Application of modern technologies in health science libraries in India: a survey

India is one of the oldest civilizations with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural heritage. It has achieved multi‐faceted socio‐economic progress during the last 43 years of its independence. As the seventh largest country in the world, India is well marked off from the rest of Asia by mountains and the sea, which gives the country a distinct geographical entity. India comprises twenty five states and seven union territories. India has made commendable progress in the technological, engineering and communication fields. Modern technologies are applied to information handling. Production of hardware and software technology is domestic. National resources are augmented by establishing links with the international systems. There are 106 medical colleges, and 40 dental colleges in India. Besides this, there are nursing colleges, pharmacy colleges and other institutions. Each college/institution has a library of its own attached to it. The libraries can be classified into Medical, Research, Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Dental, Unani and Pharmaceutical Libraries. A survey was carried out on the usage of modern technologies in health sciences libraries eg. photocopiers, microfilming, computers, facsimile transmission, audiovisual, online searching and CD‐ROM in the form of a questionnaire. Personal visits were made to a number of libraries and some of the librarians were also interviewed. This paper examines the impact of modern technologies on medical libraries, and concludes with the problems faced by the librarians in adopting the modern technologies and suggests the need and measures for implementation of modern technologies to health science libraries.