ASSOCIATION OF
PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARIANS
OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (APLAP)
EIGHTH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
NEW DELHI, INDIA
18-22 JANUARY 2005
SESSION 6
22.1.2005 (1000 Hrs)
CHANGING DIMENSIONS OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN INDIA
PAPER PRESENTED
by
SHAILENDRA KUMAR
Department of Library and
Information Science
University of Delhi
India
DYNAMICS OF TELECAST MEDIA LIBRARIES
IN INDIA
Shailendra Kumar
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Delhi.
Ranjeet Singh Thakur
Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Science, University of Delhi.
INTRODUCTION
Ever since the process of economic liberalisation took off
in India in early 90s, many private television channels have come up. For the first few
years, the telecast media company libraries did not find much of the problems with regards
to handle their collections. But as the time passed, it gradually became difficult to
manage these libraries in absence of ‘LIS’ qualified professionals and standard
‘LIS’ systems. With the passage of time the problem became more and more acute.
Thus, it was high time to answer the questions like: What is TV media
organisations’ perception of a library? How they process their information resources?
Up to what level they are able to satisfy their users? What are the systems being followed
for information storage and retrieval? Is the manpower engaged in these libraries
‘LIS’ qualified? What are the problems being faced by the TV media libraries and
their users? What is the information behaviour of the users of such libraries? and so on.
Television programmes are telecast via Satellite; Terrestrial
Links and Cable Networks. The study has focused on all the three types of
organisations/ libraries, which are catering to the needs of television programme
production houses, news agencies etc.
Programmes produced for television transmission are broadly categorised
in three categories as News and Current Affairs; Education and Entertainment.
The present study has covered all categories with a slant to news-based programmes.
There are different types of agencies, which are involved directly or
indirectly in the process of telecast, which maintain their libraries. These could be Production
Houses; Telecast companies or TV Channels; News Agencies and Educational
Institutes in the field of Television media.
OBJECTIVES
The study aimed at to find out the ---
Growth pattern and general background of telecast media companies
vis-à-vis libraries;
Nature of telecast media libraries in terms of their collection,
maintenance, facilities, operations, systems and services rendered by these libraries;
Information behaviour and status of the users of television media
libraries;
Relationship between LIS education and TV media libraries;
Willingness for library resource sharing;
Techniques, technologies, systems and equipments being used by
libraries which otherwise are not generally used by traditional book libraries;
State and status of television media library personnel; and
Problems and suggestions by the librarians and the users
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
For the present study only the satellite channels 185 in numbers
with operations in India, are taken into consideration.
More emphasis has been laid on television media libraries dealing with
"News and Current Affairs" and "Education" instead of
"Entertainment".
Often one group is running many television channels. Such groups have
only one library. Hence the number of libraries are not corresponding to the number of TV
channels.
Data related to TV media Librarians 57 in number and the Users
of TV media libraries 113 in numbers has been collected and analysed using Statistical
tools
TV MEDIA: ORGANSIATIONAL STRUCTURE
As we know that the dawn of early 1990s saw the dawn of commercial
television in India. Many television channels, broadcasters, television software
(programmes) production houses have mushroomed up during the last 13 years. To help the
video industry in India, many allied services have also come up to help the television
media, directly or indirectly, such as advertising agencies, television news agencies,
advertisers, audiences, rating agencies etc.
Craft et.al. have in their book drawn the relationship amongst the
various components of the television video industry as shown in the Fig. 1. Now,
the organizational structure of a television software producers or broadcasters may vary
from company to company. However, ideally speaking a television broadcast station has a
following type of organizational structure as depicted in the Fig. 2.
Fig. 1: Components of the Commercial Video Industry
Information flow Money flow
Fig. 2 : Organisational Chart for a Broadcast Television Station
ANALYSIS
Media Library Users
Selection and Size
As regards to the Users’ questionnaire, questionnaires were
distributed personally and by post. A total of 215 (10 % of the total population of 2154)
questionnaires were distributed.
Despite all limitations and hard persuasion 113 questionnaires were
received which comes to 52.6 percent.
A city wise and organisation wise break-up of the users respondents is
as follows:
City wise Break-up of the Users Respondents
The Table 1 gives a detail of city wise distribution of
the users responded.
Table 1
City wise Distribution of the Respondents
Sr. No. |
City/ Area |
No. of Users |
1 |
Ahmedabad |
3 |
2 |
Bangalore |
1 |
3 |
Chennai |
2 |
4 |
Delhi |
46 |
5 |
Hyderabad |
3 |
6 |
Jaipur |
5 |
7 |
Noida |
48 |
8 |
Udaipur |
5 |
|
Total |
113 |
Fig 3: Main Thrust of the Respondents Organsiations
Purpose of Using In-house Library and Other LICs
While replying to the question as to what motivates them or
what is/ are the ‘Purpose/s’ of using In-house and or Other LIC. It is observed
that In-house LIC is mostly (by 89 respondents) used to perform ‘Official Work’.
Next to that, 74 respondents use In-house LIC for Casual Reading, 69 for
Research and 67 for Information purposes. Education is the least
motivational factor to use an In-house LICs reveals Fig. 4
It seems that those working in the television media do not
believe much in using other LICs. They rarely use (only 12 of 113 respondents) an outside
library. So far as motivational factors for using an outside LIC are concerned, Table
2 shows a sharp contrast as compared to the In-house LICs. ‘Official Work’
is the least motivation and ‘Information’ is the highest motivational
factor to use an out side LIC.
Table 2
Purpose of Using LICs
Purpose |
In-house LIC |
Other LIC |
| Casual Reading |
74
(65.5) |
9
(8) |
| Education |
57
(50.4) |
11
(9.7) |
| Official Work |
89
(78.8) |
2
(1.8) |
| Research |
69
(61.1) |
10
(8.8) |
| Information |
67
(59.3) |
12
(10.6) |
Fig. 4: Classification of Respondents by Purpose
of Using In-house and Other LICs
Usefulness of LIS Qualification for TV Media Librarians
Cluster analysis reveals that 92.2 % of the respondents find,
qualification in Library and Information Science, either ‘Very Useful’ or
‘Useful’ in discharging the duties as television media librarian. Only
7.8 % of the population falls in the category of ‘Less Useful’ or ‘Useless’.
However, 10 users did not respond to the question as shown in the Fig. 5
Fig. 5: Usefulness of LIS Qualification for TV Media Librarians
It is found that only 1/3rd of the TV media librarians
are LIS qualified. However, most of the users say that their librarian is qualified and
trained enough to cope up with requirements of television media libraries. Most users feel
that LIS qualification is either "Very Useful" or "Useful". Whereas
very few believe that LIS qualification is either "Less Useful" or
"Useless".
Training Options for a Television Media Librarian
An unending debate is going on whether a Television Media Librarian
should be trained in Library and Information Science (LIS), Television Media (TV Media),
Information Technology (IT), any combination of the three or any thing else. The survey
divulges that 54 of the respondents (48.2%) are of the opinion that to become a successful
television media librarian, it is must to train him in a combination of LIS, TVM and IT,
depicts Fig. 6. After analyzing, it is found that only 15 respondents
(13.4%) feel that qualification in LIS is not at all a must to become a successful
television media librarian. Those who advocate for LIS and those who are against LIS
qualification for telecast media librarian, the ratio is 6.5:1 (97:15).
Fig. 6: Training of TV Media Librarians
Type of Information Material |
Rank |
Newspapers |
1 |
Journals/ Magazines |
2 |
Books |
3 |
Reference Books |
4 |
Videotapes |
5 |
Press Clippings |
6 |
Audiotapes |
7 |
Reports |
8 |
Video CDs/ DVDs |
9 |
Programme Scripts |
10 |
Product Catalogues/ Brochures |
11 |
Audio CDs/ DVDs |
12 |
Still Photographs |
13 |
Rank list of Usefulness of LIC Information Materials
Table 3: Rank List of usefulness of LIC Information Materials
Table 3 shows Newspapers are the most useful library material available in the
telecast media libraries. Journals and magazines are the second most important followed by
books. Still photographs are the least important library material.
Library Professionals
Selection and Size
As regards to the Heads of television media libraries’
questionnaire, 81 questionnaires were distributed, personally in Delhi and Noida and by
post in rest of the places, to the Television Media Organisations with a LIC facility. Out
of which 57 responded which comes to 70.4%. Appendix-IV lists these organisations.
There are 185 channels/ production houses/ cable operators and television media
educational institutions, questionnaires were sent to 81 of such organisations because of
the following reasons:
Many media organisations have more then one television channels but
number of libraries is limited to one or two only. For example, Aaj Tak and Headlines
Today channels belong to one group i.e. TV Today and have only one library.
There are some channels, which started after the survey. For example Jagaran
and India TV.
Classification by Category
Table 4 ranks lists the television media organisations on
the basis of their nature. It is clear from the table that most of the respondents fall
under the category of "Broadcasters" followed by "Production Houses".
The Doordarshan, however, preferred to categories itself as "Visual Achieve"
which has been put in the category of "Others".
Table 4
Rank list by Type of Organisation
| Type of Organisations |
Number of Organisations |
Rank |
| Broadcasters |
32 |
1 |
| Production Houses |
21 |
2 |
| News Agencies |
10 |
3 |
| Educational Media Centres |
4 |
4 |
| Multi System Operators |
2 |
5 |
| Others |
1 |
6 |
It is observed that many respondents fall in more then one category.
For example a Broadcaster or an Educational Media Centre may be a Production House also.
The Fig.7 graphically classifies the respondents organisations by their
nature.
Fig. 7: Classification of Media Organisations by Nature
Distribution by Year-of-Start of the Media Organisation
Most of the Indian television channels were started when the
Government of India’s new policy of globalisation and liberalisation started in early
1990s. This is clearly evident from the Fig. 8 that most of them started
after 1990. The category ‘Before 1990’ contains the television media
organisation which are either government organisations like Doordarshan, News Agencies
like United News of India, Press Trust of India which were earlier dealing only in
‘print media’, Educational Media Centres like Indian Institute of Mass
Communication and Foreign News Agencies like Australian Broadcasting Corporation etc. The Table
5 categorises the year-of-start wise distribution of television media
organisation.
Table 5
Distribution by Year-of-Start of the Media Organisation
|
Frequency |
Percent |
Valid
Percent |
Cumulative
Percent |
| Before 1990 |
14 |
24.6 |
25 |
25 |
| 1990-1992 |
4 |
7 |
7.1 |
32.1 |
| 1993-1995 |
19 |
33.3 |
33.9 |
66.1 |
| 1996-1998 |
9 |
15.8 |
16.1 |
82.1 |
| 1999-2001 |
5 |
8.8 |
8.9 |
91.1 |
| After 2001 |
5 |
8.8 |
8.9 |
100 |
| Total |
56 |
98.2 |
100 |
|
| Missing |
Not Responded |
1 |
1.8 |
|
|
| Total |
57 |
100 |
|
|
Fig. 8: Distribution by Year-of-Start of the Media Organisation
It is indicated in the Fig. 8 that the years 1993,
1994 and 1995 saw many television media organisations mushrooming in India.
Personnel in Telecast Media LICs
Number of Staff Members
Table 6 shows the distribution by number of staff
members in telecast media libraries. It is seen from the table that one such LIC has 15
staff members, which is the maximum number. This is followed by another two LICs with 10
staff members in its band.
One fact to be looked into is that 17 LICs are working as one-man show.
That means one staff member is running the entire LIC operations only. However, on an
average there are 3.5 (195/56) staff members working in a telecast media LIC in India
shows an analysis of the table. One of the organisations did not respond.
Table 6
Distribution by Number of Staff Members
| No. of
Staff |
Frequency |
Percent |
Valid
Percent |
Cumulative
Percent |
| 1 |
17 |
29.8 |
30.4 |
30.4 |
| 2 |
8 |
14 |
14.3 |
44.6 |
| 3 |
10 |
17.5 |
17.9 |
62.5 |
| 4 |
7 |
12.3 |
12.5 |
75 |
| 5 |
4 |
7 |
7.1 |
82.1 |
| 6 |
3 |
5.3 |
5.4 |
87.5 |
| 7 |
1 |
1.8 |
1.8 |
89.3 |
| 8 |
3 |
5.3 |
5.4 |
94.6 |
| 10 |
2 |
3.5 |
3.6 |
98.2 |
| 15 |
1 |
1.8 |
1.8 |
100 |
| Total |
56 |
98.2 |
100 |
|
| Missing |
NR* |
1 |
1.8 |
|
|
| Total |
57 |
100 |
|
|
*NR - Not Responded
Fig. 9 shows a pattern where the number of LICs is high
the number of staff is low whereas in the cases where the staff number is high the number
of LICs is low.
Fig. 9: Strength of Staff in LICs
Information Resources
Quantum of Collection
Nature of collection is quite different in television media
library from a book library. This is proved from the Table 7 where
"Programme Scripts" is the most on hand type of documents in telecast media LIC.
Programme Scripts are followed by, as expected, "Videotapes" as rank number 2,
"Books" as number 3 and "Press Clippings" as number 4.
A cluster analysis of the table shows that "Programme
Scripts" and "Videotapes" form the major Collection in a television media
library.
The table also shows that most of the LICs (11 out of 19) get Programme
Scripts, which are produced in-house. Only 8 LICs purchase Programme Scripts. In case of
Videotapes, 24 LICs receive Videotapes, which are produced in-house.
Table 7
Rank list of Type of Collection
| |
Number of LICs |
| |
Purchase/ Subscribe |
In-house Production |
Gratis |
Total |
Average |
Rank |
| Books |
23 |
1 |
7 |
34290 |
1491 |
3 |
| Reference Books |
18 |
1 |
2 |
2540 |
141 |
8 |
| Journals/ Magazines |
28 |
3 |
6 |
2381 |
85 |
9 |
| Newspapers |
27 |
0 |
1 |
1133 |
42 |
11 |
| Videotapes |
34 |
24 |
6 |
398700 |
11726 |
2 |
| Audiotapes |
20 |
10 |
5 |
6327 |
316 |
7 |
| Video CDs/DVDs |
26 |
15 |
3 |
11720 |
451 |
5 |
| Audio CDs/DVDs |
17 |
10 |
5 |
5782 |
340 |
6 |
| Product Catalogues |
4 |
0 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
|
| Still Pictures |
8 |
4 |
0 |
400 |
50 |
10 |
| Press Clippings |
18 |
5 |
2 |
8600 |
478 |
4 |
| Programme Scripts |
8 |
11 |
0 |
101810 |
12726 |
1 |
Information Processing
Technical Processing
Table 8 numbers the LICs processing their LIC
collections of print and non-print documents. It is evident from the table that technical
processing is done more for non-print material rather then print materials. Among the
non-print collections, "Classification" is done by most of the LICs followed by
"Subject Headings". "Indexing" is done in less LICs. For print
materials "Classification", "Subject Headings" and
"Indexing" is done by equal number of LICs. This is followed by
"Cataloguing" which is being done in 9 LICs as shown in the Fig.10.
Table 8
Technical Processing of Documents
| |
Print Material |
Non-print Material |
| Classification |
11 |
37 |
| Cataloguing |
9 |
25 |
| Subject Heading |
11 |
33 |
| Indexing |
11 |
22 |
Fig. 10: Technical Processing of Documents
Most of the telecast media LICs in India do not follow the
standards codes practiced in the field of Library and Information Science for processing
their collections – print or non-print. This was one of the important hypotheses set
for this study. Table 9 and Fig. 11 declare that for technical processing
– classification, cataloguing, subject heading, and indexing, telecast media LICs in
India depend on their own systems developed in-house. For ‘Classification’, out
of 41 respondents, 36 (87.8%) respondents use system of classification ‘developed
in-house’. DDC and UDC systems are used by 2 each respondents. Only 1 respondent
uses CC.
For ‘cataloguing’, 23 of the 28 (82.1%) respondents use
‘developed in-house’ system of cataloguing. 5 respondents use AACR II.
CCC is not at all used in any of the respondents LICs.
So far, ‘subject heading’ is concerned 33 out of 36
(91.7%) respondents believe on ‘developed in-house’ system of subject
heading. Sears List of Subject Headings and LC List of Subject Headings follow this with 2
and 1 respondent respectively.
Table 9
Systems of Information Processing
Systems* |
Classification |
Cataloguing |
Subject Headings |
| DDC |
2 |
|
|
| CC |
1 |
|
|
| UDC |
2 |
|
|
| In-house |
36 |
|
|
| AACR II |
|
5 |
|
| CCC |
|
0 |
|
| In-house |
|
23 |
|
| Sears |
|
|
2 |
| LC |
|
|
1 |
| Any Thesaurus |
|
|
0 |
| In-house |
|
|
33 |
Systems*
DDC – Dewey Decimal Classification
CC – Colon Classification
UDC – Universal Decimal Classification
AACR II – Anglo American Cataloguing Rules II
CCC – Classified Catalogue Code
LC – Library of Congress List of Subject Headings
Fig. 11: Systems of Technical Processing
Use of Library Softwares
As expected most of the telecast media LICs in India use
computers for their LIC operations shows Fig. 12.
Fig. 12: Use of Computer in
LIC Operations
Fig. 13: Software Used by the Telecast Media LICs
Table 10 and Fig.13 depict that 80.4 percent
of the telecast media LICs in India use computer software developed in-house. Next to that
are CDS/ISIS and Alice for Windows used by 2 respondents each and Libsys used by one
respondent. In the category of ‘Other Packages’, the 4 respondents have listed
the names of ‘Packages’. These are:
Q Series Client
Medlib
Lightworks Assistant
Amiga
Table 10
Software Package Used by LICs
|
Freq-uency |
Percent |
Valid
Percent |
Cumulative
Percent |
| Alice for Windows |
2 |
3.5 |
4.3 |
4.3 |
| CDS/ISIS |
2 |
3.5 |
4.3 |
8.7 |
| Libsys |
1 |
1.8 |
2.2 |
10.9 |
| Any Other |
4 |
7 |
8.7 |
19.6 |
| Developed In-house |
37 |
64.9 |
80.4 |
100 |
| Total |
46 |
80.7 |
100 |
|
Missing |
Not Responded |
11 |
19.3 |
|
|
Total |
57 |
100 |
|
|
List of Software Developed In-house
LICs using in-house software package were requested to name the
package being used by them. Some of the respondents have given names of the software they
are using. These are:
Library Management System
BPSIRS
Library Information System
DD Archive
Tape Library Management Software
SAMBA
Video Library Tape Management System
Newgen
LMS
Media/ IT Educated LIC Personnel
The survey showed that many LICs in study are equipped with
their staff members having qualification in Television Journalism, Print Journalism, and
Information Technology. Some of them have revealed their qualification as shown in the Table
11
Table 11
Qualification of LIC Staff in TV Media/ Information Technology
Table 5.32
Sr. |
Degree/ Diploma |
No. of Personnel |
Qualification in* |
1 |
Certificate in DTP |
1 |
IT |
2 |
Certificate in TV Journalism |
2 |
TVJ |
3 |
Degree in Mass Communication |
3 |
TVJ |
4 |
Diploma in TV Journalism |
1 |
TVJ |
5 |
MA in Journalism |
1 |
TVJ |
6 |
MA in Mass Communication |
1 |
PJ |
7 |
PG Diploma in JMC |
2 |
PJ |
8 |
PG Diploma in Mass Communication |
1 |
TVJ |
9 |
Pre-production+ |
1 |
TVJ |
10 |
Information Technology+ |
1 |
IT |
11 |
TV Journalism+ |
1 |
TVJ |
* IT – Information Technology, TVJ – Television Journalism PJ
– Print Journalism
+ - Degree/ Diploma not revealed
Preference for LIS Qualification
In order to weigh the preference for LIS qualification
amongst the working Library Heads of telecast media LICs, they were requested to tell
their preference for LIS qualification compared to Television Media, Information
Technology, or any combination of the three. Table 12 shows that most
respondents 19 of 57 prefer to have a combination of qualification in TV Media, LIS and
Information Technology. From the Table 12 and Fig. 14, this
can be concluded that out of 57 respondents only 13 do not prefer LIS at all to be a
successful television media librarian whereas 44 prefer LIS qualification either
independently or with some other qualification in TV media or Information Technology.
Table 12
Opinion for Qualification of a Television Media Librarian
Qualification |
No.* |
| Television Media |
3 |
| Library and Information Science |
6 |
| Information Technology |
1 |
| Television Media and Library and Information Science |
17 |
| Library and Information Science and Information Technology |
2 |
| Television Media and Information Technology |
9 |
| Television Media, LIS and Information Technology |
19 |
Total |
57 |
No.* - Number of Respondents
LIS – Library and Information Science, TV Media – Television
Media
IT – Information Technology
Fig. 14: Preference of Qualification of TV Media Librarian
Most of the library respondents use their "In-house
Developed" systems for information processing and library automation.
Most of the libraries responded that they do not have any provisions
for in-service training and short-term courses.
It is also found that television media libraries work for longer hours.
The libraries of 24 hours news channels are working round the clock. Educational Media
Centre libraries are working normal office hours. Major production houses’ libraries
work for 10 to 12 hours.
Large number of the respondents do not intend to share their library
resources with others
.
TV media libraries dominate non-print materials is disproved in the
study.
OBSERVATIONS
It was observed that the organisations dealing in News and or
Education have a good library and staff. On the other hand organizations dealing in
Entertainment including religious and cultural channels are not having a good library and
library staff.
Similarly, Broadcasters, Educational Media Centres, News Agencies are
having a good libraries and qualified staff whereas Cable Operators, Multi System
Operators, and small Production Houses neither have a good library nor qualified staff.
They just have made very ad-hoc arrangements.
It was observed that practicing librarian of television media
desperately looking for some standard software designed and developed to cater to the
needs of television media libraries.
The library and information services rendered by the television media
libraries are not up to the mark in many libraries. This is probably because they are not
oriented and trained like that.
Personal interview with the librarian respondents, it was observed that
there are no clear-cut wage policies in most of the libraries in question. Some of the
libraries told that "it all depends on your personal equations with the seniors and
the boss".
It was also observed that most of the staff members who are not trained
in LIS want to shift to some other department.
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