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I have read an article in "The Hindu" which topic is "India's archives and libraries are in a state of ruin. We would lose our history and heritage if the government does not act to save them".This article is on editorial page no. 10.April 19, 2012 If all of u get time or u have time, kindly read it.
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Dear Madam,
Why don't you attach a scanned copy of the article? It would save the time of all members who are interested reading that article.
Dear Sir.
Please find herewith attached link.
Thanks
Dear Ms. Shraddha Kalla,
Thanks for your post and for addressing a very important issue. However I am rather confused to learn of such report because at this present phase of time while the country is passing through a CRAZE of digitization and institutional repository creation etc.etc. (Out of every ten symposiums, one will find at least 7 dealing with the above items!) The craze is so intense among young people that the new generation of people are basically languishing the basic traits of Librarianship, how is then that the libraries and archives are in a state of ruin? If the report exhibits the true picture, then all the pompous and boastful activities seems to be simply superflous!!
However, Me as an old fellow with the active participation, involvement, help and support of a group of my new age colleagues, have developed a digital archives of both print and visual media comprising around 12 Million Pages (yes, it is TWELVE MILLION PAGES!!). Never-the-less, we have digitized certain materials which are neither available at National Library of India, the British Library and even Library of Congress. And above all; this venture was without any government funding. How do you feel about it? Incidentally, my colleagues never went to present papers in high profile conferences on digital Librarianship!!
I am basically a Medical Librarian but shifted to Social Science Librarianship after elapsing two decades in a National Biomedical Research Laboratory as In-Charge of Library. And I witnessed many of my co- professionals preaching digital Librarianship; LIB2.0 and Web 2.0 etc. etc. and they are so busy preaching such high end state-of-the-art technologies that they did not find time to introduce simple OPAC in their own Libraries! I admit that government funding and patronization are essential inputs but there are libraries where Commercial Library Management software were purchased from liberal government funds and even AMCs were paid over years but not a single entry was done!! Fortunately, such Librarians and libraries are not in majority but this is a reality in our profession.
I am not claiming any praise or anything for what we have done at our Library nor I have any negative outlook towards application of modern technologies but all I want to highlight very politely and with due respect is if you have the MOTIVATION, you can DO. It is unfortunate, that a considerable number of our co-professionals are more interested on Teaching Status, Salary issues, easiest ways and means to MANAGE Degrees and so on while a very small fraction speaks about service potentiality. If this be the situation of the custodians by and large, and funding of the government remains uninspiring, the picture or outcome is obvious.
I am sorry for being rather rude but as a professional it hurts me as well!.
Sincerely,
Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta
then sir I am tired .
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