A couple of weeks back I was invited by a friend Dr Shubhada Nagarkar to participate in an event she planned for and deliver a short talk. Dr Shubhada is a Prof of Library and Information Sciences in the Savitribai Phule University, Pune. She planned this event to attract more students to the profession and so the talk was for Undergrad students of any discipline.
The event was online and held on May 15. There were around 37 participants. There were five speakers
Dr Mehtab Alam is the Head of an LIS department of AMU. He talked about the profession and about his own career in both corporate and academic domains. He stressed that opportunities were plenty.
I was the second speaker. After sharing a bit about my career story, I stressed that as a Social entrepreneur I was giving back a lot to society, by way of creating better doctors (and health professionals) with vital search skills. And shared examples of how I had helped doctors with information that they used, to approach treatment and in fact even save a life.
The third was Mr Anant Sabane, a librarian who specialized in Technical Writing. The fourth was a young lady Ms. Shraddha Panage who is with MasterCard. The fifth and youngest person was Ms Tanmayee Joglekar, who works for Think Analytics.
It was wonderful listening to all. I must admit – especially to the youngest two (who also happened to be Dr. Shubadha’s students – she was rightfully very proud of them). They highlighted what is very important today. You may work in a library or another domain – but the skills of Information Sciences play a great role in several domains!
This is an important message for both future employers and of course for students considering Library and Information Sciences as a career.
Feedback from the students was good too – with many indicating that they would consider a career in this field. Some gave useful suggestions for more such sessions. I am happy that Dr Shubada is planning for more, and I have told her that I would be happy to help in this initiative!