Madras University launches Audio library to aid blind students

It used to be an ordeal for visually impaired college students to read books at the University of Madras library as they needed a person to read them loud.

Now the university has solved the problem by starting a “talking library” with over 500 compact discs and audio cassettes.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Vice-Chance­llor G. Thiruvasagam, who demitted office on Friday, said that the visually impaired students faced lot of hassles to read books in the university library as somebody had to sit with them to read out the books. Now, the varsity has come up with the concept of “talking library”.

“We have over 1,000 visually impaired students and others who prepare for civil service examinations coming to our library daily as we have several old reference books. In the first phase we have purchased 600 compact discs and cassettes from an NGO in Madurai,” he said.

Pointing out that the library would add more titles this year, Prof. Thiruvasagam said that the varsity spent `2.5 lakhs for the first phase of the project.

“A total of 17 students can use the facility at the same time and we will soon expand the facilities,” he said. Saravanan, a visually impaired student, urged the university to add more titles which pertains not only to civil service examinations but competitive exams like National Eligibility Test (NET) and State Level Eligibility Test (SLET).

“This facility will be of good help to us as we have a similar facility at Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram,” he said.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/chennai/mu-launches-audio-library-aid-blind-students-513

Madras University Library Celebrations draw flak

The library of the University of Madras is now embroiled in yet another controversy with senior professors raising questions about the timing of the post-centenary celebrations slated for September 25.

The fete takes place even as the library has remained headless for about four years with several big ticket projects struggling to take off.

Sources in the university said that the celebrations have been organised 5 years after the library completed its centenary in 2007. About Rs 9 lakh had been sanctioned for the event. However, what has raised eyebrows is the timing, as vice-chancellor G Thiruvasagam’s tenure is set to end in October.

Speaking to Express, a senior professors said the historic library has been in neglect as far as administration is concerned. While the last full-fledged librarian retired in 2008, the post remained vacant ever since. This was despite two rounds of advertisements calling for applications. Also, there was an attempt recently by the administration to promote a deputy librarian to the post of librarian, which was defeated.

Statutes, a Syndicate member pointed out, clearly stated that the post could only be filled by direct recruitment and not through promotion.

A senior Senate member said the digitization of theses that began in 2006 was halted half way for two years and has now been restarted after negotiations with the contractor.

This apart, while an UGC notification in 2009 provided for electronic submission of theses by students through an MoU with the INFLIBNET centre, no efforts have been made to carry forward this project.

“Over 70 Universities have already done it. If MU had gone ahead, assistance would have been provided for installing anti-plagiarism software in the library, improving the overall quality of research scholars,” said a senior Senate member, who wished not to be named. While the V-C had promised the installation of the software last year, efforts on this front had been wanting, the member said.

Another project that has failed to take off is the introduction of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for efficient cataloguing, now in place in almost all major varsities in the country.

Senior professors said while the focus should have been on recruitment of a qualified librarian and the implementation of all modernization projects, for which Rs 3.20 crore was allocated, the varsity was going ahead in a hurried manner with the celebrations, five years after the library completed its centenary. Vice-chancellor G Thiruvasagam could not be contacted for comments.

Source: Indian Express, 22 September 2012

Did Madras University overlook lapses in PhD admission to staff?

There seem to be no end to controversies in the University of Madras. The administration of the university is now under fire for overlooking serious lapses in the admission of a library staff to a PhD programme without the concurrence of the academic department concerned.

Repeated flagging of the issue by senior professors, sources claim, have yielded no results and the synopsis submitted by the candidate has been accepted without going into accusation of guidelines violation.

The matter pertains to one S Perumal, a staff of the university library. In 2009, Perumal had allegedly applied for admission to a doctoral programme in Library and Information Science (LIS). While there is a dedicated academic teaching department with a head for this subject, Perumal’s application, senior professors claim, was routed through the library of the university. Curiously, the guide of Perumal for the programme is K Kaliyaperumal, who is now the librarian in-charge.

According to sources, the admission committee that went into Perumal’s application did not have the HoD of LIS as a member, which is mandatory as per statutes.  When the recommendation for admission of the candidate was made, a note sent to the department in March 2010 raised questions on why it was not forwarded through the HoD.

This issue was then taken up with the Board of Research Studies (BoRS) and the varsity Syndicate, which ruled that all applications for doctoral programmes in library science have to go through the department.

But, even after the decision, the administration allegedly failed to act on Perumal’s candidature.

A Syndicate member said a doctoral committee to scrutinise the synopsis of Perumal’s thesis was then formed without having the HoD of the department as member, which was again mandatory.

Documents accessed by Express from the registrar’s office reveal the department had clearly stated that Perumal had neither submitted his application nor had joined the department as a part-time PhD candidate. There was no record of his registration nor of any transaction, including fee payment. Hence, an inquiry was deemed necessary.

“In all other subjects, the fee payment is made through the department only because it has to be audited. How can this case alone be different? Even during the former librarian’s tenure, candidates were processed only through the department and not the library,” said a former senior Senate member.

When contacted, Kaliyaperumal said all norms had been followed in the instance, “The library is a teaching department according to UGC norms. The resolution was passed after the admission of the candidate and so it is not applicable to this case. All rules have been duly followed,” he said.

Source:Indian Express