Dear All, I agree with the views expressed by Dr Vyasamoorthy. He has thrown up a major agenda item for Indian LIS teachers to think about and take up urgent remedial steps: ENGLISH FOR LIBRARIANS! The logic is simple: A CONFIDENT LIBRARIAN IS A BETTER LIBRARIAN. One of the major reasons for lack of confidence and low self-esteem is poor communication and language skills. For twenty-five years, I have witnessed emotions of annoyance, dismay, frustration, anger, disgust, etc. on the faces of thousands of library users when they couldn't comprehend what the LIS professional at the issue counter was communicating. It's not that LIS professional was unwilling to help; he (including myself) just couldn't communicate properly. I feel that adequate competency in spoken and written English is an essential skill which Indian LIS professionals may find worthwhile to acquire. I do not know whether I like the tone of Mr Hiremath's email. Do we need to be rude and impolite to express our point of view? In our Company, every propective LIS professional has to appear for a test in LIS as well as in English Language. While I was pursuing Master of Communication and Journalism course at Osmania Univ, my teacher Prof Bashiruddin used to deduct half a mark for every speller in our test papers. He used to say, "If you can't spell a word right, how you are going to be a good editor?" Now, after twenty five years, while correcting the Master's answer scripts of journalism students of Indian students, I find most of them unable to construct sentences correctly and there are lot of spellers. In fact, I found those students who were answering in their mother tongue (Telugu) writing in beautiful, idiomatic language with very few errors. The point I wish to make is that lack of English competency skills is a problem which is not just limited to LIS students but it is widespread in other disciplines as well. There is no harm in offering a full Paper on Communication and Social Skills for CLSc/BLISc students including topics like communication concepts, organisational communication, public relations, English for Librarians, presentation skills, conflict management, ethical values, etc. The question is not whether teaching of English falls within the scope of LIS teachers' responsbility. The crucial point is to provide the LIS manpower which is highly skilled and articulate. Shall we recollect the beautiful examples of dialogues between a reference librarian and the user provided by Dr S.R. Ranganathan in his classic work titled "Reference Service". If we are to have such professionally satisfying interactions with our users, then language skills are an essential requirement. I feel that in the present days of globalisation and market-driven economy, an Indian LIS professional who is competent in spoken and written English is likely to have better career options and growth. Thank you Sincerely T.V. Prafulla Chandra Senior Editor Date sent: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Wed, 23 Feb 2005 12:50:38 +0300</color> From: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Jayadev P Hiremath <<jayadevph@gmail.com></color> To: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>"Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com" <<Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com></color> Copies to: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in</color> <bold>Subject: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>[LIS-Forum] Why do we need high proficiency in English language ?</bold></color> Send reply to: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Jayadev P Hiremath <<jayadevph@gmail.com></color> <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param><<lis-forum.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in></color> <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param><<mailto:lis-forum-request@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in?subject=unsubscribe></color> <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param><<mailto:lis-forum-request@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in?subject=subscribe></color> <underline><color><param>0000,8000,0000</param>[ Double-click this line for list subscription options ]</underline></color> How many Librarians in East Europe, Japan, France, China and Russia and many other countries know English. Haven't these countries progressed ? If the Librarian has studied in Vernacular upto high school, is it his fault ? Library Science teacher's are there to teach Library Science and not English Language skills. When you were recruiting an Information Officer, what was the basic requirement ? Was it his skills in Information Management or English language ? You have a done a great disservice by writing highly unwarranted mail. This will dissuade many Librarians from writing to this forum. They all will develop inferiotity complex. Itis a national shame that when two Indians...Librarians.... from different parts of the country meet they have to communicate in English language. Have you ever thought about conversing in Hindi ? I jolly well know the importance of English language in the world. But that doesn't mean that we have to look down upon our fellow professionals who are not proficient in English. We have all become slaves to English language and take great pride in being so. I as a customer, have received many e-mails from your Organization and I don't think ICICI as such attaches much importance to English language skills and rightly so. Why is it that only you are so keen about it when it is not an Institutional policy. Working knowledge of the languages is more that sufficient for providing the services. Unless ofcourse you are going to write a treatise. Jayadev P Hiremath On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 12:36:38 +0530, Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com <<Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com> wrote: <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>> 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 t
hrough some 17 years of schooling and even after that m </color>anage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Educati on does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promotin g their own agendas at the cost of the nation and becau se of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for exce llence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>>
Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we co nsidered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerne d.
On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an ent ry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their p resentation and communication skills at horribly very l
In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that yo u do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it ha
</color>ow 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? <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>> ppens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thru </color>st on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English La nguage skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same eve rywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argume nt. <color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>>
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
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