Increasing Scholarly Meetings and decreasing Scholarship: Some Thoughts
Dear Sir/Madam, Thereis an upsurge in the recent past in organizing number of conferences/seminarsand workshops (scholarly meetings) in LIS domain. Is this the same in other subjectof knowledge? May be partly true givethe fact that many of the conferences/seminars and workshops are funded orsponsored by the UGC or some other agencies. Scholarly meetings are the placesto exchange ideas, place for debate, place for listening to the luminaries ofthe field, place for finding new friends, and opportunities for touring. All theseare one or the other way beneficial and refreshing, the larger question is, doesall this scholarly meetings helping in showing new ways of looking at oursubject or adding something substantial to the existing knowledge? Morethan 115 conference/seminar/workshop announcements have been made in the LISForum in 2015. This is really staggering. At the mean time if we look at thenumber of papers published in core LIS journals from India, there is a gloomy pictureFor instance, only 13 research papers have been published in 5 LIS core journals(JASIST, IPM, Journal of Documentation, Library and Information Research andScientometrics) in 2015. Of the 13 articles 11 of them have been published inScientometrics only. There are no articles contributed from an Indian in eitherJASIST or Journal of Documentation. Dothe conferences proceeding or seminar volumes publish good research papers? Wemust also introspect ourselves in this front as well. Most of the time because ofinvisible reasons conference volumes carries articles of not much verve. Manyof the conference and seminar volumes would be full of articles written byeither editorial committee members or the organizing committee. Conferences and seminars have become a space to spend leisurely time. In many conferences participants show very little interest in intellectual deliberations and seen absent from the venue itself. This would nothelp us in any way to intellectually strengthen the subject. Though there is huge increase in number of scholarlymeetings that are being held across India, there is also a sharp declinein scholarship. We must halt and think a bit to bring back the intellectualglory that has been lost since Ranganthan’s departure. ------------------------- With best wishes Vasantha Raju N.GFGC-Periyapatna Mysore(Views are personal)
participants (1)
-
Vasanth