From last two days, we had experienced a scholarly exchange of ideas during
Dear all, UGC Sponsored State Level Conference organized by the SNDT Women’s University Library, Mumbai on January 17 - 18, 2012. Some photographs of the conference. https://picasaweb.google.com/111299673626524694905/ConferenceOnALEE2012?auth... Report of the programme presented by Dr. Madhuri Tikam, General Rapporteur, of conference. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE ELECTRONIC ERA (ALEE 2012) Electronic Resource Development and Access UGC Sponsored State Level Conference Organized by the SNDT Women’s University Library, Mumbai January 17 - 18, 2012 *Report Prepared by Dr. Madhuri Tikam * Good evening everybody. Before I start, let me thank Dr. Sushma Powdwal madam and the organizing committee for giving me this precious opportunity. the UGC Sponsored State Level Conference ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE ELECTRONIC ERA *(ALEE 2012) *organized by the SNDT Women’s University Library, Mumbai. The Program was inaugurated on January 17, 2012 with the university song. The Director of the conference- Dr. Powdwal delivered the welcome speech and explained the background of the conference. She conveyed the inability of Honble Governor to attend the session and his best wishes for the event. She also expressed that at the end of the event, the conference should generate a set of resolutions/recommendations to be sent to UGC regarding development and access of e resources. This was followed by the traditional lighting of the lamp by the chief guest and other guests of honour. Dr. Durga Murari, Coordinator of the event compeered the inaugural session and introduced the chief Guest Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director of INFLIBNET.* *The dignitaries released collection of abstracts and CD which followed by the motivating speech of Dr. Arora. In his powerful speech, Dr. Arora, warned the LIS professionals that, in future, with wide spread of e-resources, the library in terms of building and half the LIS staff will be unrequited. The LIS professionals must adopt new services such as information filtration, reach out programs, redesign the present place for new info activities, generating more significant metadata like levels, type of information, etc. license negotiations and consultancy for applied projects. He highlighted importance of the ROI studies and gave best wishes for the conference. Next, *Hon. Madam Vice Chancellor Prof. Vasudha Kamat *delivered the presidential address. She talked about the readiness of the university campus to adopt technology for learn together, create together and share together environment. She appreciated the efforts of the library department and complimented Dr. Powdwal and the organizing committee for organizing the conference at an appropriate topic and showed her readiness to render help for conducting an international conference by the library in future . At the end she appealed the participants to make the conference a simulative exchange of ideas. Dr. Durga Murari delivered the vote of thanks and invited everyone for the delicious high tea. The first plenary session was a Panel Discussion on “Digital Scholarship, Cyber Infrastructure and Academic Libraries”. Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director of INFLIBNET, Prof. Shalini Urs Executive Director of International school of information management, Mysore and Prof. A. R. D. Prasad Head of DRTC were the panelists. Firstly, Dr. Arora – the moderator of the session invited Prof. Urs to give her presentation on the theme concept. She insisted to move beyond books and journals as they share narrow vision of scholarship of the author. She highlighted the “Free-In-Form” nature of the information and stressed on importance of integration of HW, SW and the e-resources for better user services. Next Prof. Prasad talked about Open Data Access initiatives. He pointed out the benefits of open data and suggested that cloud computing is the best solution to store open data. Dr. Arora appreciated the efforts of both the presenters and opened the session for question answers which received a profuse response. Prof. Harsha Parekh, asked Prof. Prasad about current scenario of Open data. Prof. Prasad commented that the concept is strongly adopted in the field of economics. He encouraged today’s librarians to take up data archive projects. Prof. Urs added that making information itself an infrastructure is necessary. Once information becomes infrastructure, it becomes part of a public good. Dr. Medha joshi of Tata memorial hospital asked the panelist about ways to make scholars ready to share information. Prof. Prasad agreed that it is a difficult task and the pace is slow for such initiatives but he assured that we must begin somewhere to reach the destination. Participants asked panelist queries regarding digital preservation cloud computing and federated search. The overall discussion was very informative and was appreciated highly by the participants. The plenary session was followed by lunch and parallel paper presentation sessions on three themes- first, Scholarly Communication & Networking, Second, E-Resources : Collection Development and third E-Resource Management. The first session Scholarly Communication & Networking held at Patkar Hall. Prof. Harsha Parekh, Former University Librarian of SNDT Women’s University chaired the session. Dr. Sachin Vaidya and Ms. Neeta Kamble rapporteured the session. Total 7 papers were presented during the session. 1. In the opening paper “Modern Technology Based Academic Libraries”’ Dr. Harsha Merchant, Faculty of Education, described the potential use of various Web 2.0 services in academic libraries to enhance library services and promote better interaction with the users. 2. Further Mrs. Geetanjali Wani, Mr. Milind Dhage and Mr. Vijay Rahanerevealed various challenges and opportunities faced by academic library professionals in digital environment and suggested ways to deal with the situation. 3. Mr. Vinay Haware’s paper on “Scholarly Communication in Academic Libraries” focused on Open Access publishing and various issues related to the same. He commented that today’s librarian can take up a new role of being publisher of scholarly communication. 4. Dr. Sarika Sawant presented a comparison of the traditional scholarly communication process with open access driven scholarly communication process. 5. At the end Ms. Pratibha Kanojia elaborated the role of N-list in college libraries. The papers generated a brief discussion on validity of the online rating system. 6. *The Maharashtra Librarians Online Study Circle* (MLOSC) a web portal for library professionals at state level having 3786 members till date– an effort worth admiring. In the next paper of the session, Mr. Ajay Kamble and Mr. Bhupendra Bansod the developers and managers of MLOSC explained the Role of MLOSC in Information Sharing among library professionals in Maharashtra. After tea, the session continued with one more paper. 7. Mr. Avinash Humbre from Pune, presented SWOT Analysis of N-LIST Programme. The discussion followed was mainly on usage statistics of Nlist. The session ended with a group photograph of paper presenters. A parallel session was conducted at Committee room on E-resources, Collection Development. Dr. Medha joshi Head, Dept of Lib Sc. of Tata Memorial Hospital was on the chair. Mrs. Ketaki Deshpande and Ms. Ashwini Prabhu were the rapporteurs. While briefing about the theme, Dr. Medha joshi said that all the sources of knowledge may be grey literature, inhouse publication are equally important and analysis of information seeking behavior of the library users is required. The session comprised of seven papers on various aspects of E Resources. 1. *Digitisation is a prominent technique of developing e resources.*Many libraries are joining the bandwagon without much thought. Ms. Sujata Kamble in her paper “Digitization projects: issues and challenges” elaborated the process and made aware about the challenges involved. 2. The next paper under this theme was by Dr. Perin Marolia, who illustrated different modes of accessing Language-Related Information Sources in the electronic environment and emphasized on the importance of the user education programs. Dr. Medha Joshi concluded the session by highlighting the importance of policy. She added that while adopting any technology in library, the librarians should balance all three important aspects i.e. library, end users and publishers. The post tea session in the committee room was devoted to the topic E-Resource Management. Ms. Sushma Karnik Director, American Library chaired the session and Mrs. Vidya Subramanian and Mr. Vinay Haware were the rapporteurs. The session comprised of a single paper by Ms. Shital Shah on Managing Electronic Resources: Opportunities and challenges. She explained issues involved in collection development and management of e-resources and underlined the necessity of appropriate training of librarians. In the concluding remarks Ms. Sushma Karnik added that managing e resources is nothing but making e resources accessible though one single window which covers both print and electronic resources. The evening came to an end with two database presentations done at the Patkar Hall. The first one was by Ms. Smita Mehta of Ebsco and the other one by Mr. Suchit Bisht of ProQuest database. Next day begun with Plenary Session, again a Panel Discussion devoted to most appropriate topic of the time. i.e. Academic Libraries-Vision 2020 at the Patkar Hall. Prof. Harsha Parekh from SNDT, Prof. Uma Kanjilal, from IGNOU and Dr. H. K. Kaul from DELNET were the Panelists. Ms. Maya Samant introduced Prof. Harsha Parekh - the moderator of the session. Ms. Jayashree and Dr. Paudwal introduced Dr. H. K. Kaul and Prof. Uma Kanjilal respectively. Dr. Kaul talked impressively about academic libraries: challenges and knowledge center option for libraries. He said that redundant services and mechanisms of today’s academic libraries finding hard to keep up with the pace of change. The challenges of today’s academic libraries are information growth, budget crunches, copyright issues, technology, fear of obsolesce, changing needs of users, and to maintain relevance. Knowledge center option for libraries offers a solution to these challenges. His survey of various worldwide knowledge centers proved that they reduces efforts, allows sharing information to larger audience, collective brain storming and generation of new knowledge. Prof. Uma Kanjilal in her presentation academic libraries vision 2020, discussed about changing scenario of academic libraries. She asked librarians to change with time, learn required new skills to enhance the relevance of the libraries. Next, Prof. Harsha Parekh shared her visions. Changing scenario in terms of higher education environment, scholarly communication, aggregators, retrieval mechanism and user centric approach is shaking the position of libraries and librarians. Now libraries are changing buildings are becoming information commons. Services will become more personalized and filtered. There is a need to change of mindset and develop technical skills for optimal growth. At end she provoked the librarians to be more active in the field. Prof Parul zaveri from SHPT school of library science shown her curiosity about how LIS school can keep abreast with changing time. Prof Uma said that there’s a severe need in changing the curriculum. Prof parekh added the need of teaching thinking skills alongwith technical skills. Dr. Kaul suggested involving librarians and learners in curriculum development. The concluding questions of Dr. Shubhda Nagarkar from pune university and Ms. Namita from Sophia college triggered a discussion on how to deal with interdisciplinary collaborations, and rapidly changing user expectations. Experts suggested librarians to equip themselves with required soft skills and technical skills to deal with changing scenario efficiently. Mr. Satyanarayan from informatics expressed that for being an effective knowledge subject experts should become qualified librarians. Dr. Kaul suggested that subject expert-librarian tie ups will prove more beneficial. Prof. Uma suggested ways like domain internships, development of special need based curriculum and proper induction programs as a solution. While Prof Parekh concluded the session by proclaiming active participation of librarians in curriculum development and research activities of various faculties to improve overall teaching learning effectiveness. The plenary session was followed by two presentations - one on Slim 21 by Ms. Meera Gaikaiwari from Algorhythms Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And other by Mr. Hemant Shettye on Koha and cloud computing. * * *Post tea, similar to the prior day* parallel paper presentation sessions were held at Ptakar hall and the committee room. The themes covered were Innovative Services at the patkar hall and Information Literacy and E-Resource Usage at the committee room. Session on Innovative Services was chaired by Dr. Maya Avasia and rapporteured by Mr. Ajay Kamble and Mr. Bhupendra Bansod. The session comprised of three papers. * * 1. In the beginning Ms. Kashmira Dhirawani summarized impact of Web 2.0 technologies on libraries and librarians. *2. *Paper by Ms. Varsha Varma and Ms. Manisha Jadhar talked about SNDT Women’s University Pune Branch Library’s efforts to Use Social Media tools *to **provide the right information to the right user at the right time**.*** 3. At the end, Ms. Vinita Jain took an overview of various web 2.0 tools to facilitate information transfer and improve information literacy. This paper followed by discussion and a break for lunch The session continued after lunch comprised of 3 papers. 1. *In the beginning *Mr. Pralhad Jadhav overviewd the concept of Cloud Computing showed how librarians can use the cloud 2. Next paper addressed the case study of Bombay International School. Ms. Chaitali Shirali described how the e library services gave rise to an Eco-friendly Library. 3. Next. Neeta Gundawar presented her findings about various eco-friendly libraries in India and their exclusive services. 4. *Human Computer Interaction has developed* several Usability testing methods to improve the usability and accessibility of information on the web sites. Dr. Shubhada Nagarkar and Dr. Durga Murari discussed usability testing methods and techniques for library websites. 5. Ms. P. Gowri Prasad’s paper “Mind Maps for Managing Information” wrapped up the session. She described the technique of creating mind maps and the benefits of using mind maps in the academic environment. Discussion covered majorly on security issues of cloud computing The first parallel paper presentation session held at Committeee room today was devoted to the topic Information Literacy which was chaired by the Dr. Pratibha Gokhale, University Librarian and head of the LIS Dept. of University of Mumbai. Ms. Ketaki Deshpande and Ms. Ashwini Prabhu were the rapporteures. Five papers altogether were presented during the session. 1. Teaching information literacy to library users is a crucial task of librarians. With digital era the role and techniques of information literacy are changing. Many information literacy initiatives are documented throughout the world. Ms Shobha Kulkarni and Ms Mamta Kumari outlined these efforts in their paper “Information Literacy: A Roadmap for E-resource Management in Academic Libraries”. 2. Mrs. S. A. Kulkarni identified gaps in Information Literacy for the Use of Social Media 3. Ms. Tejaswini Karalkar, with illustrations, emphasized on use of electronic media for Information Literacy and User Orientations 4. At the end, Mrs. Shakuntala Nighot, presented her model for Information Literacy Program particularly for B.Ed. Students. The Discussions generated were mainly on reach out programs, while concluding Dr. Gokhale remarked that TV and radio programs like gyandarshan by UGC, shaley chitravani, etc. were the primitive forms of information literacy. There is need to match the form with the expectations of the today’s users. Post lunch, the second parallel paper presentation session held at Committeee room covered the theme E-Resource Usage. The session was chaired by Dr. S. K. Savanur. Mr. Vinay Haware and Mrs. Vidya Subramanian rapporteured the session. Five papers including three case studies were presented during the session. 1. Ms. Janice Fernandes and Mr. Sandip Chandurkar’s case study of access and usage of electronic resources in Xavier institute of engineering revealed that Computer Engineering students preferred online resources more than print. 2. Ms. Ashwini Prabhu suggested plans to enhance use of e-resources. 3. *the final paper* Federated Search for e-Resources by Dr. Shamkant Deshmukh Ms. Sonia Bhavsar and Mr. Sandeep Bhavsar explained the concept of Federated Search and demarcated the difference between federated search and other search engines. *All in all,* the entire seminar on “ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE ELECTRONIC ERA went on smoothly. As wished by the conference director, Dr. Powdwal at the inauguration session, the conference turned into a memorable, highly educational and not to be missed event. Great efforts by the organizing committee. The whole experience was highly appreciated by the participants. -- Bhupendra Bansod, Librarian, PVDT College of Education, SNDT Women's University, Churchgate, Mumbai - 20 Mo. +91 9029092218 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.