Dear Professionals, I am very happy to see many postings about the discussion took during and after the Seminar on " Save Libraries and Save Librarianship" organised by KALA recently at Vijayanagar Public Library Hall. I read issues raised by Vasanth Raju, Sangeeta Narang and HP Shekar. While I appreciate the some of the views of Dr. Shekhar, his comments about younger professionals, who took over KALA somehow, needs to be re-looked by himself. KALA is a part of society having all sorts of members. Being selfish and using associations for personal gains has no relation with the age of members. It is something to do with mentality of individuals of not only our association but all professional associations. By and large youngsters, who have been elected to KALA are enthusiastic with very good educational and professional background. You would have seen the LIs-Forum posting announcing the names of KALA office bearers. With Prof. VG Talawar as the President and Mr. Jahagirdar as the General Secretary, KALA has senior, serious and experienced professionals to give guidance to the younger KALA brigade. Soon we will come out with our plan for KALA development and activities, which will look into all that one expects from an association. One thing I would like to state that the theme " Save Libraries and Save Librarianship", was very appropriate and we need to question ourselves saving Librarianship from whom among all the stake holders including users, managements, government, IT people or ourselves? According to me much more than other stake holders the honest, positive minded and hardworking professionals, who update their skills suitable for their work in the digital era can help in saving the libraries and librarianship. Regards, -- - - - - - Dr. I.R.N. Goudar Ex. Visiting Professor and Library Adviser Mysore University Library University of Mysore Manasagangotri, MYSORE - 570 006 Ex Scientist 'G' and Head, ICAST, NAL, Bangalore Tel: 0821-2419283 mob: 09611165781 E-mail: goudarishwar@gmail.com On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 12:01 PM, Shekar H P <shekarhp@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends,

Greetings for the day...!!!

I was very much present in the seminar organised by KALA and felt it is appropriate to share with the thoughts of Vasanth Raju and Sangeeta Narang.

As I heard, MyLA (Mysore Library Association) started by Dr. S.R.Ranganathan was later renamed as KALA. Salutes are due to so many super senior stalwarts of LIS for their effort and struggle for the surveillance of the prestigious association. Dr.A.Y.Asundi, Sri. N.V. Satyanarayana, Dr. T.D.Kemparaju, Dr. IRN Goudar and others spoke on this occasion. Their views and concept were very clear for the development of the profession as well as the promotion of Association. They requested all the members of other LIS associations also to join with- under one umbrella.

But as for as my observation is concern, few youngsters in the association took over the charge and absorbing posts for their personal gains rather than professional developments in the recent years. They are ready to break the rules / regulations and posing useless rules wherever applicable to achieve their personal goals and even fight for it in the general body, which is not an healthy development on the oldest LIS professional Association (KALA) in Karnataka.

Some of the members who cannot tolerate these unhealthy developments and those who have the vision to fight for the real cause and burning HR related issues (like, cadre and recruitment rules, Pay scales/parity, Service conditions etc.,) and to control adverse decisions being implemented by different commissions of the government, are thinking to come out of this association and planning to formulate a standard state level association with the guidance of eminent personalities in LIS. In this context they approached me also. According to them, the committee may be represented by entire LIS freternity like Public Library, Academic Library (PU/Degree College/ University) and Special Libraries (Technical Colleges/ Research Laboratories) etc,. The Association should have the common goal and should fight for the actual professional cause without any prejudices.

According to me- As we have observed ongoing developments in the society, it is need of the hour also. In the interest of the association and considering the future of library profession- Either all the members of KALA should take initiative, reunite / reorganize, proceed with the common goal as suggested by Sri. N.V.Satyanarayan or We should welcome the service minded Professionals to fight for the real cause rather than personal gains. However ultimate result should be helpful to the profession.

Thanks for KALA for raising the issue 'save libraries save librarianship' in the seminar. Hope such meetings and seminars will b ring awareness on the activities of a professional association.

The views are personal.

-- Dr. Shekar H.P. Head, Knowledge Resource Centre IBS Business School, #231, Near Kengeri Check post Mysore Road, Bangalore-560060 Karnataka - India Ph: (O): 080-66222244

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