Career avenues in library science

Library science today calls for candidates skilled in the art of managing information with the help of technology tools.

Indispensible: A librarian's job involves a wide range of reading and processing of information content through cataloguing, classification and indexing, storing documents, and retrieving the required information. Photo: G. RAMAKRISHNA

Libraries are repositories of knowledge and information and are indispensable in the information age. With the merging of information technology with library science, the nature of libraries and the scope of their services have radically changed. The job involves a wide range of reading and processing of the information content through cataloguing, classification and indexing, storing documents, and retrieving the required information and so on.

Those interested in this discipline can pursue their degree course in library and information science (B.LI.Sc. / B.LiS). At a higher level, one can opt for a Master's degree (M.LISc / M.LIS), M.Phil. or Ph.D. in this discipline. Most universities in India offer one year Bachelor's degree in library and information science or two-year integrated Master's degree in the same discipline. The Bachelor's degree course includes the study of library classification, library and science, library management, cataloguing, information sources, information systems and services and the basics of information technology.

After obtaining Bachelor's degree in library and information science, students can opt for one-year regular Master's degree course in the same discipline. Graduates in other disciplines with at least 50 per cent marks can pursue the two-year (four semesters) integrated Master's programme in library and information science. Both these courses provide equal opportunities for employment. Many universities in south India have introduced the two-year integrated Master of Library and Information Science course. Some universities also conduct the one-year Master's programme for B.LISc. degree holders with 50 per cent marks and above.

The Library and Information Science, Department of University of Kerala, conducts a two year regular integrated Master's programme. Any graduate with at least 50 per cent marks can apply for admission.

Applicants will also have to pass a two-hour long entrance test carrying 100 marks aimed at testing their general knowledge and aptitude for librarianship. Candidates should have to obtain at least 40 marks in order to qualify the test. The total number of seats is 20. The seats are equally allocated among the degree holders in science, arts, and commerce subjects. The course content of the integrated Master's course includes information knowledge and communication, library and society, library management, information sources, organisation of knowledge, information technology, information processing and retrieval, information systems, research methodology, bibliometrics, IT applications in libraries and information system management. A dissertation and viva-voce is also part of the course.

The department also offers one-year self-financing M.LISc. evening programme. Those who have passed B.LISc. with at least 50 per cent marks are eligible to apply. For the one year Master's programme, students can choose from the following options – science information systems, agriculture information systems, social science information systems, health information systems, industrial information system, academic library system and public library systems.

A one year M.Phil. course is also offered by the department. The minimum eligibility for admission is a Master's degree in library and information science with at least 55 per cent marks.

The selection is based on the marks scored in the Master's course and an interview. The department also offers research facilities leading to Ph.D. degree. The minimum eligibility is a Master's degree in library and information science with at least 55 per cent marks and a pass in the UGC-NET. Web site: www.dliskerala.org.

The School of Communication and Information Science under the Mahatma Gandhi (MG) University, Kottayam, offers B.LISc. and M.LISc. courses. The one year (two semester) M.LISc. course here is conducted on a self-financing basis.

The Department of Library Science under the SB College, Changanassery, affiliated to the MG University conducts B.LISc. (30 seats) and M.LISc. (30 seats) courses. Admission to M.LISc. course is open to graduates in library and information science with at least 50 per cent marks. (For details visit www.sbcollege.org).

The Department of Library and Information Science of the Calicut University offers an integrated two year MLISc course.

Graduates in any discipline are eligible for admission. M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes are also conducted.

Eligibility for M.LISc. degree course is at least 50 per cent marks in the degree course.

Address: Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut, Calicut University Campus, Tenhipalam, Malappuram.

Majilis Arts and Science College, Valancherry, Malappuram, also conducts integrated M.LISc. / B.LISc. programmes.

Outside Kerala

The Department of Library and Information Science of several universities in the country offers higher education facilities including B.LISc., two-year integrated M.LISc., one-year M.LISc., M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in the discipline. The following are a few among them:

University of Madras, Chepauk, Chennai

Bangalore University, Bangalore - 560056

Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar - 608002

Andhra University, Visakhapatnam - 530003

University of Mumbai, Mumbai - 400098

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi - 221005

Jiwaji University, Gwalior

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh- 202002

The Documentation, Research and Training Centre in Bangalore and the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre, New Delhi, offer associateships in documentation and information science to experienced graduate librarians. The associateship is recognised as equivalent to M.LISc. degree.

Distance learning mode

Many universities offer graduate and postgraduate course in library and information science through distance education mode.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) offers both these courses. Web site: www.ignou.ac.in.

The Institute of Distance Education of the University of Madras and the Directorate of Distance Educations of the Madurai Kamaraj University also offer graduate and postgraduate courses in library and information science. Web sites: www.unom.ac.in; www.mkudde.org.

Institute of Distance Education of the University of Kerala, Kariyavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, offers B.LISc. degree course through the distance education mode.

Directorate of Distance Education of Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, conducts B.LISc. course in the distance education mode. Web site: www.svudde.org.

Those who desire to get a government job should ensure that these distance learning courses are approved by the joint Committee of the Distance Education Council and UGC.

The list is only indicative. Details of more universities that offer higher education facilities in library and information science under the regular and distance education mode can be collected from the university handbooks published by the Association of Indian Universities which is available for reference in all University employment information and guidance bureaux functioning under universities.

Career prospects

Those who have passed B.LISc. and M.LISc. degrees are eligible to become second and third grade librarians or university library assistants.

Those who have obtained an M.LISc. or Ph.D. and have cleared the Junior Research Fellowship-National Eligibility Test (JRF-NET) can become lecturers in colleges and university departments.

To become a grade I librarian or assistant librarian in a college or university department, the requirement is M.LISc. and UGC- NET.

Job opportunities for postgraduate librarians are many in colleges, university departments, science and technology departments/ institutions, research organisations and so on. Scientific institutes appoint M.LISc. degree holders as scientific assistants/ officers
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Library of the future - Sarah Hiddleston

Can the computer encourage critical thinking instead of passive reception? Brewster Kahle is trying to do just that with Internet Archive.

BREWSTER KAHLE:Facilitating the next generation library.
I magine everything ever written, posted, uploaded, filmed, recorded or broadcast available at the click of a mouse for free. Ideal or irreverent, it's Brewster Kahle's vision and he's making it happen while paywalls go up and rights arguments rage.
“We're building the library of Alexandria V2,” he gestures to academic publishers visiting his Internet Archive, located in a coincidentally neoclassical Christian Science church building in Funston Avenue, San Francisco. “Only this time anyone, anywhere can access it.”
Kahle, inventor of the predecessor to the worldwide web with an academic background in AI, believes that unless we put the best of what we have to offer in front of our children we'll get the generation we deserve.
“We're merging with the machine… Pretty soon we are going to be the computer. So let's make the computer an interesting companion. Let's teach it some good stuff. Otherwise it'll be an idiot and that's no fun,” he says.
Archival material
Kahle has archived over two million books, almost 3,00,000 movies, nearly 80,000 live concerts and over 5,60,000 audio recordings. He's mapped a complete record of every webpage every two months since 1996. It's called the Way Back Machine – if a page changes or an upload removed there's a good chance of finding the original on their search engine.
The idea, he hopes, is to encourage critical thinking instead of passive reception. Take TV, (they record 20 news channels 24x7) and take coverage of 9/11, which Internet Archive packaged and posted in October 2001. “What did the world see? CNN was saying that Palestinians were dancing in the streets. Were they? Let's look at Palestinian TV. Comes across very differently. I think we really know now that news comes with a point of view in this country (the U.S.),” he says. Kahle is showing off his newly relocated centre like Willy Wonka on a tour of his chocolate factory. He even has ompa lumpas, but that's another story.
“This [congregational hall] is the next generation library… Don't think of it in a row [of terminals] like an Internet café. Think of big screens where you might be collaborating with other people.” He and his team are still cooking up ideas. Awe-inspiring and interactive are the baselines.



We see the scanning centre, with their purpose built copiers complete with museum lighting and professional-grade digital cameras. Later on, in the old Sunday school, we see a machine about the height and width of a five-door filing cabinet, filled with rows of flashing slivers. It's a computer that stores 320 terabytes. Which is small. Their storage centre is made up of blocks of one petabyte (a million gigabyte) cabinets, named the PetaBox, which anyone can buy. “It's inexpensive because we designed it ourselves, even bent the metal. I think it's the first open source computer,” he says.
Kahle runs a tight ship. Internet Archive is non-profit making and runs off government subsidy and other donors. The goal was transparency. “We want people to know that we are not jet setting around on their material,” he says. There are 300 employees but only 40 are office workers, administrators and programmers. The other scanning centres are in Canada, the U.K. and Guatemala.
“What we want is more other people to be doing this stuff. They just aren't… What they are doing is often really ‘niche-y' or they just protect it. That's the Google problem,” he says.
Open access
Kahle is referring to the controversy over Google Books, which in 2002 set out to digitise millions of books and was sued for violating U.S. copyright law. In 2008 Google negotiated an agreement with the Author's Guild, so that over half Google's advertising and e-commerce revenues from the project go to copyright holders. Google can index the books but only display snippets in search results for free; any book downloaded must be paid for.
All things old enough not to have rights restrictions in the U.S., Internet Archive gives away. “The idea of downloading a million books is a good day for us. It's not something we are fighting against. Let's find out and do interesting things, non-traditional things, with our material,” he says.
Therein lies the rub. “We've got some structural problems with the web,” he says. “We gotta figure out how people keep publishing on the net and make money…We wish that capitalism would just work but it doesn't because it just goes to monopolies and kind of crushes everybody else.”
Rights issues, he says, are an artefact of power structures, and we are in the middle of a big transition. What it's really about, he says, is “institutional responsibility”; who is supposed to do what.
His ideal solution is open source at the core, with competition on services: “A distributed system for helping people set their own terms and have their own customers is the only way to make the Internet grow to the next level.”
Whatever that is, it's not the iPad. According to Kahle, instead of a shrunken general purpose Mac, the iPad is just a big iPhone - an environment that's too controlled by Apple. “That's sort of sick. It's not exploiting the better part of humans,” he says.
“I want to see these tablets prosper. But … it's the web-based applications that are the ones that are interesting. In terms of a publishing platform we have to make the web version of our for-sale products work. Because this app thing really favours a few power centres. If we want to keep power distributed let's go with open standards as mechanisms to distribute it. So that somebody in a garage can make a really cool tablet. And it doesn't have to be someone working at Google or Apple.”

Quick links

www.openlibrary.org is an online catalogue of books

www.archive.org for the Way Back Machine

http://www.capricorn-tech.com/to know more about the PetaBox

Paperless libraries

                                               

While electronic access has begun to redefine the roles of publishers, librarians and booksellers, it seems unlikely that e-libraries will make good old books redundant, says Akhila Seetharaman

A character from an imaginary future world in American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" remarks, "It's not books you need, it's some of the things that were once in books..."

Today, it's possible to get all the things you may ever need, sorted and edited, without physically opening a single book. Libraries without books, or e-libraries, make this possible.

Like with all things `e', the concept of the e-library is also hazy in the minds of most people. An e-library or an electronic library can either be on the Internet or simply in electronic format and shared in a limited way.

The first step to an e-library is digitising information. Several reputed university libraries in the country, including university libraries in Chennai have significant portions of their resources in electronic format.

This, coupled with subscription databases and online journals, give users wide access.

"While we subscribe to 130-140 journals in print, we receive as many as 2000-3000 journals online," said M.K. Jagadish, Director of American Information Resource Centre.

Not only does the electronic format widen access many times over, it also enables multiple users to access the same text at the same time and protects the valuable content from being lost due to accidents like fires and attacks.

Electronic access alters the way we look at information and knowledge altogether. In the beginning, libraries were sanctums of knowledge and librarians were the watchdogs.

"There was a time when librarians thought that a good library is a library full of books," said M.S. Ananth, Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. "But if all the books are in, it means that nobody is reading," he pointed out, speaking to a gathering of librarians at a convention of the Society for Information Science. Even today, many old-style librarians guard their books both from and for the reading community.

With the sum total knowledge doubling every year, digitisation is the most practical way to save information in terms of both accessibility and storage, said Dr. Ananth.

After digitisation, putting electronic versions of books and journals on networks like the Internet, is the logical next step. This enables knowledge sharing, not just with those in the immediate environment, but also with people with common interests in other areas.

Apart from digitising existing information from books and journals, e-libraries offer potential for new forms of content with increased levels of interactivity.

E-libraries provide opportunities for educational materials to be reached to remote areas and provide access to a range of information materials to all students irrespective of their location.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has initiated a few programmes to network information resources in universities in the country.

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) aims at developing web and multimedia learning content for undergraduate science and engineering students across the country.

INDEST, a consortium of 38 institutions, offers online access (by subscription) to vast electronic resources on science, engineering and technology.

Several non-governmental organisations are also experimenting with electronic educational resources. Vidyanidhi (vidyanidhi.org.in), is one digital library experiment that has catalogued and archived over 50,000 Indian doctoral theses.

With fonts being rapidly developed in Indian languages, literature in various languages, including Tamil, is being organised and archived in electronic format.

Electronic access has begun to redefine the roles of publishers, librarians and booksellers. Copyright issues lurk round every corner of the e-library. But it seems unlikely that paperless libraries will make good old books redundant. Many librarians feel that a mix of print and electronic resources is best.

"Although people talk of e-books, there's nothing like the comfort of reading a book in print," said Mr. Jagadish. "Books will never go, that is for sure."

Open access to journals — a noble movement

IN HIS book Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". The need for a level playing field is heard much today in the wake of WTO and farm subsidies. But it is also increasingly heard in the world of professional scientific publications.

Look at the situation in science libraries. The cost of journals has steadily gone up while the budget of science libraries has remained static or even gone down. The library budget of the top science institute in India today is about Rs. 30 million a year ($650,000).

With this, it is expected to buy books and subscribe to at least 300 scientific journals. A book typically costs about $100, while the annual subscription of journals ranges from $500 to, yes, $18000. As a result, when the library committee asks whether some titles can be discontinued, a battle royal rages among researchers (who actually want to add more journals).

Page charges

On top of this, many journals charge `page charges' from authors whose work they would find worthy of publication. (This practice of page charges is almost exclusively prevalent among science journals, not in those of liberal arts and humanities. When I approached the University of Hyderabad way back in 1977 to pay the page charges for a paper I was publishing, my colleague Prof. Shiv K. Kumar of English exclaimed: "What! I get paid when I publish a paper in my subject. You scientists pay to get your work in print?").

Irony of the situation

The irony of the situation is well captured by the Canadian science historian Jean-Claude Guedon who says, "The beauty of science is that it has been the first operational example of how humanity can create a system of distributed intelligence. Right now it's not working in the best possible way with regard to communication we haven't scaled up so well".

Things were not so bad two generations ago. The playing field was not that level for Indian science even then, but not that off-level as it has become today. There were not too many commercial instruments, and most equipment had to be home-built using "strings and candle wax". Hence the much-quoted example of the discovery of the Raman effect for less than a few hundred rupees. A good chemistry lab in India until the late 1950s had the same equipment and chemicals as those at Cambridge or California, though acquired at a higher price.

And science still operated on a non-commercial, non-IPR, fashion and results were freely exchanged across the world. One of the major spin-offs of the participation of scientists and engineers in the war efforts during 1939-44 was the technological advance leading to highly sophisticated scientific instruments. This gave birth to the scientific instruments industry, which has been raking profits since the 1950s. This led to the great divide in science between the rich nations and the poor.

Side by side, the world of science publications also underwent a change again with a profit motive. While a generation ago, there were hardly 1000 professional scientific journals, today there are 28,000. These are scored based on their `impact factor', i.e. how many people read a given journal and refer to it in their own publications.

Journals with greater impact factors naturally have a longer clientele and make more profit. Their subscription rates are also higher — plain market economics. (The firm Elsevier publishes 1700 scientific journals, and made a pre-tax profit of close to $2 billion last year). This too has produced an asymmetry in the practice and publication of science among nations.

Changed complexion

The advent of electronic communication and the Internet changed the complexion of science publications remarkably. (Interestingly enough, E-mail and the Internet were born out of the free electronic exchange of scientific information among nuclear physicists).

Science publishers began putting out electronic versions of their hard-copy journals; some journals were started purely as e-journals and not hard copies at all. The subscriber had to pay to access these e-versions. While this made the reach of the journals worldwide (and no postage expenses), the subscription costs are still a hindrance to scientists in the poorer nations.

Man-made asymmetry

It is clear that there is a man-made asymmetry here. People of no nation are smarter or brainier than those of any other nation. As Guedon remarked in this context, it is affordability that calls the tune: "only the wealthiest institutions from the wealthiest countries can afford these things (journal subscriptions). Brains are being wasted".

Happily, he is not the only one to think so. Several professional societies and academies (such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society London, or journals such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry) began making special concessions such as free web access to their journals (six months old issues, or even current ones).

A number of new initiatives aimed to provide everyone in the scientific community access to, at least, publicly funded research. These include BioMedCentral which publishes 90 Open Access (OA) journals (where those authors who can, pay up to $ 500 as publication fee while others do not, but all are treated fairly and equally), the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Open Society Institute, which gave rise to the Budapest Open Access Initiative 2001 that brought the OA movement to the forefront.

This in turn led to SciDevNet (which is focused to cater to the developing world), HINARI of WHO which allows free (or small fee) access to about 2000 journals in health-related areas to over 140 nations of the world, and Sciencedirect, which asks for institutional subscription and allows OA to over 1500 journals.

The free search engine Google lets you have some basic information, while the US National Library of Medicine's PubMed allows free queries on who published what where and also gives the abstract of the work, and hyperlinks to many of the journals where these are published.

The tide truly turned in our favour with the start of the non-profit Public Library of Science (PLoS) by the Nobelist Harold Varmus, Pat Brown of Stanford and Michael Eisen of Berkeley. Their OA journals PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine (authors who can, pay publication fees), started in challenge to commercial journals, have become popular. Further, actions like this have led the U.S. and U.K. governments to mandate the authors of all government-funded research output to "self-archive" their work, so as to offer free and open access on the web. In addition, the U.K. has also decided to fund the author-institution the costs of publishing in OA journals and also to support further experimentation with OA journals.

The distinguished scientometrist of India, Dr. S. Arunachalam of the MS Swaminathan Foundation Chennai, has been leading the crusade for OA to and from India. He has been requesting all Indian science agencies to follow the U.K. and U.S., lead and to mandate Indian scientists to self-archive their work and allow OA.

Maximal knowledge base

He points out that this would benefit us to (a) maximize the visibility and impact of India's research output, and by symmetry (b) help create maximal knowledge base for us regarding the rest of the world's research output.

I am sure that our science agencies, the University Grants Commission and also the National Informatics Centre will support Dr. Arunachalam in his selfless public-spirited request.

D. Balasubramanian

Reference and bibliography - B.S. Warrier

                                  

To wrap up this multi-part series on thesis writing, here is an overview of how to list the bibliography and references.

 
FAMILIAR GROUND: Those who are familiar with the classification systems generally used in libraries will find the going easy.

"Classification, broadly defined, is the act of organising the universe of knowledge into some systematic order. It has been considered the most fundamental activity of the human mind."

— Lois Mai Chan (Expert on Library Science)

A bibliography is an alphabetical list of all the sources such as books, journal articles, or other materials from which you have derived information for your research and the preparation of the thesis. The citation has to be in a standard format. The listing is usually arranged by author, date or subject. There are accepted forms of citing authors, papers, and books in the bibliography part of your thesis. You have to follow them. Some of these are indicated below.

Books

When a book is cited, you should indicate the author's full name, full title, edition, number of the volume if it runs to two or more volumes, place of publication, publisher's name, and the year of publication. The author's name is reversed; the last name comes first, then a comma, then the first name, and a period after the complete name. Titles such as Dr, Sir, and Ph.D may be omitted. The title (name of the book) is underlined. The sequence for the publication can be as follows: place of publication, a colon, name of the publisher, a comma, and the date, and then a period.

Rao, Krishna. The future of floriculture in India. Bangalore: Pioneer, 2006.

If a book has been written by two or more authors, show their list in the same order as given on the title page. The name of the first author alone need be reversed; the other names may be given normally. If there are more than three authors, it is sufficient if you name only the first, and use ``et al'' to indicate the remaining authors. However, there is no harm in listing all the authors. In such a case, separate the names with commas and put an ampersand (&) before the last author.

Article in a journal

You should show the author's name, title of the article, title of the journal, volume number, year of publication, and page numbers. The title of the article may be shown in quotation marks. Put a period before closing the quotes. The name of the journal may be underlined. The year of the publication is given in parenthesis. It is followed by a colon, the inclusive page numbers and then a period.

Menon, Jayanth. "Women in management - a sociological study of women and their professional attainments in the IT industry." Sociology Today 32 (2006): 27-39.

Internet

Apart from information on author, and URL (uniform resource locator), the access details may be given. The sequence and style of citing have to be uniform. Never try to show in full the URL including the link wherefrom you retrieved the information. This may be too long and complicated leading to errors in transcription thereby spoiling its utility. The URL of the home page of the site would be adequate.

The following sequence may be followed.

· Author's name

· Title of document, in quotes

· Title of complete work (if relevant), in italics or underlined

· Date of publication / last revision

· URL, in angle brackets

· Date of access, in parentheses

See the example shown below.

Basu, Mohan. "The Music of the Ganga." The Bengal Heritage, 25 April 2005, {lt}http://www.tagore.edu.htm{gt} (16 October 2006).

If information about the print publication is given in the website, that may also be indicated.

It may be noted that only basic information on bibliography can be provided here because of space constraint. There are numerous possibilities of multiple authors, different works of the same author, journals that do not publish papers on continuous pages, articles from a newspaper / reference book / encyclopaedia / anthology, translations, audio / video records / CD ROMs, paintings, manuscripts, etc. There are reference books and websites that furnish full information on all these. A fine reference book that is generally followed is the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by Joseph Gibaldi (The Modern Language Association of America. Reprinted by East-West, New Delhi).

Effective use of library

While using a library, it would be of great advantage to you if you were familiar with the style of classification adopted there. One popular style is the Dewey Decimal Classification System, in which the basic classification of titles is as follows:

000 Generalities

100 Philosophy & Psychology

200 Religion

300 Social sciences

400 Language

500 Natural sciences & mathematics

600 Technology (Applied sciences)

700 The arts

800 Literature & rhetoric

900 Geography & history

Further sub-classification has been made systematically. The full details cannot be covered here for space constraint. However, the following examples indicate the approach.

000 Generalities

001 Knowledge

002 The book

003 Systems

004 Data processing Computer science

005 Computer programming, programs, data

006 Special computer methods

010 Bibliography

064 General organisation & museology In France & Monaco

098 Prohibited works, forgeries, hoaxes

103 Dictionaries of philosophy

155 Differential & developmental psychology

222 Historical books of Old Testament

325 International migration & colonization

415 Structural systems (Grammar)

521 Celestial mechanics

672 Iron, steel, other iron alloys

798 Equestrian sports & animal racing

873 Latin epic poetry & fiction

959 General history of Asia Southeast Asia

Another popular system is Universal Decimal Classification that was developed by the Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri la Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. It is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification, but is much more powerful and is used especially in specialist libraries.

In UDC, every number is thought of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines the filing order. A great merit of UDC is that it is infinitely extensible. When new subdivisions are introduced, they would not disturb the existing allocation of numbers.

Main categories in UDC:

· 0 Generalities. Informatics and Information Sciences

· 1 Philosophy. Psychology

· 2 Religion. Theology

3 Social Sciences. Statistics. Politics. Government. Economics. Law.

Administration. Military. Folklore

· 4 Unassigned

· 5 Natural Sciences. Mathematics

· 6 Applied Sciences. Medicine. Technology

· 7 The Arts. Recreation. Entertainment. Music. Sports

· 8 Languages. Linguistics. Literature

· 91 Geography

· 92 (Auto-) Biography

· 93 / 99 History. Archaeology

The full version of the UDC has more than two lakhs of subdivisions.

Whatever is the system followed in a library, it will certainly be of great advantage to you if you get yourselves familiar with it, as otherwise a lot of time would be wasted in searching for the titles in the area of your choice.

It is true that modern libraries offer the facility for computerised search of the titles available at any point of time, based on author, subject, title, etc. Even then, knowledge of the classification system followed in your library will be of help.


Source:- The Hindu 
http://www.hindu.com/edu/2006/12/18/stories/2006121800240400.htm

The art of managing information - K. Lakshmi

    

Career opportunities for librarians have increased manifold in this digital era.

OPPORTUNITIES GALORE: Librarians need to keep themselves abreast of the latest technology to facilitate quick retrieval of information.

Libraries have come a long way from being mere storehouses of books and periodicals. And the work profile of librarians has also undergone a tremendous change.
According to librarians in the government sector, only a few chose library for a career a few decades ago and most of them were based in the public sector. Now, the number of libraries and the scope of the career have increased manifold.
Officials of the Public Libraries department said a degree or postgraduate degree in library science is a must to take up job as a government librarian. Knowledge in computer science has also become a necessity to keep up with the emerging trend of digitisation. Many universities offer library science courses in distance education mode and regular stream. A. Amudavalli, professor and head, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Madras, said it is a misconception that such courses are now being offered only through distance education. The regular college students have better opportunities than the students of distance education mode.
Various courses
The Department established in 1937 offered certificate and diploma courses. Over time, undergraduate and postgraduate courses were merged together as a two-year Integrated Course in Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS). Later, the course was renamed M.Sc. in Library and Information Science as a full-time (regular) programme, she said.
As the data is not limited to books anymore, the scope for careers in different fields has widened. Besides opportunities in traditional libraries, including those at schools and colleges, candidates could get placement in government department libraries and private sector libraries such as in IT firms and hospitals.
“We constantly update the curriculum with new topics based on the current trends. The students are exposed to latest concepts such as digital libraries, computer applications and soft skills. This provides required competence for employability in various fields,” she said. As the new courses train students in management information system, they could also apply for jobs in banks for record and data management. Another important aspect of the curriculum is the one-month internship training at various major libraries.
Career scope
Most institutions, including non-governmental organisations, research and development labs, defence organisations and media houses, now have library equipped with latest technology and need qualified candidates.
The department is also introducing P.G. Diploma in Digital Library Management in the coming academic year.
Students would learn about digital data preservation, management and retrieval through this evening college programme.

New vistas in Library Science

                         

 LIBRARY AND Information Science deals with the challenge of how to organise, control and access information. With the onslaught of information technology, libraries are making a rapid transition from card catalogues to digitalised services including making available information on CD-ROMs.

In the ever-changing environment, it is the job of the library and information science professional to ensure that the information gets to the right user in the right place at the right time. It is a course for people who have a flair for reading and keep a tab on the developments on the information front. A degree programme in Library and Information Science is intensive in nature, and thereby demands students who are highly motivated and dedicated to learning. Librarians and information officers are expected to be organised, with an inquisitive mind, have an appetite for unearthing information, and acquire and prepare materials for use. Outstanding communication skills, quick grasping ability, skill for organising facts, speaking and writing skills, diplomacy, and knowledge to evaluate technical material is required.

It is their responsibility to oversee the management of the library, supervise assistant librarians to prepare cards and computer records, and read book reviews, publishers' notifications and catalogues to be informed of current literature and other available resources. It is their endeavour to select and purchase materials from publishers, wholesalers and distributors, and arrange books and other library materials in an easily accessible mode.

Job avenues

Avenues for professionally qualified librarians are increasing. With computerisation and electronic storage systems, a course in library and information science has acquired a new look. Openings exist in information centres, which include public enterprise, industrial and commercial firms, public and institutional libraries, digital libraries, online libraries/archival services. There are opportunities in libraries run by schools, universities, colleges, professional bodies, libraries attached to embassies societies and research associations.

Undergraduate courses

Degree, diploma, vocational and specialised courses are available in library and information sciences. Undergraduate degree courses in library science and related disciplines include:

Bachelor's Degree in Library Science (B.Lib).

Bachelor's Degree in Library and Information Services.

Bachelor's Degree in Library and Manuscriptology.

Bachelor's Degree in Library and Documentation.

The duration of the courses is one year. Only graduates (from any discipline) are admitted. Subjects covered include cataloguing, bibliography, documentation, research methodology, information storage and retrieval, manuscriptology, preservation and conservation, information systems and computer applications.

Postgraduate programmes

Postgraduate degree courses in library and related sciences include:

Master's Degree in Library Science (M.Lib).

Master's Degree in Library Science and Documentation.

M.Phil and Ph.D in Library Science.

Master's Degree in Library and Information Sciences.

Only graduates with B.Lib are admitted to the Master's degree programmes. The courses are one year long. The eligibility for M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes is M.Lib.

Areas of specialisation available at the PG level are library planning; management of Information Service (MIS); translation; archives management; technical writing; reprography; special library services; electronic solution to documentation etc.

Vocational courses

Vocational courses in library science are also offered to non-graduates for which the eligibility is Standard X.

Specialised courses

Specialised courses, meant for librarians and other in-service personnel, are also available. These include:

Diploma in Medical Librarianship (by correspondence).

Fresher and Advanced Courses in Library and Information Sciences.

Postgraduate Diploma in Library Science.

Computer Applications in Library Science.

Some of the universities offering courses in Library and Information Science are:

1. Bangalore University, Jnana Bharathi, Bangalore-560 056.

2. Karnatak University, Pavate Nagar, Dharwad.

3. University of Mysore, Crawford Hall, P.B.No. 17, Mysore-570 005. 4. Gulbarga University, Jnana Ganga, Gulbarga-585 106.

4. Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri, Mangalore.

5. Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal.

6. Kuvempu University, Shankarghatta, Shimoga-577 451.

The National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, offers a course in "digital library and information services in enterprises" as part of the Information and Knowledge Management training programme. The Indira Gandhi National Open University offers distance education programme in Bachelor Of Library & Information Science (BLISc). The duration is one year and the eligibility is graduates with two years experience in a recognised library.

A scholarly profession with promise

The coming together of books and information technology requires today’s librarians to be interested in both

Financial woes: Among Indian libraries, the digital movement is lagging far behind.
In the era of the global economy, the future of a country is tied to knowledge-leveraged growth. The prime movers to achieve such growth are education, research, and communication. A formidable infrastructure in education, reinforced by well-knit communication and dissemination systems is a sine qua non for knowledge-based growth.
Life and living all around is today virtually under the grip of information and communication technologies. The enormous, unlimited array of information has to be managed and systematically transformed into a useful input for instant use. As such, automation of libraries is the demand of the hour worldwide to provide online access to books, journals and allied material.
The work-culture in libraries is changing fast. Cyber libraries are opening, packed with digital documents, CD-Roms and talking books. Several libraries are being connected for resource sharing using the Internet. Information like research findings, data, databases, online yellow pages, electronic mail services, investment guides, travel guidelines with related maps, educational and career guidance and the like can easily be retrieved.
As publishing is now moving to digital-media-formats, a library likewise needs to advance its devices and networking to make use of the digital material. Here, the collection of the library is stored and maintained in computer-accessible-form and accessed digitally through computer networking, regardless of its location. The process makes well-ordered, instant information-retrieval possible, globally.
People are getting net-savvy and the demand for online digital information service is increasing manifold. Among Indian libraries, the digital movement is lagging far behind, primarily due to financial limitations.
The old systems of acquisition, storage, organisation and dissemination are becoming obsolete. With the onslaught of Information Technology and the Internet, the very anatomy and application of resource material have been revolutionised. The present-day library is a liaison in communication progression and so is more ‘service-adept’ and less ‘resource-oriented’.
Likewise, staff members have to be technically accomplished and skilfully proficient. Today, the librarian (or, Information Professional) functions as a “navigator”, an updater of information to intellectual reserves, with the help of search engines, e-resources, digitalisation and tools like Gopher, FTP, Telnet, Unix, MS-Office, Windows, Linux and so on.
Emerging challenges

Jobs in a library also consist of budgeting, accounting, acquisition of collection, organisation and management of the institution, besides rendering service to readers. IT, digitalisation, online global information, automation have added new dimensions. In the areas of self-education, distant learning and online schooling, the library is indispensable.
The library profession has truly perceived the diversified dynamics of its job paradigms and so the training courses have been designed and drawn up accordingly, to meet emerging requirements and challenges. Currently, the following courses in LI. Sc are conducted by universities.
• 10+2+3+1 Bachelor of Library and B.LI.Sc. Information Science (admission requirement: degree in any discipline)
• 10+2+3+1+1 Master of Library and M.LI.Sc. Information Science (truncated course, one-year M.LI.Sc.) (admission requirement - B.L.I.Sc.)
• 10+2+3+2 Master of Library and M.L.I.Sc. Information Science (integrated course) (admission requirement: degree in any discipline)
• 10+2+3+2 Master of Library and M.L.I.Sc Information Science (bachelor’s degree in any discipline with Library and Information Science as one of the optional subjects)
Universities are also conducting research and Ph.D programmes in Library and Information Science. Besides, certificate courses in Library Science of three to six-month duration are conducted at some places by Library Associations, for higher secondary students to work as semi-professional or librarian in a small library. Knowledge of foreign languages is an advantage in this profession.
A knowledgeable librarian works as a guide, making the reader aware of the relevant literature, like any other teacher. In academic libraries, library professional’s grades and status have therefore, been prescribed by the UGC on a par with those of teachers of the universities and colleges. University Librarian, Deputy Librarian and Assistant Librarian are placed in the pay-scales of University Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor respectively, provided they possess qualification on a par with the teachers, as prescribed by the UGC. In the institutions of science and technology and scientific research, library professionals are treated on a par with those of the corresponding scientists. In public libraries, however, librarians’ grades are not uniform and satisfactory. Grades here differ from State to State and much needs to be done to improve the conditions of the staff.
With increased emphasis on spread of literacy and education, and a good number of new universities, IITs, engineering colleges, business and management schools and industrial establishments coming up, the job-market for library professionals looks green.
Regarded as a noble profession, it is well-suited to women, to work in a quite environment, assisting information-seekers, especially the children.
The librarian’s job is scholarly; it’s a career with promise of growth, meant for those interested in books and reading and keeping their knowledge abreast with contemporary literature and research.

SHRI NATH SAHAI

Retired University
Professor-Librarian

The new Information professionals are here

Librarianship is a scholarly profession with promise 

HI-TECH LIBRARY: An automatic book issue machine
In the present global economy, the future of a country is tied up with knowledge-leveraged growth. The prime movers to achieve such growth are (i) education, (ii) research, and (iii) communication. A formidable infrastructure in education, reinforced with well-knit communication and dissemination work-out, is sine qua non for knowledge-based growth. Life and living all around today is virtually under the grip of information and communication. The unlimited information flow has to be managed and systematically transformed into a useful input. As such, automation of library is the need of the hour worldwide for online access to books, journals and allied material.
The work culture in libraries is changing fast. Cyber libraries are happening; packed with digital documents, CDs and books. Newspapers, journals, textbooks and reference books, all will be on CD-ROMs and digital multimedia. Publishers like Penguin have started issuing classics on CD. Great books of India and are made available on internet. Libraries will soon possess even robots (with artificial intelligence) and other such machines which will perform various services for the readers. Paper-library and paperless-library will co-exist. Low-cost, light-weight electronic book-readers, with built-in modem, will be used more conveniently, instead of PC.
Several libraries are being connected for resource sharing. Information like research findings; data; databases; online yellow pages; electronic mail services; investment guides; travel guidelines with related maps; educational and career guidance and the like can easily be retrieved. As publishing is now moving on to digital-media formats, library likewise needs to advance its devices and networking to make use of the digital materials. The collection is stored and maintained in computer-accessible form and accessed digitally through computer networking, regardless of the location of libraries. The process makes well-ordered, instant information-retrieval possible, globally. People are getting net-savvy and so is the demand for online digital information service increasing manifold swiftly.
For Indian libraries, digital movement is lagging far behind, primarily due to financial limitation and compulsion. The old systems of acquisition, storage, organisation and dissemination are giving way and becoming obsolete. The present library is is more ‘service-adept' and less ‘resource-oriented.' Likewise, the staff has to be technically accomplished. Today, a Librarian (no, Information Professional) functions as “navigator” and filler of information to intellectual reserves, with the help of search engines, e-resources, digitalisation and tools like Gopher, FTP, Telnet, Unix, MS-Office, Windows, Linux etc.
Jobs Jobs in library consists of also budgeting, accounting, acquisition of collection, organisation and management of the institution, besides rendering service to readers. In the areas of self-education, distant learning and online schooling, the library is indispensable. The training courses in the profession have been designed to meet emerging requirements and challenges. Currently, following levels of education and courses in LISc are held by the universities:
Bachelor of Library and B.LI.Sc Information Science (admission requirement: degree in any discipline)
Master of Library and M.LI.Sc Information Science (truncated course-one year M.LI.Sc.) (admission requirement: B.L.I.Sc.)
Master of Library and M.L.I.Sc. Information Science (Integrated Course) (admission requirement: degree in any discipline).
Master of Library and M.L.I.Sc Information Science (Bachelor degree in any discipline with Library and Information Science as one of the optional subjects).
Certificate course in Library Science of three to six month duration is conducted at some places by Library Associations, for higher secondary students to work as librarian in a small library. Knowledge of foreign languages is an advantage in this profession.
A knowledgeable librarian works as a guide, making the reader aware of the relevant literature, like any other teacher. In academic libraries, library professional's grades and status have therefore, been prescribed by the UGC at par with those of teachers of the universities and colleges. University Librarian, D.y Librarian and Assistant Librarian are placed in the pay-scales of University Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor respectively, provided they possess qualification at par with those of the teachers, as prescribed by the UGC. In the institutions of science and technology and scientific research also, library professionals are treated at par with those of the corresponding scientists. Job satisfaction of librarians of these institutions of learning and research are quite satisfactory. In public libraries, however, librarians' grades are not uniform and satisfactory. Grades differ from State to state and much needs to be done to ameliorate the conditions of the staff of these libraries.
With increased emphasis on spread of literacy and education, and a good number of new Universities, IITs, engineering colleges, business and management schools and industrial establishments coming up, the job-market for library professionals looks good in the public and private sectors.
Regarded as a noble, soft profession, it is much suited to women, assisting the information-seekers, especially children. Women make good children librariana. Here, she is not only distributor of books but also an affectionate friend to children, a mentor and guide.