Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore

On the 1st of February, I made a visit to the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) - http://www.isec.ac.in/ - in Bangalore. This institute is a social science centre focused on various Indian development issues. ISEC has a good reputation in India, and awards PhD's in various disciplines. As I have learned during this trip, many institutes in India are where a lot of academic research takes place, and where PhD programs are located. In the Western context, we focus on the research university model - in India, many university professors often do not do much research and are primarily teachers. Scholars at these institutes are mainly responsible for doing research and supervising doctoral students, with a few seminar-style classes that they have to conduct sometimes.

My uncle, Mr. GVK Rao, had a hand in the development of the institute. He was the chief secretary (head administrative officer) in the state of Karnataka many years back, and also held a high administrative position in India's central government at one time.

He was a man of great dignity and integrity, and I have never personally known a person as universally respected as he was. I could spend many paragraphs writing about my uncle and what he meant to all of us, but I will have to save that for another time. He passed away in 2007, and his presence was greatly missed during this trip.

I mention my uncle not only because he was a great man and for his affiliation with this institute - as I will discuss, the case of my uncle also illustrates the power of "name-dropping" and affiliations in India. I visited this institute with one of my cousins who received her PhD at ISEC, and she constantly introduced me to people as "GVK Rao's nephew." In the West, we are often hesitant about name-dropping or using who we know to get us ahead. In India, on the other hand, using all the name-dropping tools and affiliations at your disposal (no matter how spurious) are utilized. Personal connections are key. Everyone is looking for an advantage and sizing people up. Who you know, who your relatives are, etc. are all key indicators of your standing and importance in society. In a society as hierarchical as India's, these connections become even more crucial.

Enough with my anthropological analyses. The reason I wanted to visit ISEC was to begin linking some public library issues in India with greater concerns about good governance, public sector transparency, and promotion of the "public good" in India. If public libraries are about government entities serving communities, then these types of issues should be discussed. From my reading of the public library environment in India, these issues are implicit but are not discussed in great detail in either policy or academic circles.

I met with Dr. Sangita, who does work on e-governance issues in India. He discussed how e-governance is more advanced in Karnataka, with respect to other states in India. Some areas in which e-governance has taken hold in the state include: 1) digitization of land records; 2) property registration and documentation; 3) e-learning; and 4) e-training. He also discussed how complaints for police and local authorities to handle are being managed by e-government tools.

While I mentioned to Dr. Sangita that public libraries can be considered to be part of larger public governance issues, I was not surprised to hear that he had not thought of the issue in these terms. However, he agreed with me that there is a logical connection - I guess it will take more work on my part to make this issue gain greater traction.

He also told me something that I found quite interesting in terms of good governance. Good governance in general, according to him (and others for that matter), involves a balanced relationship between the state, civil society, and markets. Libraries and community technology projects will not be effective without a proper relationship between these factors, as we discussed. This discussion made me think about potential partnerships between state and non-state actors in the development of India's public libraries, and the challenges that this would entail.

Dr. Sangita also mentioned to me some work that is happening with information kiosks in Karnataka. Certain "e-Seva Kendras" are being managed by the government for information dissemination, and there is a plan to develop more of these types of kiosks at the village level. How the kiosk model might be incorporated in the public library movement is a question of increasing importance to me as I continue doing this research. Since libraries also provide information, can libraries adapt to take on types of kiosk service models, or vice versa?

Monday, May 5, 2008

City Central Library, Bangalore

On January 31, 2008, I was given a tour of the central library in the south zone of Bangalore, near my uncle's house in the Jayanagar neighbourhood of the city. As I learned, the public libraries in Bangalore are divided into five zones, with this library being the largest in its particular zone. The director of this branch is a Mr. Nagesh - a gentleman originally from Haveri district in northern Karnataka state.

The library has a fairly large entry area, with a place for checking in one's bags and a central reception area. While not a particularly new building, it was clean and had several people milling about and reading books and newspapers. An upstairs area was filled with more people reading - my unscientific estimate was that most of the people patronizing the library were men. The main impression I had of the library, however, was that it was not well-lighted and felt dark in places. The stacks were upstairs and were classified according to Ranganthan's colon classification system. Several students and young people appeared to be studying for exams and doing school work on the desks adjacent to the stacks.

The early part of my visit was spent in the office of Mr. Nagesh - I drank coffee and ate biscuits with him, while he took care of some office work. Sitting in this office gave me the opportunity to observe typical Indian hierarchical office interactions - a number of obsequious workers filed into his office, with some signature or other needed on a piece of paper, which was attached to a ragged file folder. After observing this spectacle for what seemed like a long time, he eventually showed me around the library.

Some interesting points from our conversation and tour:

  • 23 branches exist in the south library zone of Bangalore, as well as 120 slum libraries. What exactly a slum library entails was not clear to me.
  • 1 mobile library exists in the south zone
  • Mr. Nagesh claims that around 300 people per day visit the library. This number should not be difficult to ascertain - most public libraries I have noticed in India (in Bangalore, Chennai, and Delhi, for instance) have a visitor log that each patron must sign upon first entering the library
  • Internet stations exist in the central library of the south zone, and have about 25 users per day, according to Mr. Nagesh. I observed a couple of people using the five or so Internet ready computers in the library during my short visit. Fees to use the Internet are 10 Rs. per hour. When I arrived, the Internet connection was down - the ISP for this library and all public libraries in Bangalore is BSNL, the government-based Internet provider. Outside of the few large public libraries in the city, most public libraries in Bangalore do not have Internet connections.
  • Most libraries, other than the central libraries of each zone, are service stations with limited hours. For instance, I was taken to a smaller branch library in a residential section of Bangalore, which essentially was a converted bungalow. The hours for this branch and for many others like this one are 8:30 to 11:30 AM and 4 to 8 PM.
  • Within this particular central zone library (and it would appear most public libraries in Bangalore) no reference librarians as such work with the public. Most of the staff with actual library degrees (BLS, MLS) do not work extensively with the public and are doing work in the back offices of the library. Library assistants (not necessarily having diplomas or degrees) are doing most of the work with the public.
  • As with many of the libraries I have observed in major Indian cities (e.g., Bangalore and Chennai), colon classification is employed.

Return to blogging...

It is now May 2008, a full 3 months since my last blog entry. A combination of limited Internet connectivity, extensive traveling, and lack of motivation all conspired to limit my blogging productivity. I resolve now to get back to task and finish chronicling my recent Indian journey. I look forward to reflecting upon some of my more insightful discoveries....