Rapporteur’s Report of the Two-Day National Conference on Managing College Libraries: Issues and Trends
Respected dignitaries on the Dias, the invitees, the delegates of the conference and my dear friends, I have made a sincere effort to consolidate the gist of presentations and interactions of this UGC sponsored two day national conference on ‘Managing College Libraries: Issues and Trends’ organized by JSS Arts, Commerce and Science College, Ooty Road, Mysore in collaboration with MyLISA, Mysore on December 16-17, 2011.
This national conference received overwhelming response. More than 200 delegates participated in the conference.
The inaugural ceremony of the conference began with an invocation song and Prof. B.V. Sambashivaiah, Principal of the college welcomed the dignitaries and the august gathering, and introduced the guests of honour. The conference was declared opened by lighting the lamp by Sri Revu Nayak Belamagi, Minister of Public Libraries along with other dignitaries with the divine blessings of His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji. Dr S.R. Gunjal, Retd. Professor, Gulbarga University, an eminent personality in the area of Library and Information Science, released the conference volume.
The draft resolutions of the conference are as follows:
Many Thanks.
This national conference received overwhelming response. More than 200 delegates participated in the conference.
The inaugural ceremony of the conference began with an invocation song and Prof. B.V. Sambashivaiah, Principal of the college welcomed the dignitaries and the august gathering, and introduced the guests of honour. The conference was declared opened by lighting the lamp by Sri Revu Nayak Belamagi, Minister of Public Libraries along with other dignitaries with the divine blessings of His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji. Dr S.R. Gunjal, Retd. Professor, Gulbarga University, an eminent personality in the area of Library and Information Science, released the conference volume.
- Dr. T.D. Kemparaju, Professor, Bangalore University spoke on the modalities of bringing out a quality Conference volume wherein out of 73 conference papers received in which only 27 full text papers have been published and the rest 46 papers are put in abstract form.
- Dr. Mallinath Kumbar, Director of the conference gave an overview of the conference and technical sessions, and thanked the organizers and their team for their support and technical modalities in pursuance of the conference program.
- Sri Revu Nayak Belemagi, Minister of Public Libraries, in his inaugural address appreciated the efforts of JSS institutions in achieving quality education and felt very fortunate to be part of this convention held in this divine `Punnya Kshetra’. He also stressed upon the role of libraries to reach the unreached.
- Dr. B.S. Maheswarappa, Professor, Gulbarga University delivered keynote address on `Managing Change in Libraries’. In his inaugural address, he gave an overview of the current status of college libraries in Karnataka, and stressed upon the role of college libraries as an instrument of instruction, and acting as a hub of all academic activities. He advised library professionals to manage the change within the limitations of financial and manpower resources.
- Dr. P.V. Konnur, Professor, Rani Chennamma University, Belgam spoke on significance of libraries as driving force in modern era. In the presidential remarks
- Dr. S.R. Gunjal highlighted on the three basic of models of library and asked the library professionals to spread the message of peace, love and happiness with their treasure of knowledge.
- The first technical session on College Library Management was chaired by Prof. A.K. Bardol, Professor from Mangalore University and Dr. Vinayak Bankapur of SDM College of Engineering, Dharwad, served as Rapporteur. There was one invited paper and eight contributed papers, out of which six papers were presented covering the areas on Professional Development, Best practices and rendering effective services.
- The second technical session was chaired by Prof. T.D. Kemparaju from Bangalore University and Mr. Nagaraja, Librarian, RIE, Mysore as Rapporteur. This session has 12 papers including an invited paper in which 6 papers were presented. The issues like Library Budget, Library building, Use of electronic resources and web-enabled services were presented.
- The third technical session on Collection Development in College libraries was chaired by Prof. B.S. Biradar from Kuvempu University and Mr. Ronald Prakash, St. Philmenal College as Rapporteur. Out of 12 contributed papers, seven of them were presented discussing on policy and guidelines of collection development in both traditional and digital environment.
- On the second day of the conference, fourth and fifth technical session were on `Issues in College Library Services’ which was chaired by Dr. M. Chandrashekar, University of Mysore and Dr. Dharanikumar from Kuvempu University. There were 18 papers including two invited papers. The papers presented on transition of college libraries, library facilities, faculty-librarian collaboration and use of web technology in library services.
- Dr. N.S. Harinarayana from University of Mysore chaired the sixth technical session on Technology implications for college libraries and Mr. Rajendra Babu from Wipro Technologies was the Rapporteur. In this session deliberations were on how ICT could be utilized in extending services to the users.
- Dr. Gopukumar, University Librarian from Goa University chaired the seventh and the final technical session on Technology implications for college libraries and Mr. Santhosh Kumar from Kuvempu University was the Rapporteur. In this session the case studies on ICT applications for automation, digital library and institutional repositories were highlighted.
The draft resolutions of the conference are as follows:
- Librarianship today is witnessing tremendous change, the changing concepts and developments in ICTs, rapid growth of information resources (both in volume and variety), changing user needs, etc, has made a great impact on library and information work and services which in turn demands innovative knowledge & skills for effective management of library. Hence, it is resolved to recommend suitable Continuing Education Programs (CEP) such as workshops, tutorials etc., with much emphasis on hands-on experience.
- Effective use of resources (particularly e-resources) & services, with innovative facilities demands adequate and appropriate knowledge & skills by the users. Developing appropriate competencies among user community is also the responsibility of the library. Hence, it is suggested that professional associations, UGC and other stakeholders concerned to college libraries, to develop suitable Information Literacy Programs to equip the users with appropriate competencies in college libraries.
- Development of e-resources and extending e-resource based services is the need of the hour. The research trends in India have indicated that users in academic environment are showing keen interest and inclination towards use of electronic/digital resources and services. This is the high time that UGC, the Government and the Concerned Authorities to encourage the academic community to develop the electronic resources for college library users and support the colleges to have the infrastructure to provide 24/7 access to these electronic resources.
- Collection development policies are the essential guidelines to build the relevant and quality documents of the library. The lack of such suitable collection development policies caused serious problems in development of library collection in a changing context. Hence, it is resolved that UGC, State Govt. and professional bodies to develop well designed collection development policy for college libraries.
Many Thanks.