International and Comparative Librarianship

DEDICATED TO PIONEERS   INCLUDING:
S. R. Ranganathan, P. N. Kaula, R. N. Sharma, J. F. Harvey, D. J. Foskett, J. P. Danton, M. M. Jackson, etc.
This Blogosphere has a slant towards India [a.k.a Indica, Indo, South-Asian, Oriental, Bharat, Hindustan, Asian-Indian (not American Indian)].

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Indian Contributions @ IFLA 2010, Sweden


World Library and Information Congress: 76th IFLA General Conference and Assembly, "Open access to knowledge - promoting sustainable progress"
10-15 August 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden

News update, Post-conference:
A participant says: Exciting and well attended sessions, fruitful standing committee meetings, and a nice dinner: that was Gothenburg WLIC 2010. Christel Mahnke

Updates by:
  • IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group: Two sides to every gap
  • Stephen Abram --Stephen's Lighthouse--based on Gary's ResourceShelf
  • Sheila Webber's Information Literacy Weblog
  • Peter Scott's Library Blog
  • more updates

  • Programme and Proceedings:
    Indian contributions:
  • Bandyopadhyay, Ratna; Majumder, K.P.; Bose, B.; Sengupta, P. "Come to your Library": BLA project for promotion of reading in West Bengal, India. Session 133, IFLA 2010.
  • Das, Anup Kumar. Library Advocacy in India in the Light of Education for Sustainable Development - Perspectives of an Emerging Economy. Session 87, IFLA 2010.
  • Dhiman, Anil Kumar. Evolving roles of library & information centres in e-learning environment. Session 107, IFLA 2010.
  • Singh, Jagtar; Begum, Dilara. Student awareness of health information initiatives of the Governments of India and Bangladesh: a study of Punjabi University, Patiala and East West University, Dhaka. Session 100, IFLA 2010.

    See also:
  • IFLA 2010 - Papers from South Asia

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  • Sunday, August 08, 2010

    Shelf Reading and Reading Between the Shelf: Needs Innovation

    Interesting (but boring and strenuous) activity in a library--i.e., familiarization with the library collection--is always a challenge, both for old and new staff. One way to do is shelf-read, read the shelves and what lies between the shelves.

    Said Rochowiak" "Shelf reading is very important. If one book is misfiled it is lost to the library," [source]

    Rebecca said: "I am all about librarians getting out in the stacks. How else do you know what your patrons see? How else would you know that your collection needs weeding and/or shifting? There is no better way to get to know your collection than by getting in there and getting your hands on the books. I think this is one of the reasons I love weeding so much." [ source]

    Senior librarians must consider newer ways of shelf-reading, as well design better (challenging) guides to library orientation--in order to inspire new staff / volunteers (familiarize with the library's collections).

    Extracts from a librarian blogger's post, Miss Information is not feeling challenged:
    Instead of actual assignments, the recent recruit spends time “getting to know the collection”...
    ...There were a couple of people who actually needed help—one woman needed the ESL section and another asked where the French books were. Miss Information was useless here though because she hasn’t gotten to know the collection that well yet.
    On the same shelf:
  • Reading between the Shelf - Thought for the day
  • Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves
  • Shelf reading quote, from a survey, 'Librarians and Shelf-Studying Print Collections': "Shelf reading is still a valid technique for reference training and awareness of scope of materials at hand." See also: Online Shelf-Studying and Librarians

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