View of ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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Vol.04,Special Issue 02, 13 Conference (ICOSD) February 2019, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

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ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Dr. Anil Kumar Dhiman

Information Scientist, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar – 249 404 (Uttarakhand) Sachin Kumar Kaushik

Research Scholar (LIS) , Himalayan University, Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh)

Abstract- It is a fact that the developments are critical and essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation. Sustainable development is the development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It guarantees a better quality of life for everyone. Sustainable development or the sustainability can be obtained through various ways and library is one of the best mean to educate a mass of public which ultimate lead to the sustainability.

An attempt is made to define sustainability and sustainable development along with the role of libraries in achieving the same in this paper.

Key words: Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Libraries.

1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of sustainable development arises from a worldview which sees the survival, progress, and continued maintenance of the human community as dependent on the continued health and viability of the earth’s life support systems (Bell and Cheung, 2009).

Sustainable development is based on the concept of development (socio- economic development in line with ecological constraints), the concept of needs (redistribution of resources to ensure the quality of life for all) and the concept of future generations (the possibility of long-term usage of resources to ensure the necessary quality of life for future generations). (Klarin, 2018).

2. DEFINITIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Solow (1999) mentions that “if sustainability is anything more than a slogan or expression of emotion, it must amount to an injunction to preserve productive capacity for the indefinite future". It is the development, which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

(United Nations General Assembly, 1987).

Sustainable development is also defined differently from different purviews Ciegis, Zeleniute, (2008) say that:

 In economics, it is development ensuring that the per capita income of future generations is not lower than that of the present generation;

 In sociology, it is development that preserves the community, i.e.

maintains close social relationships in communities;

 In ecology, it is development that preserves the diversity of biological species, essential ecosystems, and ecological processes.

Thus, there are difficulties in defining sustainability and sustainable development seem to be a complex and multidimensional issue that has to combine efficiency, equity, and intergenerational equity on economic, social, and environmental ground (Ciegis, Ramanauskiene and Martinkus, 2009).

3.PILLARS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The essence of the concept of sustainable development derives from the “triple bottom line” where all three systems interact on an equal basis that is shown as sustainable. It means the true sustainable development is then development that meets the “triple bottom line” This model shows the interrelationships that exist among the interrelated activities which lie within the environmental and socio-economic domains

(http://www.sustainablesettlement.co.za/

issues/susdev.html).

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2 Figure 1: Pillars of Sustainable

Development

The model of sustainable development that is shown in figure 1 implies that a balance should be there in between these three pillars of sustainability – environmental sustainability focused on maintaining the quality of the environment which is necessary for conducting the economic activities and quality of life of people;

social sustainability which strives to ensure human rights and equality, preservation of cultural identity, respect for cultural diversity, race and religion;

and the economic sustainability necessary to maintain the natural, social and human capital required for income and living standards (Klarin, 2018).

However, culture as added as fourth pillar along with these three pillars of sustainable development. Its role is intermediate between the various dimensions of sustainability. Culture is reflected in policies and assessment instruments. Culture is a core issue for perceiving and managing a transition towards sustainability.

Therefore, it can be said that the concept of development is centred on four pillars consisting of economy, society, environment, and the culture (Astara, 2014).

4.GOALS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Various goals can be attributed to sustainable development. However, there are 17 goals are credited to sustainable development which are depicted through table 1 (based on Morton, Pencheon and Squires, 2017; Ono, lida and Yamazaki, 2017).

Table 1: Goals of Sustainable Development Area of

Critical Importance

Goal’s

Number Monograms Goal Description

People

1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere

2 End hunger, achieve food security and

improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality

education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

6 Ensure availability and sustainable

management of water and sanitation for all

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3 Prosperity

7 Ensure access to affordable, reliable,

sustainable and modern energy for all

8 Promote sustained, inclusive and

sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote

inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

10 Reduce inequality within and among

countries

11 Make cities and human settlements

inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

12 Ensure sustainable consumption and

production patterns

Planet

13 Take urgent action to combat climate

change and its impacts

14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Peace and Partnership

16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

5. HOW SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CAN BE ACHIEVED?

Sustainability depends on three pillars, which include economic, social and environmental sustainability (Gupta, 2014). Thus, sustainable development can be achieved through maintaining economic, social and environmental sustainability. Economic

sustainability means the economy should grow on a sustainable rate and the

benefits of economic growth should be evenly spread over a long period of time.

Social sustainability is the ability to maintain desired social values, traditions, institutions, cultures or other social characteristics. But social conflict can create environmental havoc;

therefore, they should be avoided.

While, environmental sustainability is related to the environment. It is well known that the environment is an

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4 important factor of growth, being the supplier and the sink. However, some of the environmental degradation is irreversible and needs to be addressed with the growth process. Equally the cultural sustainability is important.

Thus, the major aim of sustainable development is to address all the environmental, economic, socio-political problems and also the cultural problems without compromising either one another and without jeopardising human capability and development. Besides, the goals mentioned in table 1 also to be achieved for sustainability. Here, libraries can play their important role by educating the people who ultimately will be leading to sustainability.

6. ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Libraries have been the resource centre which engages in the collection, processing, preservation and dissemination of recorded information in the various formats most convenient to its target users. They satisfy a fundamental need of society that is the need to have the society’s record readily accessible to the citizenry, and society continues to need access to organised information more than ever before (Rubin, 2000).

Sustainable development is essential and critical to the growth and sustenance of a country in order to successfully enhance the meaningful standard of living among the populace which libraries hold the key to all information needed to develop (Agbo and Onyekweodiri, 2014). Agbo and Onyekweodiri further add that libraries being the hub of research and information play important role in educating the mass of public that ultimately lead to sustainable development of a nation.

According to them, a library can:

 Provide information services which will help to augment ideas collected from other sources and through this users can update their knowledge to be abreast of current trends in any field..

 Provide education by ensuring lifelong education through access of various information resources. They also support education by providing supplementary textbooks, reference materials and even non-print materials.

 Lead to national development by supporting education.

 Help the people with with appropriate information on diseases and prevention measures, health care, side effects of premarital affairs, dangers of early pregnancies and any other health-related information.

 Empowers the citizen’s participation in the democratic process; and maintains the rule of law and creates a viable outlet for the injection of public opinion.

 Help and promote tourism by providing reliable information to the tourists about the hotels, parks and interesting places etc. in a particular city where the libraries exist.

 Helps its patrons to access such information and knowledge with ease and in turn, prepare an individual to prove him/herself as a responsible citizen in contemporary society.

Besides, libraries provide all formats to their community at all levels to help them to make informed about economic decision and also (Kamau and Owano, 2016):

 Provide mobile library services to the rural community.

 Promote literacy and reading culture.

 Provide practical and cost-effective solution for eradicating illiterate environments including poor communities where books and other reading material are shared.

 Supplement formal and informal education.

 Provide opportunity for people of all age to learn how to use information and associated technology and train the people of all classes and age to learn in the use of technology.

Thus, the libraries may have the opportunity to strengthen their mission by focusing on improving staff digital literacy and customer service to meet out the local needs, which are generally lacking. Besides, the libraries, particularly the public libraries can do more to act as community information centres (Dhiman, 2015) for community development which ultimate lead to the sustainability.

7. CONCLUSION

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5 It is asserted that information and a conducive environment for free flow in all forms is a path for sustainable development. But citizens need to be constantly informed about information about and around them if the sustainability is to be achieved.

Libraries can facilitate the citizens to access or have the information needed to develop themselves for future which is an important resource to human development and knowledge that ultimate lead to the sustainability. It is evident that libraries play a significant role in educating the citizenry of a nation (Iroka and Ndulaka, 2018). Thus, they are essential for economic well being, the improvement of learning, meeting the challenges of information overload. So, a serious attention to education and libraries need to be given for achieving sustainability in future.

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