Indo-Canadian Librarian Series - Narendra Passi

In his own voice:

"I attended University of Delhi, School of Library Science and graduated in 1959. I was the first Gold medalist in librarianship at that university. I got encouraged and decided to continue my studies towards M Lib. Sc. which I completed in 1960. I was hired by Vikram University, Ujjain that year and stayed there for five years. I came to Canada in 1965 and found a job at McMaster University. Joined as a Reference librarian, got many promotions and by the year I retired, I was the Head of Reference Services. I also started Library Science courses (part-time) at the U.O.T. and graduated in 1969.

I started doing volunteer work and also became President of the Hindu Samaj of Hamilton. It was during that time that the temple got attacked the week after after the 9-11 in the USA. We had to collect funds and start the temple activities all over again. Now I am the President of the Seniors Seva Mnadal of Hamilton and Region. This programme came about when the Ontatio Government announced "AGING AT HOME " program."

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• Cited in: A Bibliography of Bertrand Russell (Page xxi)
• Member: South Asian Heritage Association of Hamilton and Region

Tejinder Sibia, 70, dies; documented Sikhs' history in California

I think by his great contributions, he continues to live in the digital memory of the World. For instance, view this documentary byte: 'Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965,' picture

"Remembered for: Documenting and promoting the history and culture of Punjabis and Sikhs in California and the Pacific Northwest; head of the Shield Library research unit for biology and agriculture at the University of California, Davis"
"He became an unofficial archivist of the Asian Indian pioneers in California, filling in the blanks of their little-known history with a collection of rare historic photographs and documents compiled on a Web site, http://www.sikhpioneers.org/" notes, Chris Bowman @ sacbee.com Source

News headlines:

Libraries News: Indian-American historian Ted is dead

Indian-American scholar Tejinder dead

Indian-American historian Ted is dead: After his retirement as a librarian from the University of California at Davis, he devoted his time to chronicling the history of Gadar leaders and early Indian Sikh pioneers through his web site www.sikhpioneers.com. It became a rich reference material for research on the Indian diaspora.

Death info courtesy: K Prasanna @ motorola.com

Hope for British Library, Thiruvananthapuram

The widespread concern over the plan to close down the British Library in Thiruvananthapuram seems to be paying off. Since no one is ready to let the library go, the idea now is for the Kerala government to take over its management. The BL has agreed to hand over the books and other facilities to the government. That's a significant breakthrough, since the earlier decision was to distribute the books to other British Libraries. The government chief secretary is preparing a report on the plan of action. (Report in The Hindu.)

continue reading @ Time and Tide [info courtesy: Mysore Blog Park]

South Asian Literary Recordings Project

Launched in April 2000, to record the voices of South Asian authors for the Library of Congress' Archive of Recorded World Literature, the project has captured the readings of prominent South Asian poets, novelists, and playwrights. The authors recorded so far represent more than fifteen of the languages of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Google goes desi, starts online Hindi software

Click here for this Google Hindi page

अब तो हिन्दी मैं लिखना असान हो गया है.
मगर सब को क्या मालूम के यह कैसे कम करता है?

Samiran Saha, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, August 20, 2007

The world’s hottest search engine has gone desi. Now you can type in English and get the script in Hindi on Google. You can also search for local content in Hindi and 13 other Indic languages. Engineers at Google have developed software that helps online usage of "Indic" language scripts.

The term "Indic" refers to the Indo-Aryan languages that form a sub-group of the Indo-Iranian languages.

"Indic" is used in the context of the Indo-European linguistics, and is not strictly a geographical term.

Hindi transliteration was launched on the blogger service earlier this year, and the latest service http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/ is a standalone offering of the same technology.

By launching its search in Hindi Google is looking at the wide base of Indian Net users, a large section of which comprises of those proficient in Hindi.

Google’s new products come from its Bangalore based research and development centre and its other laboratories based in different parts of the world. The two products -- Google Local Search and Google Business Centre -- launched by Google on Monday are specifically designed for those proficient in Hindi.

The Local Search is a tool for Indian users looking for relevant information on the web. With the launch of these products users will now be able to search for information on local businesses like restaurants, shops and hotels by simply searching on http: //local.google.co.in and its Local Business Centre is available at www. google.co. in/local/add.

To switch to Hindi, the users will be aided by the Indic on-screen keyboard software which can be installed by users on their personalised iGoogle pages. Typically, when a user types in English and hits ‘enter’, the script appears in the Indic script through transliteration. Google's Indic transliteration allows the user to type in Hindi using phonetically equivalent English text entered through an English keyboard. Users can create Hindi content and use it in any of the applications including mails and documents.

See also

Google Trends: The Great Desi Survey May 23, 2006, Mayank Austen Soofi

Google News Goes Desi - Launches Hindi News Service
March 16, 2007, Aaman Lamba

Google unveils India Labs, local search
INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2007 03:12:44 PM]

Certificate Course on "Modern Library Practices"

- Call for Participation from Developing Countries
PS. Info courtesy: Rachel @ Beyond the Job

The Resource Centre, NITTTR, is organising a Certificate course on "Modern Library Practices", which will be held on 15th October 2007 to 7th December 2007 at National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India) Taramani, Chennai 600 113, Tamil Nadu, India. continue reading

Mahatma Gandhi praised Urdu in last letter

News update: Heritage saved! Auction of Gandhi letter stopped CNN-IBN, July 02, 2007
The executors of Albin Schram have agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from Tuesday's auction in order that it may be acquired by the Indian Government.


Bapu's letter may be stolen: Grandson, CNN-IBN, June 27, 2007 at 22:16
New Delhi: The scheduled auction of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi, possibly his last before his assassination, has sent the Indian government in a tizzy.
The letter, written on January 19, 1948, is part of a collection of manuscripts put up for auction at the famous auction house Christie's in London. Meanwhile, a harried Indian Government has started the process of bidding for it. Sources in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs have said that they are assessing the cost to bid for Gandhi’s letter, which is expected to fetch £ 12,000 or Rs 10 lakh.

Press Trust Of India, London, June 29, 2007,
In the letter, a rare manuscript that will go under hammer at Christie's in London on July 3, Gandhi said opposing Urdu will "put a wanton affront" on the Muslims, who "in the eyes of Hindus have become aliens in their own land".

Writing in his journal 'Harijan' on January 11, 1948, Gandhi, who appeared disturbed with the dwindling circulation of its Urdu edition, said in the letter that it is likely to be stopped.

Praising Urdu, which he said "is set free from bondage of orthodoxy", he asserted that those who learn it will "lose nothing but gain". At the same time he urged Muslims to learn Devanagari to "enrich their intellectual" capital and subscribe to his journal.continue

See also:

Mahatma in market

Mahatma manuscript up for sale, govt wakes up

India to participate in auction of Gandhi letter

Gandhians demonstrate against auction of letter

Rare letter from Mahatma surfaces

Rigveda Manuscript in Memory of the World Register

This post courtesy: Smart Indian

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute of Pune has the honour of preserving some of the oldest Indian manuscripts. Among others, it has 28,000 manuscripts of Rigveda. Thirty of these Rigveda manuscripts have been added to the UNESCO's list of the International Cultural Heritage. Rigveda is considered the oldest compilation of the Indian philosophical thoughts which survived through the singing and listening in a special manner and thus called Shruti (heard). Later on [corrected - thanks to Yatra-Tatra] there was a need of writing it and the first manuscripts started emerging. The 30 honoured manuscripts are considered to be written from 1800 BC to 1500 BC. continue reading

See also related posts from my blog:

10th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2007)

The invisible Indian library - Thought for the Day

Rare manuscripts gathering dust

Chandamama gets a snazzier look

Islamic manuscripts section revamp on the cards

The invisible Indian library - Thought for the Day

"It would take a lot of dedication—and the revenues of more than a hundred villages today—to create proper public libraries, accessible to all, across India. But the difference it would make in our daily lives is incalculable. We’re very good at constructing malls; it seems that every city and small town now has its own shopping paradises. How hard would it be for a nation of mall-builders to construct a few good public libraries alongside?" SPEAKING VOLUMES, Nilanjana S Roy / New Delhi May 01, 2007, Business Standard

See also related resources:

The lost world of libraries

MEGA Website for Indian Public Libraries - Is there any?

Libraries to go online in Andhra Pradesh: Minister

Case Studies from India: Evidence-based Librarianship. Extracts from:

The lost world of libraries

posted by Blake on Sunday May 20, @12:23PM from the dusty-shelves dept.

The Business Standard - India has a look at some ooooollllddd libraries in India. But, however distinguished the provenance of these three, as also that of the Dayal Singh Public Library in Delhi and other public libraries elsewhere in the country, they are all rather sad places today. Only PhD students come here now to trawl the dusty shelves of uncared for books, rummage through the crumbling cards and brave the apathetic sloth of the staff for the early and rare editions of novels and journals. [Source: Librarian and Information Science News]

See also: Map of Libraries in New Delhi

Library Open House - Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library

Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library
10-01 Fair Lawn Ave., Fair Lawn, NJ 07410 (201)796-3400


Gail standing next to Miss Harneet Singh

Rare manuscripts gathering dust

6 May, 2007 l 0836 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

PATNA: More than 5,000 rare manuscripts in different languages are decaying in the Patna University (PU) Central Library for want of proper upkeep and preservation.

Even as the library was linked with the Information and Library Networking programme of the UGC several years back, these valuable manuscripts are yet to be transformed into digital and electronic forms.

The manuscript section of the library, once considered to be a repository of rich cultural heritage, has been lying locked for the last several years.

The section was being manned by two research assistants and a manuscript binder, but all the three employees retired and there is none to look after this valuable section today.

The AC machine installed in this section for protecting manuscripts from decay has not been in operation for the last 25 years.

The manuscripts include 1,530 in Persian, 440 in Urdu, 316 in Arabic and 2,547 in Sanskrit, Maithili and Hindi.

All these manuscripts were made available to the library during the last 80 years by different researchers and scholars.

In fact, the PU library itself is facing acute shortage of staff, with all the top posts of librarian and assistant librarians lying vacant. The library, which contains more than 2.50 lakh books and journals, has not appointed any trained staff in the last one decade.

Surprisingly, the libraries of most of the postgraduate departments of Patna University are non-functional in the absence of any trained library staff.

Last year, PU had interviewed hundreds of people for appointment as class three and four staff, including library staff, but no appointment has been made till date owing to reasons best known to the authorities alone.

Consequently, valuable books and journals purchased by the departments with the University Grants Commission (UGC) grants are gathering dust in the libraries. When contacted, Patna University history head Kameshwar Prasad told The Times Of India that the manuscript section of the Patna University library was not proving beneficial to the research scholars due to its poor upkeep.

He pleaded for modernisation of this valuable section so that the rare manuscripts in the possession of the library could be saved for their future use.

The Patna University registrar, Vibhas Kumar Yadav, said that the university would soon appoint a full-fledged librarian. After this appointment, the manuscripts would be digitised, he said.

Is this yet another Wiki in Library and Information Science

My guess: that this "Wiki" is not open to all and free for all to hack, whack and crack. And, I see that it is limited by registeration and subject.
But, my librarian buddy, Baby Boomer Librarian, i.e, Wilfred Drew questions its credibility:

I was going to blog about this but had forgotten about it. As Sarah points out in her post at LibrarianInBlack, it is a wiki or wiki wanna be that is supposed to look at librarianship with a global focus. Don't waste your time. It is not even clear as to who actually owns the wiki when you look at it. There is no ownership information at all. A WHOIS query gets this information: ... READ MORE

There are others who are looking to find more authentic, authoritative info about this new foundland:

Librariansworld.com was sent to me by Amol, who tells me that it is a popular site in India, Pakistan, and the Far East. It’s the only site that I know of (please let me know if I’m wrong) that offers a social networking tool for librarians. It’s not a pure SN site, but it’s not that bad either. A good start.
Is anyone working on something like this in the states? One would think with all of the discussion about social software in our profession, it would be in the works. Steve

Librarians World
"Librarian's World is a network of Librarians & Information Scientists . It is a democratically managed site without any editor. It offers Social bookmarking, Expertise Exchange, Discussion Forums, Librarians Webpages and many other facilities with an objective of better networking & knowledge sharing amongst Librarians."

What others say:

Here is an interesting website for Library Professionals, gokhalesharad012 20 Feb 2007

Lets join and share, Iam Saravanan, Information Manager

I have read many topics on digital libraries on www.librariansworld.com, go ahead and get benefit. Venusgoody1 10 Mar 2007

Hello All, I have come across a very Interesting website www.librariansworld.com hope it will intrest you too. Thanks & Regards, Pranaykumar Soft-AID

Useful info on document preservation on www.librariansworld.com, Venusgoody1 pdflib 2007-02-21

P.S. I just received another update about the IASLIC website:
New IASLIC WEBSITE : http://www.iaslic1955.org.
Send your uggestion for its improvement
Regards
Dr Pilusjkanti Panigrahi
Dr Pijushkanti Panigrahi, Reader, Dept of Lib and Inf Science, University of Calcutta, 87/1 College Street,Kolkata - 700 073, West Bengal, India, email : panigrahipk@yahoo.com, (M) : +91 94342 43522. Secretary, Education Division, IASLIC; Associate Editor, IASLIC Bulletin, IASLIC, Kolkata-700 054

My most recent posts:

Copyrights and Copywrongs - Responsibility of Media and Academia

Wikipedia and Academia Hit News Headlines Again

Health Information and Libraries Journal 24:1 (March 2007)

Reviewing a blog - benchmarks?

Chandamama gets a snazzier look

Mumbai: There is good news for those who enjoyed reading Vikram and Betal stories in the old Chandamama magazines – the children’s classic has been sold to a software company which is going to give it a facelift. Read More

Islamic manuscripts section revamp on the cards

Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, March 2: Buoyed up by four of its rare Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit manuscripts getting awarded by the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), the Asiatic Society is drawing up plans to revamp its Islamic manuscripts section.
As the first step, professional librarians, conversant in Persian, Arabic and Urdu, will be inducted to give better service to the scholars and highlight the priceless manuscripts in the society archives.
The absence of librarians conversant in these languages was hamstringing the Islamic manuscript section, a senior official of the society said. The staff pattern ought to be changed to give more utility to scholars dealing with rare manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Urdu.
Nearly 6,000 manuscripts were currently housed in the Islamic section, it was learnt. Collections of Tipu Sultan, Radhakanta Deb and Hedayet Hussain, to name a few, can be perused by scholars.
The collection of manuscripts is a veritable treasure trove for scholars. Dating back to the 17th century, the collection boasts Shahnama written by Firdausi as one among its trasures.
Written by Rashid Taleb, a history of the Chengiz dynasty is also to be found in this collection. It was written in the 16th century.
Abul Fazal’s Ain-i-Akabari is also part of this collection. It is a statistical account of the Mughal empire during emperor Akbar’s reign.
Enthused by the recent awards, senior society functionaries felt that a detailed representation of these manuscripts was needed. The lacuna of not possessing librarians conversant in languages the manuscripts were written in was being felt now, a senior functionary said.

PS. image courtesy: www.catchcal.com

Mehta's Water earns Oscar nomination for best foreign film

Canada's entry for the Academy Awards, Deepa Mehta's Water, earned a best foreign language film nomination Tuesday.

It will compete against Denmark's After the Wedding, Algeria's Days of Glory, Germany's The Lives of Others and Mexico's Pan's Labyrinth.
News source: CBC Arts January 23, 2007; Image source: http://www.dmcityview.com/archives/2006/06jun/06-22-06/movie.shtml

See also: WATER - The movie, an Oscar Contender by Mike Ghouse

Area / Ethnic Studies - January 2007: South Asia

Serendipity brings me to this handy reference tool, published since a few years:
Academia - an online magazine and resource for academic librarians - published by YBP Library Services
In short, I see this as an essential tool for collection development.

Past issues of Academia:

August 2006: Asian-American Studies

November 2005: Asian Studies

See also: Forthcoming Library Science Titles January 2007, Selection List

About Academia:
lists current Literary Prizes and Awards & much more such as Publisher Profiles; Selected New Series; Special Pre-Publication Offers;Specialized Selections; University Press Bestsellers source

Asian, Not Oriental, Politically Correct Lessons of 2006

'Black' coffee may brew trouble, Press Trust of India,

New Delhi, January 7: Order a "black" coffee or talk about "metrosexuals", and you could be accused of being politically incorrect - says a group which describes itself as the "global language police".

On the Global Language Monitor's list – which documents, analyses and tracks trends in language the world over - the top politically incorrect words for the outgoing year are "Oriental", which it says should be replaced by "Asian", and "Macaca", the use of which is believed to have led Senator George Allen's defeat in US polls after he used it to refer to an Indian American aide of his opponent.

In India, our very own Shah Rukh Khans, who likes to be seen in mauves and pinks and are endowed with a dash of feminine sensibilities, will be heralding the menaissance movement.

Even religious phrases have not been spared by the politically-conscious. So there's a demand to rephrase the old prayer 'Our Father in Heaven' to "Our Mother and Father Who Are in Heaven" - that's the Bible in a more just language, as the monitor points out.

Next on the language police's list is "HERstory" for "HIStory".
"Though there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for 'HERstory' they are all based on a mistaken assumption. When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word simply meant 'inquiry'," writes Paul J J Payack, the president of the group. Yet going by the tremendous demand for "HERstory" - the word has made it to the list. Continue reading

South Asian Studies -- Resources, Programs, etc.

Resources in Canada
University of Toronto. Centre for South Asian Studies

Resources in USA:

Center for Research Libraries. Digital South Asia Library. Sources consulted in the preparation of the Union List of South Asian Newspapers and Gazettes. International union list of South Asian newspapers and gazettes

South Asian Studies -- Collections CONTACT: David Niles Nelson

Columbia University Libraries. SARAI: South Asia Resource Access on the Internet CONTACT: David Magier
  See also: India Virtual Library

The University of Chicago. South Asia Library Project

The University of Chicago. Roja Muthiah Research Library. CONTACT: James Nye

The University of Chicago. Urdu Research Library Consortium. CONTACT: James Nye

University of Virginia. Center for South Asian Studies. Teacher Resources for South Asia
See a detailed list of South Asia Studies Programs

Resources in Europe:

University of London. The School of Oriental and African Studies - SOAS

University of Leiden. International Institute for Asian Studies - IIAS

University of Cambridge. Centre of South Asian Studies

See a detailed list of South Asia Studies Programs

Resources in Australia:

Australia South Asia Research Centre

Resources in Singapore:

National University of Singapore. South Asian Studies Programme


Tools for Area Studies Librarianship:

Deccan Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Bi-annual Journal, Contact: Dr V.K. Bawa or email: deccan-studies@rediffmail.com

The Influence of Hindu Epistemology on Ranganathan's Colon Classification

Tipu Sultan Portal, Mohamed Taher

A Guide to Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu Manuscript Libraries in India, by Omar Khalidi

Muslims in India : Recent contributions to literature on religion, philosophy, history and social aspects, Mohamed Taher 1993

Islamic Studies in India : A survey of the human, institutional and documentary sources, Mohmaed Taher 1991

Christian Librarianship, Essays on the Integration of Faith and Profession
Edited by Gregory A. Smith, Foreword by Donald G. Davis, Jr. (2002)

Islmic Librarianship, Mohamed Taher (1197)

Journal of Area Studies Librarianship, Haworth Press

Transnational library relations: The Indo-American experience (Concepts in communication, informatics & librarianship) by Madhukar Bhimrao Konnur (1990)

Resource Guide for Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism Hinduism, available through the Internet or at the University of Alberta

Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives, Mohamed Taher (2006)

Google area studies librarianship

PUNCHLINE:

Does South Asian Studies Undermine India? Rajiv Malhotra, [rediff.com India ] December 04, 2003

'You have to be as careful giving away your money as you were in making it'-- Bill Gates

South Asian scholar program hopes to 'build bridges' among nations, Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor