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Saturday, December 3, 2011

3D Library


Three Dimensional Library
: An essential element for evidence based education

Definition 
3D library is the new concept consisting of three important elements in a unique discipline arranged in a meaningful manner to explore information for self learning process.
According to the concept of the 3D Library, there are three important elements  arranged in a meaningful manner. This arrangement is made with the sole purpose of promoting self-learning and knowledge gathering with one’s own initiative through visualising by senses first and then conceptualizing through reading.
Taking humanity’s endless capabilities into consideration, this project aims to place all its tasks on humanity as its primary element. A well-informed society of people will nonetheless improve its total ability to think and perform in a learned manner. The project places reading as one of the major avenues for acquiring knowledge and information.

Need of the project
·         In our society over the last 30 years or so the tide in reading has been on the upsurge.  reading promotion programmes in national library levels, school education level are all are symptoms of the persisting interest in reading.
·         Changing Background in Sri Lanka –     user-oriented pattern of library services
·         Limitations of the University education system - Time frame of the courses .
·         New responsibilities of Librarianship in Sri Lanka - Importance of Information literacy
·         Need of a suitable solution to attract the readers - maximum benefit with minimum input

Objectives
The following are the major objectives of the project:
1.      Increasing the standard of literacy of readers.
2.      Guiding the readers to identify the various dimensions of information.
3.      Making a specific subject familiar by displaying of corresponding script, picture and physical objects.
4.      Encouraging the reader to observe the practice of evidence based research and education.

By working towards attaining these objectives, the project aims to transform the library from its traditional role of a place of knowledge preservation into a new functional role of a of a place of knowledge experimentation. The project also considers that the practice of object-oriented knowledge gathering will help to develop the practice of preservation of valuable ( cultural & historical ) objects available in the society.
The three basic elements of The 3D Library are as follows:
1.      Objects and their meaning – as primary resources.
2.      Documents and related materials – as secondary resources
3.      Information bits – as tertiary resources.

Application of the concept
Accordingly, the Library University of Jaffna introduces a new service as 3D Library to show the various dimensions of Information to the readers. It Introduces three dimensional role of library with information, information materials and the realia and artefacts  of a specific subject. Students can earn a new knowledge in a subject with an attraction and concentration.
In the celebration of the reading month of the year 2009 October, the Library organizes an exhibition corner at the centre part of the library with the Model of a 3D Library in some specific subjects.

Formation of the project -About the 3DL
3D library is the new concept consisting of three important elements in a unique discipline arranged in a meaningful manner to explore information for self learning process.
  • Increasing the information literacy of readers.
  • Showing the various dimensions of Information to the readers
  • Introducing three dimensional role of library with information, information materials and the realia of  a specific subject
According to the concept of The 3D Library, there are three important elements  arranged in a meaningful manner. This arrangement is made with the sole purpose of promoting self-learning and knowledge gathering with one’s own initiative through visualising by senses first and then conceptualizing through reading.
Taking humanity’s endless capabilities into consideration, this project aims to place all its tasks on humanity as its primary element. A well-informed society of people will nonetheless improve its total ability to think and perform in a learned manner. The project places reading as one of the major avenues for acquiring knowledge and information.

Need and Rationality
The following thoughts emphasis the need of this project:
v     In our society over the last 30 years or so the tide in reading has been on the upsurge.  Reading promotion programmes in national library levels, school education level all are symptoms of the persisting interest in reading.
v     Changing Background in Sri Lanka –     user-oriented pattern of library services
v     Limitations of the University education system - Time frame of the courses.
v     New responsibilities of Librarianship in Sri Lanka - Importance of Information literacy
v     Need of a suitable solution to attract the readers - maximum benefit with minimum input

The following are the major objectives of the project:
v     Increasing the standard of literacy of readers.
v     Guiding the readers to identify the various dimensions of information.
v     Making a specific subject familiar by displaying of corresponding script, picture and physical objects.
v     Encouraging the reader to observe the practice of evidence based research and education.
By working towards attaining these objectives, the project aims to transform the library from its traditional role of a place of knowledge preservation into a new functional role of a of a place of knowledge experimentation. The project also considers that the practice of object-oriented knowledge gathering will help to develop the practice of preservation of valuable ( cultural & historical ) objects available in the society.

Definition of basic elements
The three basic elements of The 3D Library are as follows:
4.      Objects and their meaning – as primary resources.
5.      Documents and related materials – as secondary resources
6.      Information bits – as tertiary resources.

Objects and their meaning (1st dimension)
Objects runs the gamut of human experience from the stone axes and spear-heads of primitive man to the most sophisticated electronic mechanisms of today’s scientists and engineers. Objects, as the first dimension of 3d library, reach the readers as primary resources through the faculty of body in the form of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching and occupy their location in the low level of the pyramid.  Objects representing all the cultures and sub cultures in the form of artefact (realia or models ) could be taken into consideration. All the objects already been produced or being made in a particular subjects could be collected from all the members of the society and placed here . It would be more useful to collect the artefacts  available in each subject since artefacts have the ability to motivate the readers and are more powerful to  induce the interest to read.

For example  all the objects with regard to sculpture could be arranged by material and the process. All the objects based on materials from stone age to present times could be collected and arranged according to the base materials used. Based on the process the objects related to sculpture could be arranged as objects related to carving and casting.  According to materials Physical objects, used to explain a specific subject, can be in the form of models or realia which can be collected from society.
The object oriented display has another inherent characteristics  which leads to a new concept  ‘social equilibrium’. Since any library whether academic or public are prepared to give a space for all the products for the knowledge as well as skills of  all members of the society irrespective of literates or illiterates for the  production of the objects, the considerable coordination and the cooperation of the human resources of the society reaches the libraries through this object display.
The object display has an outstanding quality of having the formation of reading community at various levels since the contribution of all members of the society from farming to carpentry, welding etc is needed for the object display.   Since the libraries whether public or academic provide opportunity not only to knowledge  but to skills, the object oriented display will pave the way to accommodate all the skill based objects produced by the members from all the social strata such as farmers, welders, carpenters etc irrespective of their education. The formation of reading society at various level is the outstanding features of this object oriented display since it  warrants for  considerable support and cooperation of  these human resources  at various level

Resources and their formats (2nd dimension)
The description about the objects used can be found in the form of script, documents, books etc. and they reach the reader as secondary resources. They could be either in the form of book form materials such as  books, journal articles, pamphlets, dissertations or non book materials as micro forms, audio video tapes ,internet etc. They are considered as secondary resources for the purpose of knowledge gathering as second dimension of the 3 D library and placed in the middle of the pyramid. Contribution from the selective members of the society whether in book form or non book form. Such display of documents help the readers for the the easy access to information since all the relavent materials hidden in the shelves and the materials scattered everywhere due to the techniques of broken order brought together and displayed here.
While the first dimension  focuses  social equilibrium by bringing the skills of  all the members of the particular society, the second dimension helps to select the members who can contribute to the knowledge of the society by their writings. At the same time the document part  will be helpful to identify the gaps of the book production in the subjects and concentrate more in producing the materials by the society.

Information and their standards (3rd dimension)
Formation of information is considered as the third dimension of this 3d library and treated as tertiary resources and occupy its location in the top level of the pyramid reflecting the density in quality. Information could be either produced from the object as primary information  through the observations, interviews with regard to the creators of objects, etc or abstracted or extracted from the object related materials in the form of bits, abstracts,, etc.   Since the documents are produced in different language and different style of writing the main advantage of this part is to help the readers to overcome all the barriers to the access to information in a particular subjects.

The information needed for the third dimension could be obtained in the following ways.
·         display of the graphs, diagrams, laboratory process, photographs etc.
·         display of the interviews made with the human resources
·         Compiling information from other relevant resources.
·         Producing information through translating from foreign languages
·         Getting the information from websites.
·         Display of the materials borrowed from other sources if the library doesn’t have the same.

It is expected that the formation of the third dimension is the contribution from the library professionals since the responsibility of finding the proper location for a  particular subject which have already been formed through the mode of formation and the subject which are being formed due to the new research and development in the particular discipline and need to do information search  to fulfill the information need of the  readers have increase the responsibility of the library  professionals in the generation of tertiary information of the third dimension. This could be done by providing translation services to the materials displayed in the second dimension of the pyramid written in foreign languages and compilative services in the form of abstracts, digests etc. Suppose if it is identified that the document part is very weak in a particular subject it is the responsibility of the librarians to gather and produce information  regarding the objects  from  various sources – materials in other libraries, information included in other relevant documents, related websites. if this is too not enough to fill the information part human resources could be approached and the interviews, opinions of these human resources will be of great assets to fulfil the information part of the pyramid. 

Steps involved
         Any library can introduce and adopt this kind of  display.
         Small space which could be the readers attraction  is well enough to conduct this program. This may be either the corner of a reference section or center of the section . Even a corner of the class room is useful to have this
         The Topic of this display could be made once in a week based on the curriculum.
         It must be realized the fact that the objects will be produced for each and every subject. At the same times it will be very difficult to collect the objects which are given up by the society. In this contexts picture oriented display will be of more helpful in place of objects to attract the readers. The subjects like literature, philosophy in the field of humanity have very less opportunity for the objects. In this case picture oriented materials will be more helpful. for example if we chose the topic ‘poetry’ for the 3D library  we will have to collect the objects in the form of statues of great poets worldwide. If we find it difficult to collect this we could at least display the pictures of them.
         Every library should establish storage for the objects. One class front cabinet will be enough for a small school library. The collection of objects could be used to form an art gallery and preserve in the centre of the school.
Outputs of the project
The followings are the notable outputs of this project
·         Remarkable increase in number of visit of readers.
·         According to the opinion book and feedback form most of the viewers were attracted by 3DL with a positive manner and they felt their IL also enriched by this concept.
·         Moral support of the departments to develop such kind of service.
·         Appreciation and collaboration of departments to continue the service to improve the Information Literacy of their students by providing related images and objects of their subject.
·         Development of Library awareness at society level through the requested visits of the schools
·         Re- origination of documentation culture among the readers society

As a total view, feedbacks of the viewers have shown the effectiveness of such service and the need of emerge to spread the idea all over the country.


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