IIT Bhubaneswar propagates Open-Source Movement to democratize access to knowledge & information with self-reliant library professionals

Training Program on Open-Source Library Management Software

Bhubaneswar : With an objective to spread awareness and provide hands on training on various open-source tools and software to library professionals across the country, the Central Library of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar has organized a five-day training program on Open-Source Library Management Software, with special focus on tools like Koha and DSpace. The first-ever training program on this subject was held from 3rd June to 7th June 2024, wherein around 30 participants from reputed institutions across the country were provided with practical training and detailed deliberations.
Inaugurating the training program, Prof. V. Pandu Ranga, Dean-Continuing Education said: “In the dynamic and rapidly evolving digital age, the role of Open-Source tools Library Management have become indispensable. These tools not only democratize access to information but also empower libraries to manage resources more effectively and efficiently. This program will help the library and information science professionals to become self-reliant in the installation and use of these tools, ensuring qualitative enhancement in the process of knowledge dissemination.”
In his welcome address, Dr. Sasidhar Kondaraju, Chairperson- Central Library said: “This training program is designed to extend practical and hands on experience to the library professionals understand various modern and latest open-source library management software and tools like Koha and DSpace, after which the participants will be able to implement these systems in their respective institutions.”
In his opening remark, Dr. Bibhuti Bhusan Sahoo, Deputy. Librarian, IIT Bhubaneswar said: “Management of library operations is an uphill task for library professionals. While proprietary software for library automation and management is expensive, the Open-Source Software has made library management self-reliant. In this scenario, the Central Library of IIT Bhubaneswar has come forward to share the skill and knowledge of these tools with the library professionals across the country.” It may be mentioned that the Central Library of IIT Bhubaneswar is one of the self-reliant libraries of the country, which has installed, implemented and successfully operating the Open-Source Tools, ensuring better knowledge and information dissemination to its users.

Prof. Manoranjan Satapathy, Professor, CSE, IIT Bhubaneswar; Dr. Naresh Chandra Sahu, Associate Professor, IIT Bhubaneswar; Mr. Hemanta Kumar Biswal, Assistant Librarian, IIT Kharagpur; Dr. Bibhuti Bhusan Sahoo, Deputy Librarian and Dr. Sambhunath Sahoo, Assistant Librarian, IIT Bhubaneswar provided training to the participants as resource persons. A tour to the Library at NISER was also arranged for the participants as part of the training program. The valedictory session of the training program was graced by Dr. Rajesh Roshan Dash, Dean-Student Affairs and Dr. Soobhankar Pati, CEO-IITBBS Research Park and Coordinator – Alumni Affairs & International Relations. They appreciated the initiative of the Central Library to come forward to promote the Open-Source Movement.

Sharing the experience of the training program, the participants expressed their satisfaction with the quality of knowledge and technical skills shared by the resource persons pertaining to various aspects of the open-source library management software, which they can implement in their respective institutions in a self-reliant manner.