Libraries, foundation for building great institutes

More than 300 papers were presented on 11 themes during the three-day international conference on ‘Emerging Trends in Librarianship – Role of Libraries in Learning Environment’ that concluded on Wednesday at the Indian Institute of Management - Tiruchi.

Out of this, 89 papers were included in the edited book, and 68 were accepted for publication in journals. There were 11,000 visitors to the conference website, according to the organisers.

Encompassing three workshops, the 18th edition of the international conference conducted jointly by the IIM-T, Management Libraries Network (MANLIBNET), and SALIS (Society for the Advancement of Library and Information Science) had set a benchmark of hosting more than 450 delegates from six countries.

Presiding over the valedictory session, IIM-T Director Bhimaraya Metri said libraries in digital economies were the central hub for intellectual resources, and the foundation for building great institutes and universities. A need has arisen to start a large number of journals.

The conference provided a platform for networking and connecting, he said.

Gina De Alwis, Singapore Institute of Management, emphasised on transfer of the knowledge gained at the conference to the workplace by the delegates. Touching upon new developments taking place in the field of Library and Information Science, Ms. Gina, an ethnography specialist, said it was imperative for academic librarians to acquire various skills.

Awards

The Best Paper award was given to Prathepan T and Jeyakanthan M from Sri Lanka for their paper titled ‘Evaluating the impact of Library Web Portal of the Eastern University, Srilanka using Web Analysis Study.’

‘Award of Appreciation’ was presented to Goutham N for his paper titled ‘Trends in the use of open source tools for Data Mining in Computer Science Research from 2014 to 2018’ and to Champa N. K. Alahakoon for her paper titled ‘ICT and EIR Usage in University libraries: The training requirements of Humanities and Social sciences for Under Graduates.’

K. Elavazhagan, Chief Knowledge Officer, IIM-T, said the conference served as a platform for LIS professionals, teachers, practitioners, researchers, students and users to understand and explain innovative practices adopted with respect to technology, services and resources at their workplace.

The aim was to identify the best practices and arrive at alternatives to manage current libraries and to address problem areas, he said.

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