[Asis-l] International CALIBER 2003: A Brief Report

[J K Vijayakumar]

 International CALIBER 2003: A Brief Report 
 Prepared by                  Mr Prem Chand, Scientist-C, INFLIBNET & Convenor, CALIBER-2003 premchand at inflibnet.ac.in

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INFLIBNET Center successfully organized CALIBER- 2003 at Nirma Education and Research Foundation, Ahmedabad during 13- 15th February 2003.  The theme of CALIBER - 2003 was "Mapping Technology on Libraries and People".  CALIBER is an annual event of INFLIBNET, which is being organized in collaboration with Universities and Educational Institutions. This was the 10th convention in series and was the First International event.  Total of 316 delegates participated in this convention, which included delegates from USA, Philippines, UK, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh apart from Indian delegates. There was an overwhelming response to the call for papers. Authors from different countries contributed and presented papers during the convention. In the proceeding of CALIBER-2003, 67 full text papers and 39 abstracts have been published. About 100 delegates registered for two pre-conference tutorials on Designing and Implementation of Local Area Network and Developing Digital Collection.  Prof. B.H. Jajoo, Computer & Information Systems Group, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Dr. Dr. Jagdish Arora, Librarian, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai were the resource persons for these tutorials, respectively.

The conference was inaugurated by Shri Narender Modi, the Honorable Chief Minister of  Gujarat State . After lighting the lamp, Shri Modi released the proceedings volume of CALIBER - 2003. Shri Modi in his address emphasized that the knowledge must spread and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues should not come in the way of knowledge dissemination Dr.  Karsanbhai Patel, Chairman, NERF released the souvenir  and CD of CALIBER  proceeding. Dr Anup K. Singh, Director NIM welcomed the delegates earlier. Dr. T A V  Murthy, Director, INFLIBNET  Centre highlighted the activities & plans of INFLIBNET for promoting IT culture in academic sector and transforming Indian academic libraries.  He also informed about UGC-Infonet programme, which is coming up in a big way. Under the programme, INFLIBNET will subscribe to core journal in electronic form and make them accessible to academic community in India. Dr. Dilip Kumar Basu, Vice-Chancellor, Tripura University  delivered  keynote address.  Dr. S. Ramani, Chairman, Governing Board of INFLIBNET, in his opening remarks, highlighted the role of private institutions and trusts like NERF, who would play a vital role in making the education truly global one. Shri H Anil Kumar, Organising Secretary, CALIBER-2003 proposed the vote of thanks. 

  Total deliberations of the CALIBER-2003 were divided in to four technical sessions under sub themes.  The first session on "Library Automation" started with the theme paper presented by Dr T A V Murthy and Shri V S Cholin from INFLIBNET Centre. 23 papers were presented in this session out of 43 selected papers. Sh. A R Sethi of Punjab University chaired this session. The second session on "User Studies" held in parallel with the theme paper from Prof I V Malhan of Jammu University and chaired by Prof. K C Sahoo of Hari Singh Gaur University. There were about 19 papers presented out of 28 selected papers.  The third session was on "Consortia" and had the theme paper presented by Prof Ajit Kembhavi of IUCAA and Dr T S Kumbar of INFLIBNET. Total 11 papers were presented in this session out of 25 selected papers and was chaired by Dr R B Gaddagimath of Gulbarga University. The session on "Telecommunication" was chaired by Prof I  K Ravichandra  Rao of DRTC, in which 4 papers were presented out of 11 selected. Dr P K Jaiswal of Mizoram University acted as the Rapporteur General of the conference and he was assisted by Dr Pravakar Rath,  Prof. R S R Varalaxmi, Mr V S Cholin, Mr K Prakash, Mr Rajesh Chandrakar, Mr Rajendra Thaty, Ms Swadha Majumadar and Ms Pragnya Pathak in different sessions.  

 CALIBER 2003 brought out few new things like, CALIBER - 2003 Updates, a daily conference newsletter covering the daily events, report of technical sessions and interviews of experts were brought out and circulated to the delegates. In addition to the printed copy of the proceedings, delegates have been given the CD of the proceeding.  The entire proceeding will be soon available on INFLIBNET web site at http://www.inflibnet.ac.in

 Mr. P. Pannervel IAS, Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad was Chief Guest for valedictory function.   He underlined the importance of right information at the right time and he said that information technology is changing significantly the way the society was conducting. There is a need for partnership between the industry and the society for overall benefits. Prof. Girish Agrawal, Director, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad was the guest of honor for this function and highlighted the changing role of librarians in electronic environment.  Dr. P.K. Jayaswal, Rapporteur General presented the report on the technical session and read out on the recommendations made for consideration to UGC, INFLIBNET and university libraries. The Director, INFLIBNET, presented the foreign delegates form Sri Lanka and Philippines with mementos. The valedictory function concluded with vote of thanks by Mr. H. Anil Kumar, Organising Secretary of CALIBER-2003.

Around 20 companies from the fields of electronic and online information vendors, books publishers, sellers and subscription agencies displayed their products  in the Exhibition arranged at the CALIBER venue. A cultural programme with a flavor of Gujarat folk dances was put up by Mudra Institute of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad after the inaugural function. 

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Prem Chand, Scientist-C, INFLIBNET & Convenor, CALIBER-2003 premchand at inflibnet.ac.in


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J K VIJAYAKUMAR
Scientific Technical Officer
INFormation and LIBrary NETwork (INFLIBNET) Centre / University Grants Commission
Gujarat University Campus, PB 4116, Navrangpura
Ahmedabad - 380009, Gujarat, INDIA
 
Call  91-79-6304695/5971 (O) 6859584 (R)  Fax  91-79-6300990 (O)
http://www.inflibnet.ac.in / http://www.angelfire.com/in/vijayakumarjk
vijayakumarjk at yahoo.com / vijay at inflibnet.ac.in
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