Godess Saraswati's Wonderful Wealth

Today we attended the 7th National Conference on Library and Information Science - the annual event of Sri Lanka Library Association - SLLA. It had been well organised, and most of the gratitude should go to Dr.Wathmanel Senevirathne, Librarian, Open University of Sri Lanka, who gave proper leadership to make the event a success.

President of Sri Lanka Library Association, Professor Piyadasa Ranasinghe made a valuable speech citing a Shloka, of which the meaning was...

Godess Saraswati's

wealth is wonderful

It grows when used & distributed

And depletes when stored

The Chief Guest, Professor Emeritus (Mrs) Chandra Gunawardene in her speach presented the same idea saying...

"The more it is used, more it multiplies and expands."

In my vote of thanks in the session I, I made a poem to represent both these sayings...

"සරස්වතී දේවිය ගේ

සම්පත් අරුම පුදුම යි

භාවිතයෙන් වැඩේ

ගබඩා කරනු, කෂය වේ.

Also, adding upto a statement made by Professor Gunawardene (even after retirement she is searching for knowledge), I couldn't stop saying that access to knowlege starts even before birth.

Inside mother's woumb, we learn by the way she thinks and acts. Actually it is online learning, because we are connected through a line (umbilical cord).

Therefore mothers are the pioneers in online education.

Professor Chandra Gunawardene's research interests include women and e-learning.

Supermarket Tomatoes and Home Grown Tomatoes

Mary Alice Ball, a library school professor at Indiana University at Indianapolis, US, says she likes home grown or fresh-from-farmer's-land tomatoes to supermarket ones. Similarly, she argues if libraries can provide home made solutions to user's problems.

She thinks that University librarians try to shake up the library’s image by adding coffee shops but remain fairly traditional in offering services and resources, not always taking advantage of the transformative power of the Internet.

Read her full post at http://contentreflections.blogspot.com/2009/04/libraries-tomatoes-and-transformation.html

Picture used here: Carleton University - Library coffee shop (Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/karenehunt/443841854)

What do you wish to have in your library?

Today I happened to read the November 2008 issue of the CDNLAO (Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania) newsletter. It contains an article on aswers to a particular set of questions by Library Directors in this part of the world. One question asks what (tools, machines, objects, etc.) do they wish to have for their respective libraries. The answer given by the Chief Executive of the National Library Board of Singapore, Dr. N Varaprasad is impressive. While others mentioned about various resources such as digital tools, networks so on, he had only one wish; talented people!
Link to the Source

සුභ අළුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා! - Wish You a Happy Sinhala-Tamil New Year

All Sri Lankans now celebrate a happy new year. It is the first time that all Sri Lankans celebrate the event under one flag after three decades of war.

Why Do Librarians Enjoy Faculty Status?

Although Sri Lankan academic librarians enjoy the status of 'faculty' within the system, it is essential to remind this sometimes to the University teachers and more often to the administrative staff. We have seen in the past that in some circulars of the UGC which stated about concessions and benefits for the University academics, Librarians, SALs, and ALs had been omitted, purposely or unintentionally. For those who undermine the status of Librarians as academics, the following excerpts from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians would be an answer.

"The role of college and university librarians...requires them to function essentially as part of the faculty...Neither administrative responsibilities nor professional degrees, titles, or skills, per se, qualify members of the academic community for faculty status. The function of the librarian as participant in the processes of teaching and research is the essential criterion of faculty status.

College and university librarians share the professional concerns of faculty members. Academic freedom, for example, is indispensable to librarians, because they are trustees of knowledge with the responsibility of insuring the availability of information and ideas, no matter how controversial, so that teachers may freely teach and students may freely learn. Moreover, as members of the academic community, librarians should have latitude in the exercise of their professional judgment within the library, a share in shaping policy within the institution, and adequate opportunities for professional development and appropriate reward.

Faculty status entails for librarians the same rights and responsibilities as for other members of the faculty. They should have corresponding entitlement to rank, promotion, tenure, compensation, leaves, and research funds. They must go through the same process of evaluation and meet the same standards as other faculty members..."

More information available at ...http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/jointstatementfaculty.cfm

Librarians Confront New Uncertainties Over Training and Jobs

Jennifer Howard's article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2009 unvail the horrific situation the academic librarians are facing...

How many academic librarians does the world need? More than it will likely have in a few years, as the baby-boom generation ages out of the work force, according to what has been the prevailing theory. However, the economic crisis may be changing that, and the job prospects and skills of tomorrow's librarians were hot topics at the 14th biannual conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries. *For more...http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/03/13690n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Gen Y Employees: Your “Canary in the Coal Mine”

Last week I spent a lot of time writing on Library 2.0 and 3.0 to the NILIS conference. In that article my special concern was on the generation difference between Senior library managers and users. Also the article specifically mentions that the new recruits to the library are more capable of providing solutions to this user generation (Generation Y).

Interestingly I found a post by David Lee, naming new recruits as 'Canaries in a Coal Mine'.

Long ago, before sophisticated technology, coal miners would bring a canary down into the mine shaft as their early warning sign that CO2 levels were getting dangerously high. If the canary keeled over, it was a good time to head to the surface. Because canaries are more sensitive to CO2 levels than humans, they showed the effects before the men did. Thus, the canary’s increased sensitivity saved lives.

David states that your Gen Y employees are your Canary in the Coal Mine for those things that lead all employees to become disengaged. Things like:

1. An impersonal boss who only sees you as a tool to achieve his/her goals, and shows no interest in your well-being or professional development.
2. Outdated, nonsensical policies that make it hard to do your work.
3. Lack of respect for your right to have a life outside of work.
4. Being kept out of the loop, so you always feel like you’re laboring in the dark.
5. A boss who only gives negative feedback — never praise or appreciation.
6. No clarity around how your work matters and contributes to the big picture.
7. Few opportunities to make a difference; to do something that truly matters outside of your routine tasks.

This is a good opportunity for the library manager too, to check what's happening. Above all, isn't it a good opportunity to have Gen Y in your team, to cater to the ever demanding user community?