Collaboration Scenario in the Indian LIS Papers of the 21st Century

There was a gradual transition from single-authored papers to collaborative papers in the 20th century, especially in science subjects. The trend caught up with LIS papers as well in late 20th century. With the passage of time, collaboration took various forms, which outlined. The chapter is based on more than 600 publications of which 341 were covered in Bibliography on Work-Flow in Libraries (1966) and the rest published in National Conference on Advances in Knowledge Management –NCAKM’10 - Proceedings (2010), Proceedings of the 9th Annual National Convention of MANLIBNET on Business and Management Librarianship (2008), Proceedings of the 11th Annual National Convention of MANLIBNET on Trends and Challenges in Management in Corporate Libraries in Digital Era (2010), and Proceedings of the National Conference on ICT Impact on Knowledge and Information Management (2010). The earliest collaborative papers found in this study are from 1941. The collaborative papers published from 2008-2010 accounted for 68.6% of the total and filled on average 6.3 pages. A predominance of inter-organizational cooperation in the generation of papers is observed in the study. There is hardly any international cooperation for producing LIS papers.

Internationalization of LIS (Library and Information Science) Education

This paper deals with internationalisation of LIS education and its practical implementation. The author and the initiator of the ‘Bologna Process’ here explains the process herself. While an initial trend of the internationalisation of the Bologna Process is towards the harmonisation of the LIS curricula and the transparency of the minimum requisites, or what is called the core programme, an apparently opposing trend is towards the stimulation of excellence and innovation in the LIS curricula in Europe. The necessary “mutual trust” between Library Schools in Europe can stem from quality assurance systems, which are appropriately compatible and credible, and involves: conceptual definition of LIS: getting the concept of LIS related to quality is to be agreed correctly, including the core and innovation in curriculum, learning and teaching: using the best educational practices for facilitating learning, learning outcomes: ensuring that the student has a role in quality assurance.

Building the Capacity of Librarians through Collaboration

This chapter details the collaboration scenario of the University libraries of Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Bergen in Norway for over a decade. This chapter highlights the multiplier effect of the collaboration leading to new partners at the University of Juba in South Sudan, the East African School of Library and Information Science (EASLIS) at Makerere and the Norwegian School of Librarianship. The new partners implemented the Juba University Library Automation Project (JULAP) funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. JULAP aimed to rebuild the Juba University Library closed due to 1985 war. The project includes library automation, training and sponsoring young Sudanese for a Bachelor’s degree in Librarianship at EASLIS. Staff training is conducted by EASLIS, while the practical component was handled by previously trained Makerere University Library staff. Activities, challenges faced and addressed, achievements and future plans of the project are outlined.

Internationalization of LIS Education in India

Internationalization of education is a perspective. It shapes the objectives and modalities of an educational program aiming at internationalization. Some existing modalities are accreditation of academic programs by international accreditation agencies, exchange programs, international conferences, etc. Library and Information Science (LIS) as academic discipline in many countries, particularly in India, may not achieve the goal of internationalization through any of these routes exclusively and quickly for various reasons discussed in this chapter. A new form of collaboration among LIS classes of two institutions from different countries/cultures is proposed here. This type of collaboration can provide an alternate route to the internationalization of LIS education in India. This chapter discusses several issues – internationalization of LIS education in general and efforts in India in this regard, how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are becoming relevant in spreading education. Finally, the chapter proposes an ICT-based model that can help internationalization of Indian LIS education.

International Cooperation in Developing a Digital Library Software and South Asia Network

Inter-country cooperation in any sector almost invariably begins with information exchange among the nations or groups involved. Briefly Describes international collaboration and networking in developing user-interfaces for selected Indian languages for an open source software - the GSDL (Greenstone Digital Library) software - for creating digital libraries of multilingual multimedia information resources, more particularly for the South Asia region. The steps in the formation of the related GSDL South Asia Network, the tasks assigned to the institutions in the SAARC countries, and the plan of work are mentioned. The role and contributions of the participating institutions and the organizations at the international level and in different countries is also briefly described. Further developmental work needed and problems to be solved as identified from the work done on user-interfaces in Indian languages are highlighted.

Collaboration at an International Level

Information is essential, and it accepts no boundaries. Librarians are importing and exporting information; they work globally. They are globally IT-connected; they are offering an extensive network staffed with specialists, and they know how to treat this network right. A Global Librarian is working within this network. This chapter discusses the information society, or the knowledge society. Librarians are global players within the knowledge society.

Library and Information Science Collaborations in the Philippines and Beyond

The development of library cooperation in the Philippines, particularly among academic, school, and special libraries, started in the early 1930s and was known under different names (Ladlad, 2003), such as resource sharing, partnership, consortium, linkage, library cooperation, and networking. Libraries usually come together in the form of consortia to supplement existing resources by providing access to information available in other libraries. Through cooperation, libraries are able to withstand the skyrocketing prices of information resources as well as budget cuts by means of consortium/cooperative purchasing. Likewise, library cooperation has proven to be an effective way of presenting smart solutions to common library problems/concerns through communities of practice. This chapter provides an overview of major library consortia in the Philippines. The compiled list is as exhaustive as possible. However, due to scarcity of sources, some active consortia may not have been included in the list. The information provided in this chapter was gathered mostly from published Websites. A comparative study, in terms of aims/objectives and activities being carried out by the different consortia, was also included and can be found at the end of this chapter.

Innovation Network in IT Sector

Multinational Enterprises usually keep their crucial R&D close to their home base. However, recent trends show that MNEs are increasingly offshoring their R&D activities. A couple of decade ago this R&D offshoring phenomenon was mainly restricted in the developed countries. Since early 1990’s this paradigm has changed and many Multinational firms prefer developing countries as their R&D destination. Among developing countries, India and China are favorable destinations for many MNEs. The R&D alliance trends of foreign firms show that, in India they prefer Indian domestic firms and in China, they prefer universities and government research institutes. Government of both these countries should take policy measures to strengthen the linkages between foreign firms and local actor of innovation system. Also, innovation is no longer restricted to or confined within a firm’s border. Firms are acquiring knowledge from outside its boundary by “Open Innovation Mode.”

Donations to Libraries

The donations of books and other materials to libraries in developing countries reveal the paradox that a gift can be more of a problem than a benefit. In the post-colonial period, well meaning organisations sent boxes of discarded books to libraries. Governments send book donations for propaganda purposes and religious organisations do likewise, with the Church of Scientology currently using its massive translating, publishing and distribution capacity for this purpose. Ways in which donations can be selected so as to serve the actual needs of recipients have been explored in recent years, with the charity Book Aid International being an outstanding example. The experience of libraries in the face of donations of all these types is discussed so as to point to some conclusions on the significance for international cooperation.

Introduction

Globalization of any profession encourages professional collaboration and cooperation at the global stage and enhances possibilities of collaborative development of professional standards, best practices, and public policies. Like many other actors in humanities, the information and knowledge communities also have been historically engaged in bridging divides between the Global North and Global South and the information rich and information poor. The intergovernmental agencies and their different stakeholders have also supported many collaborative intervening global programmes for bridging the knowledge divides or digital divides exist in the societies. Building knowledge societies in the world is a more pervasive goal in the twenty-first century for percolating maximizing benefits and overall growth of the global communities. Various global programmes supported by United Nations agencies such as Education for All (EFA), Health for All (HFA), Information All (IFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), all have tangible components to be enriched by library, information, and knowledge communities. Thus, the communities involved in “international librarianship” have important roles in enriching the global citizens in local settings. This chapter introduces these ideas.