Dear friends, I too agree with S K DEsale and P B mangla. We cannot keep on giving endless services and in return expect nothing. The working conditions of the librarians and their status is very poor in our country. Even after earning a post graduation in LIS, many of the librarians are taken on a beginner's scale. As we say for better services a user has to pay. The same thing applies when it comes to salary and working conditions. If you are paid well, you serve better. What Ms. Smita Chandra says is correct and I think these are the very basic things which most of the librarians do. We should also understand that librarians have to depend on the parent organization and libraries come last when budget is to be allocated and comes first when services are to be given. So I would say that IT progresses, ordered and neater libraries can be expected when there are no budget problems and min. man power is a must. And the important facor is the LIS education There are exceptions where librarians don't work inspite of having good budgets etc. I would like to throw some light on out LIS Education too and that is where what Smita and Parinita says holds true. In earlier times there were very few universities/colleges offering Lib. degrees. Now so many universities and colleges are offering these degrees. But how many have a standard? I have come across several applications for a higher post where so many candidtes have M.LIb degree with distinction but their basic graduation scores are just 35-40%. They cannot communicate, organize collection, knowledge of subject is zero and the very basic lib. functions are so badly handled that I doubt their Lib. degrees and Phds. On top of all this they have papers( highly sub-standard) published and presented at various conferences and seminars. These are the people who are spoiling our profession and thereby our professional status. The Universities/colleges imparting LIS degrees should set a proper standard and modify eligibility criteria for admissions to Blib/Mlib/PhD. All this together can form the basis of Lib. movement. VIJAY GAUTAM MLIS LUCKNOW Mob:9450093626 Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.