March 2008 - LIS-Forum - ncsi.iisc.ernet.in

Do you twitter? I am getting addict to it.
by Sukhdev Singh 23 Mar '08

23 Mar '08

Friends, As you know, I am always experimenting with one thing or the other. Few weeks back I came to know about something called "twitter" - http://www.twitter.com. It is light web based application where you can write short messages. Others can read these messages. If you wish, you can control who all can read these messages. Reading others' messages is called "following" in twitter's terminology. You can write whatever you feel like. It is basically meant to tell your friends on what you are doing at a particular moment. What is your mood? What are you thinking at a particular moment? Or how do you wish to react to your surrounding. You can write whatever you feel like provided it is limited to 140 Characters. If you share a long link, it will be automatically converted into a shorter link through "TinyURL" - http://tinyurl.com/ . You can write messages either by going to its site and logging in, or adding "twitter" as your buddy in your Instant Messenger like Google Talk - http://www.google.com/talk/ , or sending them by SMS (I have not tried it) or logging via your GRPS enabled phone. I normally login from my GPRS enabled phone while away from my system. My MTNL phone is quite affordable in this matter - just 2 Paise / KB for its GPRS service. Most handsets are now GPRS capable. But you have to subscribe to GPRS data service from your service provider and download and install settings. Your service provider will send you the settings through SMS on request. You have to simply save these. Once you have GPRS on your set, the Internet is in your phone. You can surf the net through you phone's browser. I would again like to recommend Opera Mini - http://www.operamini.com/ . You can download and install in your phone (Your phone should able to run Java applications). For better experience I would recommend smart phones starting from Rs. 7000 onwards especially with expandable memory. Now coming back to twitter, what is big advantage of using twitter? Well there is no answer to it. It is one of social networking applications. If you believe in online communities, then it is for you. There is other many applications built around the twitter. You can generate RSS feeds from it and Mash it on your blog or site. Libraries are experimenting with it elsewhere. What all I can say it that is a Hot application these days and I am already addicted to it. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/esukhdev . To some it may appear very silly thing to do, yes I was also not very much convinced to start with. But not now. --Sukhdev Singh, NIC. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Why plagiarize when we can write?
by Sukhdev Singh 21 Mar '08

21 Mar '08

Just back from a seminar organized by Department of Library and Information Science, Panjab University Chandigarh. This seminar, Trends and Strategic Issues for Libraries in Global Information Society, took place at the university itself from 18th to 19th March 2008. While going through the printed proceedings of the seminar, one paragraph looked very familiar to me. Oh, we had written it only few months back to report a group discussion on open access. This report, we made widely available over net through various discussion forums. We also archived it in our repository. This familiar looking paragraph was included in a paper. I quickly jumped to reference section to see if we are lucky to get a citation. In vain, I should have remembered that people, who plagiarize, don't mention their actual source. Well, not even indirectly. For them, references are mere formality, so they will cite sources, which they might have not even seen before. But why get got? There are number of softwares for rewriting articles. Read "The best article rewriting software on earth" (http://snipr.com/229vs ). It mentions WordFlood 2.0, Content Rewriter Pro and Essay Town. With the help of these tools one can rewrite articles and hope to escape being caught by search engines like Google. However, do you know the best software? No prize for guessing it right, it is our brain. One can definitely use tools along with brain. WordWeb could also be of great help. It is a small free utility to serve as English thesaurus and a dictionary. There are no copyrights on ideas. Only well documented innovations are protect through patents. But coping ideas' written expressions as such without acknowledging the original authors is called plagiarism. It does not go well in academics when someone is trying to project others' idea as one's own. Punishment is mostly in form of bad reputation among the peers and negative employer's assessment. Better would to express the idea in one's own words. Tools can help you if you are at lost for better words. Importantly, it won't cost anything if you cite the original author. At the most you will have to add more line in your word processor. It is always a bad idea to plagiarize Open Access material because everybody knows about it. Being openly accessible, such material is widely indexed by Internet search engines. It will always show up. Modern search engines are designed in a fashion to understand which one is original and which one is plagiarized. --Sukhdev Singh, NIC. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Re: [LIS-Forum] Library science curriculum
by Jai Haravu 21 Mar '08

21 Mar '08

Dear All It is indeed a good sign that a library school has begun looking at revamping the syllabus for the Bachelor's degree in Library Science and is seeking the help and advice of concerned professionals. Having had some experience of interacting with both students and tecahers of library science, I feel that the following issues are vital to be addressed. 1. The quality of intake into B.L.I.Sc and M.L.I.Sc courses is key to ensuring that future professionals in this field provide the leadership and ensure greater advocacy to libraries and visibility of the profession with the users, managers, and decision makers. I think it is well known that most students who come to library schools in India are those who do not make it to the other so called elite courses. In other words, people who join library courses do so without really a career in their minds. To most of them a degree in library science is a way to a job, any job. Unless our admission norms along with the content are made attractive both to students and potential sectors of the country like corporates (who require innovative information managers, knowledge coordinators/facilitators), research and development centres, academic and public libraries. Academic libraries need to see how their presence is felt in respect of the teachng and learning objectives of the academic environment they are to serve. 2. The course curriculum at present, in my view, is too much steeped in traditional subjects. These are required but need to be re-oriented to their application in computer- and web- based environments. Fundamental concepts and the theories underlying these are important to be emphasized and then how these are used in both a traditional library and in information systems needed across application environments is required. 3. My own experience of most new library science graduates have very poor soft skills. Their oral and written skills are extremely poor, evidence of the backgrounds from which they come. This does not help them in their jobs, nor are they able to create an impact on others. They need also to be trained to think logically. It is essential that they should be taught life skills in understanding and improvong their self confidence and self image, the value of their skills to society, and in seeing the bigger picture in which they exist as professionals. I beleive these are sorely lacking in most of our library courses. 4. Many library schools do not provide adequate access to past and current literature (both books and current journals) although the syllabus does contain many topics of current interest. Faculty and students in these courses cannot keep themselves updated and refer to classic writings in these fields. 5. My experience is that even in post graduate courses the student is not encouraged to become self-reliant. The emphasis is on completing the syllabus and passing the exams rather than learning and skill development. This can only be done by asking students to do assignments that help them understand the subject or skill (e.g., subject indexing, searching). Performance in the assignments and the student's capability to present his work are important skills that need to be inculcated in these courses. 6. Many others will, I am sure, spell out in detail new topics in the computer and web related areas in which library professionals need to be equipped with. I congratulate the university library school in thinking of changing the syllabus. Haravu On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 Subbiah Arunachalam wrote : > Friends: > > A leading Indian university library school is in the > process of revising its > BLISc curriculum. The school is seeking the opinion of > many experts. I am > also asked to give my suggestions - perhaps as an avid > user of academic and > special libraries and as one involved in scholarly > publishing. > > I will be grateful if you could give me your valuable > ideas and suggestions, > latest by 29 March. Surely the situation has changed a > lot from the days > when most of us went to college. Then there was no > Internet, no Web, no > journal aggregators or online journals, no > institutional repositories and > the list can be really long. But the purpose of > libraries remains the same. > The tools have changed and the way we do things are > somewhat different. The > question is how best we can train the new librarians to > excel in their > profession in today's context. We are not concerned > only with academic and > special libraries; graduates will find jobs in the > corporate sector, in > government and public libraries as well. > > Best wishes. > > Arun > [Subbiah Arunachalam] -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Digital library software
by rajesh kusanur 21 Mar '08

21 Mar '08

Hi Friends, I would like to know the Digital library software (Commerical) other then Green stone Digital Library software. with regard Rajesh K A rajesh.ka(a)rediffmail.com raajesh.ka(a)gmail.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Our paper: Opportunities and Challenges of establishing Open Access Repositories
by Sukhdev Singh 21 Mar '08

21 Mar '08

Singh, Sukhdev; Pandita, Naina and Dash, Shefali S. (2008) Opportunities and Challenges of establishing Open Access Repositories: A case study of OpenMED@NIC. Trends and Strategic Issues for Librarians in Global Information Society: ICCSR Sponsored Seminar, March 18,19, 2008, Organized by Department of Library and Information Science, Panjab University Chandigarh. pp. 98-104. http://openmed.nic.in/2762/ National Informatics Centre had established a subject repository in May 2005. It is meant for Medical and Allied Sciences and named as OpenMED@NIC <http://openmed.nic.in>. It has MeSH(R) based subject categorization and this makes it one of its own kind. Taking OpenMED@NIC as a case – this paper discusses key issues in establishing and maintaining an open access repository. Librarians and information science professionals can play active role in providing access and exposure to quality research and academic content generated in their institutions. Mature and standard open sources softwares are now available for setting up repositories. Libraries can install one of these on existing institutional or library servers to setup repositories. However to ensure better access and faster response time, dedicated hardware and reliable connectivity would be required. Librarians and information science professional can play important role in exposing intellectual content produced by their organizations. They can take of various roles like – generating awareness among staff, researchers and students about benefits of self arching in institutional or subject repositories; training them in uploading their articles and other documents in such repositories; acting as meta-data editors and repositories managers. Establishing a repository, administrating and inviting authors to deposit their articles and other works in it is golden opportunity available to librarians and information science professionals. This opportunity should be grabbed with open hands. The presentation can also be viewed from: http://snipr.com/229f4 --Sukhdev Singh, NIC -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Just Published: "Open Access to Knowledge and Information: Scholarly Literature and Digital Library Initiatives the South Asian Scenario" (UNESCO, New Delhi)
by Puna Das 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Dear Colleagues Just Published: "Open Access to Knowledge and Information: Scholarly Literature and Digital Library Initiatives the South Asian Scenario", by Anup Kumar Das; edited by Bimal Kanti Sen and Jocelyne Josiah. ISBN 978-81-89218-21-8 Published by: United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO), New Delhi Pages: 137 About the Publication: This book discusses successful open access and digital library initiatives in India and other South Asian countries. This book may be considered an authoritative source-book on Open Access development in this sub-region. For getting a free copy of this book for your library, please write a request letter and along with a self-addressed stamped envelope (a good quality A4 size envelope, affixing Indian postal stamp worth Rs. 52.00, for sending by Registered Parcel) to: Ms. Audrey DSouza, UNESCO House B5/29, Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi-110029 Thanking You With Best Wishes Anup Kumar Das New Delhi Email: puna_05(a)yahoo.co.in Mobile: +91-9911479926 --------------------------------- Why delete messages? Unlimited storage is just a click away. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Need article
by Murugan 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Dear All, I would be grateful to anyone send the full text journal artilce for the following. Land Use Policy, (Vol. 22, No. 2) April 2005, Pages 75-93. 'Received Wisdom' in agricultural land use policy: 10 years on from Rio. Sincerely, Thank you very much. B. Murugan Information Resource Center M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation 3rd Cross Street, Institutional Area, Taramani, Chennai. 600 113. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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happy holi
by Satendra Dhaka 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Wish you a very Happy Holi. Please celebrate Holi keping in view the sentiments of others. Take care of health. again very very happy holi. -- Dr S.S.Dhaka Director(Library & Information) Ministry of External Affairs Patiala House, Annexe "B" Tilak Marg, New Delhi-110001 Phones: 0091-11-23073685, 23389073 Fax: 0091-11-23386340, 23387700 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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(no subject)
by rishi tiwari 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Dear friends, This is for your kind information that Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida is conducting three days Workshop on NewGenLib Open Source Library Automation Software from 17-19 May 2008. The detals of the workshop is given on the Institute's website. (www.bimtech.ac.in) or you may also contact to organising secretary (Mr. Rishi Tiwari)newgenlib.workshop(a)gmail.com Vinay Kumar Rishi Tiwari Librarian & ILA Executive Member Birla Institute of Management Technology(BIMTECH) Plot No.5, Knowledge Park-II Greater Noida(NCR) U.P.-201306 Mob.:09810583623 Off.:0120-232301-10 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Now Wait For Breaking NEWS
by Sukhdev Singh 19 Mar '08

19 Mar '08

Dear Friends, Some of us have been working silently on one aspect of Open Access in India. Wait for an important Breaking News in couple of days in this forum. - - Sukhdev Singh. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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