Dear
All,
First
a disclaimer: I cite the MyDLIS case as a case in point only - it does not mean
‘others’ are NOT doing what is expected. Secondly my apologies for
a long winding message.
I
would like to thank all those who have conveyed their greetings and responses
(for the posting by my colleague Hari)
To
continue the discussion, I have a question in the context of LIS curriculum.
Has
anyone done a systematic study of the LIS syllabus of universities before
branding them as NOT GOOD ENOUGH or AS GOOD AS NCSI/DRTC?.
I
beg to differ here – our (MyDLIS) syllabus is in tune with both the
changing scenario of LIS as well as market expectations/demands. Please have a
look at our syllabus - http://lisc.uni-mysore.ac.in
PLEASE
DO NOT MAKE SWEEPING GENERALISATIONS.
Please
also note that graduates from LIS schools are also doing quite well in many
companies. We have our students working in companies such as IBM, Wipro, TCS,
InfoSys, Accenture, I2 technologies, etc. We have received ‘words of
praise’ about our students from their bosses. Some of our students also
have effortlessly transited to KM and a few of them to even mainstream
‘technical’ areas.
I
would say it is all individual specific and case dependent. Excellence or
progress is NOT the monopoly of elite institutions only.
Let
me respond to some of the questions/assumptions/opinions expressed with
reference to the following-
·
LIS curriculum
·
Market expectations and demands/requirements
Designing/adoption
of LIS curriculum etc:
·
UGC is only a recommendatory /norm setting body
in academic matters. UGC may recommend a model syllabus, but cannot make it
mandatory. Each university is autonomous. The Board of Studies (BOS) in LIS of
each university is in charge of drafting the syllabus/curriculum. They have the
autonomy to design the syllabus. The BOS in any discipline (including LIS)
consists of senior faculty of the Department as well couple of external
experts.
·
There is usually a norm that the BOS revise/review
the syllabus once in said number of years (in our case it is 3 years). In fact
university encourages us to modify and keep it up to date. Many times, we get
some small grants to organise workshops etc and invite experts to discuss on
the curriculum. And we do carry out such exercises too.
·
The guiding principles of curriculum innovations
are –changing dynamics of the LIS as a discipline and the market
expectations/demands.
·
In addition to these two guiding principles, we
also need to keep in mind – the pragmatics of imparting the syllabus such
as infrastructure and other resources.
·
When it comes to ICT skills etc, the physical
infrastructure such as an IT lab and the well trained teachers are two
important criteria for the effectiveness of imparting the programme.
·
It is the responsibility of the departments to
mobilise the resources and create the necessary infrastructure and resources in
terms of trained teachers. Individual teachers also are responsible for keeping
their knowledge and skill sets contemporary. There are many different
strategies/opportunities that an LIS department uses to accomplish the above.
Many LIS Departments have been successful in this regard.
Market
expectations/demands (wrt ICT):
·
In today’s digital age, all sectors need
ICT infrastructure and therefore LIS professionals with these skills are in
need. The difference is in the kinds of specialised knowledge required. We
cannot generalise again.
·
The market may vary in terms of opportunities.
Today we may find more opportunities (in terms of number) in the private sector
than in the public sector. Sometimes it is seasonal.
·
Deploying ICT many a times depends on the
individuals working in these segments. I can cite examples of some of our
students working in college libraries taking the initiative and deploying open
source software (be it Koha or Open Biblio or something else) for automating
their libraries. Instances where college libraries having deployed DSpace/
Greenstone for different types of repositories (may be student project
reports/question papers etc) are NOT uncommon.
·
In a company LIS professionals may be called upon
to manage electronic resources through intranets and portals, but not
necessarily be required to deploy software tools or handle ICT infrastructure
issues as they have technical people to manage the same, where as in academic
segment, the librarians maybe called upon to install software, and manage the
ICT infrastructure!
I would like to end this lengthy
note with the following – please do not dismiss LIS schools. Given the
constraints that we work in, some of us have done very well indeed.
Our products have also done
fairly well and responded to the market expectations very well and MyDLIS is
proud of them.
Thank you
Dr. Shalini R. Urs
Executive Director and Professor
Tel : 91-821-2514699
Fax : 91-821-2519209
Email : shalini@isim.ac.in
URL : www.vidyanidhi.org.in/shaliniurs.htm