Library & Information Science Profession Support to the Covid-19 affected Librarians and the Ravaged Families of Deceased Librarians

Mudita’s Reflection :

Dr. Meeta Rathod Vansadia

Ph.D. in Library & Information Science, Email : meetarathod@gmail.com

Mo. no. 9725039802- Dt : 23^rd June, 2021

Help-LIS Mission

Library & Information Science Profession Support to the Covid-19 affected Librarians and the Ravaged Families of Deceased Librarians

The Library and Information Services (LIS) professionals across the country have joined hands to come together and support bereaved families, post the Covid-19 pandemic, setting an example on looking out for their community.

The  ‘Help-LIS  Mission’  is  a  unique  joint  initiative  of  an  extensive network of leading office bearers of different LIS professionals and heads of the publishing industry to support the Covid-19 affected professionals and their families in their deaths covid-19 induced health & financial woes.

The Webinar launch of the initiative on 06 June 2021, spearheaded by the above stakeholders, saw encouraging participation of close to 300 participants from the LIS profession and publishing industry across the country and a few individuals who joined from outside India.

LIS professionals in India are a tiny minority in the hugely diverse education sector. More than 60% of the LIS professionals work in private institutions on contract positions with neither job security nor retirement benefits. Unfortunately, the second wave of Covid-19 is taking the lives of LIS professionals in a significant number across the country. Different professional groups have reported one after the other deaths of the professionals in the line of duty.  The ‘Help-LIS’   Mission endeavours to pool financial resources through crowd funding to assist families of LIS professionals who have lost their earning member and also to those who have been left financially vulnerable owing to huge medical expenses after the onset of Covid-19 infection and the lack of institutional support owing to the temporary nature of their jobs.

Announcing the launch of the crowdsourcing cum outreach portal http://www.helplis-mission.org/ Dr. M. G. Sreekumar, Chairperson of the Mission, elaborated that the primaryobjective is to share the message with LIS professionals that they are not alone and the LIS community will stand with the affected, shoulder to shoulder.

He also took the opportunity to appeal to the LIS professionals to join the Help- LIS Mission and offer their valuable services in volunteering for mass outreach and identification of affected individuals and funding support through financial donations.

Dr. Akhtar Parvez (General Secretary, MANLIBNET and University Librarian, Maulana Azad National Urdu University) shared the objectives and goals of the mission and welcomed the panelists and the members to the Webinar. Prof. P.V. Konnur (President LIS Academy) gave an overview of the Help-LIS Mission portal and highlighted the objectives, activities, services, and procedures.

 Dr M.G Sreekumar, who is also the President MANLIBNET and Director of Libraries, Jio Institute, is joined by the following other core committee members of the Help-LIS Mission:

1. Dr. Akhtar Parvez (Secretary)
2. Dr. P. V. Konnur (Member)
3. Shri. N. V. Satyanarayana (Member)
4. Shri. Kailash Balani (Member)
5. Dr. Hariharan A. (Member)
6. Dr. Sanjeev Kumar (Member)
7. Dr. Prabhat Pandey (Member)
8. Dr. D. S. Amoji (Member)

Industry partners from reputed publications and business houses – Sh. N.V. Sathyanarayana (Chairman & Managing Director Informatics India Ltd), Sh. Kailash Balani (Managing DirectorBalani Infotech, Noida), Sh. M. K. Chettiar (CEO, Bharat Book Bureau), Sh. Ravi Singh (Joint M.D, Total Library Solutions) expressed their wholehearted support to the endeavour.

The partnering associations of the Help-LIS Mission were represented by – Dr. Rodha Barucha (Honorary Director, ADINET), Dr. Sanjeev Kumar (General Secretary, ASIALA), Dr. Prabhat Pandey (President, MPLA), Dr. Banamber Sahoo, (President, OLA), Dr. Hariharan A. (Founder President, SAIS).

The Mission members appealed to all LIS Professionals of India to update the information related to the Covid affected professionals and the deceased professionals’   families  to  enable  the  “Help-LIS-Mission”   to  reach  the  needy professionals and their families. Please upload the details of cases in your region / State through the website link to consolidate the counts at the macro level.

Dr. Meeta Rathod Vansadia (Treasurer MANLIBNET and Librarian BRCM College of Business Administration, and Hon. Director, Chunilal Gandhi Vidyabhavan, Surat) proposed the vote of thanks.

Recording of the Mission’s launch on June 6, 2021 is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTlSSvtKBu8&t=22s

Donate at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnQZhmJajU8MZtDoYqhQdLygjFC6M_KLwNUqX0tTNjAVyOZQ/viewform