Dear All,
This is to inform you that Department of Library & Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur has organised National Librarians' Day Celebration on the occasion of Padma Shri Dr. S. R. Ranganathan's 129th birth anniversary on 12th August, 2021 at 03:30 PM through Google Meet. On the occasion, Department has invited Prof. (Dr.) Ramesh Chandra Gaur, Dean (Academics) & Head, Kalanidhi Division, IGNCA, New Delhi as a special guest to deliver the theme talk "Indian Librarianship after Dr. S. R. Ranganathan: A Bird's-eye View".
The programme commenced with a welcome address given by Dr. Akhandanand Shukla, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Thiruvarur followed by a detailed introduction about the resource person Prof. (Dr.) Ramesh C. Gaur, Dean (Academics) & Head, Kalanidhi Division at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, Ministry of Culture, Government of India by Dr. S. Ravi, Dean, School of Communication and Professor, DLIS, CUTN. Prof. Ravi also spoke about Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, his contributions, and how his ideologies are still relevant to the realm of Library and Information Science.
Prof. Gaur started by expressing his happiness to address DLIS CUTN, especially because the university is situated at Dr. S. R. Ranganathan’s birth place. He spoke about how Ranganathan influenced him to be a proud librarian because Ranganathan found his passion in Library Science even though he was from the Mathematics community. He went on to talk about how Ranganathan taught us to be a multifaceted personality to realize what one’s profession demands by observing the reality and surroundings. He carried on by talking about how Ranganathan was the front runner in creating library associations and how he paved the way for quality education in Library Science in India. Prof. Gaur mentioned the contributions of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan like setting up standards and guidelines for a classification scheme and code, DRTC, making the Library Science education in India of highest quality, convincing the government and other national bodies to create opportunities and avenues for the LIS community, bringing all the libraries and professionals under one umbrella with ILA etc. The speaker expressed his admiration for Ranganathan by referring to him as a true nationalist. He stated that the time of Ranganathan was the golden era of Indian librarianship.
He then moved on to a narration about the current state of librarianship in India. He expressed his opinion that there is an absence of true leadership in the profession. He mentioned that the one thing he feels like Ranganathan failed to do is that creating or developing secondary leaders. He emphasized on how everyone wants to be a leader instead of recognizing a leader. The next point he elaborated was on the lack of one single, powerful and functional national association and how he thinks that the community has lost its voice because of this. He expressed his concern over how divided we are as a community and enunciated that the lack of unity and adherence of the library professionals as a community results in things like library staff positions getting cut off in numbers, no revisions being made to previously written or drafted rules or guidelines according to the changing landscape, not having a collective voice to raise awareness etc. He then carried on speaking about how the library community saw the technological revolution as a threat instead of an opportunity. He said that the library professionals must understand technology and have good IT & communication skills, and added that redesigning the Library and Information Science curriculum in connection with the dynamic landscape is the way to attain it. Prof. Gaur suggested the young professionals to be proud of their profession and the senior professionals to seek leaders and the best of the individual in each person. He concluded by stressing on the importance of respecting your colleagues, keeping the values the Father of Library Science has taught us, the fact that we have to choose our leader & the leader has to work towards the collective goals without any self-interest and that it is high time that we, as library professionals give back to the profession.
Prof. Gaur emphasized the importance of school libraries and how they are of great potential to do wonders in shaping the new generation as a reply to Mrs. Mamta Amarpuri in the Q&A session. He added that in his opinion, every library should be considered as public libraries in our country. Prof. Ravi added on his perspective on how important school librarians are and how an attitude to see the potential in a situation.
The glimpses of the program is given below:
The programme was attended by more than 75 professionals and ended with Dr. K. G. Sudhier, Assistant Professor expressing his perspectives and delivering the formal vote of thanks. Ms. Nayanthara S., Research Scholar, worked as rapporteur in the program.
Thanks.
