The Hindu : New Delhi News : Celebrating banks of knowledge

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Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007
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New Delhi

Celebrating banks of knowledge

Madhur Tankha

National convention on libraries opens in the Capital

NEW DELHI: As repositories of books and periodicals of all shapes and sizes, libraries are a rich source of knowledge and information for all. To acknowledge and strengthen this fact, the tenth edition of the National Convention on Knowledge, Library and Information Networking (NACLIN-2007) opened at India International Centre here on Tuesday.

In his inaugural address, Indian Council for Cultural Relations president Karan Singh expressed concern that the good old book-reading habit among the people was fast disappearing.

Calling upon librarians to upgrade their skills in order to impart knowledge to the public, Dr. Karan Singh said “until death, life is a learning process”.

“A new dimension must be added to a librarian’s professional competency. The world-wide web is a tsunami of information. From this information, it is necessary to extract knowledge and then distil wisdom,” he added.

Referring to the dismal state of libraries in the country, Dr. Karan Singh, himself a distinguished man of letters, said a lot needs to be done to improve sub-standard libraries. “There is a need to upgrade the skills of the staff. Competency needs to be enhanced. Libraries should cater to people from all parts of the country, diverse backgrounds and religions,” he asserted.

Dr. Karan Singh said even though a large number of people were accessing written material increasingly through digital technology, he was hopeful that the book-reading habit would survive forever.

The theme of the national convention is “Libraries without boundaries: Reaching the unreachable in the Knowledge Era”. Organised by Developing Library Network (DELNET), the convention is being supported by the Union Ministry of Culture, ICCR; Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (Deemed University), Pune; Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi; Div II on Software of Computer Society of India; and IEEE Computer Society, Madras.

The four-day convention is being attended by delegates from the U.S., Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana and Oman.

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