By Leenah Wahab  

In the fast-evolving digital era, public libraries have risen to the occasion, transforming into virtual gateways and reshaping how communities engage with information. The National Library of Sri Lanka, inaugurated in 1990 too has transformed, incorporating Artificial Intelligence in its user interface and database programmes to catalogue books.   

The National Library and Documentation Services Board organised its 3rd International Research Conference yesterday, adopting the theme, ‘Information for Development: A Way Forward to Address Current Global Challenges.’ Leading scholars such as Chief Guest Dr. Patrick McNamara, top university professors including Senior Professor at the University of Kelaniya Nilanthi De Silva, and numerous undergraduate students converged at the event to deliberate on groundbreaking innovations and share their scientific methods for shaping the future of public libraries.  

In his keynote address, Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Colombo, Professor Siri Hettige, highlighted the nexus between information technology and development and the need to facilitate the Sustainable Development Goals imparted by the United Nations. “Social scientists have to play a key role to investigate and generate data that can inform stakeholders, as dissemination of information is instrumental in policy orientations and practices of governments and businesses,” he said.   

Senior Manager of the Digital Library of the South Asia British Council, Ms. Neeti Saxena offered her insights on how digital libraries saved communities of readers by providing remote access during the COVID-19 lockdown and broadened the scope of audience by offering text-to-speech functionality for those with reading difficulties.  
The rest of the evening was dedicated to reviewing research papers as attendees delved into their work focused on topics such as the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), an online database logging the sources and materials available at a particular library. Each presenter outlined their studies sticking to the scientific method of setting objectives, methodology, results and conclusions. A Study on Students’ Ability to identify Information Resources with special emphasis on Grade 9 pupils focused on redesigning school libraries to make them more conducive and child-friendly environments by making creative spaces and providing a financial framework. The researcher found that the relationship between a low average in English was associated with low library utilisation, and the need for community support in building up libraries for future generations.  

From the improvement of library catalogues utilising applications such as ‘Koha’ and MARC21 guidelines, to solving library queries for law and medical faculty students, to Cross- Language based Searching, attendees engaged in meaningful intellectual discussion and shared and discussed their findings. Under the topic of management, undergraduates also conferred over the relationship between USD fluctuations and Sri Lanka’s GDP as well as the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) that sampled hotel boutiques in Nuwara Eliya and provided a holistic scaffold to improve customer satisfaction. The moderators would further discuss how to improve these studies by ie; recognizing limitations and providing clear objectives.  

With a shared vision for the future of public libraries, their knowledge deepened but their resolve strengthened to shape these institutions as beacons of knowledge in an increasingly digital age.