Page 180 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Unit 13: Research in LIS in India

The supervisor who shies from controversial topics usually suggests the topic. Criticising Notes
individuals in formal black-and-white mode or exposing harmful tendencies of a class are not
for them. Even a mild and healthy criticism is not tolerated in India. Feudal norms still lie
deep in the Indian social ethos.
In addition, there is a dire paucity of data archives and reference works. Collecting data and
information is considered a satisfactory end to the job – the goal of the research exercise. It
is very difficult to collect data by questionnaire in a vast country like India. Each researcher
has a bag full of woeful tales to tell. Library associations at all levels seem to have washed
their hands of the research responsibility. These do not even collect and compile statistics of
the professional activities pertaining to their areas. Their libraries are poor. They have no
research budget. For quite a time professionals have been talking, writing and conferencing
about library education and research in India. Every year the Indian Association of Teachers
of Library and Information Science (IATLIS) holds a seminar on topics of library education
and research. That it is the most popular topic with the teachers and librarians can be gauged
from the fact that the FID/ET seminar was the largest of all the 49th FID (1998) pre-conference
seminars held in India.
The literature on library education and research is enormous, though repetitive and inflated.
We have given lip service to the change of curricula and the raising of standards of research.
But the needed change has not come through. The blame is wholly put on the lack of infrastructure
and unavailability of funds. That is not the entire reason. The lack of effective collective efforts
to safeguard the standards seems no less major cause.

13.10 The Contributions Made by Research

Contrary to expectations, dissertations are not fountainheads of the rest of the literature to
grow and mature. These primary sources of information are distanced from relevance. The
National Social Science Documentation Centre (NASSDOC, New Delhi) systematically procures
one copy of each research dissertation in social sciences to preserve and make them available
to researchers for consultation within the premises of its library. Retrospective bibliographies
of LIS dissertations in India are available (Satija 1989, 71–78). The latest information on theses
awarded, Ph.D. degrees and Ph.D. research in progress is available in the featured column of
the weekly University News (1962+) of the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi. It
is a major source to keep track of the dissertations awarded Ph.D. degrees by Indian universities
in all disciplines.
In spite of availability, other researchers do not adequately use these dissertations; nor are
these works cited or quoted by teachers or textbook writers. Working librarians rarely use
research results to solve their professional problems. There is no precedent of a library inviting
a library school to do research on a problem confronting them. (Conversely there seems inborn
animosity and mistrust between them). At the risk of calling attention to a red herring, it is
worthwhile to have this idea corroborated from a veteran library leader. Professor P.N. Kaula
(1992, 9) candidly observed:
That LIS departments have little or no understanding and cooperation with the
central library ... The problem is more psychological than academic ... Much harm
has been done to the teaching of library science by the disharmony ....
Librarians go in for local, ad hoc and pro-tem solutions for their practical problems. Researchers
consult a teacher or a fellow researcher for a topic of research rather than a practitioner. It is
not only true in India but elsewhere too (Prytherch 1997). Thus research has become divorced
from reality – a theoretical exercise at best. This seems a universal phenomenon in our profession.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 175