Re: [LIS-Forum] Increasing Scholarly Meetings and Decreasing Scholarship: Needs Discussion

Dear friends, I remember a similar posting on this forum some year ago; and now a similar posting on the topic makes us to ask ourselves a fundamental question - whether seminars and conferences in LIS serve any purpose for which they are meant for? I fully agree with our colleague Dr. Vasanth that nowadays too many seminars/conferences are being held with no real outcome or use. Though we call them as academic or scholarly activities, they are devoid of any debate or discussion at all. These seminars are only making the CVs of some LIS professionals grow 'fat' without any real 'value addition'. My experience as an editor/reviewer shows that majority of the papers presented at seminars/conference are of low quality, plagiarized and often repeated in different conferences with different titles; in spite of the so called peer-review by a team of editors (hand-picked). Unfortunately this lethargy is also spreading to some journals that are published in India. The reason for this 'short-cut' method is craving to get maximum API score for career advancement. Can you believe that one LIS faculty gave a lecture on RFID who has no idea of how a real RFID label looks like? In my opinion this ignorance or lack of knowledge of the modern subjects is due to 'mushrooming' of LIS schools without the required number of qualified ( i mean not just paper qualifications) and trained teachers. Dr. Gowdar has indeed made a valid point stating that seminars and conferences give youngsters an opportunity to write and communicate. But, in the absence of any specialized training in writing and communication in LIS schools, the students cannot acquire the required skills to publish papers. Nowadays, I hear about LIS seminars on 'Big data', which in my opinion is not our subject domain at all, and the LIS professionals have no role in this. We discuss this issues again and again, but the real solution lies with us - the librarians, LIS faculty and the Associations who can take some concrete steps to arrest this downfall. Dr. M. Koteswara Rao Former Librarian University of Hyderabad

Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 20:41:53 +0530 From: goudarishwar@googlemail.com To: gooche_1981@yahoo.co.in CC: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Subject: Re: [LIS-Forum] Increasing Scholarly Meetings and Decreasing Scholarship: Needs Discussion

Dear Professionals,

Dr. Vasanth has made an interesting observation about innumerable number of Conferences/Seminars being organised especially in the area of LIS. While his comments about mediocre scholarly outcome of such events is matter of concern, we also need to consider the positive aspects. These events give an opportunity especially for young professionals to think, write and develop communication skills. Unfortunately many organisers accept all papers submitted many a times even the ones received on the day of the event, without even going through the papers once. We are more interested to bringout volume and get it released during the inaugural session. It is a Win Win situation for both paper presenters and organisers as both can claim good API Score. But most disappointing matter is that presenters most of the time get 2-5 minutes for presentation. Many a times authors get the credit without even making presentation due to lack of time. By providing more time say 10-15 minutes, we will not only justify their efforts, but such a step will motivate them to write quality papers to the extent possible. I have seen mixed types of seniors, few as Chairs of sessions discourage the presenters by interrupting and passing only negative remarks. I appreciate those who encourage especially youngsters and advise them appropriately to come out with better papers in future.

Yes, Dr. Vasanth is right in pointing out that we have very less publications in quality and well known journals. Inspite of having hundreds of LIS Schools in the country, each of the hundreds of faculty member having at least 5 research scholars at any point of given time, we are not in a position to produce quality papers. On the other side not all practicing professionals are doing better. But there are some quality pockets in both categories, who do good teaching and provide quality service. Profession has to bank on these pockets both for quality publications and service. Our Associations, grown in big number these days should also look into the matter of giving thrust for the image of the profession by advocating quality teaching, research and practice, apart from helping their members to get their due status and respect from Government and their employers.

Many colleges pay a meagre salary of 5000-10000 for Library professionals with MLIS and treat them like clerks. The post of University Librarian is a Staturay post, but still 90% of posts are vacant in the country for many years. We, Professionals and Teachers of LIS pull each others legs and also within our respective categories. We try to work in isolation, which is not a good sign. We forget that unless there is a demand for practiceners, demand for teachers will never go up and vice versa. Few examples: Few teachers create problems for research students just because he or she is student of another teacher, just because of difference of opinion,without bothering about the merit of the Theses. Just because one wants to head the library, professionals oppose extension of superannuation age to 62 years (without even caring for his own case), which is in mess especially in Karnataka. This year a number of seats have not been taken by students in few library schools. May be one day this situation if left like this, our schools will vanish, which is detrimental to both teachers and practiceners. Time and again I keep suggesting the consorted effort, supporting each others cause for the better status of our LIS community, which probably may result in quality publications too.

Regards,

"Access E-Resources for Academic and Research Excellence"

*- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* Dr. I.R.N. Goudar - Adjunct Professor, Mangalore University - Visiting Professor Cum Library Adviser Bangalore University Library, BANGALORE - 560056 - Ex. Visiting Professor Cum Library Adviser, UoM, Mysore - Ex. Scientist 'G' and Head, ICAST, NAL, Bangalore - Ex. Dy Librarian, IITM, Chennai - Ex. Scientist (Information), IICT, Hyderabad - Fulbright Scholar, Univ. of Michigan and Columbia Univ, USA (1995-96) - British Council Scholar (1982-83) E-mail: goudarishwar@gmail.com Tel: 080-23215510 Mob: 91+9611165781 (If not reachable pl try land line)

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 2:43 PM, Vasanth wrote:

...

Dear Sir/Madam, Thereis an upsurge in the recent past in organizing number of conferences/seminarsand workshops (scholarly meetings) in LIS domain. Is this the same in other subjectof knowledge? May be partly true givethe fact that many of the conferences/seminars and workshops are funded orsponsored by the UGC or some other agencies. Scholarly meetings are the placesto exchange ideas, place for debate, place for listening to the luminaries ofthe field, place for finding new friends, and opportunities for touring. All theseare one or the other way beneficial and refreshing, the larger question is, doesall this scholarly meetings helping in showing new ways of looking at oursubject or adding something substantial to the existing knowledge?

Morethan 115 conference/seminar/workshop announcements have been made in the LISForum in 2015. This is really staggering. At the mean time if we look at thenumber of papers published in core LIS journals from India, there is a gloomy pictureFor instance, only 13 research papers have been published in 5 LIS core journals(JASIST, IPM, Journal of Documentation, Library and Information Research andScientometrics) in 2015. Of the 13 articles 11 of them have been published inScientometrics only. There are no articles contributed from an Indian in eitherJASIST or Journal of Documentation.

Dothe conferences proceeding or seminar volumes publish good research papers? Wemust also introspect ourselves in this front as well. Most of the time because ofinvisible reasons conference volumes carries articles of not much verve. Manyof the conference and seminar volumes would be full of articles written byeither editorial committee members or the organizing committee. Conferences and seminars have become a space to spend leisurely time. In many conferences participants show very little interest in intellectual deliberations and seen absent from the venue itself. This would nothelp us in any way to intellectually strengthen the subject. Though there is huge increase in number of scholarlymeetings that are being held across India, there is also a sharp declinein scholarship. We must halt and think a bit to bring back the intellectualglory that has been lost since Ranganthan’s departure.

------------------------- With best wishes Vasantha Raju N.GFGC-Periyapatna Mysore(Views are personal)