Author: Editor TLT

Ahasan, Dhaka, 4 August 2018

Bangla Academy Director General Professor Shamsuzzaman Khan is holding the keynote speech

Prof. Dr Mofakhar Hussain Khan, the former librarian of the University of Dhaka, has received an ‘Honorarium Crest’ from the Ahmed Smriti Patagar. An event was organized at Shamsur Rahaman hall at the premise of Bangla Academy on 28 July 2018.

Dr Khan studied different educational intuition at Bangladesh, USA and UK. He worked in different countries like Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Currently, he is living at Kaliganj Upazila in Gazipur.

After receiving the award Prof. Khan expressed his feeling about the devotion of work and its importance. All participants in the event listened to his speech very deeply.

Expressing his feelings, the congratulatory Dr Mawfkhor Hossain Khan

Prof. Shamsuzzaman Khan, Director General of Bangla Academy was the chief guest of the event while Mr M. Shamsul Islam Khan was the special guest of the event who was the former president of Library Association of Bangladesh. Mr Fazle Rabbi, former Director of Bangla Academy, National Book Centre, and founder of Ahmed Smriti Patagar presided over the program. The welcome speech was given by Mr Kazi Abdul Majed, Director Institute of Library and Information Science, Dhaka. Mr Khandaker Fazlur Rahman, former Librarian, University of Dhaka emphasized on biography in brief on Dr Khan. In addition, former Chairman of Jessore Education Board Mr Amirul Alam Khan discussed on Library movement activities of Bangladesh and its contribution of Dr Khan. Economist and Journalist Mr Azadul Kibria conducted this segment of the event.

Professor Shamsuzzaman Khan, Director General of Bangla Academy, is giving a reception to Dr Mofakhakhar Hossain Khan.

M Shamsul Islam Khan, former president of Library Association Bangladesh (LAB), is presenting the special guest speech

Invited guests and speakers shared their opinion on the knowledge-based society and its legacy towards civilization and how the library played a pivotal role, what contributions of Dr Mofakhar had towards the society. Attended guests criticized the result oriented education system, memorizing system, misuse of technology. How the society can overcome these challenges also pointed out. Sufficient budget for library and with the modernization of it by converting the characteristics of true information, special mark for using the library at school level may be the solutions to face the prevailing problems.

University of Virginia Professor Dr Mokarram Hossain is speaking

ILIS Director, Kazi Majed is delivering the welcome speech

To know more about Prof. Dr Mofakhar, read his short biography here.

Seminar on

A national-level network for agricultural library and information centres in Bangladesh

Organized by: HEQEP CPSF 2184: Modernization of Central Library and Establishment of an E-resource Centre at CVASU

Date: 15 September 2018

Venue: Conference Hall,

Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University

Who should participate?

The Seminar would provide opportunities to meet and hear from library professionals, leaders, LIS faculty members and information scientists from different parts of the country.

Call for Papers:

The seminar welcomes submissions of research and scientific papers, case studies, working papers, etc. related to seminar theme and sub theme. The paper submitted should have been neither published anywhere nor kept under consideration for publication in any form. All papers will go through a review process and accepted papers will be published in the Seminar Proceedings/Edited Book.

The papers should be submitted as an email attachment to:

[email protected]

Details information and author guidelines can be found here

Tanveer, NSU, 28 July 2018

North South University Library and Office of the Graduate Studies jointly organised a workshop, titled “Workshop on Building High Impact Research Portfolio with Scopus” on 26 July 2018 at 11:20 AM – 12: 50 PM (LIB-608). Total twenty-seven faculty members from various schools and departments participated in the program.

Mr M M Shoeb, Sr. Assistant Librarian, in his welcome speech mentioned the objective of the workshop, the importance of the Scopus indexed journals for better citation and impact in QS Ranking.

Dr Md. Zahid Hossain Shoeb, NSU Librarian, described Advanced Search Techniques on Scopus, Search Result Analysis Procedure, Several Journal Metrics, and Journals Scientific Prestige etc.

Professor Sharif Nurul Ahkam, Director, Graduate Studies, showed the research techniques based on Scopus citation database.

The workshop ended with a Question/Answer session and at the end of the session Professor Sharif Nurul Ahkam, Director, Graduate Studies, and Dr Md. Zahid Hossain Shoeb, NSU Librarian, distributed certificates among the participants of the program.

Ratan K Das, Dhaka, 29 July 2018

Koishor Tarunnye Boi is a book reading campaign of the leading publishing houses of Bangladesh. The campaign entered its second year recently. This platform was inaugurated on 23 July 2016.

To celebrate this occasion they organised a three-day book fair. The fair kicked off at the premises of Rajuk Uttara Model College in Dhaka. Children’s literature author Ali Imam inaugurated the fair as the chief guest.  In his speech he said, dreams are born from reading books. Koishor Tarunye Boi president Tushar Abdullah presided over the ceremony. He emphasizes on reading books in spite of dependence on machines. Rajuk Uttara Model College principal Mr Kazi Showkat Alam and journalist Mr Tushar Abdullah were present at the event as the special guests.

It was the 42nd book fair organised by Koishor Tarunnye Boi. A total of 12 publishers have participated in the fair.

Courtesy: New Age

Ratan K Das, Dhaka, 29 July 2018

World Book Day is the worldwide celebration of authors, readers, publishers, illustrators and so on. The day is designed by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). To celebrate the day each year British Council Bangladesh organises a nation-wide book reading competition. The organisation wants to encourage Bangladeshi children, young adults and adults to explore the happiness of reading.

This year British Council and Daffodil Education Network (DEN) will jointly organise this competition.

Visit the following link for more information.

https://www.britishcouncil.org.bd/en/world-book-day-2018-book-reading-competition

28 July 2018

Monirul Islam

Librarian, Army Medical College Chittagong

Chittagong Cantonment

Nurul Islam Mahfuz, Deputy Director (LID, IIUC) & Faculty Member (LIS, IIUC) and Md. Monirul Islam, Librarian of Army Medical College Chittagong are going to attend the 3rd International Conference of Asian Libraries on Building smart libraries: changes, challenges, issues, & strategies.

The said conference is jointly organised by Central University of Kashmir (CUK), Kashmir, Asian Library Association (ASIALA), New Delhi and International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) taking place at CUK, Srinagar, Kashmir during August 6-8, 2018.

The research paper titled ‘Automation system at International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC) Library in Bangladesh: A status report’ authored by Nurul Islam Mahfuz and Md. Monirul Islam was accepted to publish in the conference journal earlier and authors are invited to give an oral presentation in a session on the paper.

Prodip Roy, Editor, TLT, 28 July 2018

Firstly, I am starting my writing with an excellent news in the Library and Information sector in Bangladesh. The Librarian and Assistant Librarian posts have been created in Dakhil, Alim, Fazil and Kamil Madrasas. It is undoubtedly good news for Bangladeshi library profession. When the process of recruitment of Librarian and Assistant Librarian to MPO affiliated madrasas will start public relations will be increased in the profession.

I personally applaud to the former and current leaders of the Library Association Bangladesh (LAB) and Bangladesh Association of Librarians, Information Scientists and Documentalists (BALID), including all public and private officials involved in this initiative. Madrasas are widespread educational institutions located all over Bangladesh. They are involved with educating children in rural and urban areas.

Madrasa Education Board was formed in 1978 under the Ordinance for the Modernization of Madrasa Education. According to the Madrasah Education Department, the total number of madrasas in the country is 9, 137. The Private Educational Institutions (Madrasa) Manpower Structure and MPO Policy-2018 was released on 19 July 2018. This announcement will create and open a significant job opportunity in Bangladesh as well as establishing an excellent scope for the library and information science sector.

But there are some inconsistencies in this announcement in compare to other positions, which require reforms.

Back history:  

24 October 1995:

Notification issued of Private Educational Institutions (Madrasa) Govt. Salary Part and Manpower Structure Policy-1995. Assistant Librarian positions were created in this announcement and the required qualification for this recruitment was a Graduate degree in any discipline with a Diploma in Library Science.

25 October 2011:

The Ministry of Education issued a circular on October 25, 2011, for the appointment of Assistant Librarian in Dakhil and Alim Madrasa similar to Secondary and Higher Secondary. It was said in the serial number of the Circular (d) “Submitted as Secondary / Higher Secondary and Assistant Librarian included in Alim Madrasa”. As a result, recruitment of assistant librarian in Dakhil and Alim Madras started.

15 April 2012:

On April 15, 2012, a circular was issued and Dakhil and Alim Madrasas stopped the recruitment of assistant librarian posts. It was said that these positions cannot be recruited until the educational qualification, the fixation of the salary structure and the appointment policy are made properly.

19 July 2018:

Notification issued of Private Educational Institutions (Madrasa) Manpower Structure and MPO Policy-2018. In this policy, Librarian and Assistant Librarian positions have been reformed for Dakhil, Alim, Fazil and Kamil Madrasas. However, the educational qualifications for these requirements have been kept different.

The new eligibilities for Librarian:

Private Educational Institutions (Madrasa) Manpower Structure and MPO Policy-2018, the new eligibilities for Librarian positions are,

a) Degree in Kamil under Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board/Islamic University/Islamic Arabic University and

b) Diploma degree in Library Science

or

a) Graduate and a Post-graduate degree in Arabic and

b) Diploma degree in Library Science

The new eligibilities for Assistant Librarian:

The new eligibilities for Assistant Librarian positions are

a) Degree in Fazil under Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board/Islamic University/Islamic Arabic University and

b) Diploma degree in Library Science

or

a) Graduate degree in Arabic literature with and

b) Diploma degree in Library Science.  

That means, after completing a Graduation and Master degree in other discipline and with a Diploma degree in Information Science and Library Management or evening Master degree holders in Information Science and Library Management and Honors and Master degree holders in Information Science and Library Management none is eligible to apply to the madrasas for Librarian and Assistant Librarian position. They will not be eligible for appointed for these positions which are unfair and discriminate policy.

The announcement will hamper the current flow and development of LIS profession:  

Librarian and Assistant Librarian recruitment of the Private Educational Institutions (Madrasa) Manpower Structure and MPO Policy-2018 is clear discrimination between the madrasa and general education system and this discrimination cannot be accepted in any way in the librarian profession. The government has a mandate in establishing Digital Bangladesh and the LIS professionals are playing a significant role to support in the process. Very recently I came to know through a social media status that many graduates from other prestigious universities i.e. Dhaka University Business Faculty students have enrolled in Information Science and Library Management to study the subject due to the current importance and job prospects. This notice will be hindering the current flow and development of the LIS profession in the country.

Library and Information Science is a Unique and Universal Profession: 

Under the current curriculums of LIS education, a Graduate or Post-graduate or Diploma student in Library and Information Science are considered and eligible for working in any National, Academic, Public and Special Libraries. A student in Library and Information Science is being trained to work with any kind of libraries. Arabic is a language similar to other different languages in the world. The librarians are being developed in such a way that they can meet special needs in the specialized institution. The language is not a significant issue to get recruitment in madrasa as a librarian or assistant librarian. The technical terms in the LIS profession i.e. LCSH, MARC21, AACR2, RDA can be managed in Arabic/Urdu or whatever language collections are in the madrasa libraries.

Madrasa students are receiving equal opportunity:

The Education Policy 2010 seeks to bring all students of the country, irrespective of their religions, genders, physical limitations, socioeconomic and geographic locations, under one system. In a policy statement, the Government had taken specific policies to modernize the madrasa education system. And the recruitment of Librarian and Assistant Librarian are the part of the madrasa modernization policy similar to other compulsory subjects (i.e. Introduction to Environmental Studies), Information Technology, and Science.  As a result madrasa students are receiving equal opportunity to apply in accordance with the country’s traditional education system and job structure. The authority should follow the same rules for all ordinary students.

The process of recruitment of Librarian and Assistant Librarian in Dakhil, Alim, Fazil and Kamil Madrasas should be stopped until a fair and undiscriminating notice is issued by the authority. This announcement, particularly for Librarian and Assistant Librarian eligibility sections, should be re-considered before starting the appointment activity. Otherwise, other new crises will occur in the education systems.

The library professionals are seeking a quick settlement of this discrimination and injustice for the development of madrasas education systems and establishing equal opportunities for all citizens in the country.

Prodip Roy

RMIT University, Australia

email: [email protected]

Ahasan, Dhaka, 21 July 2018

The World Bank team on the 4th day of 17th Implementation Support Mission held a meeting with the officials and representatives of the beneficiary institutes of the UGC Digital Library (UDL) at UGC auditorium on Sunday 15 July 2018.

The library professionals from public and private universities, International and Research organisations attended the meeting and opined their views. Since the World Bank project is going to be ended soon, the subscribers have to pay the full amount for the membership instead of twenty percent payment. How the professionals will approach this fact with the respective authority, implementation effect, trail resources subscriptions and statistical facts and figures were discussed.

Up to June 2018 University Digital Library (UDL) provides 31000 e-books, 3100 e-journals, 10000 conference proceedings by 13 different publishers. At present there are ninety Bangladeshi organisations are subscribing to the UDL resources including 34 Public Universities, 51 Private Universities, 01 International University, 02 Research organisations and 02 training institutes.

Professor Dr Mohammad Yousuf Ali Mollah, Member, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC), delivered an introductory speech at the meeting with Professor Dr Md. Akhtar Hossain, Member of UGC, in the chair. Jaminur Rahman, Senior Program Officer of UDL, presented the progress report of UDL at the meeting. Dr Gauranga Chandra Mohanta ndc, the Project Director of HEQEP and other officials and consultants of HEQEP were also present at the meeting.

As the World Bank e-resources project for UDL is closing soon: What is next?