[LIS-Forum] LIS Courses in India : An Education or Entertainment...?

[N.S. Harinarayana]

Dear Professional,

I am happy to see the posting by Sri Kodandaram, an enthusiastic LIS
professional, coming out with his response to the issue discussed at a
recently concluded Golden Jubilee Summit organized by the Department of
Library and Information Science (MyDLIS), University of Mysore, Mysore.
Naturally as a youngster, the ‘Identity crisis of LIS profession’ drew his
attention the most.  Let me also dive into the issue and try to swim in the
waters.

 ‘Identity of LIS profession’ is not new issue for discussion.  But let us
not bring-in here the social status of the profession in comparison with
other professions.   I am of the opinion that librarians have their
identity of their own.  What I mean by this is the society is well aware
off the kind of job that we do.  Our goal is defined.  We select, organize,
and manage information sources so that we can then help others to find the
knowledge that they seek. We have been doing these in more or less
standardized way for more than a century now.  We are one among a very few
professions to have well-defined by-and-large universally accepted
procedures.

Whether the ‘identity issue’ has become a ‘crisis’ is a matter of
contention and that is why it was kept as a debate point for the panel.
 Are we losing the identity due to some extraneous factors?  Technology is
being seen as a main offender.  Google, for example, is doing the crux of
the librarians’ job as for as digital information resources are concerned.
What happens to our role? Whether our identity is in stake?  These are the
questions that need to be answered to youngsters.

Kodandaram raises issue related to quality of LIS output and tried to
correlate it with the aptitude of the students about the course.  While I
tend to agree with him, I would also tend to think that the Indian
education is more job-market oriented than aptitude oriented.  As long as
there is no increase in the job-market for LIS is concerned, the situation
likely to continue.  There has been always a discussion about the imbalance
between market demand and production of LIS professionals.  There is a
feeling that universities are producing more than what market really
requires.  The universities have their own social agenda – education and
research to as many people as possible.  Open universities in particular
meet more vehemently the societal obligation for higher education to many
than their traditional counterparts and thus producing a large number of
professionals.    There is no difference of opinion that the quality of
education should be the top most concern for the universities.

 The above are my random thoughts.

With regards,

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 4:43 PM, Anil K Tyagi <tyagiakdr at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Ram Harsha,
>
> I appreciate wholeheartedly your views on the subject. You have weaved your
> thoughts well and put your vision in a decent way. I used to discuss about
> library education with my colleagues occasionally and many times thought
> about it. This is the time we should REVISIT LIBRARIANSHIP. Library and
> Information Science is a subject of Social Science, Humanities of Natural
> Science had been a topic of debate.
>
> Some of our esteemed colleagues say that Masters of Library & Information
> Science is equivalent to Masters of Science in Physics, Chemistry, etc.
> Does not look it like a joke. One more interesting thing about librarians
> that they are IT experts among librarians but librarians among IT experts.
> These were few of my thoughts. However, we ourselves are responsible for
> all this crises. We keep opening library schools/departments where
> university library as well as department is managed by one or two
> professional. We need to look into all these aspects.
>
> With regards
>
> *Dr Anil K Tyagi*
> Scientist 'G'
> ISSA, DRDO
> Delhi-110054
> www.baapbeta.com
>
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>
> On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 10:26 AM, Ram Harsha <ramluck.harsha at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Before saying about the topic i taken first of all i would like to
> > devotedly pass on my good wishes to MyDlis and Milan for their successful
> > prevail over the programme meet & greet and as well as the international
> > conference on Information Unbounded: the past, the present, and the
> future
> > of Information Sciences. These three days programme has given me an
> immense
> > pleasure to get comprehensive dulcet memories by mingling with elite
> > professionals and the alumni of DLIS. So, I am heart fully indebted to
> the
> > organizer for having all of us gathered under a single umbrella.
> >
> > In this forum, I would like to share some of the great reminiscences i
> > could get in the conference. This conference had some panel discussions
> > which was very informative and instructive to a young professional like
> me
> > to improve our profession. Polemics in the discussions were very much
> > interesting and pleasing for me but amongst the topics discussed by
> > panelists INDENTITY CRISIS tempted me a lot. So, uncontrolling myself i
> > have decided to talk quite a lot about it on this forum.
> >
> > *IDENTITY CRISIS* when this theme/topic raised most of the participants
> > have become emotional and started talking that all librarians are facing
> > this issue in the society and we are not being respected like other
> > professionals such as doctor and engineer are respected and some said
> that
> > we are not notable in the world. For this talk one of the panelists has
> > replied that the reason behind this identity crisis is the number of
> > library professionals are produced more than what is required and another
> > panelist suggested that to overcome this issue the number of students
> > should be reduced in BLIS/MLISc. Now firstly my polemic over their
> > opinions, suggestions and as well as the burning topic identity crisis in
> > library professional is “our course Library And Information Science is
> not
> > the STANDARDIZED one”. Secondly students are not the genuine aspirants of
> > being librarian they join LIS courses just because either they couldn’t
> get
> > seat in their desired subject (i. e. MSc/MBA/MA) which they have applied
> to
> > or by influence of their parents/guardians or they may join it thinking
> > that taking degree in LIS course is much easier than other subjects.
> > Because of these kinds of occurrences our course is going to be an ill
> > fated one and unfortunately poor qualitative librarians are produced by
> all
> > dept of LIS in India.
> >
> > What I didn’t like most is one of the participant suddenly stood up and
> > made a proclamation that LIBRARIANS ARE KING MAKERS it seemed to be very
> > funny for me because  just by providing users a books on engineering and
> > science we are not creating any engineers or doctors in the society and
> one
> > thing I would like to make very much clear to that participant that the
> > same book can be read by many user some may get first rank , some may
> just
> > pass, some may be failed and go unemployed so librarians are not
> > creating/responsible for unemployment in the society. Hence librarians
> > shouldn’t be compared with other professionals like doctor and engineer
> > because their line of study is completely different and complex than LIS
> > degree. See if anybody wants to become a doctor or engineer he must
> possess
> > science knowledge in 12th standard/ Pre University Course later they have
> > to pass in CET then only they will get a seat to study BE/MBBS but in our
> > subject that is LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE it is not like that,
> anybody
> > can join and pass it easily without hard work and i also feel a student
> > failed in English subject can pass this LIS in a first attempt that too
> in
> > English medium with first class. From this I can infer that there are no
> > standards or limitations to posses LIS degree. Just by doing 1 or 2 years
> > course we become LIBRARIAN and compare ourselves with doctors and
> > engineers.
> >
> > Dear professionals please don’t think I am underestimating our
> profession I
> > am just not happy with the mode of our course. My intention is just to
> tell
> > that only the real aspirants has to become librarian we shouldn’t
> entertain
> > everyone to become librarian just by opening 1 year or 2 years courses.
> If
> > one wants to become librarian he must possess LIS knowledge in 12th
> > standard itself followed by bachelor degree in LIS and Masters in LIS.
> > Method of LIS Course has to be meliorated in this way.
> >
> > Universities are there to form a student’s future but no University is
> > bothered about what kind of students they are producing. Especially
> > distance education Universities are spoiling student’s career. They are
> > creating a mess in the society. I believe students are not becoming
> > educated but they are just going qualified unemployed it brought me
> > confusion that whether the “Universities are really educating or
> > entertaining the students”.
> >
> > For this I beseech each and every one of our professors, leaders,
> > presidents, secretaries of all Associations, Networks and all LIS
> > Departments dare to come forward and reform our course otherwise we will
> > have to face a biggest problem in future.
> >
> > If I have said anything incorrectly I kindly request all professionals to
> > guide me and make me a sensible professional. Your comments, critics and
> > suggestions are wholeheartedly welcome.
> >
> >
> > With regards
> >
> > Kodandarama
> >
> > Temporary Assistant Librarian
> >
> > University Library,
> > University of Mysore, Mysore.
> >
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-- 
N.S. Harinarayana
Department of Library and Information Science
University of Mysore, Manasagangotri
Mysore 570 006
Off. Ph: (0821) 2419393

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