ICAL 2009: Started with University Libraries and ended in School Libraries

 

The ICAL ended with many firsts and I think it may be the last of one avoidable error also. It was the first time in India such a conference with big international and national participation happens. The Indian crowd of librarians got a chance to see and interact with the stars in the field. There speeches may ignite many minds. The conference also provided a platform to compare and evaluate the standards of research taken place in India in the field of information and knowledge. When the organizing secretary of ICAL 2009,  Dr. S. Majumdar declared that ICAL became institutionalised, that was a rare moment of a mission that was accomplished. Now the process will carry forward and that must be. ICAL 2011 will be at the university of Hyderabad. The one blind spot of ICAL 2009 was the dodging of School Libraries. We hope that the School Librarianship in India will get its rightful importance in the coming conferences.

A rare spark of genius happened in the open forum. When Mrs. Murtimate Samantray, NCERT, New Delhi, and I spoke to Mrs. Kalpana Dasgupta, Chairperson, Committee for Libraries, national Knowledge Commission, about the ‘missing’ school libraries in the conference, she expressed her deep concerns on the matter and tell us how she count on school libraries for the successful  implementation of the recommendations on Libraries for NKC. She raised the first question in the open forum regarding the exclusion of school libraries in the conference. One of the panellist also expressed the same concern. There were follow up questions from three participants including Mrs. Murtimate Samantray. The session was live and the organizers suggested to include the matter in the coming conferences. Yes, the conference began with University Libraries and ended in School Libraries.

Here is one snap shot that I got accidently. This shows our inhibitions and moments of wonders before the sea changes that happened in the field of information and technology. We are still a little behind the surrounding world. But hope is there, the device in the hand of the hero proves that.

Overall the ICAL 2009 experience was memorable. A chance to see and hear the most coveted personalities in the world librarianship and live interactions with them made the conference a success. The pre conference volumes and conference newsletters were really good to preserve. The teamwork of the organizers is commendable. 

The stay at the guest house of national Science Academy was pleasant. We, Suresh, Manual Joseph (CUSAT), T. Gyanadurai and other friends had a great time at ICAL 2009.

The building without a basement

When we talk about academic libraries, normally we begin that with School Libraries. But, ICAL 2009 was an exception. According to some organizers this conference was only on University and college libraries ( International Conference on College and University Libraries, ICCUL ? ). The huge participation from these sectors proved that also.  But without the basement how we can build this mammoth structure of knowledge creation and sharing ? .  Many studies proved that the academic achievement of a student clearly depends upon his/her usage of information (library) at schools. Development of the information literacy skills which are necessary for sustaining in the present age begins from one’s school libraries. Only these students when come to the college libraries and later university libraries could effectively find, evaluate and use the right information at right time. It is evident that the students those are having a school library background can perform many times better than those without. So, I think that the remarks by Dr. Rajasekhara Pillai, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU were very relevant and worthy for further discussions.

The most photographed face of ICAL 2009 was the President elect of IFLA, Dr. Ellen Remona Tise. A dynamic lady with a smiling face and inspiring words. She described librarians as “the change agents” having greater role in the knowledge economy. When she was felicitated by some associations in the field of academic and special librarianship in India, it was a good sign of international friendship and brotherhood among librarian fraternity.

Age of sharing and collaboration

 

The second day of ICAL was full of action. Plenary sessions, gold speakers, paper presentations and a Kathak solo performance. There were four tracks. My presentation was in the second track. Ms. Hazel Woodward was in the chair. In her keynote speech, Mrs. Kalpana Dasgupta, Chairperson, Working Group for Libraries, National Knowledge Commission and former Director, Central Secretariat Library, New Delhi stressed upon the partnership between public libraries and academic libraries.The speech was very live and points were relevant. In the era of collaboration and sharing the need for these types of partnerships is very essential. The areas of collaboration should be open up and thereby libraries can become inseparable social assets.

My paper on Blogs and online social networks as user centric service tools in academic libraries was well received. After the presentation queries were there on the creation of library blogs and other aspects of blogs and social networks. My paper was based upon the age factor of user community. Later in another session Ms. Hazel Woodward pointed out that the social and psychological factors of the people are also important behind their usage of blogs and online social networks. I agree upon this matter.

The kathak performance was a nice experience. Experimentations by the dancer made the show memorable.

ICAL 2009

International Conference on Academic Libraries, ICAL begins today (05 October 2009) at the University of Delhi. In the inaugural session Chief Guest, Dr. Sam Pitroda, Chairman, Knowledge Commission boosted the confidence level of gathered professionals by announcing the Commission’s recommendations on libraries to the Goverment, which he said is going to be a reality soon. The recommendations were the institution of the National Library Commission, National Census on Libraries and the establishment of Indian Institute of Library and Information Science. If these things become a reality, needless to say, that will change the entire scope of Library and Information Science in India. Let us hope for the best.

(The ICAL-2009 Proceedings with photographs are available at LibraryNext )

The pre conference session was a tutorial on Virtual reference by Ms. Susan McGlamery, QuestionPoint Senior Product Manager, OCLC. QuestionPoint is a virtual reference software under the 24/7 Reference Cooperative aims to provide quality information to the communities served by the cooperative network of member libraries in the most efficient manner possible.

This service provides online reference assistance to the primary users of the participating member libraries 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ( Ref: QuestionPoint, 24/7 Reference Collaborative Policies and Procedures)

The said software integrates all the virtual reference services such as chat reference(qwidget), e-mail reference, social networks,blogs with user friendly librarian interfaces. One difference between the freely available chat widgets (e.g. Meebo) and the Qwidget is that we will get session transcripts and survey responses of the users in the later one. Every session can be recorded and be evaluated with periodical reports. The idea of local  and global databases is great. This will help to realise the global reference librarians network. The software is new in India. OCLC is running pilot projects in the University of Delhi, Gulbarga University and Indian Institute of Social Sciences.

Ms. Susan also mentioned about the participation of school library networks in using the software. It is better to include a school from India as a pilot project. Anyway it was a very good presentation which gave insights into the emerging trends which will help the librarians to reach the users where they are.

Blogs and Online Social Networks as user centric service tools in Academic Libraries: An Indian library experience

 

International Conference on Academic Libraries, 5-8 October,2009, New Delhi

Modern academic libraries cater the information needs of a more demanding and tech savvy new generation user group that prefers to reside in an open, self generated online environment largely supported by Web 2.0 technologies. To reach the users where they are, the libraries should revamp their service strategies by incorporating tools like blogs and online social networks. Blog is a handy technology for library professionals which can be reshaped as an information and publicity tool, as a feedback instrument, as an interactive and collaborative learning medium and as a facility for library promotion. Online social networks connect like minded people who share information, ideas and feelings. The unparalleled growth of user bases of these networks presents an opportunity before academic libraries that may be harnessed by making the library an active member of these communities. The experience of an academic library in India shows that reaching the user at their own time and space is more easy and productive when we adapt new web technologies.

Key words : Academic Library services, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Blogs, Online social networks