Integrating diverse knowledge bases for empowering local farmers in India

The dissemination of agricultural information process to the farmers of Baruipur, a community development block in West Bengal, India is studied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 129 farmers and two government officials. The study reveals that among the available wide range of information sources and learning forms, farmers primarily value local knowledge as it is mainly experience-driven, practical and can be shared or transmitted informally among the farmers. But, informal local knowledge gradually gets influenced by extraneous factors, constructing an alternative pathway that resist the flow of information from reaching to the grass-root level. Limitation of genuine and accurate agricultural information impeded the empowerment of farmers at the micro level which demands for a superior integration among diverse knowledge systems with informal local knowledge. Here, the study identifies a more practical approach for knowledge integration, aiming to secure local preference, dynamisms and internal cohesiveness among participants from different domain. Further, this paper forwards a participatory approach based informal communication model, facilitating two ways communication for better and effective flow of need based, value added, accurate information towards holistic empowerment of the farmers at the ground level

Inclusion of the economically backward students: Scope and tenet of Indian school libraries

The study aims to find out how far a school library can contribute in the issue of inclusion of the economically backward class students. Meanwhile the author has opined three major issues: Economical, Psychological and Societal as the reasons behind the school dropouts in India; while theoretical analyses have unveiled that the school library has enough scope and potential to reduce the dropout rate by offering several innovative approaches. Further, the author has investigated the reality and forwarded ten unique approaches (broadly classified into Library beyond school, Increase the reading habit and Empowerment of the student) which could be fruitful to impede the dropout rates in school education and also framed a flowchart to describe the steps of the process. The study shows that the approaches are well construct and self-explanatory and proper implications of those ideas can uplift the literacy rate. Later, two cases are being cited in the study to understand the applicability of those initiatives. The result shows that through the appropriate application of the ideas the dropout rates have decreased in both the cases

Integrating diverse knowledge bases for empowering local farmers in India

The dissemination of agricultural information process to the farmers of Baruipur, a community development block in West Bengal, India is studied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 129 farmers and two government officials. The study reveals that among the available wide range of information sources and learning forms, farmers primarily value local knowledge as it is mainly experience-driven, practical and can be shared or transmitted informally among the farmers. But, informal local knowledge gradually gets influenced by extraneous factors, constructing an alternative pathway that resist the flow of information from reaching to the grass-root level. Limitation of genuine and accurate agricultural information impeded the empowerment of farmers at the micro level which demands for a superior integration among diverse knowledge systems with informal local knowledge. Here, the study identifies a more practical approach for knowledge integration, aiming to secure local preference, dynamisms and internal cohesiveness among participants from different domain. Further, this paper forwards a participatory approach based informal communication model, facilitating two ways communication for better and effective flow of need based, value added, accurate information towards holistic empowerment of the farmers at the ground level

The Awareness and Understanding of Sustainability by the Academic Library Administrators: A Micro Level Investigation in Kolkata, India

The study tried to investigate the awareness and understanding of sustainability by the academic library administrators in Kolkata, India. For that, the study followed descriptive research design using survey method. A study population of sixteen library administrators across five universities of Kolkata participated in this study. A structured questionnaire was designed as a survey instrument consisting of mainly five sections; viz. 1. Awareness on overall Sustainability and its library related issues. 2. Information sources available on Sustainability and its library related issues. 3. Perception on ideal activities of a Sustainable Library. 4. Perceptions on potential impediments for transforming into a sustainable library. 5. Perceptions on the Ideal outcomes of a Sustainable library. Finally the responses were tabulated for analysis, results were discussed and conclusions were drawn

The Awareness and Understanding of Sustainability by the Academic Library Administrators: A Micro Level Investigation in Kolkata, India

The study tried to investigate the awareness and understanding of sustainability by the academic library administrators in Kolkata, India. For that, the study followed descriptive research design using survey method. A study population of sixteen library administrators across five universities of Kolkata participated in this study. A structured questionnaire was designed as a survey instrument consisting of mainly five sections; viz. 1. Awareness on overall Sustainability and its library related issues. 2. Information sources available on Sustainability and its library related issues. 3. Perception on ideal activities of a Sustainable Library. 4. Perceptions on potential impediments for transforming into a sustainable library. 5. Perceptions on the Ideal outcomes of a Sustainable library. Finally the responses were tabulated for analysis, results were discussed and conclusions were drawn

Erosion of Traditional Seed Supply System in Murshidabad District of West Bengal

This study aims to explore the erosion of traditional seed supply system (TSSS) in Murshidabad district of West Bengal with reference to the erosion of rice diversity in the district. Agriculture is the main occupation of Murshidabad because of its favourable climate and quality of soil. The investigators had interviewed 400 cultivators from all the 26 community development blocks in the district and found that 164 varieties of rice were once available in the farmers’ fields and at present only 12 are being cultivated marginally. In the case of high yielding varieties (HYV), farmers generally prefer to buy seeds from the market for consistent yield. A very little percentage of farmers keep HYV seeds for the next year’s planting material

Effect of Common Extraneous Citation Optimizing Factors on Journal Impact Indicators

This study examines nineteen Scopus index Library and Information Science (LIS) journals to understand the individual as well as unified effects of three optimizing factors such as Author self-citation (ASC), Journal self-citation (JSC) and Recitation (RC) on three popular impact indicators i.e., 2-year JIF, 3-year JIF and JII. Authors found that ASC and JSC have noticeable effects on these impact indicators. Further, it is observed that these impact indicators exhibit very poor correlation among them when their values are deduced from raw citation counts, though all of them express simple arithmetic mean values. The authors concluded that a more refined method that can automatically exclude the effect of these optimizing factors in their derivation may be needed for a fair assessment of a journal’s relative impact in scholarly communication

Integrating diverse knowledge bases for empowering local farmers in India

The dissemination of agricultural information process to the farmers of Baruipur, a community development block in West Bengal, India is studied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 129 farmers and two government officials. The study reveals that among the available wide range of information sources and learning forms, farmers primarily value local knowledge as it is mainly experience-driven, practical and can be shared or transmitted informally among the farmers. But, informal local knowledge gradually gets influenced by extraneous factors, constructing an alternative pathway that resist the flow of information from reaching to the grass-root level. Limitation of genuine and accurate agricultural information impeded the empowerment of farmers at the micro level which demands for a superior integration among diverse knowledge systems with informal local knowledge. Here, the study identifies a more practical approach for knowledge integration, aiming to secure local preference, dynamisms and internal cohesiveness among participants from different domain. Further, this paper forwards a participatory approach based informal communication model, facilitating two ways communication for better and effective flow of need based, value added, accurate information towards holistic empowerment of the farmers at the ground level

Digital rights management : a technological measure for copyright protection and its possible impacts on libraries

Libraries and copyright has indistinguishable relation from the time immemorial.In the course of evolution, library is accessing more digital content than analog content.In this typically technological arena, librarians must be aware about the new technologies and its impacts. Digital Rights Mangement DRM) is basically a name of bunch of technological measures in order to control the access of the intellectual content which has tremendous impact on future libraries

Genetic erosion of agrobiodiversity in India and intellectual property rights : interplay and some key issues

Agrobiodiversity is the backbone of a nation’s food security and the basis of economic development as a whole. Over the years this diversity in India is under pressure due to the massive commercialisation of agriculture leading to the almost extinction of traditional farming systems. The top-down system of agricultural research, where farmers are seen merely as recipients of research rather than as participants in it, has contributed to an increased dependence on a relatively few plant varieties. This trend and the increasing industrialization of agriculture are key factors in what can only be called "genetic erosion". The term refers to both the loss of species and the reduction of variety. Behind this commercialization there lies the interest of the breeders for obtaining intellectual property rights. It has a very complicated relationship with this diversity. The paper highlights this relationship and provides some suggestions in order to rectify the current negative phenomenon