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Dear Friends

I too agree with S K DEsale and P B mangla. We cannot keep on giving
endless services and in return expect nothing. The working conditions
of the librarians and their status is very poor in our country. Even
after earning a post graduation in LIS, many of the librarians are
taken on a beginner's scale. As we say for better services a user has
to pay. The same thing applies when it comes to salary and working
conditions. If you are paid well, you serve better.

What Ms. Smita Chandra says is correct and I think these are the very
basic things which most of the librarians do. We should also
understand that librarians have to depend on the parent organization
and libraries come last when budget is to be allocated and comes first
when services are to be given. So I would say that IT progresses,
ordered and neater libraries can be expected when there are no budget
problems and min. man power is a must. And the important facor is the
LIS education There are exceptions where librarians don't work inspite
of having good budgets etc.are true, indeed, ****that Librarians are not
getting the same status as lecturers and other professionals in the
society.

The problem is not with Institution but with the individual in itself.
I have personally come across many professionals having MLIS or M.Phil
but not up-to-mark. Why???? Is it the structure of the course or what
they learn? It is very easy to get first class in LIS if you know the
basic, but this basic does not help in LIS profession. What they have
learnt during their course period - they are unable to utilize the
same in their institution.

For example how many candidates know to use DDC/Colon effectively and
have a proper classification system in the Library. How many of us are
good at giving proper user education??? There are many more such
issues which cannot be discussed.

If you notice many of them (I should not be calling them
professionals) use either the Library of Congress Catalogue or British
Library Integrated Catalogue to classify the books, which in my
opinion - using these for classification of Indian books is misleading
and inappropriate for arrangement of books in a library.

My dear friend, Classification and Cataloguing is the essence of LIS
and if you take them out anybody can be a Librarian.



Communication is one aspect which needs to be thoroughly improved.
Communication can be improved through regular reading and interacting
with the users and not through starting a movement. Here, again, the
individual has to take the initiative.

I have also come across good Librarians and they are well placed in
Asst. Professors grade. To be frank with you, they are really good in
their work, in their ideology and have contributed towards the growth
of the institution. Some of the Library Assistants are also well
placed.

There is a saying "First Deserve and then Desire".  'Deserve' is not
only qualification but other aspects in an individual. I am of the
opinion that with 2-3 years of work experience in a library will
easily get him a lecturer's scale.

My dear Vivek if you notice, the Library Assistant's are paid in the
grade of Rs.5500/-. The fact is that some Institutes take Library
Assistant and call them Librarians and thus the Library Assistant
feels that they are in Lecturer's grade.

The Librarians are not teaching and the ones who teach obviously get a
lecturer's/asst professors grade.

Imagine the rigorous process which a Library lecturer has to undergo
for a job in an institute. As a part of the interview process they
have to teach a class in front of the higher authorities and then
judged by students and faculty. Does this happen with non-teaching
Librarian???

If you notice all Post Graduates are not Lecturers, they opt for
different options and those who opt for lecturers/Asst Professor know
the art of teaching. An institution cannot survive by taking lectures
who do not know how to teach and those who know how to teach are paid
the Lecturers/Asst Professors grade. But ironically, all PG in LIS
wants Lecturers grade, the moment they join.****



--
Tapas Kumar Das
Technical Assistant
Central Library
Mangalayatan University
Aligarh, U.P.