Information Technology (IT) includes computers, electro-optics (e.g. CD-ROM), micrographics and reprographics, telecommunication technologies and integrated applications. Use of IT is growing even in libraries of developing countries to provide reference, referral and other services, and automating library operations. In developing countries where labour is relatively cheaper and imported technology can be expensive, those in authority should take a positive attitude to IT. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science can serve as useful guidelines and criteria for assessing IT's value in library and information services: Does IT extend the range of information accessibility; does IT improve timeliness, precision and comprehensiveness of information provision to users; does IT save the time of the user and is it user-friendly; does IT contribute to greater efficiency in information management? All these must be achieved in the context of rapid changes in the environment in which today's libraries operate. Viewed from this perspective, IT permits the integration of several library activities, minimizes duplication of effort within libraries and in libraries of a network, promotes inter-library cooperation, enables the generation of different information products and increases efficiency in information resources management.
