Address at the inaugural session of MANLIBNET 2013 December 26, 2013

1. MANLIBNET 2013
International Conference on Entrepreneurial Approaches to Librarianship
December 26-28, 2013
Presidential Address
Dr. H Anil Kumar
Librarian, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

2. Albert Einstein was asked once how we could
make our children intelligent. His reply was both
simple and wise. "If you want your children to be
intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you
want them to be more intelligent, read them more
fairy tales." He understood the value of reading,
and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a
world in which they will read, and be read to, and
imagine, and understand.
Neil Gaiman

13. Learning and education
• Formal methods
– Classroom training
– Laboratory training
– On the job or apprenticeship
• Non-formal methods
– Self-study and Reading
– Watching, seeing and trying
• Sources
– Institutes / schools / industries / employers
– Libraries and laboratories
– Internet

14. Hole in the wall
Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs)

15. Technology Advantages
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Learn at your own pace and interest
Supplement learning in the classroom
Less dependency on formal support
Variety and wide range of choices
Explore new ways of learning

16. Why go beyond formal methods?
• The 95 Percent Solution: School is not where most Americans learn most
of their science by John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking
• Recent findings challenge the longstanding belief that the place for
science knowledge acquisition is the classroom.
• International comparisons of trends in science knowledge over lifetimes
suggests that much if not most science knowledge is acquired outside of
school.
American Scientist: v. 98 (Nov-Dec), 2010

21. Trends to keep in mind…
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Space is of prime importance.
Open movement is here!
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Content – Data – Technology – Education – Talent
Technology trend - cloud and mobile would affect the interface.
Library Services – collection owning / building to collection access.
Library talent will move from so called traditional work to actually Traditional
WORK – ‘Help Discover’.
Focus on domain expertise.
Queries would be multidisciplinary.
Entrepreneurship will become extremely important in all domains of education,
especially in bschools.
Research in the context India is becoming very important and therefore IR will
become extremely useful.
In this context need for data that is India specific would increase.
Move from support to partnering roles!

22. THANKS
anilkumar@iimahd.ernet.in