Dear friends,

 

We have been discussing a lot among us regarding its possibility and exploring its pros & Cons.Finally it has landed up. Yes , at last  the field of library & Information Science is shedding out its fake(self-claimed) professional status and donning the most deserving & long due academic status.

Department of Library & Information Science, University of Calcutta is starting 5 Years Integrated Course in Library & Information Science from this session (2010-11) after 10+2.

 

 5 Years Integrated Course in Library & Information Science

 

or follow the link

I sincerely welcome and salute this initiative.I always used to think of it.Finally a dream comes true.We are lacking social acceptance (Some of us may not be agree but this a fact that no body can ignore) as a librarian (anykind or any designation).We do not have any research culture like other science/even social science.Though we may notice that there is mushrooming growth of seminar/conference/workshops in the recent past. It has become a platform for making contacts to get better oppourtunities and writing some garbage in the name of research papers (Cut-copy-paste).But unfortunately I am compelled to say that did we develop/research any thing novel that will enrich the content of our subject.I strongly believe we could not. But we must introspect ourselves what exactly we are lacking in comparison to other subjects.Possibly LIS education has been started before 90 years ago (it could be + or -) but still its content is not mature enough to start a 3 years Honours course and 2 years PG course ( self claimed stalwarts in this field think so).But the subjects like /OceanographyBiotechnology/Environmental sc/Microbiology/International reation/public administration/folklore/culture studies have not taken its birth not more than some 20 years or less.All these subjects from its birth are enjoying  academic status and gradually they acquire strong research base.In this context,though it may sound a bit harsh, majority of the students choose to study this subject as a last resort to get a job.If we fail to attract the good students then how it is possible to compete with other subjects in terms of its intellectual content and research base . We never tried to make it popular option among the new students after 10+ 2 because very few people know the existence of this subject in the society.There was no remarkable intiative to transform so-called professional status to get simple academic status.In fact if we strictly judge LIS is a professional Course or not we find:

 

No professional accreditation

 

No Registration to start entrepreneurship/self business

 

No Professional Quality Control in LIS programs

 

In fact the question or conflict of professional/academic is a relative one and every subject is leading towards some career and in that sense everthing is overlapping.Rather we must concentrate and follow the road shown by the present initiative. We must be zeroing on in novel research in subject specific informatics research like:

social informatics

Health informatics

ecological informatics

biodiversity informatics

chemoinformatics

patent informatics

geoinformatics

legal informatics

At the same time various departments in science,social sc, humanities should be interacted for content,research colaboration & teaching . Next step, I can optimistically foresee , there will be 3 years (Hons) course will be started in the colleges very soon. Only then it will get social recognition , popularity among the students/parents/society as a good career option. And in the PG level it would be taught in the universities like other subjects and quality research would be carried out. Only then the UGC would recognize this subject is equal to the other subjects. still they do not consider the librarians equal to teachers in terms of academic freedom,designation,vacation/leave,retirement age (academic staff tag is not sufficient) because authority do not recognize it. The UGC has redesignated all the teaching positions but not us and people represent us in various committees/bodies they are equally responsible for it as they could not show our importance as faculty . There is no leave rules for the librarians in the universities in WB and all College librarians are suffering silently.No teachers associations are not sincere about the matter because we do not have any voice. We do not have any number. Everywhere and everytime everysecond I find there is a determined tendency to undermine to e the librarians by everybody in the society and by the government also. Only the great initiative of this kind can save us from getting demoralized academically, intellectually and as a human being above all.

 

Finally I Congratualate from the core of my heart - Prof. (Dr.) Biplab Chakroborty , and all associated, all faculty members, Department of LIS, Univ. of Calcutta for constant efforts, vision and historic feat. I believe this will surely bring a permanent qualitative change in this field motivated by the excellence only.

 

Dr.Sabuj Kumar Chaudhuri

(An affiliated college under the University of Calcutta)

147B, Rash Behari Avenue

Kolkata-700 029,West Bengal