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Permalink Reply by dudekula dastagiri on April 30, 2015 at 18:13

Dear naman

                 Library Assistant qualificatiom is B.L.I.Sc with two years experiance and library and information assistant Qualification is B.L.I.Sc  with two years experience.then those are same why that is different.

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Permalink Reply by Pritam Kumar Gupta on April 30, 2015 at 19:01

 Dear Professional ,

No both the post are not Equal.   Grade pay of library Assistant is 5200-20200 GP 2000 and Library  information Assistant   is 9300-34800 GP 4200 .Library Assistant  post normally in college  and Library Information Assistant  post in the Technical Institution or Research institute  like NIT, NIPER, NISER, ISSER, and in  IITs and others like national importance institutions.

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Permalink Reply by dudekula dastagiri on April 30, 2015 at 19:52

Dear Pritam Kumar

                             I am working as Library Assistant In AP IIIT Andra Pradesh I am getting salary 12.500/ permonth on contractual base ,Recentlry IISER tirupati given notification for library Information Assistant on contractual base salary 18000 to 20000.and also In mysur university given salary for library Assistsant on contractual base is 23000/ per month.Therefore why this is variation in different instuites.

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 3, 2015 at 21:08

Dera Sri Dudekula Dastagiri,

I have gone through your posts of April 29 & May 01, 2015 and understood your confusions. Anyway, I am trying to clarify your confusions chronologically in respect to your posts.
(A) The LA & LIA Confusion:

Actually, the posts of Library Assistant; Technical Assistant, Library; Library & Information Assistant where the prescribed qualifications are same like B.Lib. Sc. (in NON-UGC Central Govt. or Central funded Research/Academic institutes) the status are same so also the Pay Scales.
This is on the basis of D.P. Chattopadhyay Committee's report as appeared in "SwamyNews" Sept. 1990 issue(pp. 493-498 &503) vide G.I, M.F., O.M. No. 19(1)/IC/86 dated 24.07.1990.
This issue has been detailed in the vol. 2 of the 5CPC Report.
The D.P. Chattopadhyay Committee has clubbed together 'several identical pay scales' for Library professionals with different designations to a single uniform designation of Library & Information Assistant.

(B) The IIT & IISER discrepancies:


Salaries of the contractual staff at various individual institutes often vary as there is no definite rule for recruitment. The underlying issue seems to be the posts and cadres in which vacancies arises.

For instance, in an organization, some post of Group C non professional Staff in Library fell vacant and the institute requires at least two professional hands. As such, they calculate the expenditure they are supposed to incur against the vacant post of a Group C staff which is about 27.00/-per month. Now, as the Authority understand that there are plenty of unemployed professionals, they ask for TWO contractual positions and divide the allocated amount to two halves and recruits two individuals on contract. This often happens in institutes which are functioning for a couple of years. In another case, specially for the new institutes, they calculate the expenditure and somewhat liberally offers consolidated salaries to staff which are NEARLY THE SAME for regular staff. However, there is a trend to recruit contractual staff in stead of recruiting in regular posts so that the CTC (Cost To Company) becomes less!!

To conclude, I must mention that though the Chattopadhyay Committee's report was came into effect wef 5CPC, many institute did not implement it till today. Some of them often propel their autonomy in restoring the old pay scales of Library staff as they suspect that modifying the pay scales of Library staff may create problems for other administrative/technical staff of the institute. This however seems to be natural as human being. If the Technical Assistants in a Laboratory finds that a Library professional with the designation Technical Assistant (Library) in the same per-revised scale suddenly becomes Library & Information Assistant and his/her pay scale is enhanced to higher grade, certainly it may cause anguish to those who had remained in lower scales and the authority often, to retain peace in the institute, make the Library professionals a scape goat!!

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 7, 2015 at 20:06

Dear Sri S. Singh,

Thanks for your query but in a slight different context though.

However, I  shall certainly put my views.

You might be knowing that the designation of Library Clerk was introduced in the report of the D.P. Chattopadhyay Committee which was constituted in 1986 and submitted in 1990 & a Govt. Order [No. 19(1)/IC/86 dated 24.7.1990] was published on the basis of that Report.

As you can understand that the scenario of Library service in those days was quite different than that of today. It is natural therefore that as of today the role & duty of an individual designated as Library Clerk seems to be different altogether; it has now become a multitasking job as the situation demands today.

The modified requisite qualification should be Certificate holder in Library Science with knowledge & skill in Computer handling.

A Typical Library Clerk today is supposed to take up an entirely new role in the context of IT related services like maintenance of e-mails, online reference service, keeping  track of orders and accounts maintained in Computers so that one doesn't have to browse through the sheaf of papers.

A Library Clerk should be conversant with the OPAC and simple database searching, have an idea of BAR CODE Technologies because many libraries are gradually introducing such technologies and they require knowledgeable staff on turn key basis!

It may appear that I have imposed a burden of several so called additional responsibilities upon a Library Clerk; but mind it that

(a) his/her next promotional post is that of Library & Information Assistant and in that position an incumbent has to perform all these jobs and even much more!!

(b)  In the age of multitasking abilities, the incumbent should make him/her suitable for it both in mindset & abilities.

One can certainly busk in the idea of limited responsibility and traditional requirement ( I have witnessed such mentalities in many candidates came for interview) but as you know that in today's tough competition, dwelling with the old age ideas about job profile makes an individual of NO USE!

In short theses are, as I feel, the new role and duty of a Library Clerk.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 10, 2015 at 20:20

  Dear Sri S. Singh,

Thanks for your reply.

As you understand that the post of Library Clerk and LIA are different.It may be compared with Semiprofessional Assistants though in the changed scenario; provided they have such certificates. Ironically, in our country in Government jobs, the certificates only speak irrespective of one's knowledge or efficiency !!

So far the recruitment rules are concerned, they have distinctly different pay scales. The LIA is a professional post where the incumbent is supposed to do technical works like Classification, Cataloguing and in some research institutes certain jobs related to Bibliometrics as well. It however depends upon the (a) general educational background of the staff and (b) expertise adopted by the staff. In many scientific Research Institutes staff recruited in the post of Technical Assistant (Library) have M.Sc. with B.Lib. Sc.  [though the minimum qualification required was Graduate (in Science) + B.Lib.Sc] now such staff because of their general background, are often deployed to do jobs related to Bibliometrics though, a Library Assistant or LIA is not supposed to do such jobs as a routine. Similarly, a Library Clerk whose recruitment qualification has been fixed as  matriculation and initially in the pay scale of 950-1500 (revised to 5200-20200 +GP 1900) is officially not supposed to  perform the jobs I have mentioned in my earlier post but, again, I have mentioned that the qualification may be modified in today's nature of service. Unfortunately, in our country, there is no provision for Same Pay Scales for Same work. Had it been so, Librarians in ICAR, CSIR, ICMR, DST  working in the scale of ALIO or even LIA should have given higher initial pay scales than the College Librarians!! So you can see that just by doing jobs of higher posts, one can not claim higher pay scales. This is a great irony in our government sector. I have seen many excellent staff working as "LIBRARIAN" in ICAR & ICMR in the pay scale of 1400-2300 while those in the College Libraries were placed in 2200-4000 pay scale and ironically, the later were no match for the Research Institute staff. Those ill fated Librarians were supposed to handle budget of 30-40 Lakhs with subscription of journals worth more than 2 or 3 Million of Rupees and had to serve 250 in-house Scientists and Research Scholars, face the Audit independently, with many many more complex, critical and advanced jobs in comparison to their Co-professionals in Colleges and as a result many have left the research institute job and joined College for sheer want of financial benefits. Of course they had to sacrifice their professional ambitions & satisfactions (like travels abroad and deputation in foreign Countries, knowing the latest technologies etc.), but at least they are financially stable!!.

I am sorry, as I might have shifted from the context and not that I bear any grudge against any kind of professional but if often hurts me when I see that some exceptionally brilliant individual had either to compromise with their career prospects or to rot in far lower pay scales!!

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

   

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