2nd LIS Academy Conference Report

2nd LIS Academy National Conference

on

Innovations in Libraries

Organized by VTU, Belagavi, Dept. of Public libraries, Bangalore and Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata

Date: 6-8 June 2019.

Venue: Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi.

Report of the Conference

The technology advancement makes human work and information make it smart and easily approachable for that. It is also capable of learning that is using the experience to improve performance, anticipating, thinking, and reasoning about what to do next, with the ability to self-generate and self-sustain. The innovation happens in consonance with changes in the whole environment and resultant development in society. In the context of libraries and Library and Information Science (LIS) education, innovations aligned with the development of the library itself, creation of content, reflective behavior of the users and in the application of various techniques and technology.

Day 1: 06 June 2019

The highly awaited 2nd LIS Academy national conference 2019 in collaboration with Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Department of Public Libraries and Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata was held from 06-08 June 2019 at the VTU, Belagavi (Karnataka) on the theme ‘Innovations in Libraries’. Distinguished delegates working in the areas of digital library, knowledge management, data and library and information science from all over India and Bangladesh participated in the event. The conference started with inauguration of “e-Resource Conclave” by the invited Chief Guest of the conclave Major Siddalingayya S Hiremath K.A.S, Additional Commissioner for Public Instructions Dharwad, GoK, Dr. Satish Kumar Hosamani, Director, Department of Public Libraries, GoK, was the Guest of Honour and Prof. PV Konnur, President LIS Academy, Bangalore. Dr. KR Mulla, Librarian, VTU were present on the dais as organizers. They spoke about the success story and challenges of VTU E-Resource consortium, which is one and the unique mega cooperative movement in India in providing access to E-resources to VTU and its affiliated institutions.

The VTU consortium publisher partners demonstrated the unique features of their platforms, which enables and empowers VTU community with state of the art tools and technologies to retrieve scholarly content.

Mr. BS Shivaram, NAL, Bengaluru delivered a tutorial talk on “usage metrics to manage e-resources”, and discussed various metrics for e-resources including decision support case APUPA pattern, criteria for collection development policy. He also spoke about Counter and SUSHI based download system, which helps librarians in determining RoI of the resources. Through case studies of VTU E-resource consortium and NAL Resource metrics, he demonstrated the importance of usage metrics.

The Inaugural Function of the conference was held at 4.00pm on 06 June 2019 at the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Auditorium, VTU, Belagavi. Shri. Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, His Excellency, the Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka inaugurated the Conference on 06 June 2019 in a stylish take-off in a glittering but serene inaugural ceremony. Dr. Karisiddappa, Vice Chancellor, VTU, welcomed the dignitaries and delegates, with introductory remarks on the Conference, said that the core objectives of the 2nd LIS Conference 2019 is to discuss perspectives of smart libraries and appropriate ICT tools and software services that intelligently manage, analyze and predict, how our smart future could look like. Which ensure how libraries and their institutions plan or update the smart technologies in library services and upgrade smart skills to LIS professionals to realize the dream ‘Smart Libraries for Smart Cities’.

Prof. P.V.Konnur, President of LIS Academy, briefed about LIS Academy, said that like-minded library professionals established LIS academy as a professional, charitable trust to work for the development of the profession to assist libraries with the state-of-art technologies and honor the professionals with awards and recognition. The current focus of LIS academy is to reach the unreached LIS professionals with rural settings to minimize the digital divide. It also aims at the working for the public libraries, the segment which almost remains as an area of neglect.

Later, Shri. Vajubhai R Vala, His Excellency, the Governor of Karnataka, unveiled the Mobile App ‘m-library-your mobile library’, e-version and printed volume of conference proceedings and souvenir. Dr. Kavi Mahesh, Director, IIIT, Dharwad delivered the Key Note Address. Sri. Vajubhai R Vala, His Excellency, the Governor of Karnataka, presented the LIS Academy awards to six awardees. Lifetime achievement awards were presented to three eminent personalities viz., Prof. Karisiddappa, VC of VTU, Dr. Satishkumar S. Hosamani, Director, DPL, Bengaluru, and Dr. H.S. Sidamallaiah, Librarian, RGUHS, Bengaluru. The Achiever of the Year Award presented to Dr. D.S. Suresh, Principal and Director, CIT Gubbi, Tumkur. LIS Academy Fellowship presented to Mr. B.S.Shivaram, Senior Technical Officer, NAL, Bangalore. Prof. B.D.Kumbar, Professor, Karnatak University, Dharwad was felicitated for having been elected as President of ILA, New Delhi; and a special Technology development Implementation award was presented to Mr. V.S. Revankar Alumni of GIT Belagavi, with a cash prize of Rs. 25,000/-

His Excellency, Shri. Vajuhbhai R Vala, Governor of Karnataka, in his presidential address said that “Indians are blessed with immense talent. The only thing is that they do not get opportunity to prove themselves. If they get the required opportunity, Indian will be the most outstanding personalities of the world”. Further, he said that seminars, workshops, and conferences help intelligent and talented individuals to gain more knowledge and make use of every available opportunity, to excel in life. Digitization has changed everything, and availing knowledge is now on your fingertips. He advised the new generation to avail as much knowledge as possible and create something new for the betterment of society. The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. Satish Annigeri, Registrar, VTU. Dr.S.M.Pujar, Chief Librarian, IGIDR, Mumbai, the Director of the Conference and Prof. M.Madhusudhan, Associate Professor, Delhi University, Delhi, the Rapporteur General were present in the event.

Conference Theme

The theme of LIS Conference 2019 – Innovations in Libraries – provides a futuristic outlook about understanding, visualizing, and exploring the possible scenarios of the interconnected knowledge-generating activities. LIS Conference 2019, aimed to provide a national forum for sharing of experiences among researchers, educators, practitioners, and policy makers from a wide range of disciplines such as library and information science, information and communication technology, archival and museum studies, knowledge management, data analytics, and social media. In addition to the above aspects, LIS Conference 2019 focused on associated emerging disciplines and cutting edge topics such as :

  • Library technology trends
  • Innovation in library technologies
  • Technology-based innovative library services
  • Innovative metrics for measuring library services
  • Innovations in library teaching methods, and.
  • Innovations in Public libraries

The three strategic objectives of the conference, including predicting the future, preparing for the future and, finally, taking requisite actions to apply this knowledge to create, what is being called the ‘Smart Future’.

The conference had 25 invited speakers (including session chairs, co-chairs and panelists) from India and Bangladesh and 260 registered participants. Total 40 articles and papers were published in the conference proceedings, which was released during the Inaugural Function of the conference. Around 260 participants from various parts of the country and different institutions, like IITs, NITs, IISERs, IIMs, CSIRs, Central Universities, State Universities, Public Libraries, NAL, GIPE, INFLIBNET, RRI, including IIUC & BUBT (Bangladesh), etc., participated in the conference. The conference comprised 07 technical sessions, 2 Panel discussions, and 31 paper presentations were presented by invited speakers and Contributed Paper Presenters during the technical sessions of the conference. These sessions took place at Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam Auditorium, VTU, Belagavi.

Day 2: 07 June 2019

The second-day conference was started with the extended keynote address by Prof. Kavi Mahesh’s (Director, IIT, Dharwad), “Facilitating knowledge transfer in learning communities” was insightful. He referred to massive technologies in classrooms. In his old model knowledge view, teachers are the primary knowledge source and students are the knowledge transferee.

Technical Sessions :

The second day of the Conference started with Technical Session 1, chaired by Prof. P G Tadasad. Mr. Wodeyar co-chaired the session. Also, six papers were presented in this session.

Dr. M P Tapaswi, Former Librarian of NIO, Goa presented an invited paper titled “Embrace technology with innovative approaches”, in his presentation, emphasized the need for libraries to redefine its role and come up as smart libraries with smart librarians equipped with emerging tools and technologies that are embracing the academic and research libraries with accelerating technology adoption. Dr. S M Pujar, Librarian, IGIDR, Mumbai in his presentation dealt with technology trends for libraries, such as, mobile technologies, social media, Internet of Things, drones, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain technology, and open platforms are emerging technologies, which libraries may embrace in their day-to-day operations. Dr. Buddhi Prakash Chauhan, Director, Global Library, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Delhi presented his paper on resource provision in private academic libraries in India, he discussed on various trends in higher education in general and publishing and delivery of content in particular including new challenges that the private academic libraries they face. To overcome such problems, he also proposed new business models for books/e-books acquisition with new and equitable ways of resource sharing. Dr. Umesh Reddy Librarian, IISER, Pune, presented his study on plan S and open access (OA) publishing trends in IISER, Pune highlighted the concept of Plan S, its application and impact in the open-access publications. His case study findings indicate that OA publications have more visibility and impact than the paid access publications. Dr.Prabhash Rath Deputy Librarian, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune presented his study on open access movement and Indian Social Science Literature, focused on the scholarly communication process in social sciences, reasons for the popularity of open-access. He concluded that OA publishing is a welcome development and adequate safeguards need to be taken to maintain the quality of journals by blacklisting predatory journals. He suggested relevant journal collection development policy should be in place in libraries for identifying whether the journals fulfill well-established quality parameters. Dr. Snehanshu Saha, Professor of PES University, Bangalore presented his study on delay differential equation based model to interpret rapid growth of a journal in an emerging area, discussed on road map for motivation and scientometrics and machine learning. He defined the concept ‘scholastic influence’ and proposed the computational of ALIS using Genealogy tree.

Panel Discussion on Smart Libraries for Smart Cities, 07 June 2019

To understand the smart systems typically consist of diverse components, such as, (i) Use of sensors to make a smart environment, (ii) Elements of information are relevant and smart, (iii) Self-thinking of machine they give command and throw control units that take decisions and give instructions based on the available information, (iv) Transmitting decisions and instructions, (iv) Actuators that perform or trigger the required action, (v) Create an environment of virtual reality, and (vi) Save the time of the user. Since smart libraries are in premature stage in India and their implications are associated with emerging smart cities, in this context, a panel discussion on the topic was organized. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Siddamallaiah, Former Principal Library & Information Officer, NIMHANS, Banglore & presently Librarian, Rajeev Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bengaluru. The other Panelists were: Dr. Archana G K, Joint Managing Director Belgaum Smart City Project Ltd, Prof. Muhammad Mezbah-ul-Islam, Professor, Department of Information Science and Library Management, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh and Prof. P V Konnur President, LIS Academy, Bangalore.

Dr. Archana G K, Joint Managing Director, Belgaum Smart City Project gave an overview of Belagavi Smart City Project. She explained the PAN area network of Belagavi smart city plan including different projects, such as SCM projects – e-governance & IT, traffic, transport & mobility, public-private partnership including command and control centers of smart libraries. Prof. Mohammad Mezbah-ul-Islam, Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, emphasized the vision of Smart library is to create an “indoor living lab”, where students and researchers can develop, test and present smart technologies, access. Prof. P V Konnur, Former Professor and President, LIS Academy and man behind this conference, defined the smart library as “a library fitted with smart technology can be open to library users without being staffed. The technology enables remote control of library buildings, including automatic doors, lighting, self-service kiosks, and public computers and allows users to significantly extend library opening hours, so more people can use the library at times that are convenient for them”. He explained various resources and implementation of smart libraries, particularly, Tumkur smart library project, cloud-based library services and DRM products.

The panel concluded that smart technologies provide librarians with a unique opportunity to substantially enhance user-centered services and provide collaboration between libraries and their clients. The smart libraries can leverage the new technology to facilitate the creation of knowledge, support innovation, and help citizen to become smart citizens. Libraries are on the cusp of a great transformation or silent sail into oblivion. It concluded that successful smart libraries are not just buildings – they are hubs of knowledge. The panelists also suggested that there is an urgent need to revamp the LIS curriculum to suit the smart users and strengthening the fourth law of Library Science by Dr. S.R.Ranganthan for the smart society.

The session was chaired by Dr. S.K. Savanur former Librarian of WRIC, Bombay University Mumbai co-chaired by Mr. Arun Adarakatti. Four papers were presented in this session.

The first speaker Dr.P.Kannan, Deputy Librarian, Central University, Punjab an Invited Speaker spoke about IRNIS: The development and promotion of research information management system within India which aims to project recent developments in the CRIS related activities around the world and recent programs in India. He also described the current challenges of IRNIS. He gave the solution to organize the research related metadata, practical use of RIM, and its benefits to the scholars and faculty members and research administrators. Mr. Jahangir Alam, from Bangladesh, presented his contributed paper on the effectiveness of open source integrated library systems in University Libraries of Bangladesh. His study indicated that Koha is performing effectively in the University Libraries in Bangladesh and help to build consciousness among library users and professionals regarding Koha. Dr. Pradeep P Kavi, assistant Librarian of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore spoke on low-cost innovations in academic libraries, particularly, Raspberry Pi based system, which presents a significant cost saving over traditional desktops. He also gave many ideas on facilities for persons with disability and proposed ‘Go Green’ is today’s mantra for developing environment-friendly products and infrastructure with suitable examples in JRDTML, IISc, Bangalore. Mr.Vysakh, Research Scholar of Tumkur University in his presentation, emphasized the need of flying books. He focused on various applications of the drone in library operations and their benefits in modern libraries to reduce the refrains in the delivery of library products and services.

The session was chaired by Dr. Suresh Jange, who spoke about technology-based innovative library services. The session was co-chaired by Dr.T.A.Mohan. Also, seven delegates presented their papers.

Ms. E.Nada Kumari, in her presentation, spoke about how digitized collections might be preserved according to the quality standards and suggested best practices on the preservation of digital archives collections. Dr. Satish Munnolli presented his invited paper on the library, technology, and services, highlighted the importance of e-alert services in the libraries, particularly, ‘science sparks @ ACTREC, a platform amongst the scientific community to showcase their publications which reaches everyone in the center. Dr. Rajendra Babu H, Assistant Professor, Tumkur University, Tumkur emphasized on innovative and value-added services, particularly, proactive and reactive services to keep pace with the fast changing business scenario and said that it is a huge challenge on the part LIS professionals. He gave an overview of information dossiers which are collated from re-packed information pool and disseminated to users throughout the world by library teams in the respective geographies for the present day user needs. Dr. C. S. Venkataram Reddy, Librarian, Government College, Bagepalli presented his invited paper on delivering e-content through higher education web portal to the students of Government and aided colleges of Karnataka. Dr, Nisanth K of NAL, Bangalore presented his contributed paper on the digital archiving system for grey literature at CSIR-NAL. He gave an overview of Prakas. Mr.Vasu Deshpande of EazyLib, Bangalore talked about increasing library user base and demonstrated the EasyLib software.

The session was chaired by Prof. B.S.Biradar, Professor, Kuvempu University, Shivamogga co-chaired by Mr. Ravish, Librarian of Sir MVIT, Bangalore. Three papers were presented in this session. Prof. Nasiruddin Mitul, Professor of Library and Information Science, National University Bangladesh, presented his Invited paper on libraries and information centers in disaster risk reduction of Bangladesh: experience sharing of an innovative project. He gave a detailed overview of DEMLIC project. Dr. Anupama N Joshi, Deputy Librarian of Karnatak University, Dharwad in her invited presentation discussed weeding in libraries and described the different stages of the entire project undertaken by the Karnatak University Library, Dharwad. Dr. P. R.Tippeswamy, Deputy director of the Department of Public Libraries, Chitradurga spoke about readership pattern among the public library users. The case study of the Chitradurga district focused on “today’s readers are tomorrow’s leader” and role of the public library in inculcating the reading habits of users.

Day 3: 08 June 2019

In this session, there was one invited talk by The session was chaired by Dr. G.Mahesh, Head NISCAIR, New Delhi. The session was co-chaired by Mr. Somaraya Tallolli, Librarian, Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Bengaluru and Mr. Govinda Reddy Librarian, Karnataka High Court, Bangalore acted as Rapporteurs. Four Papers were presented in this session.

Prof. S.L.Sangam, Former Professor of Karnatak University, Dharwad presented an invited paper titled “tools and methods for science output evaluation”, in his presentation, emphasized the good science leads to novel ideas and changes the way that influences the direction. He also spoke about various metrics, including Librametrics, bibliometrics, informetrics, scientometrics, cyber metrics, h-index in science stream context. Dr. Rabindra Kumar Mahapatra Associate Professor & Head Department of Library Information Science, Tripura University, Tripura, in his invited Paper dealt with innovative marketing library services in academic business school libraries in India. He spoke on evidence-based, innovative strategies, and approaches being adopted by the librarians to promote collection and services to their clientele. He also proposed evidence-based, innovative techniques such as innovative library portal, virtual video, search engine optimization, use of social media are some of the innovative ideas that libraries should explore, and adopt for effective utilization of services, and update information. Dr. V M Bankapur, Associate Professor, DLISc, Rani channamma University, Belagavi discussed innovations in library explored through the pages of the journal of innovations and various aspects of innovations that are sketched in the articles with tables and graphs. Dr. H. Diwakar Bhat, Librarian, NMAMIT, Nitte, Udupi presented his contributed paper on a sustenance of momentum of NMAMIT, Nitte, Udupi academic libraries in the current digital era. He spoke on Librametrics concerning and proposed innovations and best practices for effective use.

Charing the session, Prof. S. L. Sangam, spoke about innovative metrics for measuring library services. Prof. Ramesh Naik, Professor, Karnatak University, Dharwad, and Dr. B.U. Kannappanar, Librarian, Sahyadri Arts College, Shivamogga were co-chairs of the session. Dr. Kattemani acted as Rapporteur. There were five papers presented in this session.

Prof. Mallinath Kumbar, Professor, DLISc, University of Mysore in his Invited Paper dealt with the twitter contents of IIT Bombay library. His study findings show that Twitter is one of the virtual communication tools, and academic libraries can offer their services through this platform effectively. Dr. T.A. Mohan, Librarian, SIT Tumkur in his presentation spoke about social media as an alternative information source for learning among PG students and its benefits derived by the use of social media among the students such as educational benefits, cultural benefits and behavioral benefits derived by reading Facebook posts. Dr. M. Raghavendra, Librarian, Government College, Chitradurga presented his contributed paper on the impact of social networking sites on LIS professionals: A hidden appraisal. His findings show that If the working LIS professionals innovatively use SNS’s, they can create wonders in the professions by offering different services. Dr. S K Parameshwar, Research Scholar of Goa University, Goa dealt with the impact of social media on the usage of the library by PG students of Goa University. Mr. Dayanadappa Kori, Research Scholar of VTU Belagavi, presented his paper on mobile reading habits among computer science students at Mangalore University, Mangalore, Karnataka 08 June 2019 – Panel Discussion on Controlled Digital Lending:

Controlled Digital Lending is a recent concept to enter the library landscape. It involves digitizing print library materials and lending the digital version to the users under certain terms and conditions. There are proponents and opponents to the idea of controlled digital lending. Even as controlled digital lending is being discussed and debated by the copyright and legal experts, the library community and the publishers, many libraries in the western countries are engaging in the controlled digital lending and fair use policy of the Copyright act of USA permits this practice of their Libraries. To understand the global scenario on controlled digital lending and the implications of controlled digital lending in Indian libraries, a panel discussion on the topic was organized. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. G. Mahesh, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR-NISCAIR. The other panelists were: Dr. Anita Rai, Librarian, New Horizon Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Prof. Md. Nasiruddin Mitul, (Bangla Desh), Prof. Srinivas Raghavan, Professor, DLISc, Bharathidasan University Trichi, Tamil Nadu, Mr. B Vivek Anand Sagar Consultant & IPR Attorney, Patent Information Centre, Karnataka State Council for Science & Technology, Bangalore.

Prof. P.V. Konnur joined the panelists at the end and shared his view on the theme and felt an urgent need of the hour to deliberate in great length and propose constructive suggestions to concerned stakeholders including Government of India and Karnataka.

The panel concluded that the controlled digital lending should be taken up by the Indian libraries after putting in place suitable DRM technologies, fair use provision of the copyright act of India so that rights are not infringed and all techno-legal issues are addressed.

The last technical session 6 of the Conference, chaired by Dr. Raghavan. The session was co-chaired by Dr. V K Bankapur, and Mr. Basavaraj Kumbar Librarian, Angadi College of Engineering. Dr. Kantharaju, Librarian of Cambridge Institute of Technology, Bangalore acted as Rapporteur. Five papers were presented by various library professionals in this session.

Dr. H.S. Siddamallaiah, University Librarian, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, in his invited paper highlighted the need for developing a state of art curriculum for LIS Education in India. He presented a case of efforts put in by his team in proposing one such a syllabus for VTU Belagavi. Prof. Mohammad Mezbha-ul-Islam (Bangladesh) present a clear picture of Information Literacy (IL) programs organized in different secondary schools in rural Bangladesh. The study developed a training module and described the awareness raising techniques of IL to build awareness and empower the students in the rural high schools of Bangladesh for the first time that will trigger future research. Dr. Vijay Kumar, Librarian, Central University Rajastan, Ajmir in his Invited Paper highlighted the research visibility of higher education institutes of Rajasthan with their citations, collaboration, subject area and h-index using Scopus database. The last paper presented was by Mr. Md. Jahangir Alam, (Bangladesh) presented a historical perspective of LIS education in Bangladesh and traced the growth and development of the discipline of the University of Dhaka in the digital age.

Valedictory Function :

The conference was concluded with the Valedictory Function. Prof. Srinivas Kumar, Hon’ble vice chancellor, JNTU, Ananthapuram was the Chef Guest and delivered his Valedictory address. Dr. S.M.Pujar Director of the Conference presented the Recommendations of the conference and the Conference Report was read out by Dr. Margam Madhusudhan, Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science as Rapporteur General. Thus, the well-attended conference concluded successfully with a vote of thanks proposed by Dr.K R Mulla.

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