Rapporteur General Report of the National Conference on "Digital Libraries, Library Automation and Open CourseWare: issues and Best Practices" organized by the Department of Studies in Library and Information Science,(MyDLIS), University of Mysore, Mysore.

1. Department of Library & Information Science
University of Mysore
Mysuru
National Conference on Digital Libraries, Library Automation and Open CourseWare:
Issues and Best Practices
(Funded Under UGC-SAP DRS-II)
November 10-11, 2017
Conference Report
By Vasantha Raju N.
Rapporteur General of the Conference
Good Evening All of You
Honourable Chief Guest, Prof. P.Venkataramaiah, Former Vice-Chancellor, Kuvempu
University. Guest of Honour of this valedictory function, Prof. T.K. Umesh, Dean
Faculty of Science & Technology, Department of Physics, University of Mysore, Prof.
Mallinath Kumbar, Organizing Secretary of the conference, members of organizing
committee, Staff of MyDLIS, delegates and all the professionals.
With immense pleasure, I stand before you to present the proceedings (deliberations) of
the two-day national conference on “Digital Libraries, Library Automation and Open
CourseWare: Issues and Best Practices” (funded under UGC-SAP DRS-II) organized
by the Department of Studies in Library and Information Science, University of
Mysore, Mysuru. It is indeed an honour.
Day-1: 10th November 2017
Inaugural Function:
Inauguration of “Prof. V.G. Talawar ICT Lab”
Before the formal inauguration of the conference, the newly built “Prof. V.G. Talawar
ICT Lab” was made open to the students of Department of Library and Information
Science, University of Mysore, Mysuru. The ICT lab is named after “Prof. V.G.
Talawar ICT Lab” considering his contribution to the of Mysore in general and to the
Department of Studies in Library & Information Science in particular.
The inaugural ceremony of the conference commenced with a melodious rendition of
invocation song by the students of MyDLIS, University of Mysore, Mysuru.

2. Prof. Mallinath Kumbar, Organizing Secretary of the conference welcomed the
gathering and highlighted the objectives of the conference.
Inaugural Address:
Prof. T.D. Kemparaju, Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore North University, Kolar,
inaugurated the conference by lighting the lamp with other dignitaries. In his inaugural
address Prof. T.D. Kemparaju spoke about the radical change in accessing and
disseminating information because of technological interventions. He elaborated on how
there is a rapid increase in scholarly meetings in LIS domain over the years across the
country and how this has helped professionals to gain knowledge in using technologies
for information dissemination. Prof. Kemparaju recollected his vivid memories of the
days he spent as astudent at the beautiful University of Mysore campus. On this
occasion, Prof. T.D. Kemparaju, an alumnus of the Department of LIS, University of
Mysore, was felicitated on assuming the coveted position of founding Vice Chancellor of
Bangalore North University, Kolar.
Keynote Address
Dr. A.Y. Asundi, Professor (Retired), Department of Library and Information Science,
Bangalore University, Bangaluru, delivered the keynote address. In his brief keynote
address Prof. A.Y. Asundi highlighted the efforts of Indian LIS community in
automating their libraries and issues involved in library automation.
Presidential Address
Prof. J. Somashekar, Registrar (Evaluation), University of Mysore, Mysuru, presided
over the function. In his presidential remarks Prof. J. Somashekar emphasized the
importance of library in taking the nation in the right direction. He also urged the
delegates to use technology, which has brought a sea change in how we access
information. Prof. J. Somashekar released the conference volume and lauded the
efforts of the organizing committee on this occasion.
Dr. M. Chandrashekar, Professor, Department of Studies in Library and Information
Science, University of Mysore, Mysuru, introduced the chief guests to the delegates. Dr.
N.S. Harinarayana, Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information
Science, University of Mysore, Mysuru, proposed the formal vote of thanks.

3. Smt. Niveditha of the Department acted as the master of ceremony.
There were 60 papers in the conference volume, of which 9 are invited papers, 41 are
contributed papers and 11 abstracts. Of these 38 papers were presented by the authors
of the papers in different academic sessions. There were 6 academic sessions in all and
these sessions were arranged in line with the theme of the conference.
Academic Sessions
Academic Session-1
In this first session Dr. Veeranjaneyalu K., University Librarian and Professor, PJT
State Agricultural University, Hyderabad was the session chair and Dr. Gavisiddappa,
Assistant Professor, Akka Mahadevi Women’s University, Vijapura was the rapporteur
In this session two invited papers were presented
 Prof. A.Y. Asundi delivered his extended keynote address on “library
automation, digital libraries and open access” (Keynote address)
He spoke about the historical developments of library automation and issues
involved in automating academic libraries. He mainly focused on the data
diligence aspects of library automation. He also spoke briefly about digital
libraries and new emerging domain that is open educational resources (OER).
 Dr. Ramesh Babu, Professor (Retired) presented his paper on “Professional
Skills and competencies of librarians in the digital environment: What, why and
how? He mainly underscored the importance of soft skills for LIS professionals
in today’s changing environment.
Academic Session-2
The session was chaired by Dr. B.T. Sampath Kumar, Professor, Tumakur University,
Tumakur. Sri. Nagaraja, Librarian, Regional Institute of Education, NCERT served as
the rapporteur.
In this session two invited papers and 6 contributed papers were presented.
 Dr. Ravi. B, Librarian, Central University of Hyderabad presented his invited
paper on “Use of Anti-Plagiarism Software at IGML-UoH: A Study”. This was
a case study of how IGM Library of University of Hyderabad detecting and
reporting the instances and extent of plagiarism content in dissertation and
theses submitted to UoH.

4.  Dr. Gavisiddappa Anandhalli presented his invited paper on “Awareness and
Understanding of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copy Rights Act: A
Study of Engineering Faculty Members.
Apart from two invited papers 6 papers were presented in this session areas covering
ETDs, Open Access Repositories, Open Access Journals and Digital Preservation.
Academic Session-3
Dr. Keshava, Professor, Tumakur University served as the chairman of this session and
Dr. Adithya Kumari of University of Mysore, served as the rapporteur.
In this session one invited paper and 6 contributed papers were presented
Dr. Mahamed Haneefa K., presented his paper on “Social Media for Learning: A Study
among the students of Universities in Kerala”. This paper was based on a field study
looked at the academic use of social media in Kerala.
Five contributed (Accepted) papers were presented in this session on various themes
and sub themes of the conference mainly on Open Source Software for managing digital
collections, use of open source resources, evaluation of learning management systems
and utilization and satisfaction level of digital resources and services in universities.
Day-2 11th
November 2017
Academic Session-4
This session was chaired by Prof.P.G.Tadasad, Professor, DLISc, Akkamahadevi
Women’s University, Vijayapur and Sri. Rupesh Kumar, Assistant Professor of
Tumakur University served as the rapporteur.
In this session 2 invited papers and 8 contributed papers were presented.
 Dr. Veeranjaneyulu, Amrendra Kumar & Rathinasabapathy presented their
papers on “Status of Library Automation & Digitization in Agricultural
Universities in India: A Study”
 Dr. P.G. Tadasad presented his paper on “ Impact of MOOCs on LIS Education
in India”.
Eight Contributed papers were presented in this session on areas covering status of
library automation projects in academic and public libraries, infrastructure facilities
for library automation, Use of ICTs in collection development and library best
practices.

5. Academic Session-5
Prof. Veerabasavaiah of Bangalore University and Dr. Mohamad Haneefa of University
of Calicut, Kerala served as the chairman and rapporteur of this session respectively.
In this session one invited papers and 7 contributed papers were presented.
Dr. Ramesh R. Naik presented his paper on “Open Educational Resources (OER): An
Overview”.
07 papers were presented in this particular session. The papers were mainly on OPAC
and Cloud Computing for library services, OERs and social media in open learning
system.
Academic Session-6
In this last academic session, Prof. M. Chandrashekar of University of Mysore served as
the chair of session and Dr. M.V. Sunil of SDM-IMD, Mysuru was the rapporteur.
In this session 5 contributed papers were presented.
In this session 5 papers were presented mainly on MOOCs (Massive Open Online
Courses).
In all 38 papers were presented in this two day deliberations. There were lively
discussions and deliberations in many sessions also.
I take this opportunity to thank Dr. N.S. Harinarayana and Prof. Mallinath Kumbar,
the organizing secretary of the conference, Dr. M. Chandrashekara for giving me this
opportunity to serve as the rapporteur general of the conference. I also thank all the
session chairs and rapporteurs for their inputs in preparing this report. I thank all the
delegates for your patient listening.
Thank you