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Permalink Reply by Gurdev Singh on December 14, 2011 at 22:25

Sir,

        I am agree with you points.

 

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Permalink Reply by Ashis Biswas on December 15, 2011 at 0:07

Mr. Kumar,

I am fully agree with your view-points. Now-a-days seminars and conferences are being arranged like opening the gate in water reservoir to release the water. Question is - "Is it a good sign for our profession?" because it may argue that the numbers of seminars and conferences are helping to share knowledge in several fields of LIS profession, especially the use of IT. But how many participants learn from attending in these so called programmes and imply that gathered knowledge in their own working places. And the most concerning fact is that participants are mainly interested to only publish and present their own papers. On the other side as mentioned by Mr. Kumar organisers are just collecting the registration fees and publishing the papers without any proper reviewing. Even most of the organisers are arranging national level seminars and publishing just the abstracts in very low quality papers promising that the full papers will be published in post-seminar/conference volume. But after the somehow managed seminar/conference inviting 2/3 professionals the organiser forgets about the promise. So, if any really scholarly full paper is there, it gets doomed.

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Permalink Reply by Vimal Kumar V. on December 15, 2011 at 4:32

I agree with u sir.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Akhtar Hussain on December 15, 2011 at 10:34

Obviously it is true, the main aim of seminar and conference organizers are earning the money.

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Permalink Reply by Kishor Singarkar on December 15, 2011 at 17:43

I too agree with all of you but…How can resolve this issue 

Let me share you…..! I too attended one conference and workshop. It was worst experience for me. Concerning conference /workshop was located in north India. Obliviously, the majority was north Indian library professionals. I was interacting with library professionals but they used to neglect me. They might be not interested in me as not published and present my own papers. Once or twice I had contacted with them by sending mails & friend requests but in vain.  

                Only organizer person twice had called me to give information about accommodation rates.  As I may be wrong but , No other seminar/conference/workshops are as important enough as for their photo/snaps session and earning the money.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Badan Barman on December 15, 2011 at 19:01

Good suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on December 16, 2011 at 4:54

Dear  Sri Vimal Kumar,

Thank you so very much for your post and for addressing an issue which seems like opening Pandora's Box!!

In fact this is presumably the first time (at least during last couple of months)  I have seen a post on quality issue. Thank you once again.

What you have narrated is absolutely correct. It is really unfortunate to see lots of trash papers in various conference proceedings. But how can you prevent the trend while many of the Ph.D Theses are trash! I mean to say that while the highest degree holders are low quality individual (though most of them boast for such ill-fetched degrees), contributing quality papers in conferences is a far cry. I once posted a comment raising this issue and quite reasonably, the Doctors in our profession preferred to to keep mum!!

Actually, it has become a fashion to talk about digitization. web archiving etc. but in reality very few people seems to practice them in daily worksphere. May be their Libraries do not need them but they are competent in those areas. As such, I believe that conferences are the place where they can contribute papers befitting of their knowledge and competence. Otherwise,  a big ? comes about their knowledge level.

I therefore request all the professionals to contribute quality papers in journals and books and conferences (like IFLA is asking for papers on several sections) and do justice to your qualifications otherwise they will be nothing but a bunch of trash papers!!

Siddhartha s. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Vimal Kumar V. on December 16, 2011 at 19:50

Can you forward your reply to LISFORUM?

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on December 16, 2011 at 20:36

Dear Sri Vimal Kumar,

Thanks for your comment/suggestion. However, I personally feel that many members might be watching this discussion with mixed feelings. My idea was to convey the message as an old professional because often I have seen young professionals doing pathetic in interviews. Even persons with 10+ years experience are no exception. In a recent interview, a person with M.Lib& M.Phil could not clarify the difference between  Systematic Bibliography and Bibliometry!! and never-the-less his/her M.Phil dissertation topic was citation analysis of Ph.D. Theses (Which was actually nothing but count of referencing pattern!!). I was shocked and sorry to see the knowledge level of that individual who came for a post which was supervisory in nature and offered a salary of 38+K per month. 

So, I don't think that there is any necessary to forward my reply to LISFORUM as it will not make any difference at all.

Regards,

Siddhartha s. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by V. J. Suseela on December 18, 2011 at 18:24

It is true. Mostly it is fetching points required for participants with the publication of papers, presentations in seminars and to the organizers also along with the registration fee. This trend is becoming more because UGC is insisting on securing points to get higher pay scales and promotions in colleges and universities under CAS. Though this trend is healthy for promoting advancements in profession and also professionals, it, unfortunately  became a routine and stale activity, since most of them are not following the best practices. Your suggestions are very good.   

You mentioned that "Organisers should send certificate to authors who could not attend the seminar".  I observed in many Conferences/seminars that only presented papers or registered (with fee) papers will be published in conference volume. This is one way arresting authors from simply writing for publication sake without attending the event.

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Permalink Reply by Vimal Kumar V. on December 18, 2011 at 18:47

"Organisers should send certificate to authors who could not attend the seminar".

I meant that, if authors get certificate as proof of paper accepted and published in conference volume.

This certificate can act as an evidence of his paper accepted. While apply for higher posts, this certificate is helpful. Organizers should ensure that whether author attend the event and present the paper on dies. In certain cases authors are not able to attend the seminar due to busy work schedule or event organized in far places.

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on December 18, 2011 at 21:59

Dear Sri Vimal Kumar,

I am sorry that I can not accept your point as far the present situation prevails where there is no quality control mechanism in acceptance of papers in seminars and I rather share Ms. V.J. Suseela's views.  Yes, exactly, contributing papers has become a trend especially for working College Librarians and other UGC ruled organizations as soon as the UGC has insisted on securing points. I have recently ahd an oppertunity to check bio-data of some such individuals having over 10+ years of experience and found that most of them (6 out of 7) had their first publication in late 2010 and that too in local level journal and seminars. Now, if this is the situation, then gathering certificates from seminar organizers will be a very handy solution. However, the same thing is also applicable to teaching communities as well. One can easily notice mushrooming of local journals at college and university departments with ISSNs. Your point can be acceptable only when there will be a strict quality control measure. However, as I have seen, organizers generally issue certificates to attendees. It does not always matter (especially for conferences abroad) whether an individual personally attended the conference, if his/her full paper is published, that will suffice. I personally have several such papers where I could not attend the conferences because of nonavailability of sponsorship and I have precisely mentioned the fact in the list of my publications and I have retained (till today!) their letter of acceptance of my paper as proof. Even more interestingly,  in some cases, I received queries/feed backs from our co-professionals abroad about contents of my papers which I could not present personally!! I have mentioned these facts only to convey that there is no harm if anybody can not attend a conference personally if the organisers adhere to some qualitative standard in acceptance of papers.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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