Message from the President

Connecting People and Information Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012 Official Newsletter of Asian Chapter of the Special Libraries Association Website: http://units.sla.org/chapter/cas Message from the President Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO, 15-18 July, Chicago, Illinois, USA Warm greetings! Dear friends, it is my great privilege to communicate with all of you through this issue of the Newsletter. This has been possible only because of the sincere efforts of the Editorial Team, headed by Dr. R. K. Sharma and assisted by Dr. Nabi Hasan, who took the challenge of launching this publication in time despite many difficulties and delays. I am equally grateful to other members who contributed meaningfully to the Editorial process, on our request. I also wish to appreciate the excellent work of Past President B.P. Prakash and his team for contributing significantly for the growth of the chapter. As you know, our association was established in 1999 and we are now about to complete 13 purposeful years of existence. In the meantime, our Chapter has grown by leaps and bounds, covering a large geographical area of over 20 countries. To continue its international appeal, we have decided to organize ICoASL-III in Manila (Philippines), from 10-12 April, 2013, with the able help of Ms. Shirley Ingles-Cruz. Similar systematic efforts are being made to organize Seminars, Workshops, Conferences and Tutorials in other regions during the year 2012 and you shall be intimated of the same shortly. In terms of activities, we have already started off the year at a fast pace by organizing of a high level talk by Dr. H.K. Kaul, Director, DELNET; a Symposium on Change Management: Challenges for Special and Academic Libraries under Digital Libraries at IIT Madras; Library and Information Professionals Summit (LIPS) 2012 on Leadership, Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism in Library Service (LEAP) at Delhi attended by SLA President Mr. Brent Mai, etc. The aims and objectives apart from others also include; creating awareness about SLA Asian Chapter among the delegates and ensuring continual professional development. The professionals of the region may use SLA platform to come together, organize events, share experiences and innovations. SLA Asian Chapter is looking forward to take new initiatives like making the chapter website more informative and interactive, formation of some new committees, introduction of more awards, better actions for mandatory activities of the chapter, attracting more new members and more interaction among the professionals from Asian region as well as from US on platforms like LIPS 2012. We have already made good progress in this direction and timely publication of this issue of the newsletter is one such reflection of our commitments. You may find many interesting professional activities of the Asian Chapter as reflected through this issue and would request you to send your feedback and opinions for further improvement in chapter activities. We want to hear from you as we value your suggestions and comments. If you have some constructive criticism, we welcome that too as it will help the chapter to further improve it. Please feel free to e-mail me at- hchandra@iitm.ac.in or to any other board member for your comments and ideas. If your colleagues or other professionals are interested in this chapter, please provide the details to them as how they can join us. In the end, I would like to appeal all members to participate in the SLA Annual Conference which is scheduled to be held in Chicago, USA during July 2012. Warm regards, Dr. Harish Chandra President- SLA Asian Chapter & Librarian, IIT Madras, Chennai, India All the Members of the SLA Asian Chapter are requested to update their e-mail and postal address Register now for SLA 2012! Join us for the SLA 2012 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO, 15-18 July at the McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Editorial Committee: Editor/Chair Dr. R.K. Sharma Members: Dr. H. Anil Kumar Dr. Tariq Ashraf Mr. M. Nandeesha Dr. Sushmita Chakraborty Dr. Nabi Hasan ISSN: 1793-2289 (print) ISSN: 1793-2297 (e-version) IN THIS ISSUE Message from the President 1 SLA Asian Chapter Board Members 2012 2 News and Events 3 Forthcoming Events 7 Asian Libraries, Librarians & Networks Series 8 2011 SLA Asian Chapter Award Winners - A Memoir 10 Book Review(s) 11

SLA ASIAN CHAPTER BOARD MEMBERS 2012 Executive Board Members - 2012 Dr. Harish Chandra/India Dr. Medha V Joshi/India Mr. B. P. Prakash/India Dr. Nagappa B/ India Mrs. Kyoko Sato / Japan Dr. Susmita Chakraborty /India Mr Jay Bhatt/USA Operational Committees Members Nominations Commitee Dr. Debal C Kar (Chair) / India Ms. Jane Ray / UK Mrs. Sushma Arora / India Mrs. Sanjujta Ray / India Membership Committee Dr. P. K. Jain (Chair) / India Mr. Ben Keffe / Hong Kong Tahmina Akhter / Bangladesh Dr. P S Kattimani / India Kishore Ingale / India Awards Committee Mrs. Kyoko Sato, Chairperson / Japan Ms Jeanette Reagan / Australia Dr. Mrs. Pradeepa Wijetunge/ Srilanka Mr KV Satyanarayana / India Ms Harvinder Kaur/ Malysia President President-Elect Immediate past president Secretary Director Director Treasurer Mentoring Committee Dr. Pradeepa Wijaytunge (Chairperson) /Srilanka Dr. P R Goswami / India Dr. M. Anjaaappa / India Dr. T S Kumbar / India Bulletin/Editorial Committee Dr. R. K. Sharma Bulletin Editor/ (Chair)/ India Dr. H. Anil Kumar / India Dr. Tariq Ashraf / India Mr. M Nandeesha / India Dr. Susmita Chakraborty / India Dr. Nabi Hasan / India Career Guidance / Employment Committee Dr. S N Singh (Chair) / India Mr. Parveen Babbar / India Mr. Salek Chand / India Haq Nomanual / Bangladesh Mrs. Sushma Gupta / India Public Relation Committee Dr. N K Wadhwa (Chair) / India Dr. Jetty Sridevi / India Ms. Geeta Paliwal / India Mr. R.Henery Joseph / India Portal Management Dr. Sandeep Kumar Pathak (Chair)/ India Mr. S K Vijaianand / India Program Planning Committee Dr. Inder Vir Malhan (Chair)/ India Ms. Shirley Ingles-Cruz/Philppines Ms. Harvinder Kaur/Malaysia Mr. Yamakawa / Japan Mr. Dharmendra Sachan /India Dr. Susmita Chakraborty /India Discussion List Committee Mr Mahendra N Jadhav (Chair) / India Mr. Mahendra Kumar Arya Country Representatives Shirley Ingles-Cruz Ben Keefe Dave McCaughan Nooruddin Merchant Harvinder Kaur Tahmina Akhter Pradeepa Wijeytunge Scott Davidson Pik Yin Cheung Jane Ray Tanya Torres Country Philippines Hong Kong Japan Pakistan Malaysia Bangladesh Sri Lanka Singapore China UK Indonesia Welcome to our New Asian Chapter Members Agale,Ajit Akter,Tahmina Ameen,Kanwal Arekar,Sandhya S Bhardwaj,Raj Kumar Chirmule,Mrudula Choudhury,Santosh Kumar Cruz,Shirley Das,Banalata Ganesh,V S Devi Priya, C Gaur,Ramesh C Giri,Kaushal Gohain,Rashmi Rekha Gupta,Sushma Haq,Nomanul Hasan,Nabi Hawaldar,Vishal Hegde,Chandrika Jadhav,Mahendra Jagtap,Vijaykumar Joseph,Henry Kadam,Varsha Kadam,Snehal S Kahar,Shivmohan Kale,Namdev KaRande,Vandana Kattimani,Parashuram Kumar,Mahendra Kunkur,Giridhar Kurup,Dhanya Labade,Ganesh Lalita,Dheer Mathew,Susan Munirangappa,Anjanappa Navaratnaa,Anujaa Nayak,Sanjay Pathak,Sandeep Prakash,Kshema Rahman,A Fazlur Raj,Priya Rangareddy,Venkata Kesavan Rani,Shikha Ravichandran,R Sawant,Lochan Sethi,Neeraj Sharma,Ravinder Kumar Shedbalkar,Anuradha Simon,Rachella Singh,Arnand Singh,Akash Sumitha,S Trutna,Shayne Vijaianand,S K Wijetunge,Pradeepa Yap,Joseph 2 SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012

NEWS & EVENTS News India to link 9000 Libraries India will modernize and digitally link nearly 9000 libraries across the country in a bid to provide reader access to books and information, said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The ambitious plan under the National Mission for Libraries aims to cover 9000 libraries in cities, towns and villages of the country in the next three years. A young reader sitting in his village public library should be able to access books and information from across the world, Mr. Singh said at the Centenary Celebration of the Oxford University Press in India, 21 March, 2012. He further said that the Mission will conduct a national census on libraries, work towards upgradation of infrastructure of reading resources, and seek to modernize and promote the networking of libraries across the country. Noting that the Mission cannot succeed through government efforts alone, Mr. Singh said resources available in the community, private sector and non-governmental organizations will have to be roped in to meet these objectives. The Mission will focus on improvement of the public library system of the country particularly concentrating on the states where library development is lagging behind. Mr. Singh said, I take this opportunity to urge every state government and every municipality and panchayat to pay special attention to the setting up and maintenance of public libraries, including community, locality and village libraries. The Prime Minister said that affordable modern information technology can be deployed today to extend the resources of the libraries. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ India-to-link-9000-libraries-PM/articleshow/ 12359118.cms) Jagindar Singh Ramdev Lifetime Achievement Award The General Body (GB) of the Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science (IATLIS) has instituted the IATLIS-Prof. Jagindar Singh Ramdev Lifetime Achievement Award in its annual meeting held on 27 November 2011 at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad (India) during the XXVIII National Conference of the IATLIS on the historical occasion of the Centenary Celebrations of Library and Information Science Education in India. Prof. Jagindar Singh Ramdev, Patron-in-Chief of the Satinder Kaur Memorial Trust for Advancement of Librarianship (SATKAL), has granted INR 1,00,000 (One Hundred thousand Indian rupees) to the IATLIS for instituting this award. This Award shall be given to a senior teacher of Library and Information Science every year on the basis of his unique contribution to the IATLIS and the LIS profession in India at the Annual National Conference of the IATLIS w.e.f. 2012. Nominations for this Award shall be invited every year and a three member jury constituted by the IATLIS shall decide about the Award Recipient every year. EVENTS HELD 2012 IEEE Second International Conference on Information Science and Technology (ICIST) ICIST 2012 was held, 23-25 March, 2012 at TBD Wuhan, China. It was attended by about 300 delegates from different parts of the globe. National Seminar on Managing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi in collaboration with INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmadabad organized a two days National Seminar on Managing Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 22-23 March, 2012. This seminar provided a platform and a unique opportunity to network, share experiences and discuss current good practices from around the region, enabling researchers and practitioners in the area of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. There were only invited presentations and about 250 professionals from different parts of the country attended the event. JNU Librarian Dr. Ramesh C. Gaur was the Organizing Secretary. National Workshop on FLOSS based Library Automation Software- Koha The Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) organized a National Workshop on FLOSS based Library Automation Software- Koha, 19-22 March, 2012 at Jaipur. SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012 3

penal discussion, and debate. Experts from across the profession grappled with issues and offered wide ranging opinions and views. Sheila L. Rosenthal, Manager of Library Services, Carnegie Mellon University and Chair of the Awards Committee, Science-Technology Division (DST) shared her experiences as how her association with the SLA has been very valuable to her career as a librarian on many levels with one of the most important being the fact that it provided excellent opportunities to meet and network with distinguished professionals both nationally and internationally. Following are the recommendations of the LIPS: to work towards facilitating and enhancing leadership skill among library professionals, to foster and inculcate ethical and professional work culture among libraries through regular activities and interaction, to promote standards and best practices for enabling libraries to work in a networked environment ethically and professionally, to evolve and promoting ethics and morality in LIS leadership and participating in focused and sustained professional development activities. DELNET Annual Lecture 2011 on The Library in the Cloud Mr. Brent Mai, President, Special Libraries Association delivered the DELNET Annual Lecture for 2011 on The Library in the Cloud, on 19 March, 2012 at India International Centre, New Delhi. He referred to the growth of cloud computing as it is used for web services, data storage, access, etc. He said that using this technology one could seek information on 24/7 basis. It is used for coordinating various consortia activities. He added that it is used for teaching in the distance education, for archiving of digitized data as the system would get upgraded by the cloud computing agencies from time to time. He also mentioned that it helps in providing services to users from any part of the world. He cited the example of Concordia University in Portland wherein he currently serves as a University Librarian and the cloud computing has been implemented in the University. Dr H K Kaul, Founding Director, DELNET presided over the function. Release of LIPS publication by Dr. Debal Kar, Prof. B.N. Goldar, Mr. Brent Mai, Dr. R.K. Chadha and Dr. P.K. Jain International Conference on Electronic Publications, Puducherry, India Mr. Brent Mai, President, SLA delivering DELNET Annual Lecture at IIC, New Delhi, India The conference was organized by the Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India during 1-2 March, 2012. Dr. Chennupati K. Ramaiah, Prof. & Head, Dept. of Lib. & Inf. Sc., Pondicherry University was the Organizing Secretary. The aim of the conference was to address the key issues in the publishing, usage and management of e-publications. Following were the main objectives of the conference: Library and Information Professionals Summit (LIPS) 2012 The Library and Information Professionals Summit (LIPS) 2012 on Leadership, Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism in Library Service (LEAP) was organized, 16-17 March, 2012 by the Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, India in association with the Ambedkar University, Delhi and SLA Asian Chapter. The well attended event sourced together nearly 200 participants ranging from Librarians, Activists, Information Scientists, Consultants, Publishers, CEOs and Entrepreneurs both from academia and industry representing several countries like USA, UK, Sri Lanka etc. Conference was marked by lively invited talks, papers, product presentations, 4 SLA Asian Chapter News q To provide a forum for discussion among users, librarians, and publishers and suppliers for addressing various issues related to usage, emerging technologies and management of e-publications; q To discuss the applications of e-books and e-journals in e-learning and life-long learning; Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012

To address the issues like standards, digital rights management, user interfaces, consortia and interoperability issues in e-publications; To provide an opportunity for e-publishers to educate Indian readers on e-publications and their advantages in an Indian context; and To provide an opportunity for participants and e- publishers to exchange their views and provide feedback on the use of e-publications. PLANNER 2012 INFLIBNET organized its Bi-annual Conference - Promotion of Library Automation and Networking in North East Region (PLANNER) 2012 on Building Participatory Library Services in Digital Era in collaboration with the Sikkim University at Gangtok, 1-3 March, 2012. International Conference on Access to Legal Information & Research in Digital Age (ICALIRDA 2012) Inaugural session in progress National Law University, Delhi organized its first International Conference on Access to Legal Information & Research in Digital Age from 29 February to 2 March, 2012. Six sessions were organized and discussed on the themes. The Conference had forty invited speakers and two hundred fifty participants. The following recommendations were the outcomes of the deliberations of the technical sessions: (1) The conference recommended that the global access to information is essential for socio-economic development and for promoting the rule of law (2) The conference recognized the Montreal Declaration and supported free access to law as a fundamental right for democratization of information (3) The conference considered the urgent need for globally accepted copyright and IPR laws relating to database licensing issues (4) The conference recommended the creation of networking among libraries and supported cooperation in sharing digital commons and promoting information exchange. 20th New Delhi World Book Fair 2012 The bi-annual and one of the biggest Book Fair of the Asia known as New Delhi World Book Fair was held at New Delhi from 25 February to 4 March, 2012. 57th Annual Conference of Indian Library Association ILA hosted its 57 th Annual Conference at St. Agnes Centre for Post Graduate Studies & Research, Mangalore, Karnataka, in collaboration with Karnataka State College Librarians Association, 23-25 February, 2012. The theme was Knowledge Society: Innovations in Librarianship. National Workshop on Using Different Metrics for Assessing Research Productivity Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Campus hosted the National Workshop on Using Different Metrics for Assessing Research Productivity, 16-17 February, 2012 at ISI, New Delhi Campus. Prof. Shevgaonkar, Director, IIT Delhi and Chairman, National Steering Committee of the INDEST was the Chief Guest and Dr. Gangan Prathap, Director, NISCAIR was the Key Note Speaker on the occasion. A total no. of around 100 participants attended the workshop. Dr. N.K. Khatri was the Organizing Secretary of the workshop. Symposium on Change Management: Challenges for Special and Academic Libraries under Digital Libraries Central Library, IIT Madras in association with the Asian Chapter of Special Libraries Association organized a Symposium on 24 January 2012. A photo from the symposium The objective of the event was to provide an opportunity to the Central Library staff for interacting SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012 5

2011 SAARC Workshop on Library 2.0 in Nepal Group photo with the delegates, to create awareness about SLA Asian Chapter among the delegates, to provide an opportunity to the delegate to show the state of the art facilities developed by the Central Library and to encourage Central Library professional staff to deliver lectures and to ensure continual professional development. A total no. of 70 delegates attended the symposium. IIT Madras in collaboration with the SLA Asian Chapter organized a Lecture on Role of Knowledge Centres in Academic Libraries, 9 January, 2012. A photo from the talk Dr. H.K. Kaul, Director, DELNET was the Resource Person on the occasion. In his lecture, he stressed the need for the establishment of Knowledge Centre in each institution specializing on one subject to avoid duplication of efforts globally. He also advised the librarians to re-orient their efforts and keep them ready to attract the users for their respective libraries. He emphasized the importance of conducting surveys. He concluded his talk by advocating that there is need to form a Think Tank so that various existing as well as potential barriers are removed. He is of the view that SLA Asian Chapter can make an effort for removing these barriers. A photo from the workshop SAARC Documentation Centre organized a Workshop on Library 2.0, 12-16 December, 2011 at Kathmandu, Nepal. The workshop was organized by SDC and Ministry of Sc. & Tech., Nepal Govt. A total of 24 participants attended the workshop from various SAARC member states. Resource persons from India and Nepal facilitated various sessions. The participants were introduced with the general concept of Web 2.0, various Open Source Softwares useful for Library 2.0, softwares for creating blogs, wikis, RSS, social networking, etc. The workshop also covered demonstration of some websites exploiting Library 2.0 in practice and hands -on experience. Strategies for Managing Libraries for Future-2011 7-9 December, 2011 at Ahmadabad. IIM Ahmedabad in collaboration with the INFLIBNET organised the conference at Ahmedabad, 7-9 December, 2011. UNIC New Delhi National Seminar on New-Age Libraries: Partners in Youth Development and Education, 21 Oct., 2011 The United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan (UNIC) jointly with the National Social Science Documentation Centre (NASSDOC) of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, organized a one-day National seminar on New- Age Libraries: Partners in Youth Development and Education on Friday, 21 October 2011 at the UN Conference Hall, 55 Lodi Estate, New Delhi. One of the objectives of the seminar was to mark the close of the International Year of Youth which was observed from August 2010 to August this year and to energize young men and women to work for the community and to help them develop their talent and potential. 6 SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012

The seminar was also a forum for ideas and to probe expectations of knowledge-seekers researchers, academia, journalists, and parliamentarians among others from modern libraries, and how libraries might best respond to the quest for knowledge in an e-environment. More than 80 librarians, information officers, library and information science (LIS) students and other invitees participated in the seminar. The inaugural session began with UNIC Director Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman welcoming the participants and highlighting the aims of the seminar. various organizations actively participated in the event. Participants rated the event at 8.26 on a scale of 1 10 (with 10 being the highest). Inaugural session in progress SoFerence 2011 - A Social Conference on Knowledge / Expertise Sharing Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in collaboration with Special Libraries Association (SLA) - Asian Chapter and Karnataka State Library Association (KALA) organized SoFerence: A Social Conference on Knowledge / Expertise Sharing at TCS, Bangalore on 15 October, 2011. The SoFerence concept design was unique and one of the first in its kind in India. 40 papers related to the SoFerence theme/sub-themes were accepted. Dr. Nagappa IRC Head, TCS, Bangalore and also the current Secretary of the SLA Asian Chapter was the Organizing Secretary of the Conference. The conference covered; social platform, which allows professionals to share their experiences in the form of best practices, processes improvements, new initiatives, success stories, case studies, etc., which will help other co-professionals to know and implement them at their workplace. SoFerence empower every author & participant to play a vital role by acting as a moderator to choose the best set of papers. The event also covered speech on various SLA activities, memberships, sponsorships and advantages thereof to all participants by Mr. B.P. Prakash, Past President, SLA Asian Chapter. More than 115 professionals working in the field of libraries, knowledge management, information & content management, information technology, etc. from SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012 SoFerence 2011: Participants & organizing committee members Workshop on Digital Libraries in SAARC Region Delhi Library Association, in collaboration with the NISCAIR (New Delhi) and HEALTHNet (Nepal), organized an Advanced Workshop on Digital Libraries in SAARC Region in New Delhi, 16-25 July, 2011. The Workshop covered an advanced level training and hands-on experience on digital library management technologies (using Greenstone and Koha). FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2013 International Conference of Asian Special Libraries (ICoASL-III) The third International Conference of Asian Special Libraries (ICoASL-III) is planned to be held, 10-12 April, 2013, in Manila, Philippines. ICoASL-I was held in New Delhi, India in November 2008 and ICoASL- II was held in Tokyo, Japan in February 2011. The more details of the conference will be available at the Asian Chapter website soon. Contact Persons: Shirley Ingles-Cruz Immediate Past President Association of Special Libraries of the Philippines (ASLP) Commission on Appointments 6th Floor PNB Financial Center D. Macapagal Avenue, Pasay City 1300 Philippines singlescruz@gmail.com Or Dr. Harish Chandra Librarian and President SLA-Asian Chapter Central Library Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai-600 036, India hchandra@iitm.ac.in 7

2nd ICAL-2013 at Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University The 2 nd International Conference on Academic Libraries will be organized by the GGS IP University at New Delhi, 12-15 February, 2013. The theme of the conference is Academic Library Services through Cloud Computing: Moving Libraries to the web. The pre-launch function of the conference was held on 9 March, 2012 in New Delhi. The 1 st ICAL was held in October 2009 at Delhi University. For more details, visit the conference website at: http://ipu.ac.in/ ical2013/index.htm 2012 National Seminar on Competency Building for Knowledge Management, 15-16 October 2012 Contact: Prof. Jagtar Singh, DLIS, Punjabi University, Patiala. e-mail: jagtar.kindu@gmail.com ISKO International Conference (ISKO 2012) The Conference is being jointly organized by the ISKO (India Chapter) and Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science & the University of Mysore and will be held 6-9 August, 2012 in India. The topic of the conference is Categories, Conceptual Structures, Contents and Relations in Knowledge Organization. http://www.isibang.ac.in/~isko/ SLA 2012 Annual Conference, 15-18 July at Chicago, USA Don t miss the opportunity to remain future ready by exchanging ideas and connecting with thousands of fellow information professionals, all gathered in Chicago, a city of world-class status and unsurpassed beauty. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan in the heart of the Midwest, Chicago is home to worldchampionship sports teams, an internationally acclaimed symphony orchestra, renowned architecture, award-winning theater, and SLA 2012, 15 18 July. For more details, visit the conference website at: http://sla2012.sla.org/ National Seminar on Challenges and Opportunities for Managing E-Resources in the digital Age, 13-14 July 2012 Contact: Dr. Raj Kumar, Librarian, A.C. Joshi Library, Punjab University, Chandigarh. e-mail: librarian@ pu.ac.in International Conference on Trends in Knowledge and Information Dynamics - ICTK 2012 Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC) as part of its Golden Jubilee celebrations will host the ICTK-2012, 10-13 July, 2012 at Bangalore. http:// drtc.isibang.ac.in/ictk/ International Conference on Collection Development in the Digital Environment (ICCDDE 2012) The conference will be organized, 29-30 June, 2012 by the Madras University Library, Chennai in Collaboration with Prof. B. Ramesh Babu Felicitation Committee at University of Madras, Chennai on the theme Collection Development in Digital Environment. 33rd Annual IATUL Conference The International Association of Technological University Libraries (IATUL) will organize its 33 rd Annual Conference on Library Strategies for New Generation Users, 4-7 June, 2012 at NTU, Singapore. http://conference.ntu.edu.sg/iatul2012/pages/ CallforPapers.aspx Fifth Belgrade International Open Access Conference 2012 Centre for Evaluation in Education and Science in partnership with the National Library of Serbia will host the Fifth Belgrade International Open Access Conference, 18-19 May, 2012 in Belgrade, Serbia. http://boac.ceon.rs/index.php/boac/12 ASIAN LIBRARIES, LIBRARIANS AND NETWORKS SERIES This series has been initiated with the objective to introduce libraries, librarians and networks of the Asian Region to all valuable members. The aim is also to provide a platform for fellow librarians to discuss, share and exchange their views on professional issues of mutual interest and to enhance their knowledge on various aspects of librarianship. Libraries IIT Delhi implemented the RFID based Integrated Automation System IIT Delhi Central Library successfully implemented Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) based automation system during 2011 for its campus users using LSmart. It is an integrated automations system which also supports video surveillance, DVR recording, people counter, etc. apart normal RFID functions. A screeshot from Main menu, Book Drop and EAS Pedestal of the IIT Delhi RFID system 8 SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012

IIT Mandi implemented the KOHA (Open Source Library Software) The Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi is the youngest and has become the first Library in the IIT System in India to implement successfully the Open Source Library Management Software (KOHA). The Library has also introduced various innovative user services including user education programmes under the stewardship of Dr. Sandeep K. Pathak, Deputy Librarian-in-charge and also the Chair of the SLA-Asian Chapter (Portal Management). URL- http://www.iitmandi.ac.in/academics/lib Appreciation Award for BEST PRESENTATION OF THE CONFERENCE for his paper entitled, Roadmap for RFID implementation in Libraries: Issues and Challenges. An Appreciation Award Memento for the same was presented to him in the concluding function of the ICKMARS-2012. The conference was organized by the Waljat College of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the BIT, Ranchi at Muscat, Oman, 27-28 February, 2012 and was attended by about 150 participants from about 15 counties. Librarians It will be worth to share the professional contributions of Shirley-Ingles-Cruz who is Senior Librarian at the Commission on Appointments, Congress of the Philippines. A practicing librarian for many years, she holds Masters in Public Administration and Bachelors in Library Science. Shirley-Ingles-Cruz She has served a prestigious Association of Special Libraries of the Philippines (ASLP) as its President. As an active professional, Shirley has also been associated with a number of professional national and international bodies and served these bodies in various capacities. Prior to this, she was Librarian and Head of the Databank and Library Unit of the Office of the Vice President of the Philippines (1999-2000). She has also worked with the One-man Librarian of the Bestchem, Inc., a multinational company based in South Korea (1997-1999) and Researcher at the Market Research International, Inc. (1997). Shirley has contributed many research papers and has also participated in several seminars, conferences and workshops. Currently she is the Program Planning Committee Member and also the Country Representative of Philippines for the SLA Asian Chapter. She is the contact person for the proposed International Conference of Asian Special Libraries (ICoASL-III) 2013, planned to be held during 10-12 April, 2013 in Manila, Philippines. Dr. Nabi Hasan won the Best Presentation Award at International Conference on Knowledge Management & Resource Sharing (ICKMARS-2012) Dr. Nabi Hasan receiving the Best Presentation Award at ICKMARS-2012, Muscat Networks Developing Library Network (DELNET) DELNET, a non-governmental resource sharing library network in South Asia connects more than 4000 libraries located in 32 states and UTs in India and seven other countries including Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Oman, Philippines, UAE, United States, etc. It networks academic, research, public, government libraries among others. It provides access to more than 13 million bibliographic records of books, journals, etc. and extensively provides Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery services to its member libraries located in and outside India. It provides library management software package free of charge to its member libraries and also promotes the use of open source software among the libraries. DELNET organizes workshops and training programmes in different parts of the country from time to time. More details are available at www.delnet.nic.in Dr. Nabi Hasan, Deputy Librarian, IIT Delhi & SLA Asian Chapter Board Member was presented with the SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012 9

2011 SLA Asian Chapter Award Winners- A Memoir Dr. H. Anil Kumar, Librarian, IIM, Ahmedabad, India Winner of SLA Asian Professional Award sponsored by Balani Infotech and Asian Chapter, SLA well organized conference. The theme of the conference Future Ready was more appropriate towards career span far into the future. According to Thomas Friedman, three things can make librarians Ready for Future i.e. Information Literacy, Innovation & User Oriented Services. Wrote Godin rightly said A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a Sherpa and a teacher. Librarians/Information professionals are more critical to knowledge sharing than ever before because of the increased amount of information being shared. I am quite impressed with the thoughts emerged at the Conference that only Information Professionals can help navigate through the labyrinth of information. Hence, a library should function as a service organization made by the people, of the people and for the people. The conference was a fantastic experience for me as it was my first participation at an SLA annual conference. The scale and organization of the event left me spell bound and infinitely impressed. It was very unlike the academic and research conferences that I had attended earlier. The SLA event was totally focused on the practicing library professionals. The Spot Light sessions were truly amazing and those that I attended were very enriching and useful. The Info Expo was unbelievable and huge. There were most of the leading information products and services on exhibit. It was very informative and educative. I strongly felt that one needed more time to visit all stalls to get the most out of the event. It was just not being aware of new products displayed at the Info Expo but the event also provided an excellent understanding of various tools, techniques, trends, etc., through the special sessions organized by various exhibitors at the expo itself. The conference also helped in networking with professionals from various parts of the globe. SLA Fellows and First Timers meet was an interesting session in an open format. All First Timers had assembled to interact with each other and with the SLA fellows. Both Asian Chapter Board Meeting and Presentation of Asian Awards events were quite interesting and informative. Also it was an honour for me to receive the award at the SLA Annual Conference. Mr. Bijoy Ketan Panda, TCS, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India Winner of SLA Asian Librarian Award sponsored by IEEE and Asian Chapter, SLA Attending SLA Annual Conference wow, was really a lifelong and amazing experience for me. There was a huge gathering of more than 6000 information professionals in a I am very glad to express my gratitude to the Chair-Award Committee, all Members, President SLA (Asian Chapter) and the Sponsors IEEE. This award provided me the first opportunity to attend SLA Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO at Philadelphia (USA) during 12-15 June, 2011. Ms. Geeta Paliwal, IEG, Delhi, India Winner of Early Career Award sponsored by Business & Finance Division and Asian Chapter, SLA The news of going to USA and participating in SLA Conference was a pleasant surprise to me. It was the first time that I was attending SLA Conference and was struck with amazement on reaching USA. I was credited for my achievements and honoured with Early Career Award for which I am indebted to Asian Chapter and Business and Finance Division. The Conference was global in nature and was an amalgamation of intellectuals and professionals. I got the rare opportunity of acquainting myself with some eminent personalities in the domain of Library and Information Science. It was a very well organised conference and was a treasure house of knowledge and experience. The four day event familiarised me with many spheres of Library and Information Science and I realised that I had a lot to learn. The Early Career Award humbled me completely and infused confidence and faith in me. This recognition has triggered motivation in my endeavour to improve the quality of professional services. It has enriched me with a new set of knowledge, experience and has increased my professional ability. I also paid a visit to Draxel University in Philadelphia and learnt about new technologies used in their library. I strongly feel that an association with SLA is indispensable to learn more & more about the librarianship and best practices across the world. I would conclude by expressing my gratitude to the SLA Business & Finance Division and the Asian Chapter for bestowing me with the opportunity of being a part of the conference gathering. 10 SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012

Book Review(s) Leadership and Professionalism for New Age Libraries Editors: Dr. P.K. Jain, Dr. Tariq Ashraf, Dr. Shantanu Ganguly and Dr. Debal C. Kar Published by Bookwell, 3/79, Nirankari Colony, Delhi-9 ISBN: 9789380574349. 2012. x+390p. Rs. 1595.00 $ 80.00 (PB) This volume contains in all 61 papers which belong to current and relevant topics on the theme of the conference. Major areas covered in these papers include; leadership strategy in library and information science field, maximizing leadership and core competency development, leadership and ethics, digital library, application of ICT for augmentation of library services and inculcating leadership knowledge through capacity building. P.K. Jain stated in his paper that the vision of SLA is to have a global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. Its mission is to promote and strengthen its members through learning, advocacy and networking initiatives. Durga Sankar Rath talked about leadership initiatives in digital library services for e-resources and e- learning management. M.P. Singh explained about leadership skills for library professionals. His focus is on the areas of leadership skills, principles of leadership, attributes of leadership and leadership skills for library professionals in modern era. Jitender Sharma and Rajesh Kumar stated that library professionals play an extremely important role in society. The authors covered professional ethics, need and relevance of ethical practices, professional code of conduct, etc. Under application of ICT for augmentation of library services; information and knowledge resources available in libraries are limited, but those available through the web are enormous. Ultimately Library professionals could play a major role in specializing in the use of resources available on Web. Each library professional could specialize in one subject or a part of it and create knowledge portals and make that knowledge available through the Web. Library professionals could make specialized information available to users through the websites of their institutions or develop new websites. Kaetrena Davis Kendrick pointed out in her study, the code of ethics on academic librarians and academic library administrators behaviour while on the job. She stated the outline of code of ethics of ACA, covering customer service, intellectual freedom and censorship, privacy and confidentiality, intellectual property rights, conflicts of interest (business and personal), and professional development, etc. Sheila L. Rosenthal mentioned about institutional research data collection methodologies and tools and said that the institutional research data is a valuable function of both academic and corporate libraries. Citation analysis tools are frequently used to measure the impact of an organization as well as on the author s primary areas of research, co-authors and citing authors leading to additional collaborations, geographical subject area concentrations, comparison between similar establishments and research trends in certain domains such as computer science and engineering. Rajkumar Singh discussed IPR information in digital era, IPR meaning and types, IPR in India and its enforcement, copyright problems with electronic information, copyright in library information centres and role of library and information professionals, creating awareness among users about IPR and copyright, etc. A.A. Oyelude and B.A.Oladele covered leadership issues in libraries. They also said that the application and use of information and communication technologies has become essential and the library leaders should equip themselves with latest professional and managerial skills by undergoing special training programs. It is concluded that the contents of this conference proceeding volume are very useful for library professionals, information specialists, teachers, students, researches, and information practitioners. All articles included in this volume are of great academic value especially for the users from Asian region. Dr. Harish Chandra Librarian Mr. G. Kumar Library Information Officer Central Library, IIT Madras Chennai, India SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012 11

Contributions to next Asian Chapter News We re always eager to receive articles for the Asian Chapter News. Please send articles about your accomplishments, library developments, innovative practices, interesting websites, trends in the information industry, the application of new technologies, book reviews, and upcoming events that you d like to publicize to Dr. R.K. Sharma. e-mail: sharma@unicindia.org For advertisement For information about advertising in the Asian Chapter News, please contact Mr. Harish Chandra. e-mail: hchandra@iitm.ac.in Disclaimer: SLA assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions expressed by the contributors to the association s publications. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official position of the SLA. Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product by the SLA. 12 SLA Asian Chapter News Vol. 8 Issue 1 2012