Appendix - I
Visits and Details
1.London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library
Ms. Caroline Lloyd, Head of the Library & Archives Service and my supervisor for this revered commonwealth fellowship has given me a warm welcome to London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library on 9th January, 2012. The library was my tenable for the fellowship. She has also given me an excellent introductory tour of the entire LSHTM Library includes exciting inheritable reading section, journals section, archives section, circulation section and each and every working station in the library in addition to the staff introductory.
Mr.David Archer gave me an overview of Reader Services and Safety measures for the users in the LSHTM. Mr. Chris Manning has given me an introduction about networking systems and desktop services of the library. Ms. Hannah Wood overviewed me on information services of library.
2.University Library, University of East London:
I have attend a conference entitled ‘Going it alone: innovations in information literacy’ organized by University of East London on 13th January, 2012. This conference intended on Info skills as identifying, finding, evaluating and referencing information.
After the conference I met Ms. GurdishSandhu, Associate Director, Library and Learning Services, University of East London. The meeting was very potential because the discussions were relating to pros and cons of open source and preparatory software, digital resources using in UEL and ICT applicationsin libraries in India and UK.
The visit to the library of University of East London is an excellent experience for me because the self - circulation system and different study zones are attracted my mind. The building is just panoramic and maintaining the shelves with lights is a new to me. I also observed the systems and services of library including a course is organized by library that European Computer Driving License (ECDL).
3.Royal Free Hospital Medical Library
I visited Royal Free Hospital Medical Library of University College of London on 23th January, 2012. This library is offering services to NHS Trust staff in addition to the UCL users and Royal Free Hospital staff. The key point of all the library services is the training programme. The library is providing different information literacy training programmes to their users like articles search through PubMed and commercial databases, organizing and citing references through Reference Manager and EndNote, critical appraisal of a systematic review, information resources to support evidence-based practice, etc. These trainings will empower the user information literacy skills and they can manage their information better in their practices.
4.British Library of London School of Economics and Political Science:
I visited abiggestlibrary which I have ever seen that the Library of London School of Economics and Political Science (also called British Library of London School of Economics and Political Science) is a school of the University of London on 3rd February, 2012. Really, it’s a fantastic and huge library with so many books, so many computers, and good reading space with ample light. The library is providing many information literacy and Lib 2.0services to the students, research scholars and faculty in their respective subjects.
Dr.Jane Secker, Copyright and Digital Literacy Advisor hosted me to visit London School of Economic and Political Science. She is also editor of Journal of Information Literacy, Library Review and Programme. I learnt many learning technology services and tools which they are providing to the LSE as Moodle for VLE, digital Copyrights, use of multimedia, instant voting for feedback instead of taking a paper feedback, etc. I got an opportunity to attend a lunchtime seminar on ”use of iPods and tablets in education” by Jane. After that, Maria Bell hosted me to visit the LSE Library.
5.Hendon Library, Middlesex University:
Ms. Jo Wilson hosted me to visit the Hendon Library of Middlesex University on 10th February, 2012. The visit began with a quick presentation of university library sources and services. She has taken me a tour to shown the library with other commonwealth fellows Dr.Sanjay, Dr.Manju, Ms.Sangeetha and Mr.Phillip and explained about various library sections and its works. Afterthe library tour, I met Dr. Alan Hopkinson, Technical Manager, Learning Resources, Middlesex University, who hosted the majority of the Indian Librarians for the prestigious Commonwealth Fellowship.
6.Archway Healthcare Library
On the same day, I visited the Archway Healthcare Library of Middlesex University with another commonwealth fellow Ms.Sangeetha. Fortunately, Alan came with us. Mr.Richard Peacock, Lead Clinical Librarian hosted us and he explained the sources and services of the HealthCare library. In addition, he explained about the importance of systematic reviews, critical appraisal of reviews and review of literature. His experience and knowledge is enormous in critical appraisal.
7.The School of Pharmacy Library
I was hosted by Mrs. Michelle Wake, Librarian of The School of Pharmacy to visit the library on 13th February, 2012. The day was begun with a briefing of library collection and its services. I was attend two training sessions at the school, one was on Power Point training with Ph.D. students and other one on Information Gathering lecture undergraduate students. I got a chance to observe the kindle for e-books.
8.British Library for Development Studies, Brighton
I visited British Library for Development Studies of IDS (Institute of Development Studies, UK) at Brighton on 14th February, 2012. Ms. Steph Watson hosted me with another Commonwealth Fellow Mr. GracianChimwaza from South Africa. She had prepared a schedule for the day with meetings. Ms.RachelPlayforthexplained me about repository works and document delivery services at BLDSto their users including Lower Middle Income Countries in Saharan Africa. Mr.IanBudden and Ms. Karen Butcher briefed me about article indexing, metadata exchange programmes with other libraries and very interesting publications exchange programme with other institutions in the world. Mr. Nason, System Administrator explained about ICT applications to the library. I also met Mrs. Louise McGrath, Knowledge Services who is doing a Nutrition Project with my institute in India and discussed the work progress.
I delivered a lecture at lunch time seminar on “Public Health Information in India”. The participants interestingly asked me on the health information availability in India and its usage, government support to the procurement of sources, publisher’s perspectives to provide information to the country.
9.King’s Fund Library
I visited the King’s Fund Library on 20th of February, 2012 , is a unique source of information on health and social care policy, which is offered free of charge to managers and leaders in health and social care and to anyone else working in, or interested in, these areas. I also, joined as a library friend (they called library member as a friend) to the Fund.
The library staff explained about their database, which is based on KOHA Library Management Software. The very important thing is that they embedded wiki in their search module for basic information.
10.Library, University of Bedfordshire
I was hosted by Peter Godwin, Academic Liaison Librarian of University of Bedfordshire, Luton on 21stFebuary, 2012. It was a very fruitful meet to Peter to learn about web 2.0 applications to library services. He is anexpert in the field and he wrote two books on the same field. He explained about RSS feeds, social book marking, podcasting, blogs and the importance to integrate to the library website. He has taken me to library tour on that day.
11.David Wilson Library, University of Leicester
I had been to David Wilson Library of University of Leicester at Leicester with Shane Godbolt, Director of Partnerships of Health Information and Gracian who is a Commonwealth fellow from South Africa as me on 26th February, 2012. The library building is beautifully architectured, recently renovated, centrally located to the university and also grabbed the different awards from different institutes like 2012 SCONUL Library Design Award, 2009 RIBA Award, etc. The library divided into different zone according to users’ needs like express zone for short loans, exam papers and dissertations, special zone for postgraduate students, etc.
I found one of the finest and greatest things of the library is that the employability and personal skills development programme, in addition to the routine library works. The library is providing year wise skills programme with documentation including CV preparation and interview skills.
12.Thompson Library, Staffordshire University
Dr. Geoff Walton, Librarian I/C for Thompson Library hosted us (Shane, Gracian and me) to visit the Library of Staffordshire University on 27th February, 2012. Mr. Paul Johnson, Information Landscape Librarian has explained about the different modules and its functions of KOHA – an open source Library Management Software. It is very useful to me because we are using the same software in my institute for catalouging and OPAC. Once I will return to India I have to implement the remaining modules of the software as circulation, serials control, etc.
The library introduced Summon federated search service (a single search) for all library resources including books, e-books, e-journals and digitized full text collection. The library is providing live help (chat online) service during staffed hours and also providing the 24 hours help to their students.
13.Pilkington Library, University of Loughborough
Shane Godbold, Gracian and I visited the Pilkington Library, University Library of Loughborough University at Leicestershire on 28th February. Dr.Graham Walton, Head of Planning and Resources hosted us for the day. Firstly, he described about one interesting topic that Branding of library and library services includes Space management in libraries, marketing of library and its services, and secondly we had a good discussion on Open Access and its business models and its future perspective. Ruth Stubbing, Head of Academic Services explained about Information Literacy programmes for different levels users which are based on The SCONUL Seven Pillars. Also, we discussed with institutional repository team and interestingly we found that the university authorities declared a policy that all the university publications should be available at their University repository and copyright issues has to be take care by the authors. It is a positive movement in the Open Access module. We have to wait and see what will happen in the future.
After lunch, we visited the School of Information Science. Dr. Graham Matthews, Professor and Dr. Mark Hepworth, Reader of the school were explained about school activities and projects relating to health.
All discussions had with the above professionals are very useful to me to introduce at my institute like how to market library services, how to establish institutional repository and SCONUL module in information literacy programme.
14.ScHARR Library, University of Sheffield
Gracian, Shane and I visited the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at University of Sheffield on 29th February, 2012. Mr. Andrew Booth, Reader in Evidence Based Information and Director of Information hosted us. He is very good in Library and Information field and he contributed many books and articles to the profession. He has given a new paradigm to the profession and he started new courses in public health field with the mixture of health information at ScHARR like Evidence Based Health Information, Public Health Informatics, etc. He explained about ScHARR and its activities with NHS of UK and Involvement in Supporting Evidence Based Practice at morning session. Ms. Anna Cantrell briefed about Research Funding Services to institute and Mrs. Claire described about Teaching Critical Appraisal and its methods. Mrs. Helen Buckley briefed about Public Health Collaborating Centre Searching Support to NHS and ScHARR projects at University. At last Andrew summed up the entire day activities and he has given his book entitled ‘Exploiting Knowledge in health services’ to me as a gift. I am very thankful to him and he also inspired me a lot because of his works and commitment to the professional development.
15. Library, Indian High Commission
I have visited the Indian High Commission Library with one of my commonwealth fellow colleague from Indian namely Neeraj, which was hosted by Sanjat Kumar Bihani, Attache (Press, Information & Library) on 9th March, 2012. In that library we met Mrs.MaureenTravs, 90, a legend of library because since from the inception of the library she has been working. It was a great experience to me to meet her. The library is different from other libraries because the library is having books only about India, books on India and Indian people, culture, etc.
16.University of Highlands and Islands Libraries, Scotland (Inverness College library, Highlands Health Library, Highland Theological College Library)
Dr. Gillian Anderson, University Librarian hosted me to visit the University of Highland and Islands (UHI) libraries of Scotland on 12th March, 2012. It’s a three days programme to UHI because the university spreads in different islands in Scotland. Gillian illuminated about University libraries and its maintenance through Google maps because the centers are in different islands across the Scotland. Carol Hart, Learning Centre Manager of Inverness College of UHI hosted me the library. She introduced about her library its services to the students. Mr. Michele explained about some web 2.0 tools to library services.
Gillian and I met with Dr. Ian Leslie, Dean of Health Faculty at UHI at Inverness on 13th March, 2012. We had a chat about our institute and its activities and he also explained about his institute. After that, I visited the Highland Health Sciences Library and I observed the services to its users both on campus and off campus. This is useful to my library services because my home institute is also conducting distance education programmes.
I had a chance to visit School of Oral Health Science, part of UHI at Inverness. The school’s innovative work leads the way in UHI’s distributed teaching and learning, through the use of ‘blended learning’ which enables students to link up from Inverness, and its different campus at the Isle of Lewis, Dumfries and Galloway. The teaching embraces the blended methods of synchronized online tutorials, clinical skills training by video conferencing and face to face clinical teaching in primary dental care units in the patient treatment areas at each centre. I observed the practical treatments at dental laboratory and Video Conference classes at Inverness campus.
I met Dr. GaenerRodge, Director of Centre for Rural Health at UHI and we discussed about rural health projects in different areas like health economics, health services, etc. We also discussed about possibilities regarding any collaboration projects with my institute particularly in rural India.
At afternoon, Gillian and I drove toDingwall and I met with Elizabeth Mchugh, Electronic Resources Librarian of UHI and we discussed about how they are procuring e-resources, management of e-resources and usage of e-resources at different 13 campuses of UHI. They are using ‘Millennium’ software for their Library Management and ‘Research Pro’ multi search engine for their entire e-sources in the university. I also visited the Highland Theological College Library at Dingwall on the same day. This library particularly meant for religious literature on Christianity.
17.Lews Castle College, Stornoway
I visited Lews Castle College of UHI at Stornoway, Scotland with Gillian on 14th February, 2012. It’s a one of the islands campus of UHI and it’s a wonderful experience in my life to visit to island. First, I met Prof. Frank Rennie, Head of Research and Post Graduate Development and he explained about how they are conducting classes at a time for all different center’s students (because most of campuses scattered at different islands and remote villages), how the students approach faculty at different times, and some ongoing projects. Interestingly, they are conducting classes through video conference, web conference, sometimes interaction on Skype, chat over net, doubt clearance over phone, and rarely face to face. This shows the dedication of the faculty and their commitment to the profession.
Also, I found that the University’s main object is that they are encouraging the rural people to stay in their home place and continue their studies without coming to the urban areas. The university is protecting the culture and traditional values of the nation. It is very useful idea to India because most of the Indian people living in rural areas.
Dr. Rachel Tearse, Donald Macdonald and Dr. Michael M. Smith described about their courses and also they requested me to explain about public health course, which are conducting at my institute. They expressed their interest to see my institute course curriculum and I have provided the curriculum for their reference.
Dr. Dave Matheson, Director of Academic Affairs enquired about my institute and conveyed his best wishes to my trip.
Ms. Caroline Brick, College Librarian and I discussed about library services, information literacy programmes and how they are providing services to the distance learners. Surprisingly, sometimes they are sending books by post, in addition to the online services to remote island students. Now they are planning to provide online information literacy skills to the students and faculty.
I met John Alexander Smith, Acting Head of Integrated Technologies and he explained about web 2.0 apps to the library services and course works, particularly which are available on open source like MIT course material, Open coursewear Consortium, Lynda.com for training material in technology, caliber, Mobie, elgg, etc. These are very useful to me to implement at my institute.