I have always been fascinated by maps. They are more than just navigational tools; they are windows into the world, revealing hidden connections and stories etched into the landscape. So, when I stumbled upon The National Map Corps, a volunteer initiative by the U.S. Geological Survey, my inner cartographer jumped for joy.

The National Map Corps is an online project where people like me, with a passion for geography and a keen eye for detail, can become citizen scientists and contribute to updating the National Map. We do this by using aerial imagery and research to verify, update, delete, or even create structure points—those little dots that represent buildings, schools, hospitals, and other landmarks across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It might sound like a simple task, but the impact is far-reaching. These updated maps inform everything from emergency response and disaster relief to urban planning and environmental conservation. Every verified structure, every added point, contributes to a more accurate and up-to-date picture of the United States of America, one that can guide people towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

Joining the National Map Corps is more than just a volunteer opportunity; it is a chance to be a part of something bigger. It is about using my skills and passion to make a tangible difference for the community and the country. Every click and scroll through the online mapping editor, every verified point, fills me with a sense of purpose and gratitude.

The learning curve has been steep, but the rewards are immense. I am discovering hidden gems in the neighborhood, learning to decipher aerial imagery like a seasoned cartographer, and even brushing up on my research skills. The online community of Map Corps volunteers is also incredibly supportive and inspiring. We share tips, celebrate each other’s achievements, and learn from each other’s experiences.

QS RANKINGS 2016-2017– Growing challenges from the world’s emerging economic powers

http://www.topuniversities.com/

The  inspiration for sharing this post comes from the recent edition of QS World University Rankings 2016-2017 (published on 6 September 2016) and the fact that the two Public Universities in Singapore, namely National University of Singapore  (Rank 12) and Nanyang Technological University (Rank 13) throwing greater challenges to both US and UK top ranking universities.

Both National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are now ranked within the World’s top 15 Universities.  Unlike some of the top Universities slipping in from their last year’s positions (e.g. Harvard University slipping from 2 to 3; Cambridge University from 3 to 4, Imperial College London from 8 to 9), both NUS and NTU have retained their same position in this year’s ranking, as well.

Some additional facts:

• NUS and NTU also remained the only two Asian universities in the global top 15 universities with China’s Tsinghua University the next closest at 24^th Rank;
• Both NUS and NTU surpassed Ivy League schools including Yale University (Rank 15), Cornell University (Rank 16), Pennsylvania University (Rank 18) and Columbia University (Rank 20) in the United States and thus demonstrating a strong upward momentum for Asia’s Higher Education hubs;
• Only two other Ivy League schools, namely Harvard University (Rank 3) and Princeton University (Rank 11) are ahead of NUS and NTU;
• Incidentally, the other two Ivy League Schools, namely Brown University and Dartmouth College are way behind NUS and NTU with Brown University ranking at 49 and Dartmouth ranking at 158.
• That is, of the 8 Ivy League Schools, NUS and NTU are ahead of 6 Ivy League schools.

For the purpose of this Post I only considered the top 20 Institutions mainly to highlight the supremacy of Asian Universities, namely NUS and NTU over some of the top ranking US and UK universities.

The application processes for both NUS http://www.nus.edu.sg/and NTU http://www.ntu.edu.sg/for the Academic Year 2017-2018 will commence in October 2016, i.e. in about a couple of weeks’ time.  Please do check the websites for further details including Scholarships.

Please do not think that this is a promotional Post on NUS and NTU.  In fact, as some of us are already aware that both NUS and NTU do not need to market themselves as they both are well known internationally.  Incidentally, to my knowledge, these two Institutions do not engage Agents to recruit students, rather they both encourage prospective students to contact them directly for any assistance.

The purpose of this Post will be served if deserving students considered NUS and or NTU for suitable courses, besides their other study destinations such as USA, UK, Australia, etc.

I am privileged to have visited briefly both NUS and NTU a few years ago.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specializing in education and study abroad (Wikipedia)

According to QS, “the rankings are based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact”.

Besides QS, Times Higher Education (THE) and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) are the other two most widely and frequently referenced Rankings.

In addition to World University Rankings,  QS Rankings are available (i) by Subject, (ii) for 350 top universities in Asia; (iii) for 250 top universities in the five BRICS countries (i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.) ,

The interactive QS Ranking tables lend themselves to compile helpful analysis.  So good luck to prospective students and Parents and do make the most of this edition of QS World University Rankings.

Other Useful Links:

http://www.topuniversities.com/subject-rankings/2016

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2016#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/brics-rankings/2016#sorting=rank+country=+stars=false+search

The target audience and the learning outcomes of a free online course, namely Natural Disasters, offered by McGill University in Canada are most suited and relevant to those involved in relief and rehabilitation work during the recent and worst deluge in Chennai.  It is a coincidence that the course has its start date in January 2016, a few weeks immediately after the worst rain and floods in Chennai.

Besides the defense personnel, National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), the deluge in Chennai saw many undergraduate and postgraduate students, young professionals, volunteers, NGOs, etc., supplementing and complementing the relief and rehabilitation work provided by the State and Central Governments.  Volunteers from other Districts within the State of Tamil Nadu and neighboring States were in Chennai for several weeks to offer help and assistance.  We salute every one of them for their hard work in saving lives, moving people to safer places, providing food, shelter, drinking water, clothes, medicine, etc.

As most, if not all, of the volunteers may not have had prior knowledge and/or experience in assisting people during and after the disaster, they would appreciate a learning opportunity to understand the science behind different types of natural disaster.  Besides, the Politicians, City Planners, Disaster Management Officials would appreciate, as well, to learn more about the ability or inability to control and predict these events.  The fact that the course is offered online, people can attend it from anywhere at any time; no fees, no need to be away from work on leave; no clearance is required from seniors or appropriate departments (just in case they are in Government service), etc.

The course being delivered by McGill University speaks very high of its quality due to the fact that (i) it is 24^th ranked in QS World University Rankings 2015/16 (ii) 12 Nobel Prize winners – the highest among Canadian Universities and (iii) 139 Rhodes Scholars – the highest among Canadian Universities. This is offered as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) through edX Provider.

The course starts on January 13, 2016.  It is a 12 weeks course.  No pre requisites are required to attend this course.

According to the course provider:

• The course is aimed at:
  • City Planners who need to know where and where not to site buildings;
  • Politicians who need to make scientifically informed decisions;
  • Emergency management officials who need to understand the nature of a potential disaster and ways to mitigate such an event;
  • Journalists who need to report scientifically accurate information

• The learning outcomes of this course are:
  • Explore the ongoing conflict between humans and nature;
  • Discuss the global impact of natural disasters and how they are linked;
  • Explore the scientific principles behind the occurrence of natural disasters

Let us share this among our friends and contacts through our Social networks so that those interested can take advantage of this course. Incidentally, such courses might be repeated; as these courses get filled up fast, those who could not get enrolled for January 2016 course possibly might make it for the subsequent courses.

This has reference to the recent news item “Seventh Pay Commission recommends 23.5 % salary hike for central government employees and pensioners with effect from 1.1.2016”. We are at a loss as to whether the Seventh Pay Commission has addressed the issue of OROP (One Rank One Pension). It is a very sorry state of affairs that the defense personnel who defended our Country have to struggle to get their OROP (One Rank One Pension) sorted out.

Whenever successive pay commissions enhance the salaries and consequently the pensions, these are effected only prospectively. The gap between past pensioners and their younger equivalents keeps widening with every successive pay commission. Also, as compared to the other civil employees, defense personnel do not get to serve as many years as required to procure optimum pension amount. For example, while a civil servant may put in as many as 33 years and secure a 50% pension, a defense personnel would probably be retired much before he completes that many years and so will not be eligible for the same amount of pension.

Major exclusions in the Policy, general & specific mandatory waiting periods for certain illnesses, Third Party Administrators (TPAs) and their roles, network hospitals, procedures towards Cashless facility; Pre-approval, co-payment, sub-limits for expenses, etc., and the list goes on and on and on.

My intention is not to intimidate people with the above list but to make their life relatively easier with some of my learning experiences. Whilst it is a mammoth task for us to be able to successfully get our claims sorted out, it is hugely important that we all have our Health Insurance/ Mediclaim Policy.  Otherwise the lifestyle diseases coupled with high medical costs would drain our financial resources or erode considerably the life term savings in the case of senior citizens.  The sooner the better – considering the fact that there is a mandatory waiting period for claims in the case of certain illnesses.  When it is mandatory for the vehicle owner to have valid Motor vehicle insurance, I fail to understand as to why the Government has not made it mandatory for the people to have their health insurance.

As someone, who went through the processes recently and having equipped with firsthand information and learning experience, I thought it is my duty to share them with you all through this Post, just in case some of us need to avail the Health Insurance facilities in the near or distant future – though it is not anybody’s wish.

My recent experience is with one of the Private Insurance companies.  However, I would love to hear from people just in case, they have experience in dealing with other insurance companies (a) in Private Sector, e.g. Apollo Munich, Max Bupa, Star Health Insurance, etc. or (b) Public sector, e.g. United India Insurance Company Limited, National Insurance Company Limited, etc.

Unfortunately, my experience with the Private Insurance Company, with whom I have my relationship for nearly a decade, was not a pleasant one.  Thank God I did not have an opportunity to deal with them during the last 10 years. [The positive side to this is that the cumulative bonus points get added to our sum insured for “no-claims” and thus this is an encouraging factor for us to keep renewing our Policies].  I had the unfortunate occasion a few days ago when I needed to interact with my Insurance Company for my illness – inguinal hernia.  Hope, I wouldn’t be totally wrong in my perception that the Insurance Company was taking its customers for a ride.  None of us expect that the terms and conditions of the Policy served by various Health insurance providers should be in favor of the customers.  But it should be fair enough with fair practices and enable the customers to minimize or reduce considerably the huge medical costs.

TPA (Third Party Administrator):

I was aware in the case of my Insurance Company, that there was an additional layer in the form of Third Party Adviser (TPA) in between the Insurance Company and me – i.e. the customer.   However, I was not aware of their roles, as I never had an opportunity in the past to know more about TPA.  It was my mistake not to have found out, proactively, what this TPA meant and why their address was mentioned in my Certificate of Insurance.  Incidentally, as TPA they have access to our personal details, besides the Insurance Company!  I do not know if other private insurance companies employ / contract TPAs.  This is something for us to find out before hand, as this will enable us to know whom to contact when there is a need or during emergency.  This is because some of the Insurance Companies use TPAs to administer services, including claims administration, premium collection, enrollment and other administrative activities.

As I never took advantage of Health Insurance facilities in the past, I was in a confused state as to whether (i) I should pay upfront to the Hospital and claim reimbursement from my Insurance Company or (ii) inform the Insurance Company prior to my hospitalization & surgery and seek pre-approval from them.   Like many others I was under the impression that I need not pay anything towards my hospitalization and medical costs just because I had a valid health insurance Policy with the sum insured far exceeding the estimated costs provided by the hospital.  Unfortunately, it was not so.  Even though we have a valid Health insurance policy for a reasonable amount of sum insured, the amount approved by the Insurance Company against our claim could be far less.

Though I knew the sum insured in my case, I was not aware as to how much the Insurance Company will approve or reimburse.  This is a big worry for the customers, who are in need of treatment/surgery in a hospital, especially as an in-patient.  The estimated cost for a couple of days stay in a reasonably good hospital for a common surgery could be anything from ₹ 1.20 to ₹  1.50 Lakhs. If the treatment, consultation or medical procedure is planned then we can contact the insurance company or TPA either directly or through the Hospital where we intend to have the treatment and seek a pre-approval (Cashless service offered by the Insurance Company).  In an emergency, the insurance company or TPA should be informed within 24 hours after the treatment or hospitalization.

There are various factors we need be aware like: mandatory waiting period for certain illnesses, exclusion clauses for certain illnesses, etc.  This means even though we have a valid health insurance policy we cannot take advantage of it towards these illnesses for the simple reason that we have not completed the mandatory waiting period.  Incidentally, this could be ranging from 2 to 4 years (4 years in the case of pre-existing diseases). Then there is a long list of exclusions.  This is where we tend to think that most, if not all, of the terms and conditions are favorable to the insurance company.

Through the feedback system, I did inform the Hospital, as well, as to how they were equally unfriendly and indifferent when they deal with patients availing health insurance facilities.  The Hospital’s billing section never informs and explains it to the Patient or the Attendant as to what was included in the bill either before or after they sent the bills to the Insurance Company for settling the claim.

From my recent experience, I found out that it is not as simple/easy as we think to avail ourselves of the Health insurance facilities and to get our claims administered by the Insurance Companies. It involves a lot of our time, efforts and negotiation skills. One can imagine how difficult it is for people in general and older persons in particular to spend time and persuade Insurance companies, especially if they themselves are patients.  Besides, many elderly consumers of healthcare/health insurance are not savvy-consumers.

Considering the life style diseases and the huge medical costs, the bottom line is that we need to have health insurance, especially those who are retired with no fixed monthly income.  We should remember to buy Policies from Insurance Companies registered with IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India).  Insurance companies such as Apollo Munich coming out with their own scheme even for Dengue fever called “Dengue Care Plan”. The medical costs would be very high even with Dengue fever, when it goes out of control and required hospitalization.

The summary of the key messages is given below in two separate slides:

As it is something useful and related to this Post, I am sharing with you a recent news item appeared in the Hindu dated October 16, 2015 – “State told to reimburse surgery expenses to School teacher” http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/reimburse-surgery-expenses-to-teacher-hc-orders-state/article7768009.ece

According to the news item in the print edition, “The Madras High Court Bench in Madurai has directed the government to reimburse ₹ 44,581/- spent by a Madurai Corporation Middle School teacher for performing obstructed hernia surgery on her 10 month old son at a private hospital that was not part of a network of hospitals listed under the health insurance scheme for government employees” It was heartening to note that the High Court directed the Government to make sure that the amount was reimbursed along with interest at the rate of 9% from April 30,2014, when she had made the payment to the private hospital, to the date when the money would be handed over to her. 

Excellent on the part of Judge to have delivered this judgment.  I could not make out from the news item, if the direction included reimbursement of costs towards School teacher’s legal battle and compensation towards her mental agony for the last 15 months. We all hope and wish that the direction to the State Government included this, as well.

Hats off to the School teacher, who had to fight her case initially with the District Collector, Commissioner of Treasuries and Accounts, Insurance officials from United Insurance Company, etc. before seeking legal assistance from the High Court.

This is really encouraging, as we have a precedent now to use when some of us need to undergo treatment in a non-networked hospitals when in emergency.

IoT (Internet of Things) Technology in Insurance Industries:

Until I read a LinkedIn Pulse Post a couple of days ago [Internet of Things: A transformational force for the Insurance Industry by Mr. Rohit Bhisey}, I did not realize that the emerging technology, i.e.  Internet of Things (IoT) has already started  revolutionizing  various sectors including Health insurance sector.

I was extremely happy when I read that “The Internet of things will help insurers price their products based on historical data and real-time data. This will allow insurers to provide customized and fair policies. The IoT will also help insurers reduce risk and mitigate costs in many ways. A few healthcare insurers are offering consumers lower premiums, free fitness trackers, and other benefits to help consumers meet their daily exercise goals”.

In my view, this area, i.e. Health Insurance or Mediclaim – lends itself to a variety of   topics for research.  Together with the emerging technology IoT (a new future of the Insurance industry), I think a world of opportunities exist for possible research in this area.  For what it is worth, I am tempted to associate myself with any efforts in this direction.

Incidentally, masters students, research masters students and students registering themselves for Doctoral research would appreciate the huge potential this sector offers for research in terms of comparing various facilities the Health insurance provisions offered by both Public and Private Sector Insurance Companies.  I am sure the research findings would be hugely useful and beneficial to all stakeholders, i.e. Insurance Companies in Public and Private sectors, Governments, Healthcare professionals, Hospitals, Doctors, customers, etc.

Hope the readers would not mind this long post.

People like me, who are not familiar with the hierarchy of Courts in India, especially, those courts, which are subordinate to High Courts, might find the following Post helpful.

Like we are expected to be familiar with our Fundamental Rights and have basic knowledge of law, we should be clear, as well, in our understanding in so far as different courts were concerned.

When we read/watch news items in print and/or media, about civil and criminal cases, especially at courts, which are sub-ordinate to High Courts some of us are a bit confused as we are not aware of the structure and thus have difficulty in understanding and sometimes find it hard in putting the news in context – as there are different courts existing both at District and Metropolitan levels –e.g. District Court, City Civil Court, Sessions Court, Metropolitan Magistrate court, Judicial Magistrate Court (I Class), Judicial Magistrate (II class), etc., presided byDistrict Judge, Principal Judge, Sessions Judge, Metropolitan Magistrate, Judicial Magistrate, etc.

For instance, the headline news “District courts have 10-year backlog” in Hindu newspaper, as recent as 27 September 2015 – the news item, quoting National Judicial Data Grid states that “there are 2 crore (20 million) cases pending before district courts across the country as on 25 September 2015 and two-thirds of them were criminal cases; ten per cent of these cases had been pending for more than 10 years……”.

What are these Courts with so much backlog ?

The highest court in each district is the District and Sessions Court.  When it exercises its jurisdiction on Code of Civil Procedures it is called District Civil Court.  The District court is also a court of Sessions when it exercises its jurisdiction on criminal matters under Code of Criminal Procedure.

The District and Sessions Judge is often referred to as “District Judge” when he/she presides over civil matters and “Sessions Judge” when he/she presides over criminal matters.

The District Judge is also called “Metropolitan Sessions Judge” when he/she is presiding over a district court in a city which is designated “Metropolitan area” by the State Government(Source:Wikipedia)

Though it looks that we have too much to digest, the Flowchart below would enable us to (i) clarify/confirm our understanding and (ii) put the recent news in context.

When I tried to educate myself using the information available on the Internet, I came across a few Flowcharts illustrating the hierarchy of Courts in India. They were not that user friendly, at least for layperson, amateurs like some of us. Therefore I thought a simpler version would go a long way in enabling non-professionals like me understand the hierarchy better.A clear understanding of the structure would enable us to know, subsequently, the roles of these different courts, as well.

This Flowchart is based on my understanding of the hierarchy of Courts in India.

As you will see, this simple Flowchart illustrates sub-ordinate courts– both Civil and Criminal courts – at (i) Metropolitan and (ii) District levels.Besides, it illustrates the hierarchy in terms of (i) Labor Courts and (ii) Family Courts together with specialized tribunals.

Flowchart 1:

The above Flowchart focuses the subordinate courts by Metropolitan and District levels.  However, if required, the hierarchy can be illustrated in a different manner for those who want to have the structure by (i) Civil Courtsat (a) Metropolitan and (b) District levels and (ii) Criminal Courts at (a) Metropolitan and (b) District levels. i.e.

Flowchart 2:

As you will see, Flowchart 2 is incomplete, as it was just to show that the hierarchy can be illustrated differently. Those who like the Flowchart 2 can complete it using the inputs in Flowchart 1.

As I mentioned earlier this is a simple Flowchart.   There may well be others who have looked at the hierarchy more comprehensively and attempted to capture all relevant details on a Flowchart including Revenue Courts, Consumer Courts, Trial Courts, etc.   As I am not clear on how these courts relate themselves on the hierarchy, I would love to learn and benefit from those who have relatively better understanding of the structure.

I am sharing, through this Post, my experiences and the lessons I learnt recently.

As an information scientist by profession, rendering professional services to a high profile Music College in Chennai was hugely rewarding and a challenging experience, as well.

Rewarding, because it was an opportunity to be a Library Practitioner again (after having retired from the British Council Library a few years ago) and render professional services to a library at a Music Conservatory, namely KM Music Conservatory (KMMC) (http://kmmc.in/home/the-conservatory/),  founded by Oscar Winner and Music Maestro Dr A R Rahman.  Something for me to cherish forever.

Challenging, because (i) to classify entire music resources – a little over 1400 documents including Hindustani & Western Music books, CDs and DVDs; (ii) to make these documents shelf ready in so far as generating spine labels with the class number thus assigned for these documents –  more so,  achieving these two tasks in about 2 months’ time (ii) while music literature can be classified following general classification schemes that apply to all subjects, music scores present unique challenges of both description and access.  Examples include uniform titles, responsibility (composer versus performer), etc.

In colleges or Universities, where music is only one aspect of academic focus, the music collection may be integrated into the greater library system, or a separate collection from the main library. At academic institutions dedicated to music, such as KM Music Conservatory, the music library is the main library collection of the Conservatory. In British Council Library, where I worked for over two decades, the music collection was part of a bigger library system.  My experience at the British Council library was mainly on (i) managing the library and its resources for South India, (ii) marketing library services, (iii) managing customer relationship, (iv) managing Events, etc.  Whereas, my brief experience at KMMC was unique in terms of classifying myself so many documents exclusively on Music.  I considered this as a great opportunity for my Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in terms of (i) refreshing my professional knowledge & gaining new experience of classifying huge music resources and (ii) to practice and further improve my core professional librarianship skills.

The library collection at KMMC was geared to meet the information needs of Faculty members and students studying Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma courses in Music, Audio Engineering, Electronic Music Production, etc.  Successful Diploma students have the option of progressing onto their Degree program at Middlesex University in London under an articulation and collaborative agreement between KMMC and Middlesex University, London.

It was OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc) which helped me to overcome the challenges.  It was a great experience accessing WorldCat (https://www.worldcat.org/) –the largest Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) in the world.

OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre, Inc):  OCLC is “a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs”.  Founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat (Source: Wikipedia)

As it was only in 2006, the WorldCat.org search box went live, i.e. offering access to WorldCat to online information seekers, I never had the opportunity to access and take advantage of it during my British Council days, as I left the British Council Library services in 2002.

However, I am happy that I was able to access WorldCat recently at KMMC library. It was immensely helpful in (i) quality reviewing KMCC’s Library holdings list in terms of ensuring the list included correct Author name (both Surname and Forename), title, edition and volume statements, Publisher, year of publication, ISBN / ISMN, etc. (ii) to make sure that there are no errors of judgment during the classification process and in assigning class numbers; (iii) creating list of books and bibliographies, etc.

WorldCat connects us to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide; through the WorldCat one can access two billion items held in member libraries of OCLC. I understand it grows steadily every day from the contributions of member libraries in the OCLC co-operative.

WorldCat can be accessed by anyone from anywhere with good internet access and those who have registered themselves will be able to create lists, bibliographies and reviews of library materials.  Besides, reviews help in library collection development including books, CDs & DVDs; [Learning Point 1]

I realized that a Librarian using WorldCat could provide a lot of proactive information and Current Awareness services. [Learning Point 2]

Incidentally, from the comforts of home/office and by using WorldCat,  it is possible for those in Europe, Middle East, North America, Australia and New Zealand to  find out if a particular book which they were looking for is available in a library located nearer home/office.  It isalso possible for them to borrow books, on returnable basis, from other participating libraries, just in case a book is not available in a library nearer home/office.   As, barring a handful of libraries, the rest of the participating libraries in OCLC Project, lend books on returnable basis to overseas participating libraries.  [Learning Point 3]

The other resource which I found useful was “OCLC Classify” – an experimental classification web service (http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/) .The database provides access to more than 91 million classification numbers and support in providing subject headings for books, DVDs, CDs, etc. I am happy to share that one of my suggestions was considered favorably by “OCLC Classify” and the same was implemented by OCLC as far as a Class number of a particular book was concerned.  Using this resource was a big learning experience for me. [Learning Point 4]

I take this opportunity to remember and thank both Dr D B Krishna Rao (Prof & Head) and Prof P Gangadhara Rao (Reader), Department of Library and Information Science, University of Madras – my respected teachers (unfortunately, they live no more), without whose support and encouragement I would not have done well in my Post graduate degree in Library and Information Science, especially Classification Theory and Practice.  The knowledge & training imparted by them a few decades ago is still fresh in my memory and it helped me hugely in classifying so many books within a short period of time.

Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG):  MOUG provides an official means of communication and assistance for users of the products and services of OCLC. Though I did not take advantage of the Users Group, I thought I should mention it here.

Copyright & Fair use:

While surfing the Internet for Music online, I realized that Copyright is a major issue in this field.  As music copyright is an intricate issue, music Librarians’ must carefully abide by copyright guidelines.

This was also a wonderful opportunity for me to read more about (i) Copyright & Fair use and (ii) Public Domain, which enabled me to clear some of the misconceptions I had about them.  For example, (i) the fact that something is posted on the Internet does not give us the right to copy and distribute it freely; most material found on the internet is protected just like any other material [unless otherwise indicated]; (ii) if the use is not a personal one, it may not be permitted to download and use in any manner any video on You Tube, any music from iTunes.  [Learning Point 5] 

Music librarians deal with standard librarianship duties such as cataloging and reference, but as I mentioned earlier, the addition of music scores and recordings to collections complicates these tasks.  Therefore, besides having a professional degree in Library and Information Science, either knowledge of music or a basic degree in music would go a long way in adding value.  It would be beneficial if students study Dual honours degree programs, i.e. for example, studying two degree subjects in equal amounts, as offered at University of Keele, in the UK.  If someone wanting to have a career as Music Librarian, he/she could study Music together with another degree subject before getting professionally trained through a Master’s course in Library and Information Science. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) could be another option for those Librarians who cannot spare time to do a full-time course in Music.  Online course “Introduction to Music theory” offered by Berklee College of Music https://www.berklee.edu/ is just an example.

My value contribution would have been relatively better if I had knowledge of music or a basic degree in music.

Knowing  one or two European languages is yet another asset for Music Librarians, as it would be highly useful when dealing with music books,CDs and DVDs from top Composers of all time from Europe– Johann Sebastian Bach (German); Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Austrian); Ludwig van Beethoven (German); Franz Schubert (Austrian); Claude Debussy (French); Antonio Vivaldi (Italian); Felix Mendelssohn (German); Franz Liszt (Hungarian); Gustav Mahler (Austrian); Johannes Brahms (German), etc.

Amazon

I understand libraries that buy books and other materials from Amazon.com will automatically receive corresponding catalog record delivered from OCLC, have their holdings set in WorldCat, and receive labels from Amazon.com.

As OCLC is following only DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification) and Library of Congress (LC) schemes, I wonder what happens to libraries following Classification schemes other than DDC and LC Classification Schemes? Would OCLC be able to deliver catalog records according to the Classification Scheme followed by a particular library, should the Library decide to buy books from Amazon and be part of OCLC cooperative project.  For example, the University of Madras is following Dr S R Ranganathan’s Colon Classification (CC) Scheme and if I remember correct, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras is following UDC (Universal Decimal Classification) System.  Would the catalog records and the labels be according to CC Scheme and UDC respectively?  I am in the process of checking with OCLC regarding this.  In the meantime, would love to hear from people, who have information or views on this.

Sorry for this lengthy Post.

Our congratulations to Mr Sundar Pichai.  An enviable and illustrious academic and professional career. The motivational facts of Mr Sundar Pichai are – though he is a Global CEO now, he is a simple, hardworking, down-to-earth and unassuming person.  One of the most popular bosses at Google, as well as a good team player and team leader.  I wish our youngsters who want to achieve big in life should consider having him as one of their role models.  In my learning process and seeking and searching information for my provision of proactive information service, I use Google Chrome browser extensively and I thank Google in general and Mr Sundar Pichai in particular, as it  is Mr Sundar Pichai, who was responsible for driving Google’s Chrome OS and Browser to the fore.  As we all know, Chrome is the leading web Browser in the world now, displacing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which dominated the market for decades.

In my view we should think beyond the Brian drain , as Mr Sundar Pichai’s contribution in terms of Chrome Browser is benefitting millions of people around the world and thus we are proud of him – as a Global CEO for a Global village in so far as the Internet is concerned.

Yet another American Indian was in the news recently.  I do not know if this was for good reason or otherwise.  Mr Aran Khanna – third year Harvard student loosing Facebook internship for exposing privacy flaw.   According to the news item, Mr Khanna created a Chrome Browser extension that appeared to capitalize on a “Privacy flaw that Facebook had been aware of for about three years and this was the Messenger application’s automatic sharing of users’ locations with anyone who they messaged”.

Like many users of Internet and various browsers, I too hope and wish that the service providers use or take advantage with the various information and details they collect only for constructive purposes, safety and security of the nation and its people and not otherwise.

It has been little over a week now since we lost our “People’s President”.  We have been going through all kinds of emotions since Dr Kalam’s demise.  We are blessed to have lived during the times of Dr Kalam.

The Facebook and WhatsApp are flooded with messages, forwards, photographs, tributes, wish list in terms of what we want the Government and Government departments to do in memory of Dr Kalam.

These are all mostly from young people and students – Dr Kalam’s target audience, who are active in Social networks.

As of now the wish list includes:

• Memorial at Rameshwaram like the one at Kanyakumari in honour of Sri Vivekananda
• Dr Kalam’s image in Currency notes like Mahatma Gandhi
• University in the name of Dr Kalam
• Postal stamp honouring Dr Kalam [Dept of Posts has already confirmed that there will be a commemorative stamp in honour of Dr Kalam]
• Introducing a course on his Biography in the School syllabus
• Instituting awards in his name for perpetuating excellence in science and technology in institutes of higher learning

The list goes on.  It is fine.  These are all the demands we are putting forward to State and Central Governments.  As we all know,   it takes a lot of time for all these things to be in place.  Perhaps, it may or may not happen before Dr Kalam’s first death Anniversary.

Incidentally, it was good that the Tamil Nadu Government has already instituted an Award in Dr Kalam’s name and said his birthday, 15 October would be observed as “Youth Awakening Day” every year.

It was heartening to note that an Auto driver gave free ride in his auto rickshaw on 30 July.   Commercial establishments closed their businesses on that day. Cinema houses closed too on that day.

According to a post in Facebook, SBI staff worked on Sunday 2 August 2015 to pay tribute to Dr Kalam.   I read in the newspaper that Madras High Court is working this week for 15 minutes extra in the evening.

I understand some of the Government departments in Kerala worked on Sunday 2 August 2015 and a few other Government departments would work on Second Saturday, i.e. 8 August 2015.

There may well be others paying tributes in a fitting manner.

While the Governments at the State and Centre are making their own efforts to ensure what they can do, we should tell the world regarding our contribution in memory of Dr Kalam.

We the public have not come forward with anything to match. No one has said what he/she would do by way of tribute to Dr Kalam.  That is, how we are going to follow Dr Kalam’s advice and be a responsible citizen of India.

We should tell the people concerned or the Lawmakers that we are not going to stop with just sharing and forwarding messages in Social networks. We should demonstrate that we are serious in taking forward Dr Kalam’s advice.

Perhaps, from Dr Kalam’s messages, quotes, etc., I think we can draw our own list of objectives for us to achieve. Our commitment needs to be demonstrated, otherwise we will be criticised that we only make demands.

Perhaps each one of us could think of 10 objectives to start with.  Besides, we should encourage our friends and relatives to have their own objectives, as well.

The following is a suggested list and it is neither comprehensive nor in any priority order:

• Spend quality time daily with our children and grand children, as appropriate. I wish to bring to your attention a recent Post in Linkedin titled Your Child’s potential depends on academic leadership–“Leading a business, organisation, or government is hard but it is not the toughest leadership job.  The toughest leadership job of all is parenting – coaching, teaching, mentoring – any leadership role that involves developing young people, including your own children, so they can reach their full potential”.  ……………adding to the challenge is the danger of wasting potential while leading adolescents………… a crime greater than with any other group in any other leadership role.  There is nothing worse than a young person wasting potential”.
• Read x number of books including Classics and Dr Kalam’s books.
• Visit our School/College and meet our teachers to thank and pay respect to them
• Visit our Parents/in-laws , at regular intervals, if they are living elsewhere
• Discourage relatives/friends from smoking & consuming alcohol
• Be kind to others
• Plant x number of trees
• Obey traffic rules [it is unfortunate that many of us do not stop at “stop line”]
• Do not indulge in drunken driving
• Avoid using mobile phone while driving
• Do not allow our children below 18 years old to drive scooter, motorcycle or car [we see of late a lot of youngsters who are below 18 years age driving scooters and motorcycles posing a huge risk to themselves and other road users]
• Do not waste water [this has become already a scarce commodity, at least in Chennai]
• Do not waste food
• Have the culture of queuing
• Conserve energy, especially electricity both at home and in offices [as we all know, energy saved is energy produced without any environmental degradation][Useful tips on energy saving in home appliances and electricity safety given at http://www.mercindia.org.in/pdf/TIPS_ON_ENERGY_SAVING.pdf%5D
• Review the Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) structure in our homes/offices [ideal to do it well before the monsoon starts]

As I said the list is not exhaustive, just an example.  I am sure people can come up with their own lists.  We all can share our lists so that others can add to their lists, should there be something missing in their lists or something new to add.  The multiplier effect would be huge and enormous if those on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc., cascade this. I understand Dr Kalam had more than 1.4 million followers on his Twitter account.

Most of them are simple and easy for us all to follow.  These simple steps would help us all to work towards achieving Dr Kalam’s 10 Points (see below…)

Dr Kalam’s 10 Points (Oath for the Students and Youth)

1. I will have a goal and work hard to achieve that goal. I realise that small aim is a crime;
2. I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity;
3. I will be a good member of my family, a good member of the Society, a good member of the Nation and a good member of the World;
4. I will always try to save or better someone’s life, without any discrimination of caste, creed, language, religion or State. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind.  That is “What can I give?”
5. I will always protect and enhance the dignity of every human life without any bias;
6. I will always remember the importance of time. My motto will be “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”;
7. I will always work for clean plant Earth and clean energy;
8. As a youth of my Nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others;
9. I am as young as my faith and as old as my doubt. Hence, I will light up then, the lamp of faith in my heart;
10. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my Nation.

For those of us who are not already aware:  since February 2011, Dr Kalam had been regularly posting his views on contemporary issues facing the country besides sending out inspirational messages on Twitter.  I understand, in memory of Dr Kalam,  former President’s Twitter account to remain alive in the new form.  Let us await the details.