International Conference onWhat’s Next in Libraries?Trends, Space and Partnerships

January 21-23, 2015

The Conference

• Welcome ceremony – with enlightened views of scholars and experts set the ground for various sessions planned during three days.

• The Conference was designed in a manner that all fields could be covered and a platform could be provided to all - scholars; academicians; experts; students; Organizations - to share their enlightened views; research papers and experimented models.

Welcome ceremony for setting the pace for the deliberations during the Conference

• After the warm welcome of Prof F A Tulakdar, Dean (Academics) Susan Schnuer shared the association of the Mortenson Center, University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, expressed her commitment to the cross-learning in strengthening the Libraries in the field of academics, research, public and of course how these could effectively serve to people to have wider and brighter KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY.

Contd…

• Prof Paula Toby Kaufman, Interim Director, Mortenson Center, complemented the association and based on her long experience in the field of Education, strongly recommended that Libraries are the backbone of the Knowledge Society and an opportunity to serve those who have the passion to be a part of this World.

Contd……• Prof Asis Datta, Chairperson, NIT Silchar

, the Honorable Guest shared his Words of Wisdom. He mentioned that with the changing time and technology revolution, there is a need for the academic world to think through how best Libraries can support this Revolution.

• Prof N B Deshpande highlighted the partnership between the University of Illionois and NIT-Silchar and how the cross-country learning can complement the changing demands of the users of the Libraries and the service providers. He shared with the participants the steps involved in formalising the partnership and his vision to make it a success not only for the NIT-Silchar, but also for the North-East and other parts of the country.

Contd…….• Ms Kalpana Dasgupta while sharing the

thoughts of Swami Vivekananda and Prof Ranganathan to bring Libraries in the fore-front of the Knowledge Society, how the trends, space and partnerships which were part and parcel in the past could be reviewed with the changing time. During her address, she emphasised that the USERS could be kept in the center while framing the policies, bringing in the technology and meeting the needs of the present day to build a Knowledge Society. She also emphasized on replicating the best practices followed across the countries and within the Country by strengthening the partnership model.

Sessions on Day 1• The Session on Academic Libraries : Trends and

Keys to Success highlighted that in the past, libraries had different connotations, with the changing times and trends.

• Journey of academic libraries have not been smooth. The growing gap between Public and Private Libraries has affected the students financially.

• With the changing times, online degree programmes have also impacted on effective use of libraries.

• With the changing trends, more focus on STEM and less on humanities, the libraries should meet the needs.

• The focus should shift from collections to users.

• The Government should also focus on equity and excellence.

Contd……..

• With the changing demands, there is a need for rethinking the roles and skills of librarians and staff.

• There is a need to demonstrate the values the libraries and the librarians can bring to meet the escalating expectations of the users.

• Libraries cannot be seen in isolation, the Institutions, Organizations, universities should involve the Librarians from the beginning stage of planning the curriculum, bringing in the technology, New-media etc.

• There is a need to build key leadership skills for success; cross-cultural competency, computational thinking, data management and new-media literacy.

• Think creatively and act globally.

Contd………

• The session on Public and Community Libraries : Trends and Strategies for success demonstrated the collective approach.

• The Libraries should analyze who are the users and what are their needs.

• There is a need to have innovations time and again.

• We have to change our mindsets in adding additional services like health information; yoga classes; education for farmers; libraries and technology hubs.

Contd……..

• The presentation highlighted four “S” : Society; Staff; Scalability and Sustainability.

• The theme of the Conference – Trends, Space and Partnerships collectively can play a pivotal role in addressing the four “S”.

• There is also a need to address five “C” in making Libraries as role models :

• Capacity Building; Content; Classification; Care and Management; Coordination.

Contd……..• The session on Academic Libraries : Designing Space Innovative

Design of Flexible Collaborative Learning Spaces highlighted that innovative design and space play an important role in attracting the users.

• Mr Jeffrey shared various options of designs of public libraries focused on :Circulation; Furniture; Equipment; Signage; safety and security etc.

• Prof Williams shared his expertise on Library services within the Total User Experience. He shared about designing and creating search and discovery gateway system that offer “SMART” search assistance that mimics the actions of a trained reference librarian and expedites information content delivery. He also expressed his views on digital scholarship activities and emphasized on the importance of establishing key campus and external partnerships.

Proposed General Recommendations

• Effective Communication for Effective Library Services is an important component which should be taken care of while designing the Libraries and defining the role of the Library staff.

• The Libraries are addressing the needs of the people with mixed culture. The students in the University are coming from various parts of the country/world, effective communication with the mindset of “What Can I Do For You” and “How Can I Help You” should be the spirit behind serving the users.

Contd……

• Libraries serving special streams should also focus on the quality of content; use of modern technology; Indexing etc.

• While talking about medical libraries, it was highlighted that how medical and para-medical professionals are benefitted with the quality embedded with modern technology.

Contd…….

• National Council of Library Association in Nepal shared their wonderful experience of strengthening the Community Libraries and how the communities own the process of managing the Libraries with collective approach.

• The Model could be surely replicated.

Sessions on Day 2

• Day 2 was an enlightened day. 40 papers were presented by the scholars on various themes focusing on skills, technology, green libraries; innovations etc.

• The papers were based on the research done by the scholars. The Organisers should take note of these research papers and get strong value additions while planning the future strategies defining the trends, space, technology and partnerships.

• Workshop 1: Research data research services conducted by William Mischo and Paula Kaufman. The workshop focused on emerging services and what makes them successful including library’s role and campus collaboration .

• Workshop 2: Library spaces conducted by Jeffrey and Susan. The workshop focused on changing uses of library spaces for learning, research and interactions and design principles.

Workshops on Day 3

• Workshop 3: Community Library and Resource Centers : Self sustained through networking and partnerships conducted by READ India Team.

• There is a strong recommendation that the objective behind all types of libraries is to bring knowledge revolution. The different libraries are to be seen not in isolation but how they can feed to each other, whether the trends, space, content are concerned and how the partnership at various levels could make it a reality.

Workshops on Day 3

• As there is no end to developing knowledge society, this conference realised the potential all the participants and provided them the platform to share their knowledge based on their research and experiments, there is a strong need that each participant should share one strong recommendation with the organising committee to draw a specific and well thought of course of action for Next Libraries