International Conference on Academic Libraries (ICAL 2009) at University of Delhi Campus at Delhi, 5 to 8 October, 2009.

Conference report. By, R. N Sharma, Ph.D. Dean of the Library, Monmouth University and Chair of the International Relations Committee of ACRL.

The University of Delhi, India hosted the first International Conference on Academic Libraries from October 5-8, 2009. It was a smashing success and attracted delegates from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. The speakers included Ellen Tise, President of IFLA; Jay Jordan, President and CEO of OCLC; David Kohl, Dean of the University Libraries; Professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati and Editor of the Journal of Academic Librarianship; Carol Tenopir, Guru of Technology, University of Tennessee; Ann Okerson of Yale University, James O’Donnell, Provost George -town University and R N Sharma of Monmouth University and Chair of The International Relations Committee, ACRL, United States. Other Prominent speakers included Ursula Georgy of Germany, Hazel Woodword and Elizabeth Chapman of United Kingdom, Jens Vigen of Switzerland and Joyce Chen of Taiwan.

112 Papers and 20 Poster papers were presented during the conference. A Pre-Conference Tutorial on Virtual Reference including “Question Point” was presented by Susan McGlamery of OCLC and it also attracted a large number of delegates.

The Theme of Conference was “Globalizing Academic Libraries: Vision 2020”. The speakers discussed academic libraries beyond the traditional stream digital libraries, Virtual libraries and the digital repositories and other technological changes which have made a deep impact on academic libraries. Information literacy, stronger working relationship between libraries and teaching faculty, and the changing role of academic libraries as centers of information from the centers of books were also discussed in this important conference.

The Conference was inaugurated by Ellen Tise, President of IFLA, who spoke about the change, partnership, transformation and the future of academic librarianship. She also discussed information literacy and the new academic librarian of the twenty first century. A special warm welcome was given to her and she was showered with praise for her leadership, and gifts by the organizers of the conference.

Jay Jordan, President and CEO of OCLC, spoke on the topic of “Collaboration in the Cloud – Web Scale for Libraries”. He offered a vision of the cooperative network effects of services and some specific things that OCLC is doing to make such a strategy a practical consideration for libraries.

In the plenary talk, David Kohl spoke on “Towards New Understanding of the Library Mission: Vision and Implementation”. He said redical changes are needed in the profession of librarianship due to the introduction of technology including active participation in the International coalition of library consortia. Availability of journal databases and book digitization of books have changed the profession for the benefit of all users. R.N. Sharma gave his Keynote address on “Technology and Academic Libraries in Developing Nations”. He discussed the challenges and key issues facing academic libraries such as budget, illiteracy, leadership, software, phones and electricity. He emphasized that equal access to information to students and faculty in all developing and under developed countries is a necessity and efforts should be made to remove the hurdles to make it a reality. Ann Okerson of Yale University spoke on the Digital Libraries in the 21st Century Global Environment. A majority of papers were quality papers and will have for reaching impact on the future of academic libraries for years to come. The conference was well organized and a two volume proceedings of the conference were released by Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission of India. Other attractions of the conference were an Exhibition by major national and international companies, and cultural programs of dances and music by the students of the University of Delhi, and Anuradha Singh, a well known Kathak dancer of India. The road map to 2020 was prepared by eminent experts to bring the much needed changes in libraries including introduction of technology and implement the recommendations effectively by 2020.

Report on an seminar on “Source Materials in India ... for the Study of Arab History”

New Delhi: "A three-day international seminar on Indian Archives and Libraries as Source for the History of Arabian Peninsula began today at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. Before the formal inauguration of the seminar, Vice-Chancellor Najeeb Jung welcomed Hassan Faisal Trad, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in India and the delegation consisting of scholars from Saudi Arabia, who have come to participate in this seminar. ..."

"Dr. Ebraheem Al-Batshan, Cultural Attache, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Delhi delivered the key note address on this occasion. He stressed that this international seminar, the first of its kind being organized in India, would go a long way in strengthening ties between the two countries. His speech mainly focused on the historical dimension of the relationship between India and Saudi Arabia."
"Dr. Abdullah Arraqeebah, Director, King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia welcomed the idea of organizing this seminar and stressed the importance for greater cooperation between the Archives and Libraries in India and in Saudi Arabia." Continue reading the first day report: Seminar on Indian libraries as source for history of Arabian Peninsula, 6 October 2009 - By TwoCircles.net News Desk

• Seminar's Concept Paper: Full description [pdf]: Centre for West Asian Studies, JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA, New Delhi 110025; brief outline: Anil Pinto

On the same shelf:

• Conference: The conservation and preservation of Islamic manuscripts, 18-19...
• Islamic Librarianship: A Bibliographic Survey
• Persian manuscripts kept in two Indian libraries to be digitized


• Who destroyed the Alexandria Library?
  
• Islamic Studies in India : A survey of the human, institutional and documentary sources, by Mohamed Taher, New Delhi , Concept Publishing, 1991; Amazon.com
  

Oman to Fund a New Library in Uzbekistan: The ‘Abu Alraihan Albairuni’ library

7 October 2009 MUSCAT — A new library at the Oriental Studies Institute in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent will be built with funds provided by the government of Oman, according to an agreement signed between the two countries on Monday, the second and final day of an official visit here by Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan.

The ‘Abu Alraihan Albairuni’ library will house more than 26,000 manuscripts, 85,000 historical messages, most of them in the Turkish, Uzbek and Farsi languages, as wells as 10,000 manuscripts in Arabic, currently in the possession of the institute.

Most of these rare documents date back to the 17^th and 18^th centuries. UNESCO has listed them in its World Heritage List as there are no similar copies anywhere else in the world.

The accord was signed by National Economy Minister of Oman Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki and Vladir Norov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of 
Uzbekistan.

Several other deals were also concluded between the two countries including regularising air transportation and to promote cooperation 
in tourism.

The two leaders, during the meetings, also exchanged views on the 
latest developments at the regional and international levels, an official 
statement said. [source: Khaleej Times Online

ravindranath@khaleejtimes.com]

• Sultanate and Uzbekistan ink six pacts and nine MoUs

Visualizing Information based on primary and secondary research

Diaries, are one form of primary resource for any research or study. Librarians classify diaries and such original information tools as primary source or tools from primary research. When people digest this information and create a summary (or an interpretation) such a publication becomes secondary, a digest of digests become tertiary (depending on the levels of input) and quaternary.

This categorization of primary, secondary, etc., is essential for those who teach the library users--or call it information literacy.
Whereras, such categorization in research helps (those involved in study and research) identify the resources: what to look and when to look.

William A Katz, in his book, Introduction of Reference Work, says: "If the ideal reference service, to paraphrase Andre Malraux is 'reference service without walls', the nature of information does impose certain limitations on that service. This side of tapping experts in the community for 'firsthand' information, the library generally must rely upon published data... A rough way of measuring the usual timelines of materials is to classify them as primary, secondary, or tertiary." (volume one, 1978, p. 15)

Interestingly, information professionals, esp. librarians have time, patience, motivation, and skills to name the process, at each stage: be it input, thruput or output. Taxonomies, metadata, tags and keywords are a big world today, but many don't know that librarians are trained both in school and in work to identify and standardize names, themes and so on.

In short, we had traditionally three types of reference sources, viz., primary, secondary and tertiary. Now, a fourth category has emerged, viz., quaternary [C. A Morlot, Swiss stratigrapher and archaeologist, Originator of the term "Quaternary" as used in Geology, and related fields]

As a reference source, the word quaternary, has different definitions, and this includes:

• Anon. Catalogs like the Guide to Reference Sources could even be called quaternary sources.
• Urban Dictionary: Quaternary Reference - An unauthoritative reference source based upon unlimited human input.

A good template (sample, model) to visualize bookreview of reference sources, e.g, diary or autobiography, posted on a blog for the autobiographical work, What World is Left, is here: books based on primary and secondary research