms
can be used interchangeably, because they all apply to those seeking the
services of a library.

The 21st century has virtually turned everything virtual. The library and its users have
also gone virtual. Access to technology coupled with relevant ICT skill is required to put
the 21st century library to good use. Like the library, users have also evolved as
have the ingredients for defining who a library user is.

Skill is the basis for categorizing users

1. Unskilled user/ computer illiterate user

2. Semi-skilled user/ semi-computer literate user
3. Skilled user/ computer literate user
 1. Unskilled User/ Computer Illiterate User
Interaction between librarian and users will require the use of ICT in the 21st
century library. The unskilled library user will not even be able to ask the
librarian for guidance without the use of ICT. Unskilled users will not be able
to use the resources of the library because of lack of ICT skills. This category
of users includes those people who use library products through the third
party that have ICT skills. This prompted Adomi (2010) to state that basic
ICT skill is essential to be able to access and apply information. Widespread
ignorance and misconception about ICT use amongst users is a major
inhibitor to library development in Nigeria. He further stated that for this
category, ICT is not familiar, distant and mysterious (Adomi, 2010). This
category also include those that are not aware of the existence and
importance of ICT (Adomi, Okiy, Ruteyan, 2003).

2. Semi-Skilled/ Semi-Literate User

This category of users can use technological devices to access the library
with little or no support. This category of users can effectively use the basic
search facilities such as the basic search engine (information literacy), but
can not effectively use the advanced search engine features and operators
which have the capacity to retrieve only relevant information from the
library's collections.

3.Skilled User/ Computer Literate User

This category has the following qualities:
1. Knowledge of how to analyze information need (information literacy).
2. Knowledge of how to use basic and advanced search engines effectively.
3. Knowledge of how to formulate queries and keywords effectively.
No doubt this category consists of those who have undergone ICT training
and have acquired relative experiences in the use of technological
innovations as they relate to information retrieval. This group of users can
obtain virtually all their information need as quickly as possible. In other
words, this category includes those people that are able to break their
information needs into searchable units, translate them into keywords,
search for them using basic or advanced search technologies, and retrieve
up-to-date, relevant, and adequate information.

Pathway to success

II. The role of a digital librarian

S. R. Ranganathan

Five Laws of Library Science: (1) books are for use; (2) every reader his
(or her) book; (3) every book its reader; (4) save the time of the reader; (5) the
library is a growing organism (Ranganathan, 1931).
Times change, technology advances, but those laws remain relevant. Books are still for
use, whether theyre made of wood pulp, or read on an e-reader, or even if the book is
actually a journal article, a blog posting, a digital image, or a sound file.

Ranganathans fifth law The library is a growing organism is what this

chapter is really about. Access to information has increased in amazing ways in the
past couple of decades, and that doesnt eliminate the need for librarians; it gives us
even more room to do truly staggering things. In fact, its this recent explosion of
information that has given rise to the newest iteration of our profession: the digital
librarian.

The role of a digital librarian in the management of DIS

Digital information system management refers to the overall competencies (knowledge,

know-how, skills and attitudes) necessary to create, store, analyze, organize, retrieve
and disseminate digital information (text, images, sounds) in digital libraries or any type
of information. To describe the roles of the digital librarian, the following concepts
are introduced to understand further.

The competency of a digital librarian is represented by different sets of skills, attitudes

and values that enable a digital librarian to work as a digital information professional or
digital knowledge worker and digital knowledge communicator (Sreenivasulu, 1998).
There are skills and competencies that the digital librarian should develop. One is the
ability to manage the digital libraries and digital knowledge in terms of digital
knowledge management. The following are the skills and competencies required for a
digital librarian in the management of digital information systems and digital libraries:
(1) Internet, WWW:
. navigation, browsing, filtering;
. retrieving, accessing, digital document analysis;
. digital reference services, electronic information services;
. searching network databases in a number of digital sources and Websites;
. creating home pages, content conversion, downloading techniques;
. Web publishing, electronic publishing;
. archiving digital documents, locating digital sources;
. digital preservation and storage;
. electronic messaging, connectivity skills;
. Web authoring.

(2) Multimedia, digital technology, digital media processing:

. multimedia indexing, image processing, object-oriented processing;
. interactive digital communications and visualization;
. cataloguing and classification of digital documents, digital content;
. searching and retrieval of text, images and other multimedia objects;
. speech recognition, image visualization;
. advanced processing capabilities exploiting digital medium;
. conferencing techniques including teleconferencing, video conferencing.
(3) Digital information system, online, optical information:
. interfacing online and off-ramps, twists and turns of digital knowledge;
. development of digital information sources;
. digitization of print collections;
. competency to manage CD-ROM network station;
. development of machine readable catalogue records;
. design and development of databases;
. design and development of software agents for digital libraries;
. conversion of print media into digital media;
. knowledge in digital knowledge structure

http://eprints.rclis.org/6502/1/role-DL-DIS.pdf
http://www.librarycrunch.com/2007/11/users_or_customers_internal_an.html
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2013&context=article
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%20in%20the%2021st%20Century,%20Isaac%20Echezonam%20Anyira.pdf