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

LIS profession at Crossroads?
by Koteswara Rao Mamidi 22 Jan '21

22 Jan '21

Dear Dr Anand, Yes, the so-called ‘degradation’ of librarian’s post in elite institutions is happening since a long time and as you said there is no response or action either from our national associations or from the high-profile LIS experts occupying high positions across the country. I had earlier posted some comments on this issue based on my personal experience on a couple of incidents in this very forum but nothing had happened so far. I personally feel that there are three reasons for this degradation. First, lack of a national accreditation body or an agency to regulate LIS education and employment has created this disparity among similar jobs in different institutions. In the absence of any standard or guidelines there is no control over the uniformity of pay scales and qualifications for top library posts in libraries under different departments/ministries such as UGC, AICTE, MHRD (IITs & IIMs), Indian Medical Council, CSIR, ICAR, Ministry of Culture (public libraries), etc., Second, the proliferation of LIS schools producing too many ‘substandard products’ is leading to surplus manpower unable to get employment. It is an irony that despite a large number of top library posts in many academic and other libraries are lying vacant for years, our LIS professionals are not getting jobs? I think that the 'supply is more than the expected demand' and hence, the employers are trying to dominate while the job seekers are ready to join these posts with lower pay; can we stop them? Third, non-availability of adequately trained & qualified library professionals with ICT skills and managerial capabilities to head these fully-automated libraries; which is again due to poor and substandard LIS education including getting a PhD. I don’t want to name but there were a few instances where some of the librarians in such HE institutions have failed to perform or remained passive and retired without any contribution; leaving a bad impression among the employers. We have more than hundred library associations all over the country plus the national association - ILA which is expected to promote and maintain LIS professional standards, and one of its objectives is “Improvement of the status of librarians”. Perhaps it is time for all us to think differently and do something seriously such as boycotting selection panel invitations or a nation-wide strike? Dr M Koteswara Rao Retd. Librarian, Univ of Hyderabad -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Application Deadline for TISS- MLIS Programme Closes Soon
by Anand Dodamani 21 Jan '21

21 Jan '21

Dear All, Greetings to you. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has announced Admission to the 2021-23 batch of its regular Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) Course offered from its Mumbai Campus. The application deadline (25th Jan 2021) is fast approaching. If you know someone who is planning to pursue the course, kindly pass this information to him/ her. In order to know more about the course and to apply, please visit the following link: https://admissions.tiss.edu/view/10/admissions/ma-admissions/master-of-libr… Regards, Anand Dodamani PhD. Assistant Librarian (Selection Grade) Faculty Member- Centre for Library and Information Management Studies Council Member- Indian Library Association (2019-2022) Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) V. N. Purav Marg, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088 Phone: 022 25525274 Web Profile: https://www.tiss.edu/view/9/employee/anand-dodamani/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Profession @ Crossroads
by Anand Dodamani 21 Jan '21

21 Jan '21

Dear Professional Friends, Greetings. A recent employment notification for the post of Librarian at IIM-Amritsar at Pay Level-10 has prompted me to write this email to the forum and share some of my thoughts with you. Don’t you think the LIS Jobs are slowly getting downgraded by the elite institutes like AIIMS, IITs, IIMs in our country? If you don’t think so, you are probably in a deep sleep. A walk-in interview was conducted for the prestigious post of Librarian at AIIMS (!) , New Delhi; the Chief Library Officer’s post was filled in IIT- Bombay with GP 7600 (!) ; Some IIMs have recruited the Librarians on the Pay Level- 13A (!). And now, on top of it, the IIM- Amritsar has advertised the post of Librarian at Level-10 (!). The differential treatment shown to the LIS Professionals in elite institutes and universities is not just limited to the Pay Scales but also to their working conditions. In many universities, the Library Officers are being treated as non-teaching staff in-spite of them being the Academic Staff as per the UGC Guidelines. Is it due to the decreasing standards LIS Professionals working in different institutions? Or any systematic effort is being made by some unknown persons to degrade our profession? Whatever the reason may be, one thing is for sure…. our identity as ‘professionals’ on academic campuses is under serious threat. Those who are already occupying the higher positions such as Chief Librarians/ University Librarians are not really bothered about it. And those who are working as Deputy Librarians are happy with what they are getting. The Assistant Librarians are busy in making their careers. The Professional Associations are engrossed in conducting workshops, seminars which they think are more important than working towards the upliftment of the status of our profession. So who will raise the voice??? We are very much aware that we are slowly losing ground to other professionals in the academic institutes but are doing nothing serious to regain our status. The situation reminds me of the words of Dale Carnegie who said, *“the trouble is not ignorance but inaction”. * The views expressed here are my personal and belong solely to me. Regards, Anand Dodamani Mumbai -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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requesting to know about weeding out policy
by Nellore Harilakshmi 21 Jan '21

21 Jan '21

Dear Professionals, I am totally confused about weeding out the policy, in our University library some unconditional books, old syllabus books are to need the weed out. but I don't know which policy suitable to convey higher authorities, please appropriately guide me. thanking you. -- N.Harilakshmi, Professional Assistant, SPMVV, Tirupati -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Article Request
by R G 20 Jan '21

20 Jan '21

Dear Professionals, Kindly help me to get the following article. Using a Hybrid Approach to Data Management in Relational Database and Blockchain: a Case Study on The E-health Domain https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9095697 Regards Aditi Gaikwad -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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ONLINE SURVEY FORM
by Nazneen Rahman 19 Jan '21

19 Jan '21

Dear LIS-FORUM members, Following is a questionnaire which is created as a part of my dissertation work on the title "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:ISSUES AND CHALLENGES TO THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS ." The intention of the study is to understand the perspectives of library and information professionals towards AI, and to analyze the impacts of AI on the profession. It would be really helpful if you spare a few minutes to fill out the form with appropriate answers. Please do write wherever necessary. Please click the following link to fill out the form. https://forms.gle/3MFVzz8e2tGxYBSDA NAZNEEN RAHMAN MLISc student -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Clever Move -- Imposters hijack journal’s peer review process to publish substandard papers | News | Chemistry World
by Mohan Hr 18 Jan '21

18 Jan '21

Scammers hijack journal’s peer-review process <https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d…> A ‘rogue editor network’ infiltrated a journal’s peer-review system in an attempt to publish sub-standard papers <https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d…>. The hijackers created fake e-mail accounts and web domains to impersonate respected academics, and managed to accept 19 papers for publication at *The Journal of Nanoparticle Research*, before suspicious activity was flagged by journal editors and by the research-integrity department of the publisher (Springer Nature). https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/imposters-hijack-journals-peer-review-p… Quite surprising and clever move -- hrmohan -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Webinar on "Role of Digitalisation in Indian Economic Revival" on 21st Jan 2021 & Forthcoming Events
by Mohan Hr 18 Jan '21

18 Jan '21

Webinar on "Role of Digitalisation in Indian Economic Revival" ================================================== HCC, ACM Chennai, IEEE CS Madras & CSI Chennai cordially invite you to the webinar Topic: Role of Digitalisation in Indian Economic Revival Speaker: Dr Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan, Director, Infinite Sum Modelling LLC, Seattle & Senior Economist and Affiliate Faculty Member, Univ. of Washington Seattle, USA Date: Thursday, 21st Jan 2021 Time: 11 am to 12 pm IST For presentation details & speaker profile, pl see the PDF invite at http://bit.ly/3hPq1PX Register at http://bit.ly/3pYJvo7 Forthcoming Events ================= 23rd Jan -- Open Data for Sustainable Community. https://bit.ly/39M6Nc8 30th Jan -- Experimental AI for Social Good. https://bit.ly/36U5rKF 6th Feb -- Educational Reforms -- Education on Demand -- NEP 2020 and Beyond http://bit.ly/2Lt775I <http://bit.ly/2Lt775I> For pdf invite, presentation & speaker details of events in: Jan 2021: https://bit.ly/3h3MJnq Feb 2021: https://bit.ly/3st0rWd For additional events in Jan 2021: https://bit.ly/3p7GS2Z Feb 2021: https://bit.ly/3nNALA1 Interesting Reads And Information -- IRAI -- 210111: https://bit.ly/2LkgZif <https://bit.ly/2LkgZif>

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Protecting Digital Assets -- Domain Names
by Mohan Hr 17 Jan '21

17 Jan '21

An interesting story on protecting domain names. Not to be missed by owners of domain names -- important digital assets The continuing story provides the full details. Don't miss to read. With regards -- hrmohan Union Bank of India is considered one of the better managed banks in India and RBI recently merged Corporation Bank and Andhra Bank with Union Bank. Both the merged Banks had decades of history and brand name amongst its customers. However, Union Bank seems to be completely unaware of the banking risks in the digital era or it is so poor as not to be able to invest around Rs 800/- ( to renew the domain names of acquired/merged banks -- Corporation Bank & Andhra Bank) on behalf of each of the merged Banks to protect the interests of the customers of these Banks. I wish the Chairman of Union Bank of India looks at why I am forced to make the statement that “Union Bank of India will be facilitating Phishing by Ignorance and Negligence”. https://www.naavi.org/wp/union-bank-of-india-will-be-facilitating-phishing-… -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Next Virtual ISKO UK Meetup, 19 January 2021 - Email and MS Teams by James Lappin
by Aida Slavic 16 Jan '21

16 Jan '21

Hi, We are pleased to invite you to the next ISKO UK Meetup event: "Email and MS Teams from an information architecture perspective" by James Lappin This talk explores what strategies towards email will best enable information professionals to make a positive contribution to how messages are managed, protected and exploited as a knowledge resource. Tuesday, 19 Jan 2021 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM (GMT) Attendance free - register at https://www.meetup.com/Knowledge-Organisation-London/events/274016906/ ISKO UK Meetup events are organized through ISKO UK's Knowledge Organization London group at www.meetup.com platform. Join this Meetup group (https://www.meetup.com/Knowledge-Organisation-London/) to receive updates and notifications about ISKO UK Meetup events and register for attendance. On behalf of ISKO UK Aida Slavic Vice Chair, ISKO UK event co-ordinator === --> KO-ED "Theoretical Perspectives in Knowledge Organizaton", next lecture by Martin White, 21 January 2021 - https://www.iskouk.org/event-4060274 --> CFP - ISKO UK Conference 2021 - https://www.iskouk.org/Conference-2021

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