Paper Presented during International Conference on What’s next in libraries? Trends, Space, and partnerships held during January 21-23, 2015 at NIT Silchar, Assam. It is being jointly organized by NIT Silchar, in association with its USA partner the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1. International Conference on
What’s Next in Libraries?
Trends, Space and Partnerships
January 21-23, 2015

2. The Conference
• Welcome ceremony – with
enlightened views of scholars and
experts set the ground for various
sessions planned during three days.
• The Conference was designed in a
manner that all fields could be
covered and a platform could be
provided to all - scholars;
academicians; experts; students;
Organizations - to share their
enlightened views; research papers
and experimented models.

3. Welcome ceremony for setting the pace for the deliberations
during the Conference
• After the warm welcome of
Prof F A Tulakdar, Dean
(Academics) Susan Schnuer
shared the association of the
Mortenson Center, University
of Illinois, Urbana,
Champaign, expressed her
commitment to the cross-
learning in strengthening the
Libraries in the field of
academics, research, public
and of course how these
could effectively serve to
people to have wider and
brighter KNOWLEDGE
SOCIETY.

4. Contd…
• Prof Paula Toby Kaufman,
Interim Director, Mortenson
Center, complemented the
association and based on her
long experience in the field
of Education, strongly
recommended that Libraries
are the backbone of the
Knowledge Society and an
opportunity to serve those
who have the passion to be a
part of this World.

5. Contd……
• Prof Asis Datta, Chairperson, NIT Silchar
, the Honorable Guest shared his Words
of Wisdom. He mentioned that with the
changing time and technology
revolution, there is a need for the
academic world to think through how
best Libraries can support this
Revolution.
• Prof N B Deshpande highlighted the
partnership between the University of
Illionois and NIT-Silchar and how the
cross-country learning can complement
the changing demands of the users of
the Libraries and the service providers.
He shared with the participants the
steps involved in formalising the
partnership and his vision to make it a
success not only for the NIT-Silchar, but
also for the North-East and other parts
of the country.

6. Contd…….
• Ms Kalpana Dasgupta while sharing the
thoughts of Swami Vivekananda and Prof
Ranganathan to bring Libraries in the
fore-front of the Knowledge Society, how
the trends, space and partnerships which
were part and parcel in the past could be
reviewed with the changing time. During
her address, she emphasised that the
USERS could be kept in the center while
framing the policies, bringing in the
technology and meeting the needs of the
present day to build a Knowledge Society.
She also emphasized on replicating the
best practices followed across the
countries and within the Country by
strengthening the partnership model.

7. Sessions on Day 1
• The Session on Academic Libraries : Trends and
Keys to Success highlighted that in the past,
libraries had different connotations, with the
changing times and trends.
• Journey of academic libraries have not been
smooth. The growing gap between Public and
Private Libraries has affected the students
financially.
• With the changing times, online degree
programmes have also impacted on effective
use of libraries.
• With the changing trends, more focus on STEM
and less on humanities, the libraries should
meet the needs.
• The focus should shift from collections to
users.
• The Government should also focus on equity
and excellence.

8. Contd……..
• With the changing demands, there is a need for rethinking
the roles and skills of librarians and staff.
• There is a need to demonstrate the values the libraries and
the librarians can bring to meet the escalating expectations
of the users.
• Libraries cannot be seen in isolation, the Institutions,
Organizations, universities should involve the Librarians
from the beginning stage of planning the curriculum,
bringing in the technology, New-media etc.
• There is a need to build key leadership skills for success;
cross-cultural competency, computational thinking, data
management and new-media literacy.
• Think creatively and act globally.

9. Contd………
• The session on Public and
Community Libraries : Trends
and Strategies for success
demonstrated the collective
approach.
• The Libraries should analyze who
are the users and what are their
needs.
• There is a need to have
innovations time and again.
• We have to change our mindsets
in adding additional services like
health information; yoga classes;
education for farmers; libraries
and technology hubs.

10. Contd……..
• The presentation highlighted four “S” :
Society; Staff; Scalability and Sustainability.
• The theme of the Conference – Trends, Space
and Partnerships collectively can play a pivotal
role in addressing the four “S”.
• There is also a need to address five “C” in
making Libraries as role models :
• Capacity Building; Content; Classification; Care
and Management; Coordination.

11. Contd……..
• The session on Academic Libraries : Designing Space Innovative
Design of Flexible Collaborative Learning Spaces highlighted that
innovative design and space play an important role in attracting
the users.
• Mr Jeffrey shared various options of designs of public libraries
focused on :Circulation; Furniture; Equipment; Signage; safety and
security etc.
• Prof Williams shared his expertise on Library services within the
Total User Experience. He shared about designing and creating
search and discovery gateway system that offer “SMART” search
assistance that mimics the actions of a trained reference librarian
and expedites information content delivery. He also expressed his
views on digital scholarship activities and emphasized on the
importance of establishing key campus and external partnerships.

12. Proposed General Recommendations
• Effective Communication for Effective Library
Services is an important component which should be
taken care of while designing the Libraries and
defining the role of the Library staff.
• The Libraries are addressing the needs of the people
with mixed culture. The students in the University
are coming from various parts of the country/world,
effective communication with the mindset of “What
Can I Do For You” and “How Can I Help You” should
be the spirit behind serving the users.

13. Contd……
• Libraries serving special streams should also
focus on the quality of content; use of modern
technology; Indexing etc.
• While talking about medical libraries, it was
highlighted that how medical and para-
medical professionals are benefitted with the
quality embedded with modern technology.

14. Contd…….
• National Council of Library Association in
Nepal shared their wonderful experience of
strengthening the Community Libraries and
how the communities own the process of
managing the Libraries with collective
approach.
• The Model could be surely replicated.

15. Sessions on Day 2
• Day 2 was an enlightened day. 40 papers were
presented by the scholars on various themes
focusing on skills, technology, green libraries;
innovations etc.
• The papers were based on the research done by
the scholars. The Organisers should take note of
these research papers and get strong value
additions while planning the future strategies
defining the trends, space, technology and
partnerships.

16. • Workshop 1: Research data research services
conducted by William Mischo and Paula
Kaufman. The workshop focused on emerging
services and what makes them successful
including library’s role and campus collaboration .
• Workshop 2: Library spaces conducted by Jeffrey
and Susan. The workshop focused on changing
uses of library spaces for learning, research and
interactions and design principles.
Workshops on Day 3

17. • Workshop 3: Community Library and Resource
Centers : Self sustained through networking and
partnerships conducted by READ India Team.
• There is a strong recommendation that the
objective behind all types of libraries is to bring
knowledge revolution. The different libraries are
to be seen not in isolation but how they can feed
to each other, whether the trends, space, content
are concerned and how the partnership at
various levels could make it a reality.
Workshops on Day 3

18. • As there is no end to developing knowledge
society, this conference realised the potential
all the participants and provided them the
platform to share their knowledge based on
their research and experiments, there is a
strong need that each participant should
share one strong recommendation with the
organising committee to draw a specific and
well thought of course of action for Next
Libraries