THE ROLE OF RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY LIBRARY FOUNDATION (RRRLF) FOR PROVIDING COMMUNITY INFORMATION SERVICES (CIS) THROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN WEST BENGAL: AN OVERVIEW

Public libraries play an important role to fulfill the community information needs among the people of all categories in the society. To strengthen and improve the public library system, State Central Library, District Library, Sub-division Library, Town Library and Rural Library have been established at the State, District, Sub-division, Municipal and Block levels. The Government of India established the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF) in 1972 to promote, modernize and promote the library movement in all over India. The RRRLF has established five regional centres in East, West, North, South and North-East India, with its headquarters in Kolkata. The RRRLF provides Matching, Non-matching financial assistance and other assistance for the operation of public libraries in various states of India. The RRRLF, as a nodal agency of the Government of India, has been directly and indirectly assisting in the promotion, expansion, development, information services and modernization of public libraries. It can be noticed that the public library acts as a community information center to fulfill the community information needs of the daily lives of different people in the society. In this article we discuss about the importance of public libraries, the nature and quality of document collection, as well as the types of information services, facilities and programs that public libraries can adopt to provide Community Information Services (CIS). The recommendations of the advisory committees appointed by the Government of India at different times for the development of public libraries, have been highlighted. Besides, the various objectives and activities of RRRLF, which is engaged in the promotion, expansion, development and modernization of public libraries, have also been discussed. At the end of the article, suggestions have been given to eliminate the problems and issues of public libraries for providing CIS through public libraries to the community. For the information and content of this article, articles from various previously published journals, the RRRLF website, and the Google search engine have been used.