------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: 14 Oct 2003 14:22:55 -0000
From: "aprajita suman"
Dear Friends:
It is rather sad that one of our professional colleagues Shri M Vijayakumar should repeatedly request for a simple piece of information: definition of 'research library' according to ALA Glossary of LIS. Even after four days from the date of request, we have failed to meet this request. I am sure that this book would be available in several Indian university libraries. Had Indian university librarians participated actively in the LIS-Forum, we would not have faced this situation.
All this reminds me of Dr Lahiri's anguish on lack of professionalism and standards which he expressed so eloquently in one of the last issues of Information Today & Tomorrow. There were many heated arguments on Dr Lahiri's views. Prof E. Ram Reddy wrapped up the whole discussion with a statement underlying the urgent need that we all LIS professionals should do something concrete to improve the situation.
Even after five decades of attaining Independence and after spending hundreds of crores on variety of LIS networks in India, we do not have proper mechanism in place to find out from a single window where a particular book/journal/information is available in which Indian library. If we can't provide this basic service, does it bring any glory to our profession among the public? The infrastructure has failed us. Its high time for the LIS professionals to turn proactive and reach out the public and meet their information requirements in alternative ways.
I think it is high time for LIS professionals to offer a FREE reference service where any member of the public would be welcome to post his problem/query and he would receive reply from Indian librarians. To do this effectively, we need to ensure participation of all university librarians, all Heads of Departments of LIS (or any faculty member of DLISs specialising in reference service) and librarians of State Central Libraries/District Central Libraries throughout India. I think that LIS-FORUM may consider expanding its mandate to provide this type of service. There is no point in limiting ourselves to just LIS issues/concerns. What could more sacred and professional that meeting the information requirement of a needy user? Alternatively, we can start a national level "ASK YOUR LIBRARIAN" internet-based reference service.
Suppose a reader walks into our library and requests for a document/book/journal. If it is not available in our library, are we in a position to tell him within 24 hours at least where it is available in another Indian library? If we have a service like ASK YOURLIBRARIAN, the user would just post the query/problem he is facing and he would receive replies from all the libraries which have that document. ASK YOUR LIBRARIAN can also provide community information services at the national level. If a member of public has some query relating to his day to day life (education/health/employment/agriculture, etc.,), he would just post his query to ASK YOUR LIBRARIAN and the librarians having that information would reply to that query immediately. This single window service would automatically solve the problem of the user: whom should I contact for this information?
I look forward to reactions from all members of the LIS-Forum. We shoud take up strategic initiatives in this area to redeem our professional glory.
Regards T.V. Prafulla Chandra Senior Editor
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