Yesterday I was in Bangalore for a short business trip. Bangalore recently had an amazing Airport called BIA or Bangalore International Airport (thank god they could think of some other name than the Gandhi Clan) . Let me first admit here that this new airport definitely has infrastructure at par with any other place in the world. Terminals may not be as big as what you have in America but , everything is at par when it comes to facilities but .....
Yes a BIG but , the service ! It is a perfect example of "How to create a State Transport Bus Stand with an International Airport facility !" , when I landed I heard one strange announcement which I have never heard before , "We are waiting for a plane to clear our way and hence we may need around 10 minutes to go to our bay !" . So the flight from Pune to BLR was 1.15 hours and another 20 minutes for reaching your bay ! . While landing it was an Indigo flight so it landed at some remote corner probably meant for high-jacked flights and we had to cross the entire airport in a bus to reach the exit.
The drivers of these buses need some real international training , our driver was probably driving in Majestic Circle till the previous day so it was honking all the way for us till we stopped. Overtaking , blocking other vehicles path was at par with what they do at Delhi airport !
The motorised vacuum cleaners were the gadget of interest for everyone and when they were cleaning the pathways , there were many onlookers watching these vehicles from mars.
Toilet cleanliness is another area which needs some fundamental training , I mean for those who clean it and also for those who use it . Now you know why Royal Challengers can not get anyone run out ! The background music in the toilet was the Radio of one of the ground staff , full volume with everything in Kannada and couple of "Roger" here and there.
Best part was the baggage claim - the first lot came in around 10 minutes and then we were waiting for 45 minutes for the second lot of baggage to arrive ! Entire plane-load of lagguage was lost on the airport !
When you come out of the terminal, hundreds of touts were there "Taxi Saar ?" kind of question and the Volvo drivers were shouting "Whitefield , Whitefield , Whitefield onely for 100 rupees saar" , why cann't they stand stop private Taxis like what they have done at Hyderabad ? (Incidently I was in HYD couple of weeks back and situation there was far better than BLR)
The moral of the story is you may fit one of the best technologies like RFID in your library but unless there is no proper training and the correct attitude and a commitment to service your library will soon turn into a Bangalore International Airport ....
That brings me to my favourite topic RFID about which I will be writing for some time now ..
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
My Dream Circulation System
Why the books can be borrowed for 15 days and CD for 8 and periodical after a month ?
Where the books should spend more time ? In the Library or with the Library users ?
What is the basic objective of a Library ? Give more chance for the users to read books or stack the books neatly on shelves ?
Now if the main objective is to read the books then why there has to be a limit of period on circulation ? Let someone take a book for as much he or she wants .....
Then the obvious questions would be what about others ? What if someone else needs the same book ? Answer is simple , ask the first person to return and give it to second (for as much time as he / she wants).
So my dream circulation system will not have any limit on the period for which the books or other material could be loaned for , let the person take it and not even bother to renew and use it for as much time he or she wants to use. The moment someone else need it , an email or sms would be sent and then return it back to the library , but if you do not return then there would be a fine ! And if your return say within a week or whatever time decided by the library on someone else's request - you would get additional points which you can trade against your fine ! so there is a motivation also for you to return it early if you really do not need it.
This is very much possible - technology is available to do everything I written above . Only thing that is not available is a Guinea pig !
Any takers ?
Where the books should spend more time ? In the Library or with the Library users ?
What is the basic objective of a Library ? Give more chance for the users to read books or stack the books neatly on shelves ?
Now if the main objective is to read the books then why there has to be a limit of period on circulation ? Let someone take a book for as much he or she wants .....
Then the obvious questions would be what about others ? What if someone else needs the same book ? Answer is simple , ask the first person to return and give it to second (for as much time as he / she wants).
So my dream circulation system will not have any limit on the period for which the books or other material could be loaned for , let the person take it and not even bother to renew and use it for as much time he or she wants to use. The moment someone else need it , an email or sms would be sent and then return it back to the library , but if you do not return then there would be a fine ! And if your return say within a week or whatever time decided by the library on someone else's request - you would get additional points which you can trade against your fine ! so there is a motivation also for you to return it early if you really do not need it.
This is very much possible - technology is available to do everything I written above . Only thing that is not available is a Guinea pig !
Any takers ?
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
How many books do you allow on Reservation ?
"How many books do you allow on Reservation ?" or how many claims you allow per member ? this was one of the questions I heard in one of the Library conferences recently. Do you really think that we need to have a limit on how many books one can reserve ?
At least I do not think so , first because Reservation or a Claim is an absolutely harmless activity in the circulation section. No operation in the library affects just because you have excess reservations. Besides , why restrict when the cost of memory is coming down ? Couple of years back when Hotmail was very popular , I always used to get that famous mail "You are exceeding the quota for your mail and you should delete few mails" and there after I had to spent a lot of time determining what to delete and what to retain , besides you could not attach some very big attachments. And then you had Gmail - no restriction on the size of attachment and no restriction on your account size. The result - I have forgotten my password for Hotmail !
I still remember 20 Mb (mind well this is not a spelling mistake , it is Mb and Not Gb) hard disk used to cost 20 thousand rupees once upon a time and now what is the cost of a 80 Gb hard disk ? When the cost of the hardware is going down day by day , why still these restrictions ? Let people reserve , anyway if they do not take the book within a specific time , let the reservation stand cancel !
I also have similar views on lending period for any material but I will write about that tomorrow !
At least I do not think so , first because Reservation or a Claim is an absolutely harmless activity in the circulation section. No operation in the library affects just because you have excess reservations. Besides , why restrict when the cost of memory is coming down ? Couple of years back when Hotmail was very popular , I always used to get that famous mail "You are exceeding the quota for your mail and you should delete few mails" and there after I had to spent a lot of time determining what to delete and what to retain , besides you could not attach some very big attachments. And then you had Gmail - no restriction on the size of attachment and no restriction on your account size. The result - I have forgotten my password for Hotmail !
I still remember 20 Mb (mind well this is not a spelling mistake , it is Mb and Not Gb) hard disk used to cost 20 thousand rupees once upon a time and now what is the cost of a 80 Gb hard disk ? When the cost of the hardware is going down day by day , why still these restrictions ? Let people reserve , anyway if they do not take the book within a specific time , let the reservation stand cancel !
I also have similar views on lending period for any material but I will write about that tomorrow !
Monday, May 26, 2008
What is Library Backwaters ?
I had recently been to a Library Conference in Kerala. Kerala has some amazing backwaters. Especially there is a place called Alleppy , which has a great lake - I really do not remember the name (incidentally Kerala pronunciations are more difficult than French , hence a small search on the net will give you an exact name) .
Now backwater virtually dampens the speed of life so you can focus on those little pleasures in life for which we are doing this rat race everyday . I will explain what I mean by that.
Normally you have a one or two days excursion in backwaters. So around 12 pm you would go to a jetty from where you would take this houseboat. The Single road , the dust and heat really tortures you for couple of hours
before you reach the jetty. But once you are on the boat and start with a welcome drink of tender coconut everything starts changing. First of all though it is a engine driven boat the sound and vibrations on the front side are almost nil. So you are virtually floating on the water. Suddenly the Butler walks in some chilled beer and a fish called Karimeen - this is followed by some great Kerala meal and deserts. And the saga continues till next day morning with some Kerala breakfast of Anda Curry & Appam ! All by yourself , your loved ones , your books , your music and everything that can start with your ....
Anyway , I though in every field of life we always try to move fast or may be faster than others and forget about many small pleasures in life unless you hit some backwater vacation like this ....
I work in the field of Library Automation and Knowledge Management and I want this blog to be some kind of a backwater experience for the visitors where I would like to write about my experiences , my views , about the conferences I am attending etc. etc.
So it will not be some great high tech stuff but those little things which may help you to relax and enjoy and may be discover a new dimension to that same old rut we do everyday.
Now backwater virtually dampens the speed of life so you can focus on those little pleasures in life for which we are doing this rat race everyday . I will explain what I mean by that.
Normally you have a one or two days excursion in backwaters. So around 12 pm you would go to a jetty from where you would take this houseboat. The Single road , the dust and heat really tortures you for couple of hours
before you reach the jetty. But once you are on the boat and start with a welcome drink of tender coconut everything starts changing. First of all though it is a engine driven boat the sound and vibrations on the front side are almost nil. So you are virtually floating on the water. Suddenly the Butler walks in some chilled beer and a fish called Karimeen - this is followed by some great Kerala meal and deserts. And the saga continues till next day morning with some Kerala breakfast of Anda Curry & Appam ! All by yourself , your loved ones , your books , your music and everything that can start with your ....Anyway , I though in every field of life we always try to move fast or may be faster than others and forget about many small pleasures in life unless you hit some backwater vacation like this ....
I work in the field of Library Automation and Knowledge Management and I want this blog to be some kind of a backwater experience for the visitors where I would like to write about my experiences , my views , about the conferences I am attending etc. etc.
So it will not be some great high tech stuff but those little things which may help you to relax and enjoy and may be discover a new dimension to that same old rut we do everyday.
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