The development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) brought out new and faster tools and techniques for information and knowledge management. The development of ICT has impacted the services provided at library and information centres. Some of the library professionals adopted new technology in their library for enhancing quality in the service for user satisfaction. In this article, the author has focussed on some of the advanced college libraries which underwent a reengineering process and provided new modern library and information services to the user. The author has also revealed the process of reengineering of college library services and the ICT-based newer college library services which are essential to meet present needs of the students and teachers. The effective model of reengineering college library services has been presented in this article.

The history of academic libraries exposed the development stages and the impact of ICT on the library services. Most of the literature on library and information science has described today’s era as a ‘digital era’. Many rich college libraries have developed as per recent technologies. Some libraries are still facing old problems regarding infrastructure, unscientific rules and management policies, skills, support from the management, etc., and cite these as the  reason for the pause of the development of college libraries’. Nowadays, not only ICT tools use in libraries but also the virtualization of library resources and services are needed. Technology has impacted college libraries significantly, whether it is decreased door counts or increased use of virtual resources and especially college libraries have faced a great deal of change in recent years. Today, users have more options than ever to fulfill their information needs. The library professionals must be creative and innovative in order to serve their users. Shynee et al (2016) mentioned in his article that the “role of library professionals have changed in managing the information and apply the latest tools and technology to provide better information services in web based environment”. In this web environment, LIS professionals have to adopt web technology for rich to the user. Internet and the advanced tools of ICT is the major challenge to the college librarians. This challenge may take as an opportunity to get more users by providing web based library services.

Sangole (2016) in his article stated the users’ expectations as follows:

• Everything in full text and downloadable or printable


• Faster services


• 24×7 service availability


• Easy access


• Virtual reference service librarian available online 24×7.


• Easy to use web resources permitting self-services


• A librarian who knows all subjects and all databases


• Everything should be in electronic format


• Several options/alternatives to choose from


• A website that works


• Ability to conduct all library transactions online (like: library registrations, request document delivery, and inter library loan, renew library items, etc.)


• A website search engine that can find what the user wants 

In order to ensure that the college library provides services in consideration to fulfil above demands or expectations from the user, libraries need to rethink or redesign the services to make boundary less library and information services. Therefore, we need to reengineer the library services to introduce drastic change in the library services. This is one of the management techniques to bridge the gap between users’ expectations and present library services. This article has introduced the concept of reengineering and its systematic application to improve the efficiency and quality in services of academic libraries, such that the users will prefer library resources and services more than other sources for their study and research purpose.

• To apply reengineering concept to the academic library


• To propose the steps to apply reengineering concept to academic libraries


• Explore the web-based library and information services


• To propose the reengineering model for academic libraries

The concept of reengineering was proposed by Hammer and Champy (1993) in their book,  Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution.

According to Hammer and Champy, “Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvement in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed”.

This definition focussed on three keywords, i.e., fundamental rethinking, radical redesign, and dramatic improvement. As per the keywords, it may be described that reengineering is the process that forces one to form basic philosophy and change attention on the process of the task to achieve dramatic improvement for cost benefit, quality in service, and speed.

There are some major needs to reengineer the conventional library services to provide effective library services, such as:

• To cater to the users’ need of information


• Cost effectiveness


• Changing needs of the user


• Users’ expectations from library


• To make library system capable of achieving the aim and objectives and face the future challenges


• To improve the quality of service

Ghumre (2014) mentioned the following needs of reengineering in a college library:

• To cope with the challenges posed by information explosion


• To fulfill the multi-dimensional information need of library users


• To redesign information services of college library


• To provide pin-pointed exhaustive information to the end users of the library.

 As per the need of the reengineering of college library services, there is a need to undergo the systematic process of reengineering.

The process of reengineering falls under the planning process. The simple steps, explained here, for reengineering are applicable to library services based on the seven principles of the reengineering given by Hammer and Champy (1993).

• Understand the concept:

Study the concept and review the advantages and disadvantages while going through the reengineering process

• Set up objectives of reengineering:

Study users’ expectations and decide what types of changes are required. If you have decided to reengineer the library services, set up its objectives which are to be achieved.

• Training and instruction to staff:

Involve the staff and make a team to reengineer the library services. Training should be provided to the staff to handle new tools and techniques.

• Effective change management:

Reengineering is for drastic change and the change should be managed effectively with the involvement of all staff.

• Pilot study:

Before implementation, check the new mode of library and information services. In the pilot study you may predict its results.

• Involvement of all stakeholders:

Make your stakeholders aware about innovative services and utilization by conducting library orientation programme.

• Implementation:

At the final stage, implement the new way of services and check whether the objectives are proved or not.

Web technology is related to the interface between web servers and their clients. It is a virtual-visual communication which enables  sharing and visualizing the information in several formats. All the ICT tools must be used as a medium for library services. Today, website/web portal is the best tool for reengineering  library services. With an innovative and modern approach, LIS professionals should go through the web technology for reengineering the library services. Bhardwaj and Shukla (2006) wrote an article about how they reengineered the library and information services at Delhi College of Engineering through web modeling.

Figure 1 shows the library process for modern services. The process will be done for ‘user interface services’ based on newly acquired information resources and printed collection. Thereafter, the data will be stored in server and provided access through the library website/portal. The librarian manages and control all tasks related to library services and provides all the services through the web page.

Nowadays, the funding problem is not a barrier to creating digital library/institutional repository. Several freeware softwares are available for designing the digital library. LIS professionals may use free Google sites, wordpress.com, so on. As per the needs and expectations of the college teachers and students, the library professional must provide the following library and information services via online mode.

• Institutional repository


• Online circulation (request via e-mail and send the book via courier)


• Audio/Video Lectures


• Information Literacy


• Web OPAC


• Online Library Tour


• Translation


• News Clipping


• Bibliographic Service


• Career Guide


• Subject Portals


• Indexing and Abstracting


• E-Books


• E-Journal


• E-database


• E-Notes


• E-Newspaper


• E-Reference Service


• Document Delivery Service


• Current Awareness Service


• Online Exhibition


• E-Syllabus


• Instructions


• Photocopying Service


• New Arrivals


• Library Chat 

With the above online library services, the college libraries must provide innovative (library) services to promote educational and research activities detailed as below:

• Literature search:  The library webpage should be enabled for literature search on the interested topic of the user. The user may get assistance from the library professionals by sending an email to librarian.


• Full text databases: A separate module for full text databases must be provided to the user.


• Subject-wise list of available e-journals with hyperlink


• Online gallery of college events


• Research methodology assistance (for research)


• Project or research report guidance


• These are the services which are modern in nature and mostly needed services must be provided by the college library. The services might be provided by the college libraries for the purpose of reengineering of library services. The famous quote ‘old wine in a new bottle’ is to change the way of work, not product. Therefore, the library services must be provided online to fulfill today’s expectations for the user.

In India, many college libraries have tried to reengineer their services through website page designing, creating institutional repositories or creating digital libraries.

• <strong>Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics</strong> has the oldest library consisting of a vast number of rare books. This library has taken a concerted effort to provide access to those rare books online. The library has an informative digital repository which consists of 21,795 scanned books and other documents.




• <strong>Pawanatma College Library</strong> has a webpage to explore and share their resources to the community.&nbsp; The digital library contains e-thesis, e-books, e-journals, question papers, open access journal search engine, N-LIST, etc. 

It has been observed that many libraries have websites and these are successfully operational in providing maximum information services in the field of education and research and development. It is not waiting time to seed money to provide qualitative library services towards the hybrid or electronic library. We are living in active times where things change speedily in our knowledge society. The commercial publishers and suppliers already have their own integrated electronic libraries for income purpose. If the college libraries do not make significant progress towards ensuring ease of access for the user to a enough electronic information resources, we run the risk that our institution decision makers and the users will prefer other sources for fulfils there information need.

Reengineering is the need of today’s college libraries to reduce the gap between users’ expectation and actual service provided. Considering the importance of reengineering in the college library, it is necessary to rethink on this serious issue and how it will apply to the library for providing better services to fulfill multidimensional needs of the today’s users. It is important to reveal that reengineering is not just adding technology but is also a management of resources and services as per the changing scenario. In the consideration of changing scenario, we use technology as much as possible in the library services because the technology has been developed to reduce the efforts, cost, and increase the quality. Websites, portals, and repositories are the tools to reengineer the library and information services of college libraries. Librarians must possess the knowledge and skills about use of technology and they must provide training to other staff to develop their skills. As the library automation and the virtualization of the library resources and services are underway, the authority of the college library should give proper importance to library reengineering.

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Ghumre Shivshankar. 2014. Re-engineering College Library & Information Services. International Journal of Research in Management Science and Technology 2: 2211–2216.

Hammer Michael and Champy,James. 1993. Reengineering the corporation: A manifesto for business revolution. Harper Collins: New York.

Martin Shynee, Murugiah P, and Nandhini K. 2016. Web based library services: An overview. International Journal of Library Science and Information Management 2(3): 79–85.

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Sangole Sudhir. 2016. Reengineering of college library services. “Knowledge Librarian”. An International Peer Reviewed Bilingual E-Journal of Library and Information Science 1(3): 76–79. Retrieved from http://www.klibjlis.com/3.1.11.pdf

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