Bhubaneswar: Odisha Library Academy (OLA) Saturday hosted a webinar here on the theme – Developing Next Generation Library Leaders – which was attended by more 1,500 participants from across the country.
For the unversed, OLA was launched in 2015 by a group of young professionals to promote Library and Information Science (LIS) education and research in the state.
Joining the virtual event as chief speaker, Ramesh C Gaur, Dean & Head – Kalanidhi Division, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), Ministry of Culture, Government of India spoke about the present state of libraries and librarians in the country. He lamented that most of the senior positions in many libraries are either lying vacant or being occupied by non-library professionals. He held the librarians, library administrators, and some library associations responsible for it. Gaur, on the occasion, presented a road map to young library professionals to take up future library leadership roles. Some eminent names including Sunil Satapathy from NIT Raipur, Neeraj Kumar from Panjab University, Chandigarh and Meenal Oak from Maharastra Education Society, Pune had interacted with Gaur and other participants.
OLA president Banambar Sahoo from ICMR-RMRC (Bhubaneswar)was the webinar chair while Bibhuti Bhusan Sahoo from IIT, Bhubaneswar along with Basudev Mohanty from Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar were the co-ordinators of the event.
Brundaban Nahak, RITE, Bhubaneswar along with Niranjan Mohapatra, NCDS Bhubaneswar and Jayanta Kumar Sahu, Sambalpur University were webinar administrators. OLA has been conducting regular webinars and webcasts to assist LIS professionals, authorities of the libraries, information Centers, museums and archives.
