Bhubaneswar: Though the Coronavirus pandemic has forced to impose shutdowns throughout the Globe, Odisha Library Academy (OLA) continued to serve the Library Community to support education and training by adopting various virtual means in multiple digital platforms. By doing so, OLA hosted its 9th webinar series on July 11, 2020 (Saturday) at 11:00 am on the theme “Developing Next Generation Library Leaders”. Prof. (Dr) Ramesh C Gaur, Dean & Head – Kalanidhi Division, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), Ministry of Culture, Government of India was the Chief Speaker of the theme. Prof Gaur talked about present state of Libraries and Librarians in India. He mentioned that most of the senior level positions in Libraries are either lying vacant/downgraded or being occupied by non-library professionals. Along with library administrators some Librarians and library Associations are also responsible for such a situation. Prof. Gaur presented a road map to young library Professionals to take up future library leadership roles. What are the qualities and qualifications of a library leader? And how next generation library leaders can be developed. He said we are on a difficult situations united we can win. Along with Prof. Gaur, Dr. Sunil Satapathy from NIT Raipur, Dr. Neeraj Kumar from Punjab University, Chandigarh and Dr. Meenal Oak from Maharastra Education Society, Pune also joined as Guest and interacted with Prof. Gaur and the participants.
Dr. Banambar Sahoo from ICMR Bhubaneswar & President, OLA presided the webinar as Chair Person. Dr. Bibhuti Bhusan Sahoo from IIT, Bhubaneswar along with Dr. Basudev Mohanty from IOP Bhubaneswar organized the event as webinar co-ordinators. For hosting the session through OLA’s official YouTube Channel technical support was provided by Dr. Brundaban Nahak, RITE, Bhubaneswar along with Mr. Niranjan Mohapatra, NCDS Bhubaneswar and Mr. Jayanta Kumar Sahu, Sambalpur University as Webinar System Administrators. More than 1500 participants joined the online session and asked many queries on various issues faced by current library professionals, how new comer in the field to get motivated etc. The session ended with a formal vote of thanks by Dr. Basudev Mohanty, General Secretary of Odisha Library Academy. Needless to mention The Academy holds regular webinars and webcasts to address various professional topics to assist not only for the LIS professionals but also for the Authorities of the Libraries/ Information Centers/ Museums and Archives.