Dr Meenal Oak: An Administrative Librarian

Dr. Meenal Oak is a Versatile Librarian. She is a very dedicated, sincere, and effective library professional. Her intellectual curiosity and learning aptitude will always be a hallmark of her performance. She is a beautiful person with a beautiful spirit. She always has a smile on her face. She is always ready to take challenges. She has more than 25 years of professional experience as a librarian.  

She is at present working as a faculty member at Maharashtra Education Society Institute of Management and Career Courses (MES-IMCC), Pune, Maharashtra. She is also Coordinator of IGNOU Study Center, SET- NET Workshop, PGDLIMAN & MES Koha Project. Apart from the hardcore librarianship work, she has handled multifold activities in the academic field. She also has teaching expertise and teaches Management of Libraries & Information Centers, Library automation, ICT in Libraries & Knowledge organization for the last 20 years in the conventional mode as well as in the distance mode of education. She has been invited to several places in India including the corporate sector libraries to the Central University Libraries and Departments of Library & Information Science to conduct the sessions as a resource person and as a keynote person. She is an active elective member (EC) of MANLIBNET and also one of the Core Committee Members of MANLIBNET, India.  

Dr. Meenal is the receiver of- the MES Gunawant Shikshak Puraskar 2013-14, Best Teacher Award from Lions Club of Poona; Ajinkya Dr Patil University, and Mahaganesh Technical Education Society Pune; winner of the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Managing Library and Information Systems in the Digital World: Challenges and Opportunities, organized by MANLIBNET 2015 at TAPMI, Best Promoter Award of PULISAA Pune University Library Science Alumni Association in 2006, Savitribai Phule Pune University (Formerly University of Pune).

Interview

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Please tell me something about your background. Was Doing BLIS after completing BSc your first choice? Any specific reason to choose the LIS profession.

Dr. Meenal Oak: My first choice was to teach Fashion designing or Zoology. In my BSc, I got a high score of 68%. My father wanted me to have a career in library science as he thought that it would suit me due to its holiness and isolated places to work. He took me to show the libraries of Tata Consultancy Services Cuffe Parade, Mumbai; Reserve Bank of India Library, Mumbai; and Dhondumama Sathe Homoeopathic Medical College, Pune. Although I was convinced that the subject had a practical approach and had a wide scope to work but it was difficult for me to leave the thread of my likings and fondness towards pure sciences and fashion designing. Reluctantly, I joined the Department of Library and Information Science, the University of Pune for BLIS course in the year 1993. I found the subjects very dry and I was not able to find them interesting as I strived among the live contents of zoology. I wrote a letter to my father saying that I am coming back home and will take admission to M.Sc. next year. My parents are very dedicated medical professionals and studious scholars. They taught me to not look back at any moment of life and advised me to be patient and be adaptable. I worked hard but the challenges were more for a girl at the age of 20 to stay outside the home for study. Fortunately, I passed BLIS with the distinction and bagged the 3rd position in the entire University. When I applied for admission to MLIS, my name was on the waiting list, as in those days preference was given to working professionals. In the meantime, I joined M.Sc. in the Health Science Department, where Prof Bhushan Patwardhan, the present, Vice-Chairman, University Grants Commission, New Delhi, was HOD. However, destiny had some got plans for me, and I got admission to MLIS and bagged the fifth position in the final examination. Immediately after completion of MLIS, Prof Patwardhan asked to organize the collection of the Health Science Department, and within one month's time, I organized the entire collection with the team of enthusiastic students of the Department. This was my first assignment. In 1995, I joined the Library of Department of Zoology, University of Pune. After 6 months, I joined the College of Education, SNDT University, Pune Branch as a librarian against a leave vacancy of 2 months, and finally, in February 1996 I was offered the post of Librarian at MES’s IMCC.  I learned a lot during my previous assignments and I am very thankful to the stalwarts like Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan; Prof. Dileep N. Deobagkar (Former Head, Department of Zoology, University of Pune and Ex. Vice Chancellor Goa University); Dr. S K Patil (Head & the University Librarian Jaykar Library University of Pune); Dr. N B Dahibhate (Former Principal Technical Officer CSIR- NCL, Pune); and Dr S G Mahajan, Former University Librarian, Jaykar Library, Savitribai Phule Pune University for their guidance and support. 

Dr. Preeti Sharda: What is your job profile at MES’s Institute of Management and Career Courses (MES’s IMCC)?     

Dr. Meenal Oak: Currently, I am working as a Librarian-cum-Associate Professor at the Institute and engaged in developing, leading, organizing, and managing the Library Core and fringe areas, Library functions and services, ICT applications in the library, networking, relationship building, and communication, funds utilization, up-gradation of the library.

When I joined the library of IMCC, it was housed in a small room and was not properly organized. Students didn't follow the library rules and they even stoled the books, the library was not more than a common room. The book suppliers were not ready to supply the books on credit due to unreturned and pending approval memos. I didn't give up and tried to give my level best, and above all, I was ready to face the challenges even at the age of 23. I understood the prevailing library system completely. I applied the participative leadership technique to solve the issues in the library and started informal communication with the library staff, faculty members, and the book suppliers. Creating trust and faith was a major challenge, apart from the technical work of classification, cataloging, and computerization. I used the bench-marking technique to improve the processes of the libraries and did regress planning to achieve the targets. Soon the students and the faculty members started getting effective service and regular access to the library resources. When the users realized that their demands and needs are attended properly, they started following the library rules. The library staff, faculty members, and the complete organization started cooperating. This was the beginning new era of the IMCC library. A regular assessment program was chalked out for the continuous improvement and new targets were set. Today IMCC Library is fully automated and has its own institutional depositary on Dspace. Many projects were initiated, to name a few - "MES Koha Project", setting up of IGNOU Study Center and launching the autonomous programs. Many thanks to MES IMCC Dr. Santosh Deshpande, Director, MES/IMCC Director; Dr. V H Inamdar, Former Director, MES/IMCC and Maharashtra Education Society (MES), Pune, for providing a conducive environment for the smooth functioning at MES.

Apart from the hardcore librarianship, I am also the coordinator of the Distance Learning Center of IGNOU at MES IMCC. I am coordinating activities of the programs such as publicity, communication, and orientation, and I also control and monitor the counseling timetables of all the courses at the center. As an exam superintendent, I have the responsibility to conduct exams of IGNOU for about 4000 learners every 6 months. I am a counselor for the courses Management of Libraries and information centers, ICT in Libraries & Library Automation, and Knowledge Organization.     

I am also the coordinator of the MES Koha Project which we initiated in 2018 and which is a successful project now. I am monitoring the entire project, looking after the progress of the work of member libraries, taking care of the financial matters, and handling all the issues and problems of all the member libraries.

I am the also coordinator "SET NET Training Program (Library Science)" and PGDLIMAN at MES. I initiated these programs at MES and I am responsible for the marketing, promotion, and running of these programs.

I also look after the Institute Prospectus, and documents pertaining to Institute history and development. 

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Do you think students doing LIS courses through correspondence stand equal to those who are pursuing regular LIS programs? 

Dr. Meenal Oak: The basic purpose of MHRD, Government of India is to provide education to all, be it be through regular mode or through correspondence or private. Definitely, the distance learning students can stand equal to those students who pursue courses in the regular mode, it is the caliber and the hard work of the individual, not the mode which decides his/her future. Today many, e-learning platforms including SWAYAM are being used by many of the working professionals to complete their educational qualifications for the up gradation and reshaping of their career.  

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Please brief something about MES IMCC’s autonomous program on SET/NET Training LIS professionals.

Dr. Meenal Oak: National Eligibility Test (NET) of the University Grants Commission has become compulsory to get employment in libraries in Universities and Colleges in India. Some states also conduct this exam for state-level recruitment, which is called the State Eligibility Test (SET). It is observed that after getting the MLIS degree, the majority of the aspiring LIS professionals are not able to qualify the SET/NET even after several attempts. In order to help these aspiring LIS professionals to appear for this exam 'MES IMCC’s Autonomous Program on SET/NET Training for LIS professionals was initiated. The main aim of the program is to provide proper guidance to the aspiring LIS professionals and to build up their schedules and help them in timely preparation. The course material is designed and moduled to provide professionals with a “step-by-step” approach to their preparation. Personal interaction between teachers and students in the face-to-face classes helps in building the confidence of the students. 

The program was initiated in 2015 and since then it is conducted consistently twice a year. It is a 6 months full-time course conducted on Sundays only (approx 20 Sundays). Till now 7 batches have been successfully completed and 280 aspiring LIS professionals from all over Maharashtra state have been enrolled for the course. LIS professionals working in various universities, and prestigious institutions have also been part of the program. Till now 27 professionals have qualified the SET/NET after completion of the course. I am so happy to share that they are now working as full-fledged college librarians with UGC scales. 

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Concept of ‘Library Faculty Coffee Club’ sounds innovative, please tell something about it.

Dr. Meenal Oak: It's an innovative idea that was started with an objective for maintaining a communication channel with the faculty members of the institution. Due to so many ongoing activities at the workplace, it was becoming difficult to maintain regular communication with fellow colleagues. Coffee club is initiated as a medium of friendly interaction between the library and faculty within the stipulated time period, where an informal meeting is scheduled, once in a month over a cup of coffee in the library.  

It includes 

• Meeting with club members;
• Discussion on the latest academic research & social events and activities;
• Discussion on latest publications on the general and on the domain interests;
• Gifting one book on general them to the members for channelizing the reading habits more effectively;
• Discussions on the distributed title in the next meeting in an informal way.   

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Why do you think pursuing programs like Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Library Management, Automation and Networking is need of the hour for budding LIS professionals? 

Dr. Meenal Oak: I think every aspiring LIS professional should pursue the need-based courses like the one offered by MES (PGDLIMAN) in order to keep pace with the ever-changing scenario of the LIS world. This has become more important due to the inclusion of new technologies at the knowledge centers. The LIS field is application-oriented and needs practical awareness and knowledge of use of the library software, networking and information technology. 

These kinds of programs provide a sound footing for the capacity building of the LIS professionals from the technology point of view and make them more efficient to work in their respective libraries. The syllabi included the core installation and implementation and working of the software modules, digitization, networking, and content management techniques theoretically as well as practically in the real-time scenario.

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Share some of your experiences as a subject expert for selection of the librarians under the jurisdiction of Savitribai Phule Pune University. What specific skills you looked for while selecting the candidate?

Dr. Meenal Oak: I visited more than a hundred colleges under the jurisdiction of  Savitribai Phule Pune University as a subject expert for selection of the librarians.  The experience is worthy and through every single visit, I learned a lot. Few observations I made was 

1. LIS professionals need to improve their communication skills and work very hard to have proper soft skills
2. They are working with perfection but very poor to present the talents
3. They are sincere but the majority are not ready to take the challenges   

The candidates are selected based on eligibility criteria, suitability to the internal environment for example if the college needs a well proficient and talented person for the research center where interaction with post-graduate students is a must, a person with poor soft-skills will not be suitable for the same. The knowledge and attitude, conceptual clarity, skills, and the work done in the previous institutions matter a lot for the selection of the candidate

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Do you really think the kind of seminar, conference, workshops, and webinar now days will help LIS professionals to acquaint themselves to acquire new skills?

Dr. Meenal Oak: Yes, definitely all these are the impacting media and certainly will guide the newer ways to the LIS professionals in pursuing the skills required to handle and manage the knowledge resource centers in this challenging situation and in future also.

It's definitely our outlook, how we are looking at things. When we organize the webinar, seminar, conferences we learn the management and organization skills; when we act as a resource person, certainly we study deeply, and are more focused with regard to a particular topic; and similarly, when we are just attending these programs, it gives us innovative ideas about the current situation of the LIS community. It provides awareness about the newer expectations from us and what needs to upgrade. So with every single aspect, you can pursue newer skills, we have to look at the opportunities hidden in every single challenging situation.

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Now a day’s people are shifting from proprietary LMS to open source software like KOHA. However, most of the LIS professionals take help from service providers for the functioning of these open-source LMS. Then why change? 

Dr. Meenal Oak: Yes, it's true that the libraries are shifting from proprietary LMS to open-source software. We for MES libraries hub also shifted from proprietary software to Koha. Major advantages for the same are -  upgraded version with free of cost, technical feasibility, and simplicity of Koha operations, strong release schedule, common union online catalogue without any additional cost. Though many libraries are appointing the service providers; in spite of that, it's advantageous as it's not exorbitant.  

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Please tell me despite so much implementation of IT in libraries, the reading habit of the students is declining. We the librarians introduced IT to enhance library usage but the picture is the opposite. What is the solution to this problem?

Dr. Meenal Oak: The concept of reading is not limited to only the physical book/document reading! The online reading on withe medium like kindle is a smart way to read books without wasting time. It's true that the physical visits of the students to the library has reduced and that of the faculty members as well! But the online reading of the library e-books and subscribed journals should be counted as a library use.  

Further, innovative ways such as the introduction of information commons with the slogan -“What you need, we will provide” as well as the faculty clubs can be initiated for effective use of the library resources. There is a great opportunity to innovate in this area.

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Give some tips as to how libraries can improve their Service Quality.

Dr. Meenal Oak: For the service industry, quality revolves totally around the customers’ perceptions and their expectations from the provider. The continuous assessment of service performance is therefore required to get the maximum users’ satisfaction. The academic world is ever-changing and the impact of the internal and external factors is being witnessed tremendously in the current scenario. The libraries attached to the academic organizations are not exceptional for that and are striving hard to render more effective online services to the users than ever before. The need is to identify the requirements in the present situation and match the performance. For that, it’s needed to 

• Use the periodic assessment policy for the libraries;
• Set the newer targets to achieve considering the user needs assessment program results. For example, currently, effective access to online resources, library online catalogue, library web page up-gradation can be some of the programs;
• Decide the goals to achieve with the stipulated time period; 
• Use of techniques such as Activity charts, Ishikawa models, is always recommended;
• PDCA cycle is highly effective in achieving the predefined goals;
• Set the quality policy with the internal library process to improve the performance; 
• Work continuously towards assessing and achieving.

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Other than being a true LIS professional what are your hobbies? Please also share something funny about you.

Dr. Meenal Oak: Research and writing is my hobby, conducting research study always channelizes your mind. 

Few of research publications are:

• A research project sponsored by Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) formerly the University of Pune from 2012-2014 on “Assessment of service quality: a case study of Management Institute Libraries in India” 
• A research project on “Mapping Service Superiority and service Adequacy Gaps: a study of Service quality dimensions in the Libraries of Management Institutes under the jurisdiction of Savitribai Phule Pune University (Pune, Ahmednagar, Nasik)” from 2014-2016. 
• SDI service: a select study of Management Institutional Libraries 
• A case study of Networking Management Institute Libraries in India: Issues, Strategies and Policies

I have also authored books for the HSC board textbooks published by BAlbharti, Maharashtra State. It gave me immense pleasure to work for the undergraduates as well to write for them at the state level. 

• Granthalaya Ani Mahitishastra
• Granthalaya Ani Mahitishastra

I do writing for pleasure, my few general write-ups and poems are available in the Marathi language on my web-page.

Handwriting analysis is my other hobby, I am not able to devote that much time for the same. It's very interesting to work on that. 

I like yoga and exercising like aerobics. 

Painting, decorating, and a variety of clothing styles are my favorites.    

Chatting and wondering with the family and friends is one thing I like the most. 

Dr. Preeti Sharda: Your final words…..

Dr. Meenal Oak: I strongly believe that the library professionals are having equivalent or even more caliber and capacity to their counterparts (teachers), only we have to show enough courage to shoulder the responsibility and justify the value to the organization concept which is required these days. 

Active interest in the academic profession and willingness is very important for the overall growth of the individual and also for the sustainability of the library science profession.

If you want to know more about Dr. Meenal Oak please visit her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/meenalimcc or webpage: https://sites.google.com/mespune.in/drmeenaloak/home or Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mrs-meenal-oak-1618662b/

(Disclaimer: Contributions of Dr. Meenal Oak in the field of Library and Information Science are phenomenal. On behalf of the entire LIS fraternity and my blog readers, I appreciate madam for the splendid work. The questions on the blog were prepared by me, and answers given by Dr Meenal Oak are as it is posted on the blog. I thank her for taking out time from her busy schedule for this interview. Interacting with professionals like her inspires you to be a better person, provide you with motivation to achieve your goals, empower you to make the changes you need to succeed, and cheer on your success....... Dr. Preeti Sharda)