Re: [LIS-Forum] Corporate Librarians and special training? (vasanth raj)

LIS Schools are thinking about training students for the corporate needs...Is there a big difference between a special library and a corporate library? As many LIS schools offer a specialization in Special Libraries, there may not be a big need for focussing on Corporate Libraries at university level unless ther is a plan for corporate spnoncered/collaboarative effort. Many LIS schools are putting their best efforts in training the students. However, the fact is, there is a big gap in skills we need in the industry and the output we get from the LIS schools. Syllabus is always attractive but often we fail to see the learnings out of it when we interview the students. Many practising LIS professionals know that, we need to teach and train on almost everything to people we recruit. Sometimes, we end up recruiting non LIS people for jobs other than core LIS jobs like classification etc. Majority of the students fail to understand how corporate libraries function. The reasons may be many: - Lack of trained and experienced teachers - Limited/No infrastructure - Lack of cooperation from practicing librarians - Kind of students opting for LIS and - LIS Schools not having enough collaboration with Libraries Its unfortunate that we have this big gap in our profession unlike in other professions - medicine, nursing etc. More open, genuine and collaborative efforts in bridging the gap between theory and practice is required. Teachers and LIS practioners should have more (healthy) debates, discussions and must develop willingness to collaborate for the proposperity of this profession. Regards, Anand Ananda T.Byrappa Manager, Whitney Knowledge Centre GE India Technology Centre 122, EPIP, Phase 2, Whitefield Road, Bangalore - 560066, INDIA Phone: 91-80-25032618 Fax: 91-80-28412114 email: ananda.byrappa@ge.com -----Original Message----- From: lis-forum-bounces@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in [mailto:lis-forum-bounces@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in] On Behalf Of lis-forum-request@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:36 AM To: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Subject: LIS-Forum Digest, Vol 68, Issue 21 Send LIS-Forum mailing list submissions to lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to lis-forum-request@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in You can reach the person managing the list at lis-forum-owner@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of LIS-Forum digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Corporate Librarians and special training? (vasanth raj) 2. Fw: Request to fill the Questionnaire on Library Management System Survey for research work (o u) 3. Free Sanskrit Software Tools and Fonts has been released by DIT, Ministry of Communication and Technology, Govt. of India (Ajay Kum Sharma) 4. Libraian-cum-Documentation Assistant vacancy in Sree Chitra Trivadnrum (Abdunnasar. A) 5. Research Methodology and Techniques (kunwar.air air) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:12:07 +0530 (IST) From: vasanth raj Subject: [LIS-Forum] Corporate Librarians and special training? To: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Message-ID: <246216.69167.qm@web95301.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Dear sir/madam, This is in response to the LIS-Forum member request to suggest on how LIS departments can train Corporate Librarians? Though my response would not offer any suggestion, but contradicts with the postings itself. - How can LIS departments prepare corporate librarians? ?I am deliberating on the issue why there is much fuss about corporate world. ?Library Science and Information Science (Information Studies-Including wide spectrum of behavioral theories, science and technology) Schools have been training LIS professionals to perform their duties irrespective of the organization they aspire to work.? It was not previously discussed so much about academic library or public library. But we have been making our graduates to be a perfect fit to a corporate world. Again these all have been become forefront in the light of globalization. ?Corporate venture have very strong financial back up to train their workers and they have been successful doing that over the years (Infosys global training centre). Today?s need is to prepare our graduates to work for the people from whom they have got benefitted (local tax payers). ? Andhara Pradesh itself is a naxal prone area with so much of economic inequalities, let our graduate take step in reducing the economic barrier and fill the gap of information rich and poor. There we need training and enrich our people. ? Globalization itself has become a halt, because of recent economics meltdown in US. Economists? likes of Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman have propagating the humanistic economic policy with equal opportunity for every one.? Coming back to the topic ? LIS schools have leveraging the technology and new crop of Information schools are in a way modeled to survive in the information rich world. Syllabuses of some of the information schools can throw some lights on how LIS schools can tune their curriculum to prepare their graduates in the 21st century.? Good thing is that library school basics have not changed lot-then why LIS departments prepare corporate librarians. Holistic approach is the need of the hour. ------------------------- With best wishes Vasantha Raju N Govt First Grade College Periyapatna Mysore Dist. ? 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.