THE ROLE OF LIBRARY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-2 | November - December 2025 16 Original Article THE ROLE OF LIBRARY IN HIGHER EDUCATION Sri. Ramesh Jabnoor Librarian, Dr. Ambedkar College of Arts, Commerce and P.G Centre, Kalaburagi. Manuscript ID: IJAAR-130204 Abstract: Libraries have always been essential parts of higher education, acting as centers of research, knowledge repositories, and intellectual crucibles. This study explores the varied functions that libraries perform in the lives of college students. It explores the many roles that libraries play, including the provision of resources, academic support, and the promotion of a positive learning environment. Through knowledgeable librarians, libraries help students navigate these resources, develop their information literacy skills, and improve their research techniques. Libraries offer guidance and support through expert librarians who assist students in navigating these resources, enhancing their information literacy skills, and honing their research abilities. Keywords: Research, Academic Support, Guidance, Knowledge Repositories, Manpower, Higher Education etc. ISSN: 2347-7075 Impact Factor – 8.141 Volume - 13 Issue - 2 November - December 2025 Pp. 16 - 20 Submitted: 19 Oct 2025 Revised: 01 Nov 2025 Accepted: 08 Oct 2025 Published: 25 Nov 2025 Corresponding Author: Sri. Ramesh Jabnoor Quick Response Code: Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17745136 DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenod o.17745136 Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given and that any new creations are licensed under identical terms. How to cite this article: Sri. Ramesh Jabnoor. (2025). The Role Of Library In Higher Education. International Journal of Advance and Applied Research, 13(2), 16–20. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17745136 International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-2 | November - December 2025 17 Introduction: Higher education, the most important factor for any developing country like India and it is boost to an exploration in human development. Higher education in India has accomplished remarkable development, that we can see in India today. India has produced scientists, engineers, technologists, doctors, teachers and managers who are in great demand all over the world. Now it is one of the top ten countries in our industrial and technological capacity, for the significant contribution of manpower and tools provided by higher education, especially, technical education. India has already entered into the phase of knowledge explosion. It has proved its tremendous strength through its performance in nuclear and space domains. In the coming few decades will be heralded by space craft, satellites, internets and other offshoots of scientific enquires. Higher Education straighten chances opportunities to the people to meditate on the critical cultural, social, economic, moral and spiritual issues facing humanity. Higher education provides specific knowledge and skilled persons for national development. In next few decades, India will have world‟s largest set of young people. In higher education, libraries play a crucial role in academic success. Libraries within higher education institutes can nurture and contribute well-educated societies, as well as enabling individuals to empower them. In the 21st century, technological innovation dominates in any sector of life including smart libraries where information is being created and stored. During in our higher learning journey, the library supports us in retrieving the right information, therefore, the library is inevitable for this journey to achieve academic success in higher education. A library is essential to the growth of any community. Libraries produce environmental knowledge and influence the local community. A habit of reading, writing, and analyzing is formed at a library. It implies that the library is essential to a person's development. Since a library is seen as a crucial component of a university education, its position in higher education is far more significant than it is in primary and secondary school. The library network is necessary for academic and research endeavors. The library is a crucial component for any educational program to be successful. The Kothari Education Commission underlined that it is more harmful to overlook libraries and give them poor priority. The key element that fosters teaching-learning and research activity is the academic library. It plays a crucial role in achieving the goals and objectives of higher education. Library works as a platform that provides students in higher education access to resources and services when doing research and other related activities. Academic libraries act as research and learning centers of the university, since they allow students to acquire suitable environment of learning enormous information. In terms of library services, graduate students at the Science Library were more likely than those at the Law Library to receive the necessary research materials and dependable photocopying services. Additionally, science students were International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-2 | November - December 2025 18 more likely than arts students to significantly rely on interlibrary loans in order to obtain research resources that were not available at the library. According to the university library has an important role in nurturing higher education and implementing the requirements of the university. Students who are doing their higher education should be given to any skills and material they need to master their chosen subjects. At this point, the university library is among the materials students are to be given. In postgraduate studies, access to library resources and services is crucial for doing fruitful research, showcasing academic scholarship, and winning praise for original thought. The significance of libraries for higher education is undeniable by supporting their academic success. The primary objective of academic libraries and library professionals should be to establish a globally interconnected library system and transform it into a comprehensive knowledge resource center In the digital world, academic libraries provide the academicians and students mindset of employing this innovative technology for the preservation and digitalizing the information. Therefore, academic library becomes a backbone of the university services. Role of Libraries: The role of the libraries goes on gethrin convert from traditional print media and to digital where information is being made arranged on the desk top of users. The users also require spot information from the metadata available on the internet. The responsibilities of the librarian are changing with the time including traditional staffing pattern for performing different functions in the libraries. The education system is using both formal and informal ways for encouraging higher education in India inlearning and teaching. Libraries perform their roles in dissiminate information from the time where information is stored and preserved in the midst of library. Library plays important roles in admirable knowledge and information from books, periodicals, magazines, old manuscripts, archives, articles, standards, reports, Government resolutions etc. the major changes in the libraries appear due to adoption and use of technologies. The role of the library may be defined within the framework of the university‟s mission and a library development programme. In the words of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, “Libraries are not mere store houses, they are rich springs from which knowledge flows out to irrigate field of education and culture”. The fundamental role of the university library is educational. It should not be operated as a mere storehouse of books kept in reading room, but as a strong instrument of education. It emphasized in different reports brought out by various library and educational commissions in India. A university library is established with the purpose of aiding in successful achievement of the objectives such as teaching, research, publication programmes, etc. In India the University Education Commission (1948-49) headed by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan describes that teachers must have the necessary tools for teaching purpose in the shape of libraries and laboratories as also the right type of International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-2 | November - December 2025 19 students. According to him, “The library is the heart of the University‟s work; directly so as regards its research work and indirectly as regards its educational work, which derives its life from research work. Scientific research needs a library as well as its laboratories, while for humanistic research. The library is both library and laboratory in one. “The training in higher layers of learning and research is mainly a question of learning how to handle the tools, and if the library tools are not there, how can the students learn to use them. Dr. S. R. Ranganathan headed the report of the Library Committee of University Grants Commission in 1957 that dealt with in detail the role of the university library in academic development especially in the field of higher education. The above observations can be summarizing in the words as: i. The library is the heart of education ii. Methods & fashion in education change from generation to generation, but each generation uses the library as a means of realizing its items; hence the library remains the great conservator of learning. iii. A quality education is impossible without a quality library. iv. A library is vital organ for proper exploitation of our intellectual resources. v. A library is needed for maintenance of free access to ideas, and to the functioning of the untrammeled mind. A library is considered as the „heart‟ of a university and it is the centre of learning for higher education. Each university has a central library attached to it and may have various constituent libraries attached to and it‟s different teaching departments or the constituent colleges. The aims and objectives of a library are as below: 1. Library must help in change process that is essential for a developing of growing society. 2. University Library should promote facilities for advanced study and research in education. 3. Library has to give opportunities for professional pupils to improve their knowledge and skill through summer and evening classes, short term courses, seminars and other means. 4. Library has to provide teacher training and guidance in respect to prepare candidates for the Master / Ph.D. in educational degrees of the university and such other disciplines / diplomas in education may be instituted. 5. Library has to conduct research in several branches of education, publish the result of such research and act as an educational inforamtion dissemination centre. 6. Library should help to prepare educational leaders in teaching, research and administration. 7. Library stimulate educational research of high quality, both fundamental and applied, required for the imporovement of education. 8. University Library acts a dynamic and high quality academic environment of teaching, research and human services International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-2 | November - December 2025 20 for prospective teachers and leaders in the field of special education. Conclusion: Information environment are very much alive including libraries in higher education and other research ornaments for the most part we can't make one decision for the future but individual directions need to be made and the conditions need to be identified For any library to succeed in implementing knowledge management will require a strong leadership and vision from the top administration which can influence the organizations knowledge sharing effort in a positive way as libraries enter the knowledge phase of the 21st century we should not take a backseat in the development of knowledge management instead and with our professional knowledge and experiences we should be in the driver's seat. References: 1. A, Kumar, D., Majumder, A. J., & Bose, S. (2010). Role of Library in Higher Education in India. International Journal of Librarianship and Administration, 1(1), 112. http://www.ripublication.com/Vol ume/ijla1n1-2.htm 2. Ahmad, I., Ali, A., Khan, I., & Khan, F. A. (2014). Critical Analysis of the Problems of Education in Pakistan: Possible Solutions. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 3(2), 79-84. 3. Ahmad, I., Rauf, M., Rashid, A., ur Rehman, S., & Salam, M. (2013). Analysis of the problems of primary education system in Pakistan: Critical review of literature. Academic Research International, 4(2), 324. 4. Ashiq, M., Rehman, S. U., & Mujtaba, G. (2021). Future challenges and emerging role of academic libraries in Pakistan: A phenomenology approach. Information Development, 37(1), 158-173. 5. Boeren, E. (2019). Understanding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on “quality education” from micro, meso and macro perspectives. International review of education, 65, 277-294. 6. Cyr, C., & Connaway, L. S. (2020). Libraries and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: The past, present, and future. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 57(1), e237.