Dear sir, I think library science teachers are to teach library science as a professional subject not as an academic subject. I give you an example: When I was doing my computer course from NIIT, they not only taught us computer skills but also how to present and behave in the professional environment. They taught us about perfect personality which included communication skills and application of TQM. YOU NEED TO RECONSIDER YOUR FIRST STATEMENT. I firmly believe that even Govt colleges and universities while recruiting librarians look for candidates having good communications skills in English. ICICI is a corporate organisation. I would not have been selected as a librarian of CII, if I had a weak background in English. Dr Chandra would not have got ISO 9002 certificate for his library, if he had a weak command over English. Similarly, Dr Ranganathan would not have got chance to study abroad for the upliftment of library science in India. There are so many examples. Those who have excelled their name in libaray science in India had very good command over English. Whereas the case of speaking in Hindi is concerned, it is really a shame for us that even in the Parliament, MPs prefer to speak in English. And we make fun of those who speak in Hindi. I remember a case when I was working in Eureka Forbes to support my study expenses in Delhi, the immediate boss of mine and other colleagues made fun of my signing appointment letter in Hindi. There is no question of looking down upon our fellow professionals but to raise their standards to cop with the present demand of professional requirements. I am sorry if I have hurt your feelings. My personal views pl. Best regards, Aman Jha Librarian Confederation of Indian Industry Plot No 249-F, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV Sector 18, Gurgaon 122015 (Haryana) Tel: 0124-5014060-67 * Fax: 0124-5014080 -----Original Message----- From: Jayadev P Hiremath [mailto:jayadevph@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 9:51 AM To: Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Cc: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Subject: [LIS-Forum] Why do we need high proficiency in English language ? 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 wrote:

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 through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern.

Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned.

On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low 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?

In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument.

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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