Librarians from across the globe converged at Indian Institute of Management - Tiruchi on Monday to sharpen their ability to deliver services in an open-learning environment where teaching-learning process has been impacted by digital disruption.
The inaugural session of MANLIBNET 2018, an International Conference on ‘'Emerging Trends in Librarianship - Role of Libraries in Learning Environment’ prepared the delegates for transformational change through integrating several technologies in their services in order to attract the users.
Inaugurating the conference, Jayantha Lal Ratnasekera, Vice-Chancellor, UVA Wellassa University, Badulla, Sri Lanka, urged librarians to engage, educate and empower. While there was a need for librarians to adapt to technological advancements, the fact that the printed books continue to hold appeal must not be ignored.
Presiding over, IIM-T Director Bhimaraya Metri hoped that new perspectives would arise out of the international conference for engaging people in an effective way in the backdrop of a decline in reading habit.
S. Murugan, Joint Director/Inspector General of Police, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Tamil Nadu, enlightened the gathering about cyber security issues emanating from physical and digital libraries, and on how the educational Institutes need to be careful about the darknet.
Akhtar Parvez, Secretary MANLIBNET, said that more than 12 Librarian Development Programmes (LDP) were conducted, benefiting 850 library professionals.
M.G. Sreekumar, President, MANLIBNET (IIM Kozhikode); K. Elavazhagan, Librarian & Chief Knowledge Officer IIM - Tiruchi; Papri Nath, Chairperson, Library Committee, IIM Trichy; and A Hariharan, Founder President of Society for the Advancement of Library and Information Science (SALIS), addressed the gathering.
Rama Patnaik, librarian, IIM Bangalore was awarded the MANLIBNET Best Librarian 2018 award on the occasion.
The inaugural session concluded with a special address on the cocnept of human libraries, its emergence and role in the coming future in India by M. F. Hibathul Careem, Registrar - UVA Wellassa University, Badulla, Sri Lanka.