Innovation in academic libraries: a talk delivered at ETBL 2017

1. Innovation in academic libraries
an Indian perspective
H Anil Kumar
Librarian, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

2. • Innovation
• Academic
• Library

4. Innovation
• New ways of doing the same things
• Offering new services
• Need not be only technology based
• Need not be digital
• Revisit the five laws Dr. S.R. Ranganathan’s five laws
Books are for use
Every reader his/her book
Every book its reader
Save the time of the reader
The library is a growing organism

5. What is the Indian context?
• GER – Higher education 24%
• Vacant seats – Engineering, MBA, etc
• Graduates
– Unemployable graduates – Aspiring Minds 2016
– 80% unemployable
– Little curiosity, Lack of questioning skills
– Lack of GK, Poor fundamental knowledge –
concepts
• No application of K

6. Status of academic libraries
NIRF Top 50 overall
• 60% above 50 years. 92% above 10 years old
• 66% - No inf on Space
• No inf on staff 36%, 46% no librarian or inf NA
• 32% no inf on collection
• 44% no OPAC, No inf on services 42%
• More than 40% have not website of their own
• 20% report discovery service, Remote access
22%
• Ask a librarian – 28%, 80% have no IR,

7. What is the outcome of education?
• Jobs?
• Skills?
• Information?
• Knowledge?
• Exams?
• Learning!
We evaluate / rank /
accredit institutions on all
parameters:
placements, diversity,
student / alumni /
businesses perception /
faculty profile, publications
/ …student satisfaction ….
But not student LEARNING.

8. Learning
• We need a learning Society…. For that
you need learning citizens.
• READING AND WRITING
• READING means reading, understanding,
evaluating, interpreting and applying.
• WRITING follows READING

9. Reading
• Slow reading
• Deep reading
• Attention, focus, retention.
• Print vs digital
Our Interfaces Are Killing Our Ability to Think. We are killing
our ability to think. Mobile Touches
dscout’s inaugural study on humans and their tech (June 15, 2016)
Q. How many times a day do users interact with their phone?
A. People tapped, swiped and clicked a whopping 2,617 times
each day, on average.

10. Readings
• Why the brain prefers the paper, Scientific American Nov 2013
• 95 Percent Solution: School is not where most Americans learn most of their
science by John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking, American Scientist: v. 98 (Nov-Dec),
2010
• Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: effects on reading
comprehension by Mangen, Walgermo and Bronnick, International Journal of
Education Research, 58 (2013).
• Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World by Naomi Baron, 2015,
OUP
• Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness by Tara
Brabazon, 2013, Routledge
• The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time, by David L. Ulin,
2010, Sasquatch Books
• The Shallows - What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicolas Carr, W. W.
Norton & Company, 2011

11. Writing
• Writing skills…Cambridge University is
thinking of doing away from written exams
due to bad hand writing!
• Power point???
• Banned at: Apple, Amazon, GSk, etc and
Copenhagen Business School for Masters in
Philosophy and Management

12. http://www.businessinsider.com/universities-should-ban-powerpoint-it-makes-students-stupid-and-professors-boring-2015-6?IR=T

14. Languages…dying
• Slow death of languages fb posts in English
• Digital translators
– Pilot Translating Earpiece by Waverly Labs - 15 languages
– Skype Translator (real time) – Spanish English – as of now.
– Google Pixel Ear buds – 40 languages
• Digital Writers – voice command writers
• Digital Communication – languages are dying ???
• Losing a language also can mean losing crucial
knowledge about the linguistic group’s history,
culture, or even knowledge about their local
environment

15. “Education is what remains after one has
forgotten what one has learned in
school...”
- Albert Einstein

16. In this context are libraries innovating….what
are the interesting things happening in the
world of academic libraries …

17. Delivery at your doorstep!

18. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPc3pd89KnL1E9MyKZs0pzprHANWn1opm

22. https://www.library.georgetown.edu/news/maker-hub-innovators-and-creators

29. http://web.library.yale.edu/services-persons-disabilities

31. http://www.ondemandbooks.com/

33. • Lending Earbuds
• Certificate course in LIS for pharma students

36. Other interesting ideas
• Lib Apps
• Human book
• Earn while you learn
• Impact factor of journal on print issue display
• Lib guides, subject guides

37. IIMA Library
• Print…still in demand
– Recommendations
– Marking, damaged, demand for increase in renewals
– Curated displays (startups, movies, feminism, etc)
– Today’s returns
– Bags
– Book reviews
– Book marks
– Faculty books
• Digital
– Discovery & Remote access
– Subject guides
– Print promotion of books and papers
– Digital promotion through user videos / text
– Kindle lending

38. IIMA Library
• Services
– Cleanliness
– Know your library Quiz
– Research Assistance
– Survey tool, technology support, reference management tools, etc
– Exploring pan India network of library spaces
– Special sessions for student clubs
– Children section
• Space
– Nurturing entrepreneurship
– Visually disabled
– Discussion, silent study, etc
– Restoration project

54. Thank you
anilkumar@iima.ac.in