Friends I agree with the remarks of Sri. K. Rajasekaran. Even though I ama also a Librarian the day of closing of British Library is going to be the saddest day in my life also. for education, for research for getting books of interst when ever all sources failed the library was British Library was there to help. to all my staff members in diffrent institutions where I worked at least once I have to tell 'you should visit the British Library and take it as a model for the physical presentation of resources, way of services and manay manay things. In Trivandrum there are at least haldf a dozen libraries with ten times more staff and hundred times more collection. Even one tenth of the services we can not expect anywhere. and the way of the professionals that we meet at British Library in no Libraries of kerala we will find. For us it is job. For the institutions that maintian the libraries Library is an appendage which is to be maintianed for fulfilling the formalities. In six of the seven Universities in India which spend crores of rupees for library development there is no University Librarian. In kerala University from 1987 or so, in Sankaracharya Sanskrit University, kannur University etc from the day of their inception. In calicut and cochin Univeristy also the post is vacant. In Kerala Agricultural University the post was vacant from 1971 to 1995. from 2000 it is again vacant. Even without Librarian we can run the libraires spending crores of rupees. British Library Always was having a Librarian. A qualifies Librarian. a Librarian who want to serve. the collection was developed by them with love and care. others develop collections to utilze the grants. All these are the factors that make the protect against its closure. Will it be possible for us to develop and sustain services like that done by British Library with this degrading morale in all fields of activity. with this attitude of us towards library services. If we can compensate the loss that we are going to face in Trivandrum there by our own systems; it will be a beginning. Let us hope such mirracles may happen if British Library closes. R. Raman Nair, Member. British Library --- Rajan <rajankila@hotmail.com> wrote:
Dear All,
If the British council is not happy to continue the British Library in Tiruvananthapuram, it is well within their right to stop it - as owners and managers. It cannot be considered a loss of cultural landmark of the city. We cannot insist that they should serve us in helping some job seekers or students or others in Tiruvanthapuram city to get a better living through their much valued librarary services. We consider the library as indispensable because of the weaknesses of other poorly run libraries in the city.
State Central Library and Kerala University Library can - if they don't have - set up a book corner for competitive examination by spending a negligible portion of their annual budget. They can do most of the services the British Library was doing. Money was not at all a problem. If they wanted, special funds would have been obtainable for improvement of services. The real difference is that the British Library managed its services well and we managed our resources or services in an easy going manner and without much sincerity. Now we are misusing our court system to retain a library run in a good manner in a city where our public funded libraries failed miserably. It is the time to resolve that our libraries should run better services compensating the loss created by the closure of the British Library.
Kindly correct me, if my perception is one sided, defective or anti-professional.
Regards,
K Rajasekharan Librarian, Kerala Institute of Local Administration(KILA) Mulagunnathukavu, Thrissur - 680581 , India
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Original Message: Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:47:59 +0530 From: "amitbhu srivastava" <kumarmlis@gmail.com> Subject: [LIS-Forum] British Library Closure Opposed To: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in The issue of British Library in Thiruvananthapuram has reached the Kerala High Court,with a petitioner pleading against the loss of the cultural landmark. The Library in Thiruvananthapuram had around 6500 members & a collection of around 28000 books used by a lare number of students to prepare for competative examination. Regards,. Amit Kr.Srivastava
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