Dear Friends, I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned. On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say? In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument. Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631