Dear Professional Colleagues: I am once again taking cue from Dr E. Rami Reddy's suggestion that we should do something concrete towards professional development (with ref to: Dr Lahiri's anguish). Here's something we can do using IT so that we may not face problems like the one Mr Saroj Karle is experiencing (books on UK Pension). To the best of my knowledge, The British Council Library network maintains a list of British publisher's representatives in India. However, this does not give the total picture of international publisher community. CONCRETE STEP 1 It would be useful if we develop a National Library Acquisitions Home Page containing the following components: 1. A national database of Indian publishers/booksellers in English and all other languages giving contact details (postal, email, web, etc.,), name of the contact person, their areas of specialisation (discipline-wise, topic-wise, etc.), regions served, terms of supply. Even the author publishers could be invited to become members of this database. 2. A national database of all the librarians (university, academic, public, special, etc.) listing their areas of specialisation in collection development, documents they wish to acquire or are searching for. The librarians could just post their requirements not as a firm order but only as an enquiry to find out from the publishers/booksellers regarding the availability of a document or their willingness to procure from abroad and supply. Once they receive reply from the publisher/bookseller, they can place the firm order. 3. A list of blacklisted publishers/booksellers who have indulged in unfair practices. 4. Latest GOC Rate Schedule (formulated with participation of all the parties who have a stake). We should have only one, authoritative GOC rate schedule. Mode of Operation The publishers/booksellers would be regularly announcing on the National Library Acquisitions home page, the new books procured by them from abroad. We visualise a scenario of SDI-type activity where the needs of the librarians and stock of the publishers/bookseller are matched for mutual benefit, particularly for foreign publications. To the best of my knowledge, The British Council Library network maintains a list of British publisher's representatives in India. However, this does not give the total picture of international publisher community. Advantages of National Library Acquisitons Home Page Offers equitable opportunities to publishers/booksellers in library supplies. Whoever responds first, would receive the order. If a foreign title is available with one of the Indian stockist, it could be known immediately and order placed for the same. Avoids running around from supplier to supplier for documents. Enables the librarians to have a perspective of foreign titles available in India. (Presently, the book selection by university libraries strongly favours those suppliers who send the books for physical examination. As such, the total literary output in a particular discipline is often not taken into consideration and many useful titles may be missed.) Helps the librarians to know which supplier can provide best service in a particular discipline/topic. Provides information to librarians about new foreign titles available in the Indian market. Booksellers can announce the documents procured by them from abroad. Through just a single email, they would be communicating this information to all the librarians in India. Serves as an effective public relations communication tool both for the librarians and publishers/booksellers. _______________________________________________ CONCRETE STEP 2 MAINTENANCE OF UNIVERSITY/LIBRARY DIRECTORIES Isn't it disappointing that we do not have a reliable, authoritative list which provides UP TO DATE INFORMATION of university librarians along with their contact details. The Web sites of our national bodies concerned with management of higher education and LIS networks DO NOT provide accurate, latest information about our universities. Can't we maintain an UP TO DATE directory of universities giving UP TO DATE details such as names of VCs, Registrars, University Librarians, their contact addresses, email ids, web sites, etc. Doesn't our IT know-how allow us to send an automatic email to every university library daily and request the university librarian to send information about changes in top univ personnel/univ librarians? If the university librarians do not disseminate latest information about changes in their university, then who will? Isn't it a disservice to the user community that we spend so much on creating web pages/directories but fail to maintain them on day to day basis thereby defeating the purpose of their creation and reducing their usefulness? We have miserably failed in meeting the requirements of Dr Ranganathan's definition of reference service as far as maintenance of directories of libraries/librarians/universities is concerned. Being based in India, at least some of us can keep track of the changes through newspapers, newsletters, etc. By providing names of VCs, Registrars, university librarians, etc. in our directories who had retired/shifted, are we not misguiding the users? How about the users abroad? Are we not projecting a negative image about our LIS profession by not taking care of these basic things? THIS IS ONE AREA WHERE WE HAVE TO TAKE A CONCRETE STEP. As always, reactions are welcome. Thank you Sincerely T.V. Prafulla Chandra Senior Editor --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NISC Export Services Pvt. Ltd. (an affiliate of NISC International, Inc. USA) S-1 Ballad Estates, St.Ann's School Road, Tarnaka, Hyderabad 500 017 Andhra Pradesh, India - Tel:+91 40 27001517 Tel/Fax:+91 40 27002538 WWW.NISC.COM A company in service to NISC worldwide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------