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Digitizing old books and manuscripts and making them OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

Friends: Here is a very good suggestion in the Chennai edition of Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Wanted-An-e-Iyer-project-to… Of course, this suggestion applies to books and manusripts in ALL languages. Best. Arun -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Formulation of New National Policy on Education by Govt. of India
by Dr. A.T. Francis 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

Dear Library Professionals, The Govt. of India is proposed to formulate new National Policy on Education to meet challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in our educational institutions. The present National Policy on Education 1986, as amended in 1992, has been the guiding document for the policies of the Central Government in the education sector. Minister for Human Resources Development Smt. Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha said, “all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex, have access to education of a comparable quality.” The National System of Education envisages a common educational structure. The 10+2+3 system is the generally accepted structure in the country. But, it is sad to say that the library system (the heart of any education and research institution) in our country has not got due consideration. Out of total 15 years of education, some importance has been given to libraries in colleges and universities (3 years). But, in the case of school education (10+2 years), the library system is totally neglected. Of course, libraries with qualified librarians are there in Central Schools, CBSE, ICSE, ISE and international schools. Students studying in these schools are meager as compared to others. That means, most of the schools in the country are running without heart (Library). So, how we can achieve quality in school education?. Learning skill, especially the self learning skill is better to be imparted at the early childhood and this will highly determine the life long learning skill of a person. Without quality in schools, how our higher education and research system can perform well?. In Kerala, about 40 lakhs students are studying in State Controlled schools. There are no qualified librarians in any of these schools. Even some eminent academicians are of the thought that, other teachers can manage libraries and provide better library service. If that is the scientific approach, why we need special teachers for each subjects?. So, it is the primary duty of the library professionals and associations to convince the authorities the role of libraries and library professionals in education and research. The so called academic administrators will be financially and academically sound to provide all facilities by themselves to their children, if that can not be provided in the schools, colleges, or universities. So, we should thought of the facilities to all as respected MHRD minister Smt. Smriti Irani rightly pointed out. All schools, colleges and universities should have librarians with similar qualifications and also in the same cadre and status of the teachers in the particular institution. As per the UGC norms, all universities should have University Librarian of equal status of Professor/Registrar. But, out of total 13 universities in Kerala, none of them have University Librarian. EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT LEARNING AND RESEARCH SHOULD START FROM LIBRARY AND THEN APPLY IN LABORATORY. IS IT OUR LEARNING AND RESEARCH WITHOUT FOUNDATION?. SHALL WE NEED A CHANGE IN THIS SITUATION? Dr. A.T. FRANCIS, MCom, MLISc, NET, PhD HEAD, LIBRARY College of Horticulture Kerala Agricultural University Thrissur - 680 656, India, 91-9496839409 (m) francisaloor(a)yahoo.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Librarians Day Celebration on 9th August, 2014
by Meera B. M. 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

Dear Fellow Librarians As you all know, Librarians Day is fast approaching. Karnataka Library Association (KALA) will partner with The Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, The Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies, ISKO (India Chapter), Informatics (I) Ltd and Raman Research Institute to celebrate this memorable day on 9 th August 2014 at Raman Research Institute. This is scheduled to be a half day program having theme “Books and Tablets”. We will come back to you with more details at the earliest. Please mark your calendars We look forward to your active participation at - “a Day meant for us” With best Wishes Meera (On Behalf of all partnering organizations) -- Dr B M Meera Librarian Raman Research Institute C V Raman Avenue, Sadashivanagar P O Bangalore 560 080 Ph: 09480836045 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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A K Dasgupta passes away
by jharavu 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

I am deeply grieved to report the passing away of by our dear A K Dasgupta, who was affectionately referred to by his students as Arunda (elder brother Arun). Above all, he was a wonderful human being. His scholarship, his objectivity and strong determination never to be swayed by mere names but only by intrinsic worth, his eagerness to add to his professional usefulness to his users, the respect and love he got from his bosses, users and mentors like Sri. B S Kesavan and Prof. Neelameghan, his wide reading, his contacts with scholars in many areas of knowledge and his ability to interpret his findings across many areas of knowledge was truly exemplary. Whenever I visited his home in Banjara Hills, I found him surrounded by tons of newspapers and books on all matter of subjects. When he retired from ASCI, I remember we discussed his options: whether to join NIRD or the Eenadu Newspaper group. I was quite clear that he would make his mark in a totally non-librarian area which indeed he did, showing to professionals like me that a librarian should aim for scholarship and not get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of librarianship and empty terminology. What a great example he set for all of us. With his passing away we have all lost a little of ourselves. Haravu -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Spain Likely To Pass 'Google Tax'; Makes Paying For News Snippets An 'Inalienable Right' And A New Bureaucracy To Collect It | Techdirt
by Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

CAN some explain in simple terms what this all means? Vyasamoorthy ================================================== Spain Likely To Pass 'Google Tax'; Makes Paying For News Snippets An 'Inalienable Right' And A New Bureaucracy To Collect It from the yikes dept We've covered a few attempts in Europe to create what appears to basically be a tax on Google News for newspapers. These newspapers, who have been struggling to adapt in the modern internet world would like to blame Google News for their own failures, despite the fact that Google sends them traffic. When a court case in Belgium was won by the newspapers, Google simply removed those newspapers from the local Google News... and those very same newspapers freaked out and demanded to be let back in. This, of course, demonstrates the vast hypocrisy by the newspapers here. They know they need to be in Google News because of all the traffic it drives, but they also demand to be paid for it. Google has made it quite easy for newspapers to opt-out of Google News if they really feel like their work is somehow harmed by having Google link to it -- but none of the newspapers use it, because they know how valuable the traffic is. In fact, many of the same newspapers who are complaining are, at the same time, using Google's own tools to improve how they appear in results. Efforts like the ones in Belgium have happened in France and in Germany, where a new law was passed last year. That law had some loopholes, so now German newspapers are demanding a huge chunk of money from Google. But the situation over in Spain just got even more ridiculous. Julio Alonso has the details, in which it appears that the lower house of the Spanish legislature has approved a very, very dangerous bill that creates a brand new inalienable right for news publishers to be paid for, via compulsory licenses, any "electronic news aggregation system," which is broadly defined as anyone who shares more than just anchor text with a link. A short summary? You'll have to pay up: The Spanish law proposal declares that editors cannot refuse the use of “non-significant fragments of their articles” by third parties. However, it creates a levy on such use to compensate editors and declares it an inalienable right (derecho irrenunciable). The introduction of the inalienable right was done to avoid what happened in Germany. If you are a digital editor that publishes with a copyleft license, like myself, and you minimally understand how the internet actually works, you cannot decide to not charge Google News. It is compulsory. More than a right it is an obligation. Therefore, Google cannot exclude sites requiring payment from Google News. It would still need to pay for those it includes, even if they do not want to be compensated. Furthermore, such tax, is to be administered by a third party (entidad de gestión) in a similar way to what SGAE (the Spanish RIAA) does with music rights. In this case most likely CEDRO (the entity that collects fees for the use of written text, photocopies and so on). How much it is to be paid and how the proceedings would be split among editors has not being disclosed. Though there is reason to suspect of a distribution just to AEDE members. To make things even worse, the tax is not even aimed only at Google. It is aimed generally at “electronic news aggregation systems”, and, therefore it includes basically anyone who links with anything more than an anchor text. It seems worth noting here that collection societies around the globe have been plagued with corruption and other problems, often diverting money from smaller creators to the biggest. And, some of the worst stories come from Spain, where SGAE was accused of mass corruption, involving stealing $550 million from artists. That doesn't bode well for this new "organization." As Alonso notes, this isn't just directed at Google News, but Menéame, a popular Digg/Reddit-like aggregator in Spain (randomly: we get a fair amount of traffic from that site). But it could also impact Twitter and Facebook where people share links with text. And also a variety of other aggregators like Flipboard, Zite and Pocket. The fact that it's considered "inalienable" is especially troubling. It basically overrides any concept of fair use, Creative Commons or even public domain material. Furthermore, Alonso notes that a bunch of organizations, including a bunch of other newspapers, are fighting against this, but it didn't seem to matter. A report has warned that implementing this law could cost the Spanish internet industry over a billion euros, and sites like Menéame are already talking about leaving the country. There are rumors that Google might just shut down Google News in Spain over this. But, still, the legislation was pushed through under questionable circumstances: The law was passed on Congress in a special session in the mid of summer, on the Culture Committee and not on the plenary session, with almost no debate in a very awkward session, with many Congressmen declaring to the press, sometimes unintentionally, that they knew very little about what they were voting. Despite widespread public and industry (outside the largest Spanish newspapers) opposition to this, Alonso suggests that the bill is still likely to become law. And we'll have yet another disastrous policy for the internet, designed to protect the industry of a few legacy players who failed to adapt. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140728/06561628035/spain-likely-to-pass… -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Increase the value of library services...
by DP Tripathi 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

Increase the value of library services: Use of technology is spread just like mushroom in every walk of our life now-a-days and everyone almost feels really helpless whenever there is gap of these technologies in our day to day life's routine work. Technology has also widened the scope of our working areas as well as level of thinking but, if we just have the glimpses of the days two decades ago in our mind, we hardly used to hear the terms like automation, digitization, content management system etc. Without the much use of technology also, library professionals were able to provide services to their library patrons effectively and the system used to be very strong those days from user satisfaction's point of view. Those days it was really a tough task for any library to market their products & services as the medium of communication was not that much strong in comparison to what it is today. Even then, the libraries were able to disseminate information and assist in research and academic work by providing personalized services, customized services, evaluating different services etc. I am trying to draw your attention towards value of library services in digital era...... We have been using technology to speed up our efficiency but have we ever thought about value of library services being provided? Does it reach to the society & its users successfully? and so on....If answer is 'Yes'......then great and if 'Not'.....we must think it over about how can it reach? In my opinion, social media or networking has been playing a very effective role in maintaining public relations......it is working just like bridge between two ends. In order to stay up-to-date in the socially networked environment and meet the growing needs of their users, libraries therefore need to adopt the new technologies and face the challenges for delivery of better services. We all must actively respond to the popularity of social networking sites e.g. most popular facebook, twitter etc. and their expanding role in the creation, use, and sharing of information by engaging us as a central medium for interacting with library patrons and providing services to meet their information needs. We all must follow the public conversations, posts, updates, and events of these key individuals, and offer advice, resources, and help. We all must act as an active participant of the social space and be able to identify the needs of the members of the library communities and must provide solutions by offering information, links to the websites that are relevant to their information needs; and even direct offers of help. There is an urgent need for libraries to adopt the new social networking tools in their services as a strategy for major change while promoting a role for library users in knowledge creation. Libraries can connect their social networking sites with their library websites to links to their on-line public access catalog, chat reference pages, research guides, calendar of events, e-newsletter etc. In order to increase the value of our library services, we must play the roles of the social networking librarian by: understanding the nature of social networking sites, creating web page and content, establishing friendly user interface over the network, evaluating and applying information, assisting users by providing quality on-line library services. Thanks, ********************* D. P. Tripathi Assistant Librarian Biju Patnaik Central Library NIT Rourkela Odisha - 769008 http://library.nitrkl.ac.in <http://www.librarianguide.in> ********************** -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Fwd: LIBRARIES & THE TAX PROBLEMS: SIGN THE PETITION TO FM by Ishwar Goudar
by Dinesh Siddaiah 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

Dear All, I too would like to join with Goudar to appeal LIS community to sign the online petition and support ILA to fight against illogical financial bill which is threat to the development of electronic libraries in India. Imposing service tax and TDS on E-resources will severely lags the advanced teaching/learning and research out put in the country. Please forward the link in social medias as well so that it reach fast and effectively as well: www.ipetitions.com/petition/indian-library-association I also would like to request ILA to revise the first para of the petition if possible, so that taxation issue will be prime concern rather than mixing up the issues of development of e-libraries in the country. ILA can take up development of e-libraries in a separate request. ILA may also give serious thought on revising organizational/work structure and bringing fresh mind in to the fold for the betterment of the county. Many thanks to Goudar for timely advise, motivation, updating the community as and when required. Bottom Line: "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." ~Henry Ford (1863-1947) Best Regards, Dinesh Dear Professionals, We have too short time to approach the FM before the budget is approved and becomes a sort of law, making it difficult for libraries and other stake holders to acquire or sell e-resources even for academic and research purpose due to service tax and TDS. Let the Government differentiate between a software and scholarly e-content. Please read the forwarded mail of Prof. Koganurmath and sign the petition immediately ( www.ipetitions.com/petition/indian-library-association) and strengthen ILA and other Associations in convincing the FM appropriately. PLEASE FORWARD THIS MAIL TO YOUR PROFESSIONAL FRIENDS, SO THAT THE NUMBER OF PERSONS SIGNING THE PETITION GROWS FAST. -- Dr. Dinesh K. S. Deputy Librarian, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Nangal Road, Rupnagar, Punjab - 140 001. Phone: 01881 - 242134 (O) 9779747902 (M) -- 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 Prof. Neelameghan
by Francis Jayakanth 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

I was given to understand just a while ago from a very reliable source that Prof. A. Neelameghan, an internationally acclaimed scholar in Library and Information Science and former Professor and Head, DRTC, Bangalore, has passed away. Details are awaited. My heartfelt condolences on the loss of a doyen in the field of LIS. Francis Jayakanth IIMB, Bannerghatta Roa, Bg - 76 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Reg. NAAC
by Vandana Khandelwal 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

Dear LIS Professional Greetings from the MITAOE Our college is getting itself accredited through NAAC. Kindly provide list the best practices for NAAC committee visit. I also have some queries regarding the same. I request you to please send me with relevant authentic documents. 1. What is the student and book ratio as per the NAAC or for an engineering institute? 2. What is the percentage of budget allotted for a engineering library? 3. What are the minimum and maximum values of readers that must visit library (circulation, total walk in, reading hall, reference, digital library etc.) 4. Please share any free resource information related to engineering. 5. Any other point you would like to mention. Also if anybody having PPT about the same please share with me. With warm regards (Ms. Vandana Khandelwal) Librarian MITAOE, Pune -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Need of AICTE handbook
by Gulshan Kumar 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

Dear Library Professionals!!! If anybody is having copies of AICTE handbook for years 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively please send me for reference. Thank you -- *.....Thanks & RegardsGulshan Kr. Sachdeva* *M.No.- +91-9911496696* -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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