---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Re: Save libraries and librarianship From: "Sangeeta Narang" <sangeeta.bbdl@gmail.com> Date: Sat, November 23, 2013 7:48 pm To: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Vasantha, Your vision about the libraries and librarianship in India is very apt. It is true that higher authorities have little concern about the growth and development of public libraries and even advancements in medical libraries is almost abysmal.(Though they have the direct link with the society) One can see how well, management libraries, engineering libraries even university libraries are performing. Neither is there much literature or activities found on public libraries or medical libraries. Many of the professional associations are for the namesake just like the Medical Library Association of India. I wish they should be more active and should unitedly work for improving the status of medical librarians rather than absorbing the posts for their personal gains. Thank you KALA for raising the issue 'save libraries save librarianship' in one of your seminar. Hope such meetings and seminars will be a regular feature all around. Thank you Lis-forum for sending us the regular updates. With best regards Sangeeta Narang ----------

Message: 1 Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 11:20:19 +0800 (SGT) From: Vasanth <gooche_1981@yahoo.co.in> To: LIS forum <lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in> Subject: [LIS-Forum] Save Libraries and Librarianship: Some Thoughts Message-ID: <1385090419.52067.YahooMailNeo@web190806.mail.sg3.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Dear Sir/Madam,

This piece is just a bundle of thoughts that have been lingering in my mind after come across the title of the seminar ?Save Libraries and Librarianship? organized by the Karnataka State Library Association (KALA), Bangalore on the eve of National Library Week-2013.

I have tried to look at, why KALA at this juncture has organized a seminar on this topic ?Save Libraries and Librarianship?? Not on what transpired at the event.?

Recently while searching for library quotations we had come across lot of inspiring quotations on libraries. Many of them have come from famous literary giants, great scientists and tech wizards. Some of them are:

"The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library." ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??????????????????????? - Albert Einstein? I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library ??? ??? ??? ???????????????????????????? - Jorge Louis Borges

A library is a hospital for the mind ??? ??? ??? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ?? -? Anonymous?

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. ??? ??? ??? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? - Sir Richard Steel I cannot live without books ??? ??? ???????????? -Thomas Jefferson

What all these quotations indicating or pointing us that, how important libraries are for creating a healthy society as well as for intellectual growth of an individual. This is what Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft has said about libraries ?I?d be happy if I could think that the role of the library was sustained and even enhanced in the age of the computer.?? The decline of any cultural institutions (such as libraries) is the decline of the society. If society is not cared for its cultural institutions then there is something wrong with the society. The death of library (cultural institutions) is the death of the society as well.?

The voice of ?Save libraries? has to come from the society not from the professional organization. Librarianship may have been facing some serious problems to sustain in this technological age but not libraries. Every stakeholder in the society has the role to keep this society healthy by helping cultural institutions like libraries to sustain and thrive. Why we librarians, the managers of libraries have to plead the society??Is it not the collective efforts of the society?

If few points to ponder upon the current status of librarianship in India or across the globe, we are lacking strong leadership in the domain (after S.R.Ranganthan?s demise, Indian LIS field has not seen the leader of such stature). The academia has, if we go through the recent research trends (Ph.Ds, research papers, conference, seminars) shifted its focus more on technological aspects not librarianship (library philosophical foundations). Public libraries have not been the part of LIS academic discourse in recent times. If we skim through the LIS Forum posting for the last one year itself is an indication that even 0.01% seminars/conference/workshops have had the theme ?public libraries?. Today in the 21st knowledge society libraries especially public libraries have big role to play. Technology would help us tap the large mass of the people through public libraries. Are we doing anything on this??

Though we are living in an information society (where economy is largely depend upon the availability of information) libraries the main chain of information society is not taken care in a manner it should have been. Libraries have been deprived of even basic facilities. If school, college, and public libraries are provided minimal physical facilities and human resource support, automatically conditions would be little better off. Is this happening in college, schools and public libraries??

Library schools across the globe have been shifting their boundaries (changing their name as iSchools) from libraries to other interdisciplinary domains. Library is slowly forgetting from the academic world. If we really wants to boost the confidence of LIS students (future LIS education), what we really need to do? Do we have the answer??

If library professional organizations not address fundamental questions and started to ask (save libraries and librarianship) this kind of questions? Are we putting library profession at stake??

(Views are personal)

? ------------------------- With best wishes Vasantha Raju N. GFGC-Periyapatna Mysore