Page 176 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Unit 13: Research in LIS in India

2. Teaching is predominantly by the ................... Notes

3. In some central states, ................... is also allowed as a medium of examination as a
general policy of the state government.
4. Research in library science is a twentieth century occurrence ushered in by the library
school of the university of Chicago in mid- ................... .
5. The credit for the formal institution of the doctoral degree programme in library science
in India goes undeniably to ................... .
6. The documentation Researh and Training Centre (DRTC) in Bangalore, founded by Ranganathan
in ................... .

13.6 Growth of Doctoral Research in India

Elsewhere in India other individual librarians and library science teachers eager to earn doctorates
were hampered by the non-existence of programmes. In the 1960s and 1970s some doctorates
on library-related topics were earned by library professionals from some other faculties such
as sociology, history, law, economics, management, and the like. The mantle of reviving and
furthering doctoral research facilities was assumed by J. S. Sharma (1924–1993), then the university
librarian and head of the library science department of the Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Under his guidance the second de jure Ph.D. in library science was awarded in 1977 after a
gap of full two decades. Thereafter, there was no looking back. Many universities followed
with mostly individual efforts and enthusiasm. Doctoral research got a fillip in the 1980s.
India maintained its Third World leadership in library research as well as in library education
and literature. Ph.D. programmes have rather mushroomed even despite the lack of facilities
or adherence to standards.

13.7 Facilities for Research

A conscientious university teacher is always in a dilemma over how to divide the time between
teaching and research. Teaching is a primary compulsive and urgent duty to be performed.
Students expect their teachers to give them time and personal attention. There may be appreciation
in good teaching but the rewards lie in research.
The university expects its teachers to do research for its prestige and fame lie therein. But
when it comes to supporting of research many universities in India are neither generous nor
unambivalent. Ordinarily piecemeal research, especially in social sciences, is not supported
financially. Internal support for research trickles through a tedious and off-putting bureaucracy
and political manoeuvring. Colleagues are unsupportive. They are unappreciative, intolerant
and jealous. Library facilities are poor. Thus most of the teachers are driven to the passivity
of guiding doctoral research instead of doing postdoctoral work.

13.8 The Deterioration of Standards

The University Grants Commission (UGC) preconditions for faculty employment and promotions
have prompted many library professionals to acquire Ph.D. degrees, though many may not
have the aptitude and the intrinsic ability to do research. Standards have not only been diluted
but have been kept at abeyance.
Programmes for Ph.D. research have been introduced and expanded mindlessly. As a result,
there has been a bit of doctoral boom – a spectacular rise in Ph.D. awarding universities and
awardees– though many institutions lack utterly the resources of people or material or both.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 171