Library Management Training at Local Level by Dasharath Thapa Chief Librarian, Nepal National Library

Library is a trinity of its collection, users and the staff. It can not run properly in absence of any of its element and every element has its relationship with other element. The collection can be of no use if there is no user and the user alone can not reach upto the desired information contained in the documents without well trained staff. Therefore staff play a vital role in good library service. In ancient days when the library used to be a store house, the duty of a librarian was just to guard the books. However now the concept has changed and the concept of modern library service has emerged. In this age of information, the role of a librarian should be active enough so as to attract more users to the library. The staff or the librarian should have good knowledge of library and information science education in order to run a library.

The concept of library and the subject library and information science are considered to be new in Nepal. Tribhuvan University, the oldest university in the country, has introduced the subject of library and information science for 8 years to produce the library professionals in Nepal. Before that time, people had to go to India. There are other institutions like Nepal National Library, Nepal Library Association, Tribhuvan University Central Library and Tribhuvan University Library Science Alumni Association which organise short term (35 days) training programmes to produce semi-professionals in this field. In addition, there will be some other small (one week) training programmes in rural areas so as to give basic library management idea to the staff of the community and other libraries of those areas. Nepal National Library is one of such institutions which provide week long training throughout the country in association with other institutions.

There are more than 600 public libraries throughout the country. However in most of the libraries the staff are non-professional. They have been running the libraries on their own in the traditional way. Week long training programmes are targeted to such manpower which shall be highly beneficial for them.

In order to develop the library system throughout the local level, the Local Self Governance Act 1999 has the provision of maintaining library by local government such as Village Development committees, Municipalities and District Development Committees themselves.

As per the annual programme, Nepal National Library organised two such week long training programmes in two different regions of the country. One of them was in Palpa district (Western Development Region). It was organised in association with District Development Committee of Palpa district from September 12, 2004 to September 18, 2004. The main objective of the training was to provide general idea about library to the staff of local community and other libraries and make them able to handle small libraries efficiently. There were 20 participants from different libraries.

Another training programme was conducted at Jhapa district (Eastern Development Region) from November 21, 2004 to November 27, 2004. This training was jointly organised by Nepal National Library and Triphala National Library, Jhapa. The number of participants were 22.

The training covered most of the important topics of library science such as book selection,  accession, classification, cataloguing, circulation, library building and furniture and the participants were also introduced briefly with the WINISIS software. The participants were provided practical session to work upon the concerned topics. Within a short period of time there were library visits also during the training programme.