Response on Interdepartmental Interaction on 'Information and change' at MyDLIS

It is a good effort by the Mysore university. Interaction between Library and Information Science students and Journalism students at this level will bring in the awareness to both the students. If you had a moderator who works as a librarian in a newspaper office or a senior editorial staff who uses the services of a Information centre it would have been more lively and authentic. As a professional person working in the newspaper office I know that every editorial written in the news paper by senior journalists require authentic Published information of various types like statistics, statements, biography etc. in any form. There is no subject limit and the time allowed is "now or never". 25 years experience has shown us that it is only the library and information/ science students who have a very good hard training in information/Knowledge management and understanding can organise, manage and retrieve information of right kind at a very short notice from a huge information and Knowledge base.
Both need to understand that one group is Knowledge Generators and the other is Knowledge Managers. One who generates may not keep track of what he has generated and what others have generated. Where as a Information Manager will keep track of the information generated in a helpful manner. We need to understand that all information required is not available on web or net. For Example try searching comprehensive information on one of the biggest Illicit Liquor Tragedy which took the life of 1000 people in Bangalore. Can you find it on web. If it is required in local Language it is much more difficult.Well a news paper library can fish out things in a short time. Need for Trained Information people in the filed of Journalism is more now than before. Think of the news channels and production houses who are having tough time organising their own productions and finding the right kind of information required during production. Interaction between Journalists and the Information Centre is much more thanin any other library and the work is really demanding. Need is well established as newspapers are recruiting Information Science Students under some designation or the other.
N. Shailaja
Chief Information Officer
Information Centre
Deccan Herald
Bangalore-1
Ph.No 25880545, 25880521
Email:naganarasimhas@yahoomail.com