Dear Dr. Goudar
Let me first correct a statement in your mail -- "Committee of few
librarians set up by NAAC". NAAC did not setup any such committee. A
group of librarians in the Bangalore city were invited by the office of NEP
2019 (Draft) Committee which was located in NAAC.
I am copying below the text of the note submitted to the NAAC Committee by
the Group of Librarians attending the meeting called by the committee.
*Policy Guidelines for Libraries under Proposed National Education Policy
2017*
*“Libraries are more essential than the other facilities on the campus” *
- Pankaj Chandra, Building Universities that matter: Where are Indian
Institutions going wrong? Orient Black Swan, 2017.
*PREAMBLE*
Library is a critical national infrastructure in education. The
unprecedented growth of information triggered by ICT has created an
illusion of unlimited resources. But in reality our knowledge
characterization acts as public perception that might further widen the
digital divide and create inequality. There is need for developing a
balancing policy. In this context, libraries are institutions in this
mission to provide access to unbiased relevant information and related
essential services that provide opportunities and promote development. The
vital role of the library in preserving country’s knowledge heritage and
democratic values is unique.
Further, libraries do play an active role in the national development
process. They provide systematic solution to pressing needs of the society
by providing spectrum of library services in tune with national policy and
priorities. This calls for development and delivery of need based learning
resources and services beyond books and other media resources. The nation’s
economic, social and educational progress is embedded in nation’s library
infrastructure and the services provided thereof.
In this context, to ensure the new role of libraries in enhancing the
quality of education through policy intervention, following policy
guidelines are proposed for inclusion in the proposed National Education
Policy 2017 of the Government of India.
*Library as critical Educational Infrastructure *
1. Recognize and develop libraries as institutional and social
infrastructure in education, to create, provide access to and manage
learning resources through effective utilization of ICT.
*Redefining the Library*
2. The “library” to be redefined and repositioned as Knowledge Resource
Centre (Jnana Sangam), to reflect adequately the changing educational
ecosystem in the digital era.
*Ambience for Learning & Research*
3. Library to create conducive and interactive environment to facilitate
experiential teaching and learning, and kindle the minds for innovation and
research
*Skill Development*
4. Engage libraries as economic drivers to facilitate skill development
training and entrepreneurship programmers through adequate information
support system.
*LIS**Education*
5. Recognize and reorient Library & Information Science (LIS) education
and research to develop competent and skilled professionals for new
challenges of digital era.
*Library Consortia*
6. Develop a framework for national, regional and institutional
consortia to provide for economically viable access to learning resources
by the entire academic and research community in the country.
*Funding*
7. Allocate minimum 6% of the nation’s spending on education for library
development and support initiatives and mandate the same at the
institutional level.
*Local Heritage*
8. Encourage libraries to identify and develop local cultural and
heritage collection and preserve through digitization to support digital
India initiative.
*Information Literacy*
9. Engage libraries in developing and spreading information literacy
skill sets for effectively navigating in the Information Age.
*Continuing Education*
10. Supporting continuing education and life-long self-learning are the
core strengths of libraries. Hence, empower the libraries to play an
engaging role in this area.
*Reading Habit*
11. As reading habit is formed in the formative stage of human development,
every school should necessarily have a library developed on modern lines
supported by ICT.
*Open Access & Institutional Repositories*
12. Knowledge and information generated out of State funded research
initiatives should be made available to all for unrestricted open access.
To facilitate this, libraries in higher education and research should be
designated with the definite role of collecting, curating and disseminating
all internally generated knowledge by their respective institutions.
*Public Access to Resources in University Libraries*
13. Collectively, libraries in our educational institutions have vast
knowledge resources. Encourage consolidated digital curating of metadata
for these resources to provide for nation wide access to this resource and
facilitation of public access to State funded University Libraries.
Regards
*|**N. V. Sathyanarayana**|*
*|*Chairman & Managing Director*|*Informatics India Ltd.*|*Bangalore 560004
*|*INDIA*|*
*|**www.informaticsglobal.com*
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On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 1:13 PM Ishwar Goudar
Dear Professionals, Mr Sathyanaraya has read the draft copy of National Education Policy (NEP) - 2019 completely and has made some important observations. Unlike earlier report, this draft mentions the word 'Library' 30 times. The advantages and disadvantages of "setting up a mechanism to enable the Government to be the single buyer for online access to journals for all public institutions to replace the present practice of funding premier institutions for subscriptions to journals" are to be discussed. One way this is good unless they restrict important resources access to only premier institutions. Yes, our professional bodies like ILA, IASLIC and State level Associations should discuss the matter at length and come out with draft to be included in NEP.
In the mean time I request Mr Sathyanarayana, to release the list of those 13 recommendations by the Committee of few librarians set up by NAAC and sent to concerned to be included in NEP. We can discuss the same over Lis-Forum and arrive at good list and further take appropriate steps by Associations. In the mean time we can continue to debate on the issues raised by NV.
Regards,
Dr I.R.N. Goudar
"Access E-Resources for Academic and Research Excellence"
*- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* Dr. I.R.N. Goudar - Adjunct Professor, Mangalore University - Ex. 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 Mob: 91+9611165781
On Thu, Jun 20, 2019 at 10:39 PM Sathyanarayana NV < sathya@informaticsglobal.com> wrote:
Dear friends of LIS Profession
The Ministry of Human Resources Development released the National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 (final draft) early this month inviting public opinion and feedback from all stakeholders. The good news is, unlike in the earlier draft report of NEP released in 2016 as an input to the policy which mentioned the word library just in one place coming as part of a quote, NEP 2019 mentions library in more than 30 instances, in its 480 page report, spread over 23 chapters. But the disappointment is, library is just mentioned in a few contexts as part of various infrastructure support. As policy guideline, there are only two statements on libraries:
- “Expansion of school and public libraries and building a culture of reading and communication” (p68)’
- “Enhancing access to libraries and online journals” (p241) – This policy statement in particular suggests setting up a mechanism to enable the Government to be the single buyer for online access to journals for all public institutions to replace the present practice of funding premier institutions for subscriptions to journals.
The treatment given to library is more of a “such as” facility.
In October 2017, the committee set up for developing the new NEP 2019 had arranged a meeting of a few librarians in NAAC, Bangalore. This group of librarians had given a set of thirteen policy recommendations. None of these recommendations is found as specific policy statement in the NEP 2019 draft report which is surprising.
I consider it important that the LIS groups initiate quick debate on NEP 2019 (draft) and its implications on the future of libraries in the country if accepted without according adequate and appropriate focus on library as an integral part of and yet distinct role player in education. It is highly desirable that LIS groups and in particular the professional associations like ILA, IASLIC and others initiate quick debate to evolve a national library policy document and submit to the NEP 2019 (draft) committee for inclusion as a distinct chapter in the report.
|N. V. Sathyanarayana| |Chairman & Managing Director|Informatics India Ltd.|Bangalore 560004|INDIA| |www.informaticsglobal.com|+91-80-40387777|
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