Reading now: Library and Information Science Education in India

Library and Information Science Education in India, by Krishan Kumar and Jaideep Sharma. New Delhi, Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2009. ISBN: 8124114650; US$ 33.00; 312 p.

“LIS Education is the most crucial input for the development of libraries. … The book has been primarily written to meet the needs of the researchers of Library and Information Science. It will also serve as a basic source for students of LIS for the course of LIS Education both at M. Phil and MLIS levels.” (cover)

Contents: Chapter: I. History; II Organizations and their role; III. Levels of courses; IV. Admission requirements; V. Course content; VI. Course Delivery : teaching methods tools and evaluation; VII. Infrastructure; VIII. Status and accreditation; IX. Distance education; X. Issues, developments trends and suggestions

Professors Krishan Kumar and Jaideep Sharma have done an excellent job of cataloguing the main facets of LIS education in India. The authors have been directly involved in teaching, training and are personally exposed to the tools, techniques, methods and out-come of LIS programs in India. Both have a good grasp of what is imported and what is exported by LIS professionals and have a balanced approach about how much of thinking local and acting global is essential today—especially introduction of the book reflects this perspective of what works abroad and what works in India. For instance, the recent growth of I schools in California and Mysore will interest many LIS educationists to see the synchronization that is taking place (I-School movement, p. 57).

Library and Information Science Education in India is a handy source for researchers, post-graduates, as well as for an advanced study of LIS education in India as it evolves. This book is also useful for those interested in comparative education, comparative and international librarianship as well as historiography of library world. Library historians, in short, will find this book indispensable.

Full review will appear in Library Times International

On the same shelf:

Diversity and Commonality of Information Science Education in a Pluralistic World (SIG ED) by Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Heting Chu, Joseph Janes, Eileen Abels, William Moen, Samantha Hastings

Stakeholder's Views on Information Education by Rachel Elkington, Cynthia Fugate, Deanna Morrow Hall, Mark Greene

Fifty years of library and information science education in India: Seminar papers: XV IATLIS National Seminar, Department of Studies in Library and Information ... of Mysore, Mysore, 27-29 November 1997

Another graduate school serving the library field is about to lose the “L” name

Libraries in India - National Developmental Perspectives: A saga of Fifty years since independence, by Mohamed Taher. New Delhi , Concept Publishing, 2001.