Student moves HC against PhD registration cancellation

KOZHIKODE: A research scholar has moved the high court against the cancelation of her PhD registration by the Calicut University. The complainant, Shahana V A, had earlier approached Malappuram police's women's cell, accusing the vice-chancellor, M Abdul Salam, of shouting and verbally abusing her in his office.

Shahana had pursued Masters degree in library science before qualifying for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). She joined the doctoral programme in Malayalam, but the varsity expelled her on grounds that she was simultaneously pursuing two courses. It was also pointed out that she had not obtained transfer certificate (TC) from the library science department.

In her petition, Shahana claimed that she was a victim of vindictive action by the varsity for filing a complaint against the VC with the woman's cell. She alleged that the VC shouted at her and used abusive words when she went to his chamber on July 10 with a group of students to submit a memorandum against the varsity's decision to charge a fee from students for using the Seminar Complex.

On receiving the memorandum, the varsity served her a show-cause notice, seeking explanation on why disciplinary action should not be taken against her.

In the petition filed before the high court on Saturday, Shahana has said that she was victimized and the action of the VC cancelling her PhD registration was 'biased, prejudiced and without any legal basis'.

She said the she had not obtained the TC from the department of library science since it was not mentioned in the list of documents to be submitted along with the PhD application. Shahana claimed that she had applied for TC from the department on July 12, but it was not issued to her till date.

"Even otherwise, nowhere in the CU statutes it is stated that submission of TC is mandatory for the students who get JRF to register for PhD and none of my fellow students had produced the TC before joining the programme," she said. The high court will take up the case on Monday.

The VC refused to comment when contacted on Sunday.

READ MORE NEWS AT: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-08/kozhikode/34321924_1_jrf-shahana-phd

Digital content fast replacing books(TOI)

KOZHIKODE: Digital content is fast replacing printed books in libraries of higher educational institutions in the country, according to experts attending a five-day international workshop on digital libraries. The workshop began at the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K) on Monday. 

"Digital content in libraries at premier educational institutions has already grown to an unprecedented 70-80% as against printed books. Many journals are now available only in digital format," said M G Sreekumar, head, Centre for Development of Digital Libraries (CDDL) at IIM-K and Unesco coordinator of Greenstone Support for South Asia. 

He said there had been a paradigm shift in the way information resources were being handled by libraries following the massive influx of digital content. 

"Traditionally, libraries owned books and journals they bought or subscribed to, allowing them to make best use of the resources. But digital publishing has changed those concepts. Libraries now only get the licence to use electronic information, and even this is issued for a prescribed period," he said. The digital libraries have now become the crucial component of global information infrastructure and offer new levels of access to broader audiences. 

Inaugurating the workshop, Debashis Chatterjee, director of IIM-K, said the knowledge professionals of today should acquire the capacity and capability to foresee the future course of information and knowledge landscape in line with the new emerging world order. 

The workshop focused on Greenstone Digital Library Software, an open source software system for developing digital libraries promoted by the University Of Waikato, New Zealand and sponsored by Unesco. 

Participants will be instructed on how to design digital collections of different publications in a variety of file formats. They will also receive the Greenstone Digital Library Software.

More News at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/Digital-content-fast-replacing-books/articleshow/15594485.cms