National Library Day 2023: Smart Library – Smart Bangladesh

Prodip Roy: Editor

February 4, 2023

In 2017, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced February 5 as the National Library Day of Bangladesh. Later the official celebration for the first time was observed the following year, 2018, on the same date. One of the reasons for celebrating February 5 as National Library Day is the historical context, as the foundation stone of the first Central Public Library was laid on February 5, 1954, in Dhaka.

The slogan for 2023 is framed based on Smart Bangladesh’s goal, Smart Library, Smart Bangladesh.

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The Librarian Times enters its sixth year! What have we achieved in the last five years?

The Librarian Times entered its sixth year after completing its fifth successful years on 2nd February 2022!
In the last five years, TLT has made a significant contribution to the library profession, especially to the library sector in Bangladesh. What have we achieved in the last five years, if anyone asks us? We would say that TLT has launched several professional awards for Library Professionals for the first time in Bangladesh. TLT introduced the first library and information science webinar in the history of Bangladesh.
In addition, TLT played a role in taking the library profession to a higher level through increasing domestic and international collaboration.

Let us take a look at our achievements in 5 years.

The Librarian Times enters its sixth year! What have we achieved in the last five years?

As an Editor-in-chief, I would like to give all the credit for the success to TLT members who have been involved with TLT activities for the last five years.

Open Access Week 2020: Awareness of Open Access in Bangladesh

The School of Business, Bangladesh Open University is hosting an event on the Open Access Week (October 19-25) on its Foundation Day (21st October 2020).  The event will be arranged in collaboration and partnership with The Librarian Times, Creative Commons Bangladesh Chapter, and Centre for Open Knowledge to deliver an informative and exciting discussion session on all things Open Access.

The panel members will discuss the current challenges of open access, benefits of open access, OER, open textbook, open license, copyrights law, open access policy in Bangladesh, Plan S and most recent activities of open access worldwide.

The panellist for the discussion session are:

Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal, Dean, The School of Business, Bangladesh Open University

Mr Munir Hasan, Head, Youth Program, Prothom Alo and General Secretary, Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN)

Dr Susmita Das, Centre for Open Knowledge and Ambassador, cOAlition S & Plan S

Prodip Roy AALIA (DCP), Editor in Chief, The Librarian Times, CCGN, Australia

The event will be moderated by M. M. Shoeb (Deputy Director), North South University Central Library.

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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.

 

 

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.