National University and The Librarian Times Joint Seminar: Media coverage

The event news has got media coverage in 25 national dailies till 30 June 2018. Indeed this is a good sign for library professionals towards positive changes.

 

 

University of Hull, UK team visited North South University Library

Tanveer,NSU, Dhaka, 30 June 2018

Lynne Barrow, Associate Dean (International), University of Hull, the UK with her team visited North South University Library yesterday (25 June 2018) accompanied by Dr Katherine Li, Director, Office of External Affairs, NSU. The purpose of the visit was to explore the NSU Library overall facilities, resources, access to information, research support, library space, the effect of services etc. prior to signing MOU. University Librarian, Dr Md. Zahid Hossain Shoeb outlined the strength and facilities of NSU Library mentioning the effective use of Main Study Hall, Cyber Center, Reference Section, Researchers Area, Archival Section, Quiet Study Area, General Study Area, Faculty Corner etc. which offering a calm, quiet, neutral space, where NSU Library users can access resources and information for work, research or leisure. Unlike these areas, students have a great affinity to the large Study Hall due to group discussion facilities.

Dr Zahid also discoursed that NSU Library is the pioneer of using state-of-the-art RFID technology, e-resource subscription, use of library research tools and training programme for the faculty members and the graduate as well undergrad students. The visitors appreciated the efforts of NSU Library. Sr. Asst Librarian, Mr MM Shoeb, Assistant Librarian, Md. Abdul Hakim, Library officer Tanveer Ahsanofficers other and support staff were also present during this visit.

Eid reunion held at Chattogram

Ahasan, Dhaka, 30 June 2018

 

Post Graduate Diploma of Library and Information Science continued students and alumni namely PGDLIS student forum of IIUC (International Islamic University Chittagong) organized an Eid reunion on 22 June 2018 at National Public School, Bahaddarhat, Chattogram. Mr Mohammad Jashim Uddin, Chattogram District Education Officer was the Chief Guest while Mr Anwar Hossain Nuri, Divisional Counsellor, Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) attended the event as the special Guest.

 

BoiBodol forum has established a Library at Rajshahi

BoiBodol(Book Exchange), a social action project which roughly worked to exchange books between university students have now started to create small-scale libraries for young kids. The project has launched a pilot library at Dawatul Islam Girls Orphanage. It is situated at Dharampur, Binodpur, Rajshahi. A retired banker and his wife take care of the children as it is a family initiative, but local residents are also helping a lot for its operation.

BoiBodol initiated collecting books for the library in late May and collected books till 5th of June. In spite of being a small initiative and for lack of professional advertisement, 58 books and 2000 BDT were collected. Many students, job holders and even housewives also donated books for the kids. They not only gave away the books, as per the policy of the library project, they have also written beautiful quotes under the cover page of the books so that the kids could enjoy it more.

The volunteers, under the supervision of Nafisa Hasan, the co-founder of the project then enlisted the books in BoiBodol database. On 7th June, Saifullah Mahfuz, the founder of BoiBodol and Amimul Ehsan, a volunteer on the project started their journey to Rajshahi. They reached at Rajshahi in the next day morning and Miftahul Jannat Mouni, another volunteer for the project from Rajshahi hosted them before preparing for the event.

When the team consisted of Saifullah, Amim, Mouni reached the orphanage, Syeda Safika, representative of the orphanage and a university admission seeker, welcomed the team. The kids were very happy to have visitors. Rather than going to the place merely to give away the books, a few segments were arranged to enrich the reading habit of the children. At first, Saifullah talked about what kind of books have been brought to the orphanage. Then Amimul Ehsan shared his experience as a person who had no affiliation with books beyond the syllabus. He shared the story of struggle he had to go through as he had a little knowledge over everything before starting to read books from different genres. Then Miftahul Jannat had taken a session on why extracurricular activities, such as painting, reading story books etc can help a student to become more attentive to his/her studies.

A few fun games were also played in between the session. The most popular one was remembering as many as names of the books given by the BoiBodol team.

The orphans were overjoyed with this small but unique initiative. The owners of the orphanage also welcomed the team warmly. But they are also facing financial hardship as they are currently buying an addition portion of land for the orphanage so that they can accommodate a lot more orphans at their place, established their own school and for a playground. For this, they need 20 lakh BDT. Financial aid is hence, welcomed.

It was a great experience for the BoiBodol team as they never thought they would get this much response from the donors. They are looking forward to creating more libraries around the country.

We appreciate and congratulate the new initiative of Saifullah Mahfuz Orko, Founder of BoiBodol Concept and his dynamic team members.

The National University and The Librarian Times Joint Seminar held

30 June, 2018

 

The National University and The Librarian Times Joint Seminar on “Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Enriching LIS Education, Research and Professions in Bangladesh” was held on June 27, 2018, at Govt. Teacher Training Colleges Auditorium, Dhaka

This seminar was jointly hosted by National University Bangladesh and The Librarian times. Two speakers from the Library and Information specialist backgrounds gave the presentation on their expertise.

The event was divided into two different sections. The first session presentation titled “Library and Information Science Education: The USA Perspective” conducted by Dr Hasan Zamir, Lecturer, School of Information Studies, Dominican University, USA. This session covered LIS education system, research, library services, professional affiliation, and library and information job perspective in the USA. It presentation particularly focused on the admission process in LIS schools, requirements and funding opportunities for the students who want to go to the USA for higher studies. The audiences were able to ask questions of the presenter on various topics about the LIS sectors.

The second session was conducted by Dr Anwarul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of Information Science & Library Management, University of Dhaka. His presentation titled “Potential South Asia (SA) Chapter in ASIS&T: Hope for LIS Communities in Bangladesh.” The presenter discussed on how ASIS&T is playing a significant role for career development, edits, publishes and disseminates publications concerning research and development, networking opportunities through prominent professors, helping to facilitate for possible collaboration and to find research supervisors. The audiences were able to ask questions of the presenter on various topics to know what is the benefit of being a member of ASIS&T, how to make network with the world famous researchers, recruiting process in university, Chapters role, Special Interest Group (SIG), how to get awards, possible funding for attending conferences and others.

 

One of the aims of the event was to have a meeting point of the LIS academics, professionals, researchers and students where everyone had the opportunity to get to know about Dr Zamir’s work in the USA and inspire some networking and socializing with other professionals from different organizations. The border aim was to share knowledge among the fellow library professionals in Bangladesh.

The session was chaired by Professor Dr Nasiruddin Mitul, Dean, National University Bangladesh. Professor Kaniz Sayeda Bente Sabah, Principal, Govt. Teachers Training College, Dhaka delivered her inaugural speech at the event while Mamtaj Sahanara, Vice-Principal Govt. Teachers Training College, Dhaka attended the event as the special guest. Dr Dilara Begum, Associate Professor and Chairperson Department of Information Studies and Library Management & Librarian (Acting) East West University attended in the session as an expert. Mr Prodip Roy, founder and editor of The Librarian Times, greeted the participants via online from Australia.

The Two- hours presentation including questions answers and expert opinions about the session made the event successful.

Evaluation

A post-seminar survey was circulated to the participants shortly after the conclusion of the event. The reactions and comments are very positive. We requested participants to leave their feedback on the event with a number of questions e.g., How likely are they to attend one of our events in the future? How likely are they to recommend events to a friend? Did the seminar meet its objectives?

And the result we have received is 100% positive.

Total number of registration: 149

Total number of attendees: 80

Overview: Attendance and Locations

The location of the event was convenient for all. Overall participants were happy with the choice of venues.

Overview: Content

Attendees were in general very happy with to presentation topic and the presenters’ expertise.

Further Recommendation:

Technology:

The organisers need to consider how they will meet technology needs (e.g., live video, live interactive tools, availability)

Invitation:

Information on Invitation to participate in the Seminar organised by The Librarian Times and NU was not disseminated properly. It could have been more organised to make the presence of the professionals many more in the seminar. Many interested participants missed the event.

Refreshments:

Attendees recommended improving the quality and quantity of the food at future events.

Topics to cover at the future seminar:

The participants recommended for future conferences are but not limited to, Open Access movement, Digital Library software for building Institutional Repository (IR), How to apply successfully in International Events like IFLA, OpenCon.

Media coverage:

The event news has got media coverage in 25 national dailies till 30 June 2018. Indeed this is a good sign for library professionals towards positive changes.

The media links are here

Overall, the seminar proved to be a very worthwhile experience, not just for the organisers, but also for the participants.