Library advocacy programmes need proper planning. First there should be a key message or objective for the campaign. We have to carefully create a message for which we are planning to advocate. That may be for an increase in library budget, appointment of an additional staff, developing infrastructure, etc. Finding out the potential and invisible advocates for your library is the second step. That may be students (including the influential alumni), teachers, administrators, community leaders, media persons or anyone who love and ready to speak out for the library and its importance. Networking these advocates is the third step where we have to create a database of these people with fields such as name, organization they are working, field of expertise, influential contacts, and willingness to tell their library success stories to others.

The fourth step is communicating the message to the target audience (decision makers) through proper channel. This may be of printed, audio/video or one to one talk, etc. Newsletters, brochures, coverage on daily newspapers, cable TVs, radio may play the trick. Then the fifth step is the evaluation, to assess whether the campaign was successful or not and what were the missing elements, etc. If it was a failure re launch the advocacy programme with a newly acquired energy, techniques, strategies and wisdom.

The meeting of parents of students those who are going to appear the board examination and their teachers was an exciting opportunity for any librarian to speak out for his library. The meeting held on 12 and 13 April 2010 on the behest of PTA (Parent Teachers Association). I would like to express my gratitude to the PTA Vice Chairman Dr. K G Ajith Kumar  for giving such a rare chance. I could explain the library in brief and inspire the parents to take one step further to make their children the best users of quality information and life lone learners by properly exploiting the library resources.

E-Granthalaya (version 3.0), eG-3, was the library management software discussed in detail, in the second phase of In-service course for librarians held at KVS, ZIET Mysore from 22-28 March 2010. Since KV libraries have been demanding for a unified LMS for the last many years in vain and libraries using different software, the interoperability and networking of all KV libraries will remain as a dream. The new version of E-Granthalaya enters in this vacuum.

The eG-3 has been installed and managed in  many KV libraries in Delhi and nearby regions. Since the software is from NIC (National Informatics Centre, Govt. of India), and distributed free of cost to  govt. institutions, there exists no issues of buying and accounting. The installation is easy. The NIC has a dedicated team of people for service and  an user can discuss and solve issues through the  e-granthalaya email forum.

From the feedback received from the participants, the main issues faced by the KV librarians with eG-3 are,

1. eG-3 can’t be installed on Windows Vista/7 home/business editions ( Many libraries run on pre- installed Vista OSs.). If the software can made compatible with the these OS that will be very helpful to many.
2. The eG-3 uses a separate document classification system which is alien to many. KV libraries are directed to follow the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system, which is the most popular and widely used Library classification scheme around the world. If the software can incorporate DDC in its accession module (the first three DDC summaries with some local variations are enough for school libraries) along with an auto find, that will make the eG-3 the best software for many academic libraries.
3. Starting eG-3 call centres in every region / cluster of regions. This was a good idea proposed by an NIC resource person. If all the KVs are directed to install the software, then there should be a mechanism to clear the problems and a librarian from each region could be act as an eG-3 resource person.

Let’s hope more and more libraries will move on with eG-3 and the dream for an unified LMS will become a reality.

“Vanishing libraries” is the trend of the decade.                            School libraries wither its sheen where the emerging technologies take over and rule the minds of users. Internet has been considered as the sole and primary source of “everything”. Where should the libraries/librarians reposition themselves?

Recently there was a news from Europe that a school library removed all its printed materials and replaced that with E-readers, where the users can download and read the e-books/databases (through the library’s subscription channel) as per their needs. Imagine a library filled with some gadgets, say kindles and a superfast wifi connectivity( think about internet cafes or computer centres). Now the users can take the E-readers any where in the campus and use it while they eat and chat at coffee joints. The physical library vanishes.

And where goes the Librarian?

Unless the Librarians think about the missing opportunities and find out the existing ones, they should consider the possibility to do a Indian rope trick which will help them to melt down own professional identities.

The report in the daily “The New Indian Express” on the Library blogs was an inspiring one for many professionals to consider the emerging web 2.0 tools as serious alternatives to reach out the users where they are. The library media centre at KV Pattom expresses gratitude to all who has been backing its efforts and enjoys its role in gaining accolades for the institution.

International Conference on Children’s Libraries (ICCL) 2010 held at New Delhi from 16 to 18 February 2010 organized by AWIC (Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children) and Indian IBBY. The conference was inaugurated by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. His inspiring words on books, reading and libraries gave an ample start to the event. The conference was a platform to showcase mainly NGO libraries and their activities in India and around the world. See the ICCL sessions with photographs here.

The presentations and papers worth mentioning were the Reading Promotion Project by ‘Action with Lao Children’, Japan (Ms. Chanthason), AWIC Play”Children of the Magic Pen’ directed by Feisal Alkazi ,  ‘All of Poland Reads to Kids’ Foundation, Poland (Mrs. Monika Chojnacka), and the papers presented by Indra Nath Chowdhery ,Former Chairperson, Nehru House, London; Secretary, Sahitya Academy, New Delhi “A Book Culture to Build Bridges  (Promotion of universal values)”,  Ellis Vance, Librarian; Treasurer, International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)”One World One Dream  (Promotion of friendship, tolerance and peace)”, Ingrid Bon, Chairperson, Section IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adults, Netherlands and activities displayed by Pratham, AWIC Libraries and other initiatives.

The event proved that there were serious lapses in collaborative efforts between libraries and children. The crucial role of school libraries in developing book culture should be realized. Considering the huge stock of reading materials available in traditional school libraries (KVs, JNVs and other CBSE and State schools), the collaborative opportunities between NGOs and school libraaries should be explored.

Our question is how Nings can be used in Libraries? Many libraries (academic, public, etc) in Europe and USA have already added Nings as their user interactive tools. Based on initial observations, Nings can be used in the libraries as, 

* Networking tool to interact with users: Secured and library administered platform help the library staff to communicate and interact with the active users.

* Library promotional and publicity medium: The Library can promote and publicize its resources and services on the network.

* Library evaluation tool: The discussion forums on the Nings can be designed to collect user feedbacks and analysis.

* Online personal space within the Library: The user designed personal pages  act as personal spaces where they can express themselves through text, images and multimedia with in the wall of the library’s online interface.

* Collaborative sharing and learning  platform: The groups created on the network based on topics can facilitate sharing of ideas and conduct collaborative learning practices (teacher-student/student-student/teacher-teacher, etc).

I have started “Library Junction” as a project to experiment with these ideas. This is a platform to share ideas or views on libraries, books, reading, web, networking and learning. Those who are interested can join the network.

“Building a Book Culture” – this is the theme for the International Conference on Children’s Libraries (ICCL) 2010 which is to be held at New Delhi from 4 to 6 of February 2010, organised by the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) and the Indian Section of the International Board on Books for young people (IBBY).

As mentioned on the conference webpage, the aim of the event is to discuss the potential and scope of libraries in strengthening the book culture. Many thematic papers are there to be presented. One difference from other LIS conference is that no papers were invited from the participants. They can come, hear the presentations and interact with others in the conference. Yes, different organizations have different perspectives.

The topics are interesting and I am waiting for the deliberations following. But, where are e-publishing, e-books and their impact on reading? And where we discuss the dimensional changes happening and the raise of new management models in publishing and communication due to the advent of web 2.0?

The conference webpage is on the event section of AWIC website. The page is static and my experiments to contact through the e-mail id given there failed despite repeated attempts.

Let’s hope that the conference will be a dynamic one.

“No nonsense Library Ideas in One sentence” that is the tagline of LibraryCloud . This a resource site for workable and innovative library ideas summarised in one sentence. Any one can mail their library ideas to libidea@gmail.com.

Also a Web 2.0 initiative for libraries (say Library 2.0) by harnessing the collective intelligence of the masses (say library professionals).

The Qatar edition of “News at 2 pm” weekly magazine has published an interview with me on its Nov.27-Dec.04, 2009 (Vol.1, Issue 199) edition. The interview was in Malayalam (with the title “Dream at Baramulla on an Eid Day”. Thanks for the Magazine Editor and its reporter Mr.S. Subeesh, for made a school library worthy of a news story.

More than 950 schools and nearly 900 Librarians, it was not an easy task. Connecting the Librarians physically means loosing yourself in the desert ( many such experiments failed). But, web 2.0 made it possible through a handy tool, ‘Online social networking’. Ning was the platform. There was the birth of “Kendriya Vidyalaya Librarians’ Network”, an online social network with a lot of handy and manageable tools. For some it was just like ‘orkut for professionals’. Enthusiasm led some others to the site. But it started working through its blog posts, discussion forums, photos, RSS and web links. Now the KVLNetwork has more than 135 working and Professional Kendriya Vidyalaya librarians as active members and six guest members. issues are  discussed here with regular and varied inputs from the members. On their pages the members can upload photos and reports of their library/professional activities. Also there are links to more than 25 KV Library blogs.

Now the KV Librarians in India have a platform to share their ideas and views and remain friends. Along with the blog ”Kendriya Vidyalaya Library Web pages”, this network may brighten their minds and harness workable and innovative ideas which leads to some change in Indian School Librarianship. Let’s hope for the best.

Remembering the legends is always inspiring. Reminiscing Dr. S.R.Ranganathan and  his disciple, Prof. K.A.Isaac’s epochal contributions to Indian LIS is creatively provoking and at the same time essential. The event was Prof. K A Isaac Commemoration Lecture at DLIS, University of Kerala, organized by Kerala Library Association on 21st October 2009.

This year’s lecture was on the topic “Library and Information System in India: Future prospects”, delivered by one of Dr. S.R. Ranganathan’s Research Assistant and Former Head, British Council Libraries in India, Shri P. Jayarajan. The lecture was well organized and beautifully presented. Shri. P. Jayarajan’s observations on the need to increase the power of  librarian’s adaptation to the ever changing technologies were very relevant. He also shared his experiences with Dr. S.R. Ranganathan and Prof. K A Isaac, who was his teacher and mentor.

The concern regarding the absence of proper documentation on Prof. Isaac’s research materials and his dynamic speeches  on LIS was raised by Dr. A.Gopikuttan, HOD, DLIS, Univ. of Kerala. Indeed, I also faced this when searched for some images of the first Librarian and Professor of DLIS of Kerala University . There was virtually nothing on the web. DLIS or AADLIS can take some initiatives upon this, to fill the information gap.

One possible suggestion is crating web pages on these doyens (with images, tests and hyperlinks) on the AADLIS or KLA website (website of the Kerala university library is still a dream). I think AADLIS must consider this.

Prof. K A Isaac was my Guide in MLISc . I have been very proud about that rare gift.

Know more about Prof. K A. Isaac