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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on December 8, 2014 at 19:56

Dear Sri Munesh Kumar

Thank you so very much for addressing an important and very viable issue (and that too Squarely!!)

Honestly speaking induction of "Library Trainees" is a process most of us have adopted from the cultures of Diplomatic Mission Libraries like the British Council or USIS Libraries. They used to hire bright young professionals and impart training and get done certain in-house Library jobs. As I understand from 60's to mid 80's such trainees were always preferred in recruitment in different prominent Libraries. Such Traineeship were sort of like  "internship" of young Medical graduates. Those trainees were made to work (on rotation basis) at various sections of the libraries so that they can acquire hands-on knowledge & experience of working in Libraries of standing!!  Naturally, they were preferred by recruiters. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, they were the bright  meaning top ranking students in their classes.

Recruiting Trainees at present seems to be an entirely different activity!! Barring a few, the organizations not willing to recruit individuals at lower posts (with only a few Key permanent staff) often hire such trainees. There are reasons behind such activities though. It is observed (especially in Govt. organizations) that staff in permanent position do not do their job and the organizations can not get rid of them because of legalities. As such, recruiting Trainees seems to be wonderful alternative. Of course in some (specially new) Libraries. the employers want to evaluate the efficiencies of prospective employees for a definite period of time so that they can recruit ONLY THE GOOD ONES in permanent posts.

The model points you have mentioned in your post were by and large practiced by Diplomatic Mission Libraries but in majority of cases now, the trainees are hired to tide over the back-log works. I understand, it may irk debates but it is also the reality.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Munesh Kumar on December 8, 2014 at 20:24

Thank You Sir,

It is really key points shared by you by going in past. It is depends on us, "how we use a knife, to cut apple or finger". Same here, by touching to the positive aspects, we can adopts a good system and good staff can be built to stake in the challenges in their early age.

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on December 9, 2014 at 7:39

Dear Sri Munesh Kumar,

Thanks for your reply and I am really happy for the positive outlook of yours.

However, I have some doubt about your proposal for adopting a system for recruitment trainees to create a generation of Good professionals/Staff for organizations. I understand that my expression may sound pessimistic; but again,there are certain reasons behind it. Efficiency is a relative term and as I feel about it, its implications varies. In those days when machines did not replace manual labour, it was easier to spot an able staff among unable ones because human ability, intelligence etc. were the criteria for evaluation. In those days, for instance, reference service used to be an important factor in special Libraries of higher learning & Research and this attribute in people had been treated as a criterion of efficiency. Today, with the introduction of Computer and web based knowledge, virtually all of us know about Cut/Copy & Paste techniques from the school days and reference services lost its glamour and importance. Naturally, recruiters in Libraries seldom seek such attributes among prospective candidates. In today's scenario, many freshers faces interviews with adequate experience and knowledge of working with several software. After/alongside the university courses, they undertake specialized trainings.It has become a norm rather than exception. As such, technically, they are often seen to be quite "mature" than their seniors. Next is the mentality of the seniors towards the newcomers. Earlier, they used to mentor the new entrants in the profession like making petrol from the crude oil. For instance, many of my friends and me as well, have heard about a material named Science Citation Index but hardly any of us ever seen it and our knowledge were limited to the class lectures and/or notes. Today's professionals can know about it (including how to work with it) with just a few key strokes in their computers!! and knowing about a library of standing is just a child's play and almost all candidates in any interview possess almost equal level of such knowledge making it extremely difficult for the recruiters to identify the best one!! Next is the relation ship with the focus of research and support. We had to go through the tables of contents of all important journals to identify the articles we presumed to be useful for our researchers. We often used to discuss about their research in cafeteria, in their labs or in our corners in the Library!! Today's professionals are associated with many of the researchers in social network sites but they hardly discuss about their research works!! They know full well that the researchers have spotted the articles in the e-journals subscribed to the Library as a result, they themselves are not updated about the research activities of an individual researcher at a given time!! This is not a deficiency of knowledge but certainly a deficiency of attitude. If that individual goes to any post at a similar research institute, there is ample possibility that s/he will be unable to tell about the phase of research in his/her own institute. Here the question of efficiency arises entwined with attitude!! Even in today's environment this subtle issue makes a great difference. That is why, many (new) organizations recruit trainees for a given period of time to watch their performances and attitudes throughout the period so that they can single out the most suitable ones.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta   

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Permalink Reply by Munesh Kumar on December 11, 2014 at 2:30

 Sir, Thanks for creating space for discussion…

One thing I would mention before to begin that I have presented my view only on the practices of introducing trainees in libraries. I am inducing same to make it fair and logical/justified, satisfactory action taken in this regard.

Sir, the points which you have mentioned here, is more or less may be connected here, but your points are more related to the post/prior activities, applicable before or after taking trainee in to system. If you read the last paragraph or few lines (from bottom side) of your statement you will same thing which is stating regarding the decisions of administration. 

Sir, so many things/ statement which you have mentioned here, like CUT/COPY - PASTE METHOD, MATURE – NOVICE, CLOSING AND DISCLOSING OF RESEARCH WORKS or activities in groups, social change and related change are NOT RELATED with this post. These are out of the periphery. Lots of things are changing/taking place with time, might be concrete or abstract, which may be attitude of people, Communication, Habits, Observation etc. I am also interested in same order regard to the subject of this post Trainees. 

Thanking you..

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on December 14, 2014 at 21:38

Dear Sri Munesh Kumar,
It is indeed a pleasure to read your opening remarks and I reciprocate the same for you to create a space for discussion.
As I believe, you have mentioned seven different points for recruiting Trainees in the Libraries for a year as a full circle. You have left a space in terms of autonomy both for teachers and learners in your last point. I really appreciate your very neat disposition
Your first point is the objective, then the things to be learned, next is practical application of acquired knowledge/skill, then it is the existing resources, followed by section wise orientation, selected candidates’ professional boundaries and the last one is transformation of a student to a true professional. I again whole heartedly appreciate your very wise sense of analysis.

As I believe, I have, in my posts, just expressed my own views in connection with induction of trainees. While explaining the first point from my own personal views, I have explained what I realized about the practical reasons in majority of cases for induction of trainees. I admit that I might have deviated from your own personal philosophy but as you know, I have mentioned in the very onset that they are my own views. I must express here that my own views are sometimes different from yours and I don’t feel that by doing that I had made any mistake. You have explained from your points of views while me from mine. The deviations as you have explained, springs from this distance as I feel.
You have mentioned in your second point about the syllabus. Here I suppose that you have accepted the traditional practice of benevolence (of Guru-Shishya parampara) while I have expressed in my views about the present days’ tacit professional/administrative reasons (in majority of cases) behind such exercises.
In your third point you have mentioned implementation of theories into practice which I have rephrased in this post as practical application of acquired knowledge/skill and as I understand that both are synonymous while my explanation was different as in present day Libraries theories are of much lesser importance than practical outputs. I hope you have noticed several posts in this forum where members enquire about availability of web-sources for ready-made class numbers of books. At a time when copy cataloguing has become an established practice I have doubt whether there is any viable reason for explaining the P-M-E-S-T philosophy of Colon Classification or to explain the theory of Hanging indention for Cataloguing. I must express here that by eliciting these examples; in no way I am criticizing the professionals or demeaning their talents! This is a change in mindset and why not? When we are equipped with technologies that can make our tasks easy why shouldn’t we embrace it? I have used the practice of CUT/COPY & PASTE in such contexts only (which appeared out of periphery in your views).
Your fourth point was about the resources -both bibliographic and human. I presume that your point was meant to familiarize the new comers with both of the two. I have explained in my post that today’s young people are well versed with technologies beyond (what were taught in) the academic syllabus. They often undertake trainings along side their studies as such, making them familiar with resources are not that much necessary which had been earlier. In this sense, I have used the terms NOVICE & MATURED because, it is often found that technically they are better versed than their seniors. Personally speaking, I have no reservation to say that many of my junior colleagues, are much more computer savvy than me and I often learn various computer tit bits from them! In the last part of my post I have mentioned the issues which I felt vital (from my experience) for the trainees. In our city, there are a couple of institutions of higher learning and many of them hire library trainees. It is a natural phenomenon that we often take part in the selection process of such trainees and subsequently in interviewing them for some posts in various organizations. I have mentioned what we have noticed as a common issue. As in-charge of those Libraries, my friends and I often discussed among us the issues and our collective beliefs/feelings have been reflected in my post. That’s all.

To conclude, I must apologise for the feedback I had given in the form of my post but at the same time I sincerely believer that what I have stated were not at all out of the periphery according to my knowledge about meaning of the phrase.

Sincerely,
Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Ram Laut Tyagee on December 10, 2014 at 0:34

Very good and real observation!

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