Dr Rishi K. Tiwari: A Librarian a with Different Mind Set

Dr Rishi K. Tiwari: A Librarian a with Different Mind-Set

Interviewer: Dr Preeti Sharda

Dr Rishi K. Tiwari is working as Head Librarian at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida, UP. He has done Master’s and Doctorate degree in Library and Information Science from Jiwaji University, Gwalior. Dr Tiwari, a well-known name in the Library Science professional circle and has organized various conferences and workshops. He has published 24 research papers and 4 books and also guiding and supervising scholars of Library and Information Science in their research work. With 24 years of professional experience, Dr Tiwari facilitates various activities of rehabilitation of jail inmates and underprivileged poor girls near Delhi-NCR. He is the founder Secretary of Ranganathan Society for Social Welfare and Library Development. He has visited London, France, Netherland, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Muscat for his professional engagements. His areas of interest are Leadership, Team Building, Library Automation and Digitization. He works for the promotion of Open Source Softwares of Library Automation and Digitization. Dr Tiwari is an active member of various organizations such as Indian Library Association (ILA), Management Library Network, Royal Institute of Management (RIM), Bhutan. He is an office bearer of ILA with the capacity of a Member of Executive Council and Treasurer for the period of 2013 to 2015. At present, he is the Vice- President of Indian Library Association.

Dr Tiwari is bearing the responsibilities of BIMTECH Foundation with the capacity of Chief Executive Officer. The Ministry of Culture, GoI nominated him, as a member of “National Selection Committee” for the Tagore Fellowship. One of the most prestigious and powerful committees of the India Government.   

Dr Rishi Tiwari is a dedicated and hardworking Librarian. He considers his responsibilities more than just organizing or shelving books. He is a community educator, organizer and innovator while enhancing his creativity in how has benefited the community and his workplaces. He has proved that being a librarian has so much to offer. He can share his librarian skills, be it at problem-solving, researching, retrieving, or information literacy, to the patrons. That’s why we are here for, to serve and fulfill the community needs.

Interview

Dr Preeti Sharda: What made you think you should become a librarian?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Frankly, I wanted to make my career in Defence and the second choice was journalism, but during those days, there were very few opportunities and limited seats in the university. The financial condition of my parents was not so sound that’s why I had to take private tuitions to bear my study and day-to-day expenses. Once I visited my friend who was a librarian of District Public Library in UP. I got very impressed with the Library and its collection. My friend guided me on how to pursue a career in the LIS profession.  I applied for admission to Jiwaji University and in the third counseling; I got the admission. That’s how the journey in a new direction started.

Dr Preeti Sharda: You did your Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, in 2008, the area of your research was unusual. the topic was “Research Productivity Analysis using International Political Science Abstract Database: A Study”. Please share how you choose this area for research?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: After completion of MLIS, I got enrolled for PhD in 1996 but don’t know why routine things have never attracted me. Those days there were very limited areas in which most of the studies were revolving. I was not very much convinced, so I dropped continuing my research work. After working for almost 10 years, I got little ideas and came in the contact of few very eminent professionals and on the advice of seniors I again enrolled for research with a new topic. So you can give the credit to some of my well-wishers for this are, if you feel that ‘topic is unusual’. 

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are in the LIS profession since 1995 and you joined your present position in 2005. Please tell us about your previous work experience.

Dr Rishi Tiwari: As I shared with you, I wanted to make my career in Defence/ Army, so just after completing my MLIS, I joined Rastriya Sahara Newspaper in Noida, but couldn’t survive. Then I worked in one of the renowned school of Delhi for a year. In 1996, I returned to my hometown Gwalior as I got a job in the Army Education Library. So again I went to Gwalior. But because of some unavoidable circumstances, I couldn’t cope up with the then Brigadier and ultimately left the job. For a year I took a marketing job again in 2001. From 2001 to June 2005 I worked in an engineering college of Gwalior. 

Dr Preeti Sharda: Under your supervision, how the library of Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) has evolved?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: I will never say under my supervision. It is always teamwork. I am very fortunate that I always had a fantastic and energetic team. I can only say when I joined this prestigious organization, the total collection was only 9000/ with the total annual budget of Rs 4,00,000 and no automation or digitalization and no electronic databases. Today BIMTECH library is one of the richest libraries in Delhi NCR. Our annual budget is over one Cr now. And more of that the management and the leadership matters a lot. Here I am lucky enough that I got an opportunity to work under Dr H. Chaturvedi, who is known for his leadership and team building. He is actually my mentor, and he has given me free hands to work and wings to fly.

Dr Preeti Sharda: Depending on the size of your institution, the role of a librarian may include additional roles or specialize in just one of these. Please describe each of the areas individually.

Dr Rishi Tiwari: BIMTECH is one of the best PGDM/Management colleges in India, rather we come in the top 10 private B-Schools of the country. Most of us perform more than one role. If I talk about my role in the institute, apart from librarianship, there are any areas where I am involved, to name the major works are: Member of Core Team of Purchase Committee; Proctor-Students Welfare; Faculty Incharge of Sports; PR with Local Authority and Police Administration; CEO- Biotech Foundation and Incharge of BIMTECH  Outreach Activities.

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are a librarian, a teacher, a researcher, a writer and a mentor. Which of the following role you enjoy the most? Also, specify why is it so?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Now at this age, I really love to work for society and, for the development of the LIS sector because working for a deprived sector gives different energy and positivity. Coming to your question my answer would be a writer and a mentor. Because when you have to mentor someone, read more and have to be more ethical and have to keep your knowledge up to date. I want to write a lot but seriously; I am not a good writer, but want to be…...

Dr Preeti Sharda: Please tell briefly about your research project titled “Development of Research Project Database Management System”.

Dr Rishi Tiwari: One wing of DRDO helps academic institutions/ universities in conducting research, organizing seminar/conferences by giving them financial grants. In 2009, I also got a grant. While interacting with the Director of DRDO and his team I came to know that the office was keeping the record manually and there was no proper mechanism to keep track. I proposed them one idea to make a proper database of all the projects which are being sanctioned by the office. This way I got this project and now DRDO office is maintaining its database record with the help of that DMS only. 

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are a storehouse of innovative ideas and you are implementing those ideas one by one. Please explain the concept of Workshop on Wheels.

Dr Rishi Tiwari: hahahhahahahhahah…... I shared in my other question also that I do not enjoy in routine jobs or performing the things in a routine way. I love and enjoy doing the same things differently. For the last 14 years, we care about conducting workshops for LIS Professionals. This year I got an AC full sized and well-equipped bus from HP. You can call it a mobile learning lab with 21 computers. So when my team reminded me to launch the workshop for this year, immediately the idea of conducting the event in the Mobile Learning Lab with 20 participants only, came in mind. The idea was readily accepted by many funding bodies as well. 

Dr Preeti Sharda: You have been awarded the ILA S.M. Ganguly Best School Library Award for 2003, ILA Promoter Award for 2008, SATKAL Young Librarian Award 2013, Commonwealth Fellowship 2014 and AIMS International Outstanding Management Library Award 2014. You are also the recipient of ‘India CSR Dr. Velaga Memorial for Innovative Library Services’, a prestigious award for extraordinary work in the field of library services with ‘out of box’ thinking in 2017. Recently you were conferred with ‘Distinguished Service Award’ during the LIBRARIAN LEADERSHIP SUMMIT held at Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA on September 15th, 2018. Does winning an award boost your career?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: We all are human beings and everyone likes appreciation and recognition. Only thing is that the level keeps on changing and one should be very careful at the time of receiving an award and applying for the award. nowadays or day by day even in our profession it has become “give & take” culture. That’s why I hardly apply for an award or go to any conference/ seminar. 

But yes, any appreciation or recognition for your good work boosts up to do something better.

Dr Preeti Sharda: Please share your experience at the University of East London in 2014.

Dr Rishi Tiwari: It was fantastic and lifetime achievement. Being a librarian of a private B-Schools and getting Commonwealth Professional Fellowship meant a lot for me. My involvement in community support helped me for selection and it has helped me a lot to improve me, personally and professionally. 

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are a member of various organizations such as Indian Library Association (ILA), Management Library Network, Royal Institute of Management (RIM), Bhutan. You were even associated with ILA as an executive member not once but twice. Do you think ILA which is a national association, working efficiently for the overdevelopment of libraries and library professionals of India?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Controversial question. I am personally not satisfied with my contribution to ILA as an office bearer. At present also I am in the office of ILA with the capacity of Rise President.

The answer to your question is Yes and NO, both. On some fronts, ILA has done a good job but on some fronts, the contribution of ILA is negligible. But in the end, we have to understand the reason behind this.

As elections are scheduled it will not be good to speak much on this topic but yes I have to say a lot on this topic. If you feel comfortable, we can have a special session on this topic only.

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are also a member of around 25 organizing committee for National and International Conferences. Do you think events like these can help in the continuous professional development of library professionals?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Yes... Professionals get a platform for knowledge creation, dissemination, sharing of views, presentations, interactions and networking and they get an outing from routine work…

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are the founder secretary of Ranganathan Society for Social Welfare and Library Development (RSSWLD). How the campaign started?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: In 2009, we declared an event in association with Jiwaji University Gwalior and during that time the idea came to form an NGO to scale up the activities. I shared this idea with some of my friends and as usual, they all gave their consent… So again the credit goes to my friends, not me.

Dr Preeti Sharda: Please tell us about the BIMTECH Pustakalaya project? Is it the part of Ranganathan Society for Social Welfare & Library Development?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Ranganathan Society and Bimtech, both are working together and for each other. And now “Bimtech Foundation” has also come. BIMTECH is the main funding agency and Ranganathan society is the project implementation CSR arm of BIMTECH.

Dr Preeti Sharda: You are pioneer behind establishment 9 rural libraries, 7 prison libraries and one library at a temple. It won’t be an easy task. What were the difficulties you faced during the establishment of these libraries?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Please allow me to correct the data. As of now, we have established 12 rural libraries, 4 computer centers, 11 prison libraries in 10 prisons, 3 toy libraries and one library in an Ashram. 210 rural girls have been adopted in Neemka Village of Gautam Buddha District under the project ‘Protsahan -Chiraiya'.

Whenever you will start something new and different, be ready to face many challenges and difficulties. Many times you fail as well. Out of 12 rural libraries and 4 computer centres, only one rural library is now operational. Sometimes your colleague criticizes you, sometimes your seniors are not happy, complaints by family members are a few of the problems. But on the other side, there are always new doors open for you. So my learning is that if you have a passion for something for society, all these difficulties make you more strong and energetic….      

Dr Preeti Sharda: The Society has also automated about 10 libraries of various schools, colleges and institutions. What kind of help does society provide in the process of automation?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: We are helping by providing them Open source software.

Dr Preeti Sharda: The Society celebrated Library Week from time to time. Which activities were done during this week? Since 2017 there is no update about the Celebration on the website. Have you stopped the event? If yes, what were the reasons for this discontinuation?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: No, we have not stopped. We are celebrating all these activities regularly. only thing is that activities are increasing and we are in a shortage of manpower. We all working on a volunteering basis.

Actually, to keep the jail inmates engaged these activities, help a lot.

Dr Preeti Sharda: Library automation and digitization requires a lot of money to create and its maintenance. Open source software reduces cost. Open Source software provides free source code, simple customization, and growing user community. What are your views about the use of Open Source Softwares of Library Automation and Digitization?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: I strongly believe that libraries and library professionals should come forward and use open source software. It not only reduces the cost but also give you a lot of confidence.

Dr Preeti Sharda: What are some most satisfying and least satisfying aspects of your job?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: While doing library work I am engaged in many other works and especially CSR activities; all these things satisfy me a lot.

I wanted to become a good writer and a good orator, somehow that I have not achieved…. That is really, always a point of dissatisfaction.

Dr Preeti Sharda: Librarianship definitely seems to be an under-respected profession in India. Do you think the attitude towards this profession needs to change if education will do what it needs to do for students? What are things you wish more people understand about this profession?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: I think if I will give my views frankly, you will also criticize me. So better to leave this question.

Dr Preeti Sharda: Given the increasing prevalence of online tools, do you think there will come a day when librarians are no longer needed? What activities you do for the promotion of books and reading habits?

Dr Rishi Tiwari: Reading habit is decreasing like anything and especially in the north and central India. When the faculty is not interested in reading, how can you expect from students? Society always asks these questions from the librarians that what will you do to inculcate the reading habits and the frank reply is that librarian can only create an ecosystem and that’s also up to an extent. Footfall in the libraries is decreasing not only in India but this is a global trend now.

As far as this profession is concerned, I don't think a big change will be there but yes their work pattern will change time to time. 

(Disclaimer: I conducted this interview through email. I am Dr Preeti Sharda working as a Librarian of the Regional Institute of English, Chandigarh. It was an amazing experience. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Rishi Tiwari for sparing time from his busy schedule. Interacting with professionals like him always makes you more motivated to work hard).