IASLIC 2018

Three Days of Powerful Talks

More than a century has passed since LIS education started in this country. John Macfarlane, the first Librarian of the Imperial Library, introduced in-house training programme for inservice professionals of the library in 1901. In subsequent years, the training programme was opened to the staff of other libraries and even to non-librarians, who were dealing with books and other documents. India has been slow in recognizing the importance of training for library and information workers. However, with the recent growth of library consciousness among the people, the importance of professional training is being recognized for providing quality library/information services. Fortunately, India has made a unique and substantial contribution towards the emergence of library and information science as a full-fledged discipline. The function of a librarian is no more limited to issuing and receiving of books only, he needs to act beyond that; he has much more important role to play. He needs to arouse a real interest and curiosity in the minds of the users for acquiring knowledge; he needs to cultivate the reading habit among them. He should have the capability of fulfilling all types of requirements of the user community. Obviously, unless a person gathers sufficient knowledge and possesses the necessary professional skills, he will not be in a position to serve the users effectively. As the LIS education in the country is fast expanding, ensuring quality of such education has become essential. Though a large number of LIS schools has come up in recent decades, hardly any attention has been paid in many such schools towards developing infrastructure and manpower needed to impart quality education. Hence IASLIC has decided to provide a platform to library and information professionals for discussing future strategies in this regard in its forthcoming national Seminar.

In this context, it is a pleasure to announce that Visva-Bharati Library Network (VBLN) is organizing the IASLIC 28th National Seminar 2018 during November 27 – 29, 2018 at Lipika Auditorium (main venue) Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.