[LIS-Forum] Re: [nmlis]Abscence of recognition to Librarians -- inactivity of Library Association

hi I appreciate the anguih of Mrs Rangashri, i think she hould not get excited about the lapses from the associations and professionals. after all many things matter, such as environment, training, traditions--what not. I will appreciate Mrs. rangashri , if she can also send communications through egroup, to enable to share her ideas and knowledge. let us join our hands to make our professiona great. let us not fight but learn from the past and improve ourselves in terms of productivity and image. please do not accuse any one, we all ae responsible for everry thing as we are also part of the profession. thanks laxman rao --- Rangashri Kishore wrote:

Dear Vasumathi,

I sincerely appreciate your efforts to highlight the issues concerning Librarians. You have rightly pointed out the serious lapses in our professional attitude. Very few are actually thinking in this direction. I would like to introduce myself, I belong to a family of Librarians! I am the third generation who followed this line and I am proud to be in this line. I have found during my experience of working in various Libraries of repute it is just not sufficient to remain within the sphere of Librarianship alone ..it is important to realize that we have the skills that can be applied for enriching all other professionals. For example, I have tried to use training Mentally ill patients in Librarianship which has helped them in getting employed in school Libraries. I was instrumental in setting up homes for mentally challenged in India and I realized that as a significant part of their rehabilitation Library skills can be applied -which I found very successful and satisfying. One has to walk that extra mile to get recognition in our field.

I thus received three International Awards..

FIRST ASIAN WINNER OF ASCLA EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE AWARD FOR THE YEAR 1999 FROM ALA. http://archive.ala.org/ascla/awards_recent.html#1999

LEARNINGTIMES INNOVATIVE INFORMATION SERVICES AWARD FOR THE YEAR 2003 FROM USA. ( Two Indian Librarians one myself and the other is Kaushik Purohit of Reliance Industries..Jamnagar was confered along with 6 other Librarians from all over the world..that too we had the honour of sharing this with Hillary Clinton) http://www.libraryconference.com/awards.shtml

IFLA/ALP IN 1996 FOR MY WORK ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR LITERACY EFFORTS FOR WOMEN IN BANGKOK.

Having won all these accolades it is a shame that no Library Associations in India ever approached me to know more about it so that others in our profession can get motivated although this was widely publicised in Newspapers in 1999. None ever came forward to support my efforts for these causes. I had to personally apporach and be a self advocate for all the achievements. Come to think of it that someone in US is able to confer these awards to persons working in India while in our own country people hardly realize the value of this profession.

These are my views and I welcome people to comments.

With warm regards, Rangashri Kishore

Vasumathi Sriganesh wrote: Dear friends

There are many sides to this:

There is no question that we are one of the most under-rated breed of professionals. In a country that has had Dr. SRR, it is an irony that the maximum percentage of population would not have heard of the need for a professional degree to be a librarian - let alone anything else.

Having said that - what have we done about it ourselves?

a) Have we pushed up our own standards? I am sorry to say that a majority of librarians are unable to communicate well, or market themselves well

b) Do we market our profession to school and college children? How many of us would encourage our children to take up the same profession? Most young people tell me that when they were in college they hardly used a library - they then accidentally heard about Lib Sc and joined the course

c) Majority of our conferences have papers of no real value - they are accepted because we need participants, and participants will get a TA/DA only if their papers are accepted, so we accept papers. Most speakers have no sense of time - they overshoot, they "read" the paper and do not "present" it, very often there is nothing new. Many participants do not attend all sessions - more time is spent sight-seeing. How many actually go back and implement something new in their library?

d) How many of us have attempted to show our organizations that they the library is a terribly important entity? And that the collection is being used to the best?

I am sure there are a million more questions that can be added. Like Prof Laxman Rao, I do not aim to hurt any individual. I will blame myself too. It is a vicious circle. We are unable to prove ourselves, so we are badly positioned and paid. Thus we cannot attract the best talent, and when we dont get the best, we do not prove ourselves.

Where do we break this circle?

For a start, can all of us do something in our own sphere and control? Go BEYOND what we are paid for, do our best for our organizations and readers - not expecting immediate rewards? If we can get something for ourselves - great - if not - can we work hard and sow the seeds for the future generations? And can we improve at things like conferences? If we can say YES, to at least some of these, only then we have some hope.

It would be very good, if we can have some ideas coming in as to how we can tackle all this positively!

Regards

Vasumathi Sriganesh Director, QMed Services Pvt. Ltd. A-3, Shubham Centre, Cardinal Gracious Road Chakala, Andheri East, Mumbai 400099, India Ph: 91-22-28229223 Fax: 91-22-28224358 Mobile: 98211-14510 Email: vasu@qmedin.com, Web: www.qmedin.com

----- Original Message ----- From: Smita Chandra To: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com ; naglaxman@yahoo.com ; jagatram2001@yahoo.co.in ; iatlis@yahoogroups.com ; nmlis@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 3:59 PM Subject: [nmlis] Re: [iatlis] Abscence of recognition to Librarians -- inactivity of Library Association

Dear Professionals :

I wish to echo the sentiments of Dr.Laxman Rao & Dr.Vyasamoorthy. We are an unheard community because we wish to be heard without speaking out or we talk alone ! I guess this says it all about our professional associations and about the state of libraries in our country hence.

Thanks,

Smita Chandra Librarian Indian Institute of Geomagnetism New Mumbai. INDIA

vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com wrote: Dr Laxman Rao's observations are provoking and show his deep concern & anguish at the present state of affairs. I agree with him. Charity begins at home. As a simple step, Why not we think of revitalising ALSD? Can ALSD take up projects of interest to Library Community? Can it become confident and resourecful enough to accept assignments from Private libraries/Info centers? Can such projects be self-financed by selling services & consultancy? People in charge may express their views. Vyasamoorthy, P

--------------------------------- From: Prof. N. Laxman Rao. [mailto:naglaxman@yahoo.com] Sent: Thu 1/13/2005 6:03 PM To: sushil sharma; iatlis@yahoogroups.com; nmlis@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iatlis] Re: Welcome to nmlis

hi it is a big issue. in our state, the college librarians have been designated as lect in lib sc. the univ staff have been designated as prof, associ prof and asst prof. earlier ugc had given equivalent status, now the age of retirement is differrent. it is unfortunate. the lirarians responsibility had been enormously increased in the context of distance education and they should be in better recognition than teachersand otherr staff. it is also unfortunate, in spite of all the new developments, librarians are unable to prove that they are essential and nothing can happen with out them. they are also swimming in the same stream like teachers,other employeees leaving their responsibilities to the air. ofcourse, every one is not like. i am only stating majority. when the government does ot have the responsibility or accountability except the authority and power, how we can expect support from the govt to rectify, the education system. prvate orgns are doing better, as no out side involvment and therefore, they play with employees. however, please understand that i am not interested to criticise are comment on any one. what r the reasons? it may be parents non-involvement, politicians involvments, caste, religion and regional feelings--what not many? who has to bell the cat? i think the profession as a whole has to show to the world like in other countries- that librarians are essential services, and nothing less than that. it is possile with our services and recognition. i know that the facilities are not given but expectations are high. we have to do our best with in the given environmet.

=== message truncated === ===== Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS). Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) 9246547599 (Mobile) e:mail-- naglaxman@yahoo.com OR naglaxman@indiatimes.com ___________________________________________________________ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com