Dear All,

This is in response to the recent postings on the above subject matter.

The Problems

1. There is a widening gap between the demand and supply of really competent LIS professionals in our country, irrespective of the nature of institutions where they are expected to perform. Corporate sector is undoubtedly one such area with tremendous job potential.

2. But sadly, majority of the products of LIS Schools are mediocre in nature ! Few exceptions are always there from any School or most of the products are OK from a very very few Schools.

3. There are several factors contributing to this lamentable situation. They include :

(a) Poor standard of the students joining for the LIS Course

(b) Out of date Syllabus followed in the LIS Schools

(c) Inadequate infrastructure facilities in the Schools

(d) Incompetent Teachers or Teachers who do not bother to update their knowledge base

(e) Reluctance of LIS Schools for proper interactive programmes with performing libraries & 
     librarians

(f)  Poor communication skills and leadership qualities among the students

(g) Lack of commitment of students in accepting LIS as a good profession. They, instead,
     consider it as a short cut to get a job.

     Etc., etc.

Well, the above listing is only selective.

The Solutions

3. The solutions are partly embedded in the problems listed above. But still, let me repeat a few :

(a) There is an immediate need for restructuring the LIS Syllabus uniformly across the country. The exercise should not just be confined to NCSI or NISCAIR or DRTC or a handful of Universities, like, University of Mysore, Madras University, etc. Rather, these front-runners (and other stake holders too) should think of initiating a dialogue for a commonly acceptable quality/standard syllabus for all Schools in the country, in the larger interest of the profession.

(b) Poor communication skills & leadership qualities of students constitute a major issue. Unless this is effectively resolved, we are not going to succeed in generating competent professionals. The course-ware , the methods of teaching and grading of results/scores should not, at all ignore these factors. Not much seriousness is attributed to the so called 'Soft Skill Development' among our young professionals at present.

(c) Making them IT-savvy is another essential ingredient.

(d) How to attract really brilliant students to this course is another big question. Career prospects is perhaps one aspect. We must evolve a proper assessment of the market-needs of our professionals. Then mould them appropriately, by complying with other curriculum-related issues (discussed earlier). An explicit outcome should be  a mechanism for Assured Placement after their course of study.

4. We, the professionals by and large are lured to concentrate in segmented areas as part of our modernization. It could be anything like CDS/ISIS, WINISIS, Digital Libraries with its fragmented approaches, IR, Webopac, OAI, E-Print, DSpace, etc., if we examine the chronological events. But what is lacking is a Total Framework encompassing all these segments and much more, so as to make it as a body of knowledge for LIS Education & Practice. This has to be planned and designed at a fairly 'higher level' so as to implement the same uniformly and mandatorily as learning modules in the academic programmes.

5. Now, the question of Corporate Librarians.The existing teaching-learning practices and the curriculum contents should invariably be changed to suit the special needs of the sector, which is diffrent from the conventional systems. Rigorous training in soft-skill development and management practices, etc., are needed for moulding them to perform proactively in the newgen LIS domain. Be it 'old bottle or new bottle', it has to be filled with 'new wine' .

6. But who will bell the cat? Possibly a selfless  'Think Tank Group' should evolve for initiating the task. Even a 'Social Network' for the purpose can trigger the operation. Then it will assume the inertial strength required for the 'take off'.

7. A mandatory mechanism for LIS domain,  like Medical Council of India in the Health Education Sector, Bar Council of India in the Legal Sector, AICTE for Engineering / Technical Education, etc., has to be evolved for a proper co-ordination to ensure quality education.

8. Responsible Professional Societies in LIS in India including IATLIS cannot shy away from this crisis situation.

9.Certain  recommendations of  NKC may  also be examined in this context.

The Time Targets

Well, an overnight solution is not possible. What is proposed is a long term strategy. But the time factor should not be  stretched to infinity, if we really want to salvage our profession and give it an impressive and acceptable shape.

It is high time to evolve strategies for revamping the LIS Education / Profession in India so as to

Seek the comments of our esteemed LIS Forum Members.

SADASIVAN  KP
Former Head, Library & Informatics and Former Consultant (ICT)
NIIST (CSIR), Trivadrum

Poor management and communication skills among the students/products.