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The three-day International Library Conference which was held at IIM Indore during April 14-16, 2016; concluded on Saturday. The conference was organized by Asian Library Association and IIM Indore.
The conference was attended by around 200 participants around 150 Research papers were received for publications; however only 78 papers were accepted for the publication in the conference proceeding out of which 63 papers were selected for presentation out of which 55 papers were presented that is 90% of the authors presented the papers. There were 9 technical sessions covering the presentations, 6 keynote addresses delivered on key issues and 2 panel discussions on contemporary issues well debated by learned panelist.
Keynote Addresses:
First keynote address was by Professor Madhusri Shrivastava, Faculty, IIM Indore; who spoke on the topic ‘Key
Issues in Effective Communication’. She mentioned how the image of librarian needs to change over time. ‘Earlier when someone discussed about who a librarian is, he was described as a shadowy person, who may be introvert and shy. It is now time for that image to change’, she noted. She then discussed about how earlier people who used to multi-task were considered talented, however, today this has turned into DAD, i.e. Divided Attention Disorder; which is a problem which many of us face unknowingly. A librarian should always be focused and stay attentive, as he is the person who can give the right information. ‘Google may give you a hundred answers for any problem, but a librarian will direct you to the right answer’, she concluded.
Second keynote address was by Dr. Saiful Amin, Director, Semantic Consulting & Visiting faculty, DRTC, Bangalore on” Library Standards and Protocol” . He emphasized on the importance of standards and protocols inorder to sustain in the long run for Digital libraries and also gave the details of the various standards to be used for the physical collection and online resources. He also presented cases of Creating Union catalogues and cluster OPAC.
Another keynote address was via video conferencing on ‘Researching Information for smart cities and Global outsourcing management projects’ by Dr. Jay Bhatt, Librarian, and Dr. Samir Shah, Associate Clinical Professor in Management Information System Drexel University, Philadelphia. Dr. Samir Shah, gave a brief overview of the Drexel University Community and about the Co-op – a crash course in real life and its impact in career decisions of the students. He further explained the Global Classroom collaboration project where Students of Drexel University are working in engagement of major universities in the other countries, getting to work with multidisciplinary and multicultural aspects, solving real world business problems with the purpose of Global Skill development.
Fourth keynote address of the day was delivered by Dr. Swati Bhattacharya, Librarian, IIM Calcutta on the topic 
‘Information Literacy and trans-literacy in the Digital Context’. Quoting about experience of working with Agricultural Portals by Maharashtra Government as a part of e-choupal project, she said that it was not only important to make the information available digitally online but also it is important that we provide information literacy to the citizens. She said that technology alone will not solve the problem and here she emphasized on how Public libraries with the support of academic libraries can get trained in information literacy skills.
The last keynote address was delivered on the last day of the conference by Dr. Medha Joshi, Head Dept. of Lib. Sciences., Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai on the topic ‘Information Ethics in Digital Environment’. Dr. Joshi started by explaining the Ethics committee process and procedures followed and how important it is to have Research Protocols for using information. She then elaborated on 4 principles on Ethics which was based on Bio Ethics and she has in her talk discussed many dilemmas you come across as a librarian and information provider. She also emphasized that ethics is situational and need to addressed from case to case.
Panel Discussion:
Second Panel Discussion of the conference was on the topic ‘Can Libraries Beat Google?’, wherein the panelists debated about how internet and books vary from each other in various segments.
Valedictory Function:
The valedictory function took place on the last day, which witnessed the announcement of the Best Paper Award, which was received by Pratiksinh Vaghela & Kinnery Thaker on the topic ‘An Application of Technology Acceptance Model in Understanding Student’s Behavioral Intention to use EBSCO- An online Management Database’.
The event also had felicitation of Dr. GHS Naidu, Librarian, DAVV, Indore.
Conference Report was submitted by Dr. Elavazaghan K., Librarian and Chief Knowledge Officer, IIM Tiruchirapalli, which included the details about the three-day conference.
The conference was successful in bringing together a large number of professionals from various fields, professors and publishers as well.