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Senior citizens set up book bank to help college students in Chennai - The Times of India
by Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy 14 Jan '15

14 Jan '15

Very good initiative by senior citizens (read: pensioners) in Chennai. One good thing that I noticed is that student need not return the books. I spoke to Prof V Chandrashekar who is the man behind this project. He is a part of Senior Citizens Group of Basant Nagar in Chennai. This SCA has over 50 members, average age is 75+. They engage themselves in welfare activities for poor senior citizens and the needy. REcently they distributed blankets to those sleeping on pavements. They do not accept cash donations but donations in kind are welcome. About the free book bank service he comments: "Books represent Sarasawati. We should not sell Saraswati (old books must be given away and not sold to make money)". Well, I am inviting him to join sss-global so that we may hear more about their activities. =========== Senior citizens set up book bank to help college students in Chennai Divya Chandrababu,TNN | Jan 13, 2015, 09.53 PM IST CHENNAI: A group of senior citizens in Chennai have set up a book bank to help college students who are in need of textbooks but cannot afford to buy them. The Senior Citizens Group in Besant Nagar collected over 1,000 books so far. The group has appealed to individuals to donate old college textbooks and reference material. Students who are in need can show their identity cards and collect the books they want. "We will give more than one book based on their requirement. The students need not return the books," said one of the members of the group. "We also request colleges to collect as many books as they want if they want to distribute them to their students," he added. The senior citizens carry out the social work using their pensions. Interested students can contact V Chandrasekhar at 9884224480. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Senior-citizens-set-up-book… -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Senior citizens learn to edit Wikipedia in the Czech Republic « Wikimedia blog
by Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy 14 Jan '15

14 Jan '15

Comments for lis-forum & U3A subscribers: GIven below is a news item showing how a Czech project motivating senior citizens to contribute to wikipedia has been successful. This is also an example to see how libraries can help Third Age Learning / U3A. Please See link below for graphs and images that are missing in the reproduced portion. Lis-forum is text only - hence this approach. ==== Senior citizens learn to edit Wikipedia in the Czech Republic BY VOJTĚCH DOSTÁL ON JANUARY 12TH, 2015 Senior citizens learn to edit Wikipedia in special classes held in Prague’s Municipal Library “Senior citizens class photo” by Pavla Pelikánová, licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Logo for the “Senior Citizens Write Wikipedia” program Logo by Dominik Matus, licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0. When we announced that we were starting a Wikipedia outreach program aimed at senior citizens, the response was mixed. “Do they even know how to work with computers?” our colleagues asked. Indeed, while more than 10,000 students have participated in Wikipedia education programs worldwide in the last four years, there have only been a few small-scale senior citizen education programs. This low Wikimedia outreach towards senior citizens is bewildering. Many of them are retired and thus have more free time than their younger student counterparts. Moreover, they are often well-educated and can contribute articles on a range of topics. Most importantly, senior citizens in developed countries are increasingly computer literate. The aim of this blog post is to shed light on what may be the next big thing in the Wikimedia education movement. Challenges Although we had extensive know-how from our university education program, we realized that the senior education program could not just copy what we learned from students. First, senior citizens do not regularly visit classrooms every day, as university students do. We needed to establish partnerships with institutions that could replace the schools – municipal libraries, senior citizen learning centers and third-age universities proved to be the most valuable. Facebook ads targeted people aged 55 or older; women that were between 55 and 65 years old interacted most with these ads. Facebook graph by Vojtěch Dostál, under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Moreover, we needed to find a way to tell senior citizens about our project, so that they could take part in it. We came up with several promotional strategies: some were successful and some not-so-good. Leaflets distributed and e-mails sent out in large quantities were among the least efficient. Featuring our project in the library and senior center newsletters were key to our success. In addition, promotional talks and introductory lectures on Wikipedia to an audience of senior citizens were quite effective: crucially, these were given by professor Jan Sokol (also a Czech Wikipedian), a prominent figure who was able to attract large crowds. Age-targeted ads on Facebook were also a promising way of reaching out to senior citizens who use the Internet, and especially engaged women aged 55 to 65. Finally, we knew we needed to establish well-organized, regular courses and be as patient and helpful as possible. By designing a course curriculum with approximately 10-12 hours divided into several weekly lessons, we ensured that our participants had enough time to first understand Wikipedia, then learn to discuss and work in a sandbox — and finally edit and write articles. Inevitably, this was time-consuming for the instructor (and program leader) but it led to superior results, as described in the next section. Outcomes Three separate weekly classes were held for the senior citizens of Prague, each in a different part of the city. A total of 37 participants registered to the course extension on Czech Wikipedia (although some of them did not finish the courses). A brief visit to their user pages reveals how valuable these participants are as Wikipedians – most of them have a college education, speak various languages, and some of them are former researchers. Weekly edits by participants to articles (orange), compared to all other pages (blue). Edit graph by Vojtěch Dostál, under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Not only did they learn how Wikipedia works and how to edit it, but they already started working on it. Of 201,912 bytes added by the participants in total, 84,828 bytes were made on pages in the main namespace. Some of the participants even created their first articles – a total of 18 new articles were written. About half of the registered senior citizens still continue to edit (i.e. edited in December 2014 after their course ended at the end of October). This retention rate is superior to that of most university education programs, where success rate of new editor recruitment has been estimated as 3% for the US/Canada Education program. Future directions As a pilot, the program exceeded our expectations. We demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to run a senior citizen education program and had good results with retention. Promotion to our target group was the biggest challenge – this may get easier once word spreads to more senior citizens, as they talk to each other about this successful program. We would like to continue with these efforts and scale up the project, if we can get more funding. Our participants often want to keep meeting in real life to improve their grasp of Wikipedia. They want to practice writing articles and gradually become independent editors. Among other things, we try to help them by creating lists of articles which they can easily start or edit. By organizing similar courses in cities other than Prague, the number of participants is likely to increase. We already have interested libraries in regional towns and cities of Moravia who wish to hold lessons for their senior citizens. The “Senior Citizens Write Wikipedia” project is funded by an IEG grant and runs under the patronage of Wikimedia Czech Republic. The program leader is Vojtěch Veselý, who can be contacted on a Wikipedia discussion page or by e-mail. Vojtěch Dostál, Wikimedia Czech Republic http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/01/12/czech-senior-citizens-learn-to-edit/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Sad Demise of V L Kalyan - KALA Should organize a Condolence Meeting immediately
by Pandurang Konnur 13 Jan '15

13 Jan '15

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Pandurang Konnur" <pvkonnur(a)gmail.com> Date: Jan 10, 2015 9:49 PM Subject: Sad Demise of V L Kalyan - KALA Should organize a Condolence Meeting immediately To: "LIS-Forum(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in" <LIS-Forum(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in> Cc: Friends, It is most shocking news to hear the sad demise of Mr.Kalyan. A Good friend for all of us and most renowned professional. His tenure in BEL and DRTC Libraries is highly remembered by his clientele. His involvement in the professional activities was experienced by most of us. He never posed as a leader any time, but loved to work as a volunteer in most of our professional activities. His tenure as a General Secretary of KALA is most memorable period in the history of KALA. What is really worrying to most of us is that, the young professionals who need to carry the flag of the profession need to show their responsibility and commitment to the profession. We know that the new generation librarians are most intelligent and knowledgable, but they need to work for uniting the professionals and project the profession to the society as an inevitable tool for the society. This role need to be played by the KALA. Now I request the KALA to organize a Condolence Meeting immediately possibly in Central College for the sad demise of Sri.Kalyan. KALA should remember the service rendered by Kalyan while he was its Secretary. Let us set a good tradition to our young Librarians and communicate them the services rendered by the senior professionals who have departed from us. Hope KALA will do this job at an earliest. Thanks, Sent from my iPad Best Regards, Dr.P V Konnur -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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MURTY'S INITIATIVE TO TAKE INDIAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE TO GLOBAL STAGE
by Ragaavendra R 13 Jan '15

13 Jan '15

MURTY'S INITIATIVE TO TAKE INDIAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE TO GLOBAL STAGE On Thursday, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will be inaugurating a series of books in New Delhi which is, arguably, unlike any set of works published before. For, Sen will be launching the first five books of the Murty Classical Library of India (MCLI), set up at Harvard to publish English translations of ancient Indian classical texts, not only from Sanskrit but a host of Indian vernacular languages, from Bengali to Telugu to Hindi to Kannada. The books, five of which will be published every year for the next hundred years, will offer readers around the world and in India access to unique works that one would otherwise find difficult to find in a library, let alone a book store. For instance, among the first works being released is Therigatha, an anthology of poems in Pali written by the first Buddhist women which might well be the oldest examples of women's writing. "I started this (MCLI) four years ago, when I was in Harvard University. In Harvard, for example, if you want to learn classics, they teach you only Greek and Latin. Our question was why only these, why not old Tamil poetry or Punjabi play or Malayalam text? So, now, we're doing these translations and making them available to people in India and the US," Rohan Murty, who had donated $5.2 million along with his family to launch MCLI, had told Business Standard earlier. Murty did his PhD in computer science from Harvard University and had recently taken leave from the university to spend a year as executive assistant to his father and Infosys founder Narayana Murthy. "This is the first time this is being done with Indian texts - people are used to seeing Greek and Latin texts, now they will start seeing books in ancient Tamil, Hindi and other Indian languages," he said. Murty was clear that though there would be some works in Sanskrit the focus would be on the vernacular languages. REF LINK:http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/indian-classi… Best Regards, Raghvendra R The information contained in this electronic message and in any attachments to this message is confidential, legally privileged and intended only for use by the person or entity to which this electronic message is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, and have received this message in error, please notify the sender and system manager by return email and delete the message and its attachments and also you are hereby notified that any distribution, copying, review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this electronic transmission or the information contained in it is strictly prohibited. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and may not represent those of the Company or bind the Company. Any commitments made over e-mail are not financially binding on the company unless accompanied or followed by a valid purchase order. This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Mail Scanner, and is believed to be clean. The Company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. www.jubl.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Commissioning of India's first rural high-speed broadband network
by Saji S Nair 13 Jan '15

13 Jan '15

Dear All, India’s first hi-speed rural broadband network (national optical fibre network, NOFN) under the Digital India Programme has been commissioned in Idukki district of Kerala. Through this, Idukki with a large tribal and rural population becomes the first district in the country to have all its gram panchayats connected through NOFN. NOFN is the largest rural connectivity project of its kind in the world. It seeks to link each of the 2.5 lakh grama panchayats of India through broadband optical fibre network. It is is expected to facilitate broadband connectivity to over 600 million rural citizens of the country over its completion. It will enable the grama panchayats to have 100 Mbps of bandwidth, thereby facilitating the delivery of various e-Services and applications including e-health, e-education, e-governance and e-commerce in the future. In the first phase, NOFN shall be extended to cover 50,000 grama panchayats and the remaining 2 lakh is expected to be covered in a phased manner by 2016. Read the full story at: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/idukki-gets-first-hi… regards -- Saji S. Nair Assistant Librarian Library & Information Services Division Regional Cancer Centre Medical College Campus Trivandrum - 695011 Kerala, INDIA ----------------------------------------------------------- 91 471 2522225 (O) 91 471 2394252 (R) 09446014130 (Mob) Email: saji(a)rcctvm.org -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Not qualified UGC NET even after scoring Qualifying Marks
by Apurba J Majumder 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

Strange!!!! UGC NET December 2013 Qualifying Mark : 60.57 (UR) My friend scored exactly the same marks, still she is not NET Qualified in the result sheet. Roll No: 20590129 Name: Rosy Chakraborty How is it possible? What to do now? ****************************** Apurba Jyoti Majumder Assistant Librarian Rabindra Library (Central Library) Assam University. Dargakona Silchar- 781011 Cell No: 09435268733* www.aus.ac.in We care for tomorrow: Save a tree...please do not print this e-mail unless you really need. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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One day National Seminar on "Promoting the Use of Libraries in the Internet era" on 10 February 2014 at Punjabi University, Patiala.
by HPS Kalra 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

One Day National Seminar on "Promoting the Use of Libraries in the Internet era" is being organized by the Department of Library and Information Science, Punjabi University, Patiala on 10 February 2014. Registration fees: Rs. 500/- (payable in cash on the spot) includes lunch, session tea and Certificate. Director of the Seminar: Dr. Jagtar Singh, Professor & Head, Department of Library & Information Science, Punjabi University, Patiala. Tel: 0175-3046179 Sub-themes: · Internet and its use in different types of libraries and library services · Users and use of libraries in the Internet era · Information literacy and its role in promoting use of libraries · Information seeking behaviour · Virtual Reference Service a tool · Role of library and information professionals (LIPs) in the changing scenario · Competencies and skills for LIPs · Library building and new technology Call for papers: The above sub-themes are just indicative and contributions are invited on any topic related with the theme. Kindly avoid generic presentations and submit research papers, articles, case studies, best practices, review papers, and project reports and . The closing date for contributing a paper is 31 January 2015. Kindly send your brief CV along with your paper and a PPT also at the following email address: jagtardeep(a)gmail.com Plagiarism Alert: Contributors are advised to abide by strict academic ethics with respect to acknowledgment of original ideas from others. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Registration Form Name: Designation: Organization: Complete Address: Tel. (Off): Cell Phone: E-mail: (Signature of the Applicant) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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ICSSR-NASSDOC Sponsored 3 days national Workshop on “Web Discovery Tools and Services” on 16-18 March 2015.
by Vijayakumara 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

Dear all, It's my pleasure to inform you that, in collaboration with Indian Council of Social Science Research, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi, BIT-Mesra is conducting 3 days national workshop on “Web Discovery Tools and Services” on 16-18 March 2015. This workshop will create awareness among the participants on availability of various Web Discovery Tools and its services. The program will also focus to develop competitive skills and techniques for social scientist/ scholars/librarians on Web Discovery Tools and Services. There will be no registration fee for participants, Outstation participants will get free accommodation, no TA/DA will be provided by us, participants has to make their own arrangements. The workshop is limited to 30 participants, so we will accept the application on first cum first basis, along with the professional background. The last date to receive the filled registration form is 20th February 2015. Hereby I am enclosing workshop registration form for your needful. If you need any more information kindly contact the Workshop Director, (:0651-2276675 librarian(a)bitmesra.ac.in Thanking you__ Vijayakumar M. MSc., MCA., Ph.D., UGC-NET. Central LibraryBirla Institute of Technology, A Technical University Mesra, Ranchi- 835215, India Tel:0651-2276675 Fax:0651-2275401http://www.bitmesra.ac.in/-*- || Thank you for considering the environment before printing -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Late V.L.Kalyan - Great organiser.
by D.V. Patwardhan 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

Sorry to read that Sri V.L.Kalyan is more. He was Hon.Secretary of KALA during 1992-93 during which period I has close association with him as I was Joint Secretary. His tenure was a "golden period of KALA" as remarked by my friend Dr.K.N.Prasad, SRELS, for which I too agree with him. We were able to hold monthly lectures which served as platform for exchange of ideas/ discussions for Library professionals. There was no LIS-Forum to communicate among librarians. Hence, we fixed lectures for three consecutive months and mailED one invitation to all KALA members through snail mail.This went on for 4/5 years. Even then Librarians too were responding and attending lectures on first Tuesday of every month. Now, concept of monthly lecture is totally forgotten. National Library Week (in association with dept. of Public Libraries, Karnataka) and special lectures were held with pomp and grandeur. A stamp in the name of Dr.S.R.Ranganathan was released during a function held at G.P.O.in 1992 with former Vice-President Sri B.D.Jatti as Chief Geust. Sri V.L.Kalyanwalked to Newspapers officer offices of Deccan Herald, The Hindu,etc. to get the lecture announcement get published in "Today's egagement" section of newspapers on first Tuesdays of every month. I rarely found such a dedicated Hon.Secretary of KALA afterwards. Sri V.L.Kalyan was a librarian of par excellence and good organiser. My his soul rest in peace. d.v.patwardhansr.librarianGlobal Academy of Technology -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Call for papers in Vol 4, Issue No. 2 of 'International Journal of Information Research (ISSN: 2249-8273)'.
by Shriram Pandey 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

Dear LIS Professionals, Greetings! I am very pleased to inform all of you that with the help of our esteemed editorial board members and reviewer committee, 'International Journal of Information Research (ISSN 2249-8273)' has been released its Vol. 3, Issue 4 of 2014. I am glad to invite you to submit your article for the Vol 4, Issue No. 2 of 'International Journal of Information Research (ISSN: 2249-8273)'. The International Journal of Information Research is a peer-reviewed print as well as open access scholarly journal, and it is being published quarterly by the 'Society for Scholarly Publishing and Open Access Resources (SPOARS)'. This is a print as well as an open access journal for library, information and management (LIM) professionals. In this journal articles, reviews, proceeding papers, and news items, etc are published. SUBMISSION OF PAPER Authors are requested to submit their manuscripts by email attachment to [editorijir(a)gmail.com] or can use online platformhttp://www.spoars.org/journal/online_submission. Access full-text articles: http://www.spoars.org/journal/ Thank you. Warm regards, Prof. H. N. Prasad, Editor-in-Chief International Journal of Information Research Department of Library and Information Science Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.) PIN -221 005 (India) Contact No. +91- 9415336709 (Mob.) Email ID: editorijir(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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