Dear Dr. Saheb,<br /><br />Its is my earnest opinion that we have to involve the patrons in resource selection for our libraries. Only this will help us in having a good and well balanced collection, please do not feel encroached, take it in a positive way and think that its a team play. You should certainly accept that a faculty with a specialization can do a better job in the kind of resource that is required in that field than a librarian, taking in to account the kind of research that is going on in each field and the enarmous development in each field, i think a librarian alone can not do a better job. However try to take the leadership in that team and guide the faculty in the bookselection process, give them criterias to select and options in resources. We should accept that we can not be experts in all the fields so give the devil its due. This is the international&nbsp;practice too. We at BITS, Pilani Dubai involve students also in the resource selection process, but of course there is a procedure involved in it&nbsp;but I have the final say in acquiring the resources according to the budget and other factors. When you involve all the stake holders then there will be a sense of belonging that you can feel among the patrons while using the library. They will be more involved in the library activities and even be of immense help in doing a lot of good things to the library. Ultimately it is the patrons who are going to use&nbsp;the library so let them have a say in what they want to read. You will definetly see that there will be a lot of change in the functioning and that will be for good. So my opinion is&nbsp;not to be rigid, but <strong>"involve to evolve".<br /></strong><br />Thanks and Regards<br />S.C.Kumaresan<br /><font size="2">Senior Librarian<br />BITS, Pilani - Dubai<br /><br /></font>On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:51:03 +0530 "Rajan" wrote<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Dear All,It seems that Mr. Saheb (?), the original query poser, <br />requires moral support in exerting himself as a professional librarian in <br />his work place where he might have been sidelined and left to be in <br />defensive without providing the basic support by his institutional managers. <br />So he should be motivated to do whatever he can in choosing books, <br />classifying them properly, providing better services and in demanding more <br />institutional support.He should not be discouraged or dissuaded just <br />because some others in the profession cannot read, understand, select, <br />classify qualitatively the books or information materials on the emerging <br />subjects and leave aside some critical part of their professional work, <br />either to the book suppliers who can even manage faculty recommendation or <br />to the faculty who remain as 'rent-seekers' of the book supply firms. There <br />can be much variant scenario too in many other better libraries. But <br />specialist faculty members alone are not good book selectors for developing <br />a comprehensive collection, in majority of cases. It doesn't mean that the <br />entire faculty should be kept away, like a leprosy patient, from the entire <br />process of book selection. The former is a strenuous route of deeply <br />involving in book selection by utilizing the well read facility and the <br />latter is to leave aside everything to others and get even 'speed money' <br />from the book supplier. This is the practical reality in our library scene <br />which we need not be afraid of to speak.&nbsp; If you choose the former <br />option, you can become a provider of information or knowledge materials to <br />the most learned professor or academic dean in your institution and can <br />become a most respected knowledge manager on par with your professors. Other <br />wise, your can became a 'store keeper librarian' or a bureaucratic librarian <br />and possibly a 'money maker' too. The option is yours.Almost all our <br />libraries (except a very few) and the library profession, which I belong to, <br />doesn't command respect in India like most other professions as per my <br />experience. The most important delimiting factor is our attitude that <br />doesn't motivate us to grow and our tendency to confine ourselves in some <br />earlier learned rudimentary things without knowing much about the knowledge <br />development and technology environment around us. The 'post Google era' <br />provided us so many tools to develop, grow and flourish ourselves as god <br />knowledge managers due to the imaginative work of the information technology <br />professionals, which we are poorly using.I think that&nbsp; we, as <br />librarians, should be able to gather about new ideas, important books and <br />digital information in diverse areas which we deal with so as to feed the <br />users as a knowledgeable professor, as we get professors salary and <br />better&nbsp; facilities.The purpose of this third and last mail is to <br />motivate the query poser to develop a healthy disregard for the status quo <br />in order to him as a good library professional and not to convince <br />others.Best Regards,K RajasekharanLibrarian, <br />Kerala Institute of Local Administration(KILA)Mulagunnathukavu, Thrissur - <br />680581 , IndiaEmail&nbsp;&nbsp; rajankila@gmail.com----- <br />Original Message ----- From: Dr. M. Koteswara RaoTo: RajanCc: Dr. M. <br />Koteswara RaoSent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 6:29 PMSubject: [?? Probable <br />Spam] Re: Librarians Role in Book SelectionDear Colleagues,I do <br />not mean to hurt the sentiments or demoralise the library profession, <br />butlet us be practical in approach. I am aware that librarians are <br />taught about'book selection' in LIS schools, but it does not mean that they <br />should selectbooks for the library. For a specialised library dealing <br />with a subject or two,the librarian can make the selection. Imagine a <br />University library or a medicallibrary or an engineering library where <br />the subjects are specialised and/or toomany, and I am sure that no <br />librarian can really do justice in selecting thebooks. I think it is foolish <br />to think so, and if someone feels that 'we areexperts in all subjects' then <br />we will be called 'jack of all and master ofnone'. In todays world books are <br />written on very narrow subjects, which ourprofessional colleagues are not <br />able to even classify them. I sincerely feelthat we should restrict <br />ourselves to our duties rather than trying to learn allthe subjects of <br />the universe of knowledge. I think that Librarians can stillcommand respect <br />and participate in the collection building process in many <br />otherways.Dr. M. Koteswara RaoLibrarian, UoH <br />-- <br />This message has been scanned for viruses and<br />dangerous content by<br />MailScanner, and is<br />believed to be clean.<br /><br /><br /><br><br>S.C.Kumaresan<br />
SeniorLibrarian,<br />
BITS, Pilani - Dubai<br />
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