Status and Challenges of Public Libraries’ Automation in Punjab

The present paper is an attempt to gauze the current status and challenges that the public libraries in the state of Punjab is facing. Libraries world over are fast transforming themselves from delivering the traditional library services to the provision of technology based operations and services. The tremendous advancements in information communication technologies and their adoption in the present library system have opened up new windows for the libraries and users alike. On one side where there is a sea change in the methods of seeking the information; there is equally powerful media and way of information dissemination on the other hand. The Public Library System is the real information system because only this system allows the common information seeker to use the resources at its end. Unfortunately the public library system in Punjab lacks the basic infrastructure to support ICT implementation and also it lags behind in terms of its accessibility to the common man in rural Punjab.