From: "Dr. A.T. Francis" Date: Thu, April 4, 2013 12:34 pm Dear Professionals, I would like to highlight a serious anomaly happened and still continuing in KeralaState on the implementation of UGC Scheme (1986, 1996 and 2006) for librarians in universities and colleges in Kerala.  Though there is no provision in the UGC Scheme for the promotion from the lower cadre to the UGC Entry Cadre of Asst. Librarian/ College Librarian, in Kerala it is still continuing.  While implementing UGC Scheme, in the case of other teachers, the existing Non-UGC Cadre posts like Junior Lecturer and Junior Asst. Professor have been upgraded to Lecturer and Asst. Professor respectively and all the incumbents in the Junior Lecturer and Junior Asst. Professor cadres possessing Masters Degree in the concerned subject (Exempted NET) have been inducted to the UGC Cadre and the then cadres in the Pre-UGC Scheme like Junior Lecturer and Junior Asst. Professor have been closed for ever. Due to some unscientific administrative reasons, either this type of induction to UGC Scheme was not done in the case of librarians or the NET was not insisted to the entry cadre of library professionals like Library/Professional/Reference Asst.  Ultimately, now the professionals are divided into several classes and groups and many court cases have emerged only because of the system generated issues.  Hence, most of the professionals,instead of concentrating in documentation and information services, they are gathering, thinking and acting on the issues on how get rid of these issues. The only way to solve these issues permanently is implementing UGC Scheme to librarians as envisaged in the Scheme.  The following are the actions needed in this regard: 1. As in the case of other teachers, all existing incumbents in Library/ Professional/ Reference Asst. should be inducted to UGC Scheme as on the date of possessing Masters Degree in the concerned subject (Exempting NET). 2. To accommodate all incumbents in the Library/ Professional/ Reference Asst. cadres on induction to UGC Scheme, sufficient number of posts should be upgraded to Asst. Librarians as super numerary. 3. The existing cadre of Library/ Professional/ Reference Asst. may be closed by upgrading few posts as Asst. Librarian and the remaining posts should be downgraded to Jr. Professional/Technical Asst. (JPA/JTA) for CLISc holders.  All Dept. Libraries working in one shift should have one AL and JPA/JTA each and all College Libraries and Divisions of the University Library working in two shifts should have two AL and JPA/JTA each (one each for one shift)  and the existing posts of Library/ Professional/ Reference Asst. may be upgraded / downgraded accordingly. 4. It is also suggested to introduce Time Bound Promotion on completion of 5 years for JPA/JTAs, instead of the existing system of Ratio Promotion or vacancy/retirement based promotion. Dr. A.T. FRANCIS, MCom, MLISc, NET, PhD HEAD, LIBRARY & IT NODAL OFFICER College of Horticulture Kerala Agricultural University Thrissur - 680 656, India, 91-9496839409 (m) francisaloor@yahoo.com