Dear Friends, Rupesh has given an example of how "Librarian's" job is perceived in our society. Not to speak of a layman, even well educated are ignorant that managing a library needs special skills. I do not have much idea about this "BASE". However, It appears to be a couching institute preparing students for entrance exams. Perhaps they only need a person to look after their four thousand books. And it does not make a business sense for them to spend on hiring a professional librarian. They would rather spend on hiring IITians as their faculty members and pay them best in the market. They can boost about their faculty because that sells in their business. Only those institutions, which are covered by some library norms, care about their librarians. For example, UGC has norms for libraries and librarians. But situation is really bad for institutions not covered such norms. Take for example, Medical / Dental institutions - I won't be surprised if a ward boy is handling a library. To some extant, we are all responsible for this state of affair. We are not able to justify our worth to the society. Moreover, our professional associations have also failed us to large extent. They have not done enough to promote our professional image and collective bargaining. All I can say is that let us find some ways to prove our worth to the society. --Sukhdev Singh, NIC.
BASE is one of the best institutions offering quality education to lakhs of students in Bangalore. But, if you see the required qualification here in this Ad, one (a layman) is most likely to get a feeling that there's no need to have a qualified person for managing a library. It is at this point where I have an objection. If institutions like BASE do not give due importance in employing qualified staff for library, how can one expect other similar institutions to do it?
Anticipating your comments...
Thanks & Regards,
Rupesh Kumar A Department of Library & Information Science Bangalore University a_rupeshkumar@yahoo.com http://lislog.blogspot.com http://a.rupeshkumar.googlepages.com
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