AIOU Course Code 5642-1 Solved Assignment Autumn 2021

Course: Management of Libraries and Information Centre-II (5642)

Level: MLIS                                                                          Semester: Autumn, 2021

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

Q.1 Differentiate the roles of professional, semi-professional and non-professional staff in libraries.

ANS

Today the role of libraries and professional librarians is changing worldwide. They are no longer passive keepers and preservers of books; rather, they have evolved to become facilitators of information and lifelong learning opportunities with an emphasis on service, identifying user needs and communicating solutions. Modern libraries are unfolding the community’s learning potential by providing information on community issues, such as health, employment, continuing education and local history.5 This equitable access to information is essential to enable educated and informed citizens to participate in a democratic global community.

Librarians have always played a key role in education. We have formed relationships with subject specialists to build library collections to support instruction in the classroom and provided instruction in the form of classes on library skills and have conducted library instructional orientations sessions to assist students doing research in their classes. The instructional orientation sessions were usually by request only or offered as an optional course. Library collections were built around curriculum that was being taught at the time the books were published and purchased but rarely were library collection and course curriculum built simultaneously. In most cases, a librarianUs role was limited and in some cases more passive than proactive in the area of instruction. A librarianUs role has traditionally been more of the builder of library collections and maintainer of library collections.

Today, in the digital age, librarians can no longer be simply information providers or the �keepers of knowledge�. The changes in technology using electronically stored and retrieved information has changed the way patrons and students are able to access, retrieve and use information. The instantaneous access of information through the Internet has made vast amounts of information and data available to anyone with a computer, a modem and a provider. Digital information is changing the role of librarians from a person who students ask for assistance in finding information in a place called a TlibraryU to someone who needs to provide services and instruction regardless of place, time or format. The process of evaluating books and purchasing books is still vital to building a quality library collection. But how do we make important and valid information available to our faculty and students that may appear on the Web tomorrow? Or how do we make government documents available which are no longer being printed but are only available on the Web? The information from the Mars exploration that was posted on the World Wide Web every 15 minutes is a good example of access to information that can reach the entire world within seconds.

Our roles as educators have also changed from someone who gathers information and makes it available only to the public through workshops or TorientationsU into individuals who actively participate in the educational process. Although TbibliographicinstructionU has always been provided, this role has expanded to a much broader instructional and participatory role in the instructional process. This role can be one of actively participating in the building of on-line courses by providing assistance in finding current and valid information for instructors delivering instruction on the Internet. Our role as educators should also extend into the area of providing instruction. Librarians must be involved in creating independent thinkers. The digital information age has enhanced our roles to knowledge navigators and instructors teaching the discipline called information literacy.

Jobs that fall within the category of “profession” typically include attorneys, teachers, doctors, accountants and similar occupations. A semiprofession is a job that is very similar to one considered to be a profession, but generally requires less education or experience. It also usually involves less responsibility than the full profession to which it is related and will likely have a lower pay rate.

Many professions have one or more associated semiprofessions. For example, in law, an attorney would generally be considered a professional, and a paralegal would be considered a semiprofessional. Likewise, a dentist would be considered a professional, whereas a dental hygienist would likely be considered a semiprofessional.

The term “semiprofession” has become controversial in some areas, particularly when applied to teaching and medicine. In teaching, a certified teacher would be considered a professional, whereas assistants and other specialists are often classified as semiprofessionals. In many places, the term “paraprofessional,” or “parapro,” has evolved to describe those who hold a semiprofession within the educational arena. This term, however, does not apply to higher education, wherein professors are still considered professionals, and teaching assistants and lecturers are generally considered to be semiprofessionals.

Library Support Staff”?

Library support staff, or library paraprofessionals, are involved in all library operations at all levels. They may manage libraries or they may contribute very specialized expertise in some specific field. They may engage in routine activities or supervise and direct other staff. Generalizations about them are difficult to make, and to find an all-encompassing job description, nearly impossible. The range and complexity of their duties varies with each position, the size and type of the library in which they work, and each library’s specific needs, goals, or mission.

The one distinction usually drawn between “support staff” and “librarians” is that those in the latter group typically have a Master of Library Science degree (MLS). In practice, however, that distinction is not always clear. Staff lacking the MLS may be found in the uppermost levels of library management, and MLS holders may be found in positions that normally do not require the degree.

United States

The American Library Association’s  Library Education and Personnel Utilization  policy statement, adopted in 1970 and updated in 2002, outlines recommended categories of library personnel (professional and paraprofessional) and levels of training and education. Larry R. Oberg examines this question from an historical perspective in  “Library Support Staff in an Age of Change.”

 

Q.2 Discuss the procedures and importance of evaluating library resources usage and services.

ANS

Once you have found information that matches the topic and requirements of your research, you should analyze or evaluate these information sources. Evaluating information encourages you to think critically about the reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, point of view or bias of information sources.

Just because a book, article, or website matches your search criteria and thus seems, at face value, to be relevant to your research, does not mean that it is necessarily a reliable source of information.

It is important to remember that sources of information comprising the Library’s print and electronic collections have already been evaluated for inclusion among the Llbrary’s resources. However, this does not necessarily mean that these sources are relevant to your research

This does not necessarily apply to sources of information on the Web for the general public. Many of us with Internet/Web accounts are potential publishers of websites; most of this content is published without editorial review. Think about it. Many resources are available to help with evaluating web pages

What criteria should you use to judge information sources?

Initially, look at the author, title, publisher, and date of publication. This information can be found in the bibliographic citation and can be determined even before you have the physical item in hand.

Next, look at the content, e.g. intended audience, objectiveness of the writing, coverage, writing style, and, if available, evaluative reviews.

The following questions should be asked:

Who is the author (may be individual or organization) and/or publisher?

• What are the credentials and affiliation or sponsorship of any named individuals or organizations?
• How objective, reliable, and authoritative are they?
• Have they written other articles or books?
• Is the author(s) listed with contact information (street address, e-mail)?
• Has the publisher published other works?
• Do they specialize in publishing certain topics or fields?
• Is the publisher scholarly (university press, scholarly associations)? Commercial? Government agency? Self (“vanity”) press?

What can be said about the content, context, style, structure, completeness and accuracy of the information provided by the source?

• Are any conclusions offered? If so, based on what evidence and supported by what primary and secondary documentation?
• What is implied by the content?
• Are diverse perspectives represented?
• Is the content relevant to your information needs?

When was the information published?

• Publication date is generally located on the title page or on the reverse side of the title page (copyright date).
• Is the information provided by the source in its original form or has it been revised to reflect changes in knowledge?
• Is this information timely and is it updated regularly?

Where else can the information provided by the source be found?

• Is this information authentic?
• Is this information unique or has it been copied?

Why was the information provided by the source published?

• What are the perspectives, opinions, assumptions and biases of whoever is responsible for this information?
• Who is the intended audience?
• Is anything being sold?

Q.3 Define management. What managerial skills are important for a University librarian to manage library? Discuss in detail.

ANS

Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a non-profit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources.

Management includes the activities of setting the strategy of an organization and coordinating the efforts of its employees (or of volunteers) to accomplish its objectives through the application of available resources, such as financial, natural, technological, and human resources. “Run the business”^[1] and “Change the business” are two concepts that are used in management to differentiate between the continued delivery of goods or services and adapting of goods or services to meet the changing needs of customers – see trend. The term “management” may also refer to those people who manage an organization—managers.

Some people study management at colleges or universities; major degrees in management include the Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA.) Master of Business Administration (MBA.) Master in Management (MSM or MIM) and, for the public sector, the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. Individuals who aim to become management specialists or experts, management researchers, or professors may complete the Doctor of Management (DM), the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), or the Ph.D. in Business Administration or Management. There has recently^[when?] been a movement for evidence-based management.

Larger organizations generally have three hierarchical levels of managers,^[2] in a pyramid structure:

• Senior managers, such as members of a board of directorsand a chief executive officer (CEO) or a president of an organization. They set the strategic goals of the organization and make decisions on how the overall organization will operate. Senior managers are generally executive-level professionals and provide direction to middle management, who directly or indirectly report to them.
• Middle managers: examples of these would include branch managers, regional managers, department managers, and section managers, who provide direction to front-line managers. Middle managers communicate the strategic goals of senior management to the front-line managers.
• Lower managers, such as supervisorsand front-line team leaders, oversee the work of regular employees (or volunteers, in some voluntary organizations) and provide direction on their work.

In smaller organizations, a manager may have a much wider scope and may perform several roles or even all of the roles commonly observed in a large organization.

Social scientists study management as an academic discipline, investigating areas such as social organization, organizational adaptation, and organizational leadership.

The English verb “manage” has its roots by the XV century French verb ‘mesnager’, which often referred in equestrian language “to hold in hand the reins of a horse”.^[4] Also the Italian term maneggiare (to handle, especially tools or a horse) is possible. In Spanish manejar can also mean to rule the horses.^[5] These three terms derive from the two Latin words manus (hand) and agere (to act).

The French word for housekeeping, ménagerie, derived from ménager (“to keep house”; compare ménage for “household”), also encompasses taking care of domestic animals. Ménagerie is the French translation of Xenophon‘s famous book Oeconomicus^[6] (Greek: Οἰκονομικός) on household matters and husbandry. The French word mesnagement (or ménagement) influenced the semantic development of the English word management in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[7]

Definitions

Views on the definition and scope of management include:

• Henri Fayol(1841–1925) stated: “to manage is to forecast and to plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control.”^[8]
• Fredmund Malik(1944– ) defines management as “the transformation of resources into utility”.^[9]
• Management is included^{[by whom?]}as one of the factors of production – along with machines, materials and money.
• GhislainDeslandesdefines management as “a vulnerable force, under pressure to achieve results and endowed with the triple power of constraint, imitation and imagination, operating on subjective, interpersonal, institutional and environmental levels”.^[10]
• Peter Drucker(1909–2005) saw the basic task of management as twofold: marketing and innovation. Nevertheless, innovation is also linked to marketing (product innovation is a central strategic marketing issue).^{[citation needed]} Drucker identifies marketing as a key essence for business success, but management and marketing are generally understood^{[by whom?]} as two different branches of business administration knowledge.

 

1. planning (forecasting)
2. organizing
3. commanding
4. coordinating
5. controlling

In another way of thinking, Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), allegedly defined management as “the art of getting things done through people”.^[16] She described management as a philosophy.^{[17][need quotation to verify]}

Critics^[ however, find this definition useful but far too narrow. The phrase “management is what managers do” occurs widely,^[18] suggesting the difficulty of defining management without circularity, the shifting nature of definitions^[  and the connection of managerial practices with the existence of a managerial cadre or of a class.

One habit of thought regards management as equivalent to “business administration” and thus excludes management in places outside commerce, as for example in charities and in the public sector. More broadly, every organization must “manage” its work, people, processes, technology, etc. to maximize effectiveness.^{[citation needed]} Nonetheless, many people refer to university departments that teach management as “business schools“. Some such institutions (such as the Harvard Business School) use that name, while others (such as the Yale School of Management) employ the broader term “management”.

English-speakers may also use the term “management” or “the management” as a collective word describing the managers of an organization, for example of a corporation.^[19] Historically this use of the term often contrasted with the term “labor” – referring to those being managed.^[20]

But in the present era^[  the concept of management is identified in the wide areas^[  and its frontiers have been pushed^[  to a broader range  Apart from profitable organizations even non-profit organizations apply management concepts. The concept and its uses are not constrained^[ Management on the whole is the process of planning, organizing, coordinating, leading^[21] and controlling.

 

• 4 Define budget and its different types. How budget can be used a control device? Discuss.
• ANS

Depending on the feasibility of these estimates, budgets are of three types — balanced budget, surplus budget and deficit budget. A government budget is an annual financial statement which outlines the estimated government expenditure and expected government receipts or revenues for the forthcoming fiscal year.

A budget is a financial plan for a defined period, often one year. It may also include planned sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities, costs and expenses, assets, liabilities and cash flows. Companies, governments, families, and other organizations use it to express strategic plans of activities or events in measurable terms.^[1]

A budget is the sum of finances allocated for a particular purpose and the summary of intended expenditures along with proposals for how to meet them. It may include a budget surplus, providing money for use at a future time, or a deficit in which expenses exceed income.

Budgeting for business plays a vital role in the management control system. It gives a brief understanding of what budgets are, what are budgeting, and its different methods, i.e., zero-based, incremental, traditional, and activity-based.

Before we understand the different types of budgeting methods, let us know the meaning of the budget.

What is a Budget?

A budget is a written projection of a particular department’s financial performance, a specific project, a business unit, or an organization for the period under consideration. Usually, budgets for businesses or departments are created for an accounting period, i.e., for one year. However, the period could be less or more than a year. Complete flexibility is there as the method remains the same, and the business can make or plan a budget for the period they want.

There are different types of budgets and, thus, budgeting methodologies.

What is Budgeting?

Primarily, the activity of preparing a budget is called budgeting. In many organizations, it is a separate department taking care of only the preparation and implementation of budgets.

Importance of Budgeting

In the business world, we can not afford to overstate the importance of a budget. At every stage of decision making, planning, and coordination budgets or plans are the essential tools for Management Control.

It gives a direction to the entire organization internally where it needs to run and reach on the one hand and will help management in communication and guiding the team with full clarity. On the other hand, this document is useful to the outside world also. It shows what the business is trying to achieve and whether the path and direction are right or have a flaw. Whether the objective and targets or aligned with the market realities. Whether the budget is only a dream on paper or it has a clear-cut and well-defined plan of action to achieve those dreams.

Budget Monitoring and Course Correction

Making well-defined budgets is not enough. The progress of the business also needs continuous monitoring and comparison with the budgets. The comparison of budgeted performance with actual performance throws light and indicates:

• whether the company is performing as planned,
• whether the organization is on the right track and what are the chances of achieving the budgets.
• what areas are not seeing traction as desired and what is needed to get the traction.
• whether something somewhere is going wrong that requires immediate attention or there is a need for a different strategy to contain that wrong,
• it will help the organization to do midway course correction so that deviations are minimized. The expectation or performance could be re-allocated amongst the departments. It may help the organization to achieve the budgeted targets still, making internal adjustments.

The purpose of this article is also to highlight different budgeting methods and procedures

Types of Budgeting Methods / Techniques

Types of Budgets

As per the requirements of the business, there are various types of budgets made and planned. Let’s first talk about the most popular types of budgets, which are:

1. Annual Operating Budget
2. Cash Budget
3. Rolling Budgets
4. Performance Budget
5. Master Budget
6. Operating Budget
7. Program Budget
8. Financial Budget

Budgeting Methods / Techniques

Mostly, budget preparation follows one of these methods. Listed below are the most popular types of business budgeting methods.

1. Traditional
2. Incremental
3. Zero-Based
4. Activity-Based

What is the Traditional Budgeting Method?

Traditional budgeting is a budget preparation method that considers last year’s budget as the base. The current year’s budget is prepared by making changes to the previous year’s budget by adjusting the expenses on the basis of the inflation rate, consumer demand, market situation, etc. The basis of the preparation of the current year’s budget is last year’s revenues and costs. Only those items in traditional budgets need to be justified which are over and above the last year’s budget. This technique is easy to prepare and implement, barring some amount of rigidity as budgets, once prepared, cannot change.

To have a detailed understanding of the method and its advantages and disadvantages, visit – Traditional Budgeting.

What is the Incremental Budgeting Method?

Incremental budgeting is a method where the executives prepare the current year’s budget by making changes in the past year’s budget. The changes are in the form of addition or reduction of expenses to last year’s budget. In Incremental budgeting, the starting point for preparing a budget is the prior period’s budget. The budgeting technique gives no priority to the vital activities of a business. We simply adjust last year’s budget, considering the inflation factor. This is a quick and easy method of preparing budgets.

• 5 Write short notes on the following:
• a) Public library legislation in Pakistan.
• b) Digital librarianship
• c) PERT
• d) MBP

ANS

Public library legislation in Pakistan

An attempt has been made to trace the origin of Pakistan public library legislation right from 1947 to 2013.These are the provisions for library services as appearing in the different constitutions of Pakistan, acts, ordinances. Although on paper certain developments have been shown, but in real terms not much has been achieved.

Public libraries legislation is considered as a basic instrument for the development of public libraries in a planned and systematic manner, which assures their continuance and the place in the government structure. Public library legislation takes various forms. In some countries or regions the legislation is specific to public libraries whereas in others it is part of wider legislation which includes different types of libraries. Public library legislation is also varied in its provisions. It can be simple, allowing the establishment of public libraries but leaving standards of service to the level of government directly responsible for the library, or more complex, with specific details on what services should be provided and what standards to be adopted. A number of countries have promulgated Public Library Legislation (PLL) according to their requirements. The USA is the first country to introduce a system of free public library in 1848 through public library legislation. Public Library Legislation had been promulgated in United Kingdom in 1850. Subsequently Japan became the first country in Asia to enact library legislation in 1899 and now most of the developed and some developing International Journal of Academic Library and Information Science Vol. 3(2), pp. 37-49, February 2015 DOI: 10.14662/IJALIS2015.005 Copy © right 2015 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN: 2360-7858 http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJALIS/Index.htm 38 Inter. J. Acad. Lib. Info. Sci. countries have well established public library legislation. The first library legislation took place in South Asia in the shape of enactment of the Imperial Library Act in 1902, followed by the establishment of the Imperial Library in 1903 by Lord Curzon. The neighboring country India has public library legislation at national and state levels. Wani, Zahid Ashraf (2008) explains the current status of the public library system in India. Out of the twenty-eight states and seven union territories, twelve of the states have enacted library legislation and rests are providing public library service without legislation. In Pakistan public library legislation started from the provincial level instead of national level. This is called Sindh Cultural Advancement Act, 1955 under which Shams Ulema Daud Pota Public Library Hyderabad Sindh the only public library which owes its existence by law. Some other public libraries are established through ordinance and acts in the local government setup. It is also important to understand that there are three major setups of libraries in which public libraries runs at various administrative levels and organized by different departments. National library Pakistan and 9 community libraries are functioning under Federal Department of Libraries Islamabad. Public libraries are established at district level by respective provincial governments. It is pertinent to note that public libraries in the above mentioned setups are established without any formal library legislation. Local government also operates a setup of public libraries at district and tehsil levels through its councils or municipalities. It is important to understand that the local authorities in Pakistan derive their right to operate or run public libraries from local government act, but the action is not mandatory but rather optional. This is because there is no specific body that is specialized to look at the operations or development or sustainability of these libraries. This has resulted into a situation where the public libraries at local level have been turned into reading rooms of newspapers, depending on what the local government prefers to be the best. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The purpose of this research is to study the status of public library legislation, strategies and policies, plans of the government of Pakistan and development of public libraries since partition. The main objectives of this study are as under: 1- To explore the legal and regulatory infrastructure available for public libraries in Pakistan 2- This article underlines the importance of public library legislation for the developments of network of public library system. 3- To appraise and highlight the existing situation of public libraries in Pakistan in the light of prevailing public library legislation 3- To recommend strategies and practices for effective public library services in Pakistan.

Digital librarianship

digital librarians could do

As we become accustomed to the increasing transparency and mobility of ICT use, the role of information professionals as cultural custodians or information mediators is shifting dramatically – but not necessarily to oblivion. Information professionals are being repositioned, and this demands a retheorisation and regeneration of the field. The changes brought about by the development of ICTs have meant significant variations and adjustments in the nature of society’s information problems, human information seeking behaviour, the quantity and quality of information resources, and the access to such resources, all of which must be addressed. Furthermore, a better understanding of the fundamental constructs of the information discipline will help explain, in inclusive and cohesive terms, the roles and purposes of the professions, both past and future, and at the same time elucidating any areas that need to be – or have not yet been – clarified.

Perhaps the most significant changes will be associated a shift of focus from the library as an institution, to the role of librarians and other information workers as professions: from habitat to performance. Lancaster noted that librarians are the most institutionalised of the professions, probably because libraries existed before librarians, but he wondered why there is still so much attention paid to the physical facility rather than the knowledge and technical expertise of skilled practitioners (Lancaster, 1983, p. 274). In other words, libraries as social institutions can be understood as functions, not places, in a networked information universe, where meaning is found in the information that documents contain, those selections which get read, and the paths taken through the body of represented knowledge which aggregates the results of all the perceptive and cognitive functions undertaken by individuals. Having seen this capacity for what is so often understood as a passive provision of a space in which information accumulates, to be transformed into a deliberative and culturally powerful selection – and so de-selection – of ‘what counts’, it surely becomes more possible to see every aspect of information practice as contributive to cultural meaning.

The library, as a cultural space, is itself a carrier of meaning, and the fact that particular documents are stored there, and not at other places, constructs a symbolic context for understanding and interpretation. As DLs are virtual, these markers or boundaries are not obvious, and this is a good thing as individual users can create and compile their own collections and meanings from what is available. As Derrida has noted (as quoted by Dalbello, 2004, p. 268) ‘the “archive” [he uses the term broadly] is a context for transmission of texts’. Libraries were established in order to overcome spatio-temporal constraints that might exist in information or communication flows, and this function still continues, even though it has become, more or less, virtual.

 

PERT

The program (or project) evaluation and review technique (PERT) is a statistical tool used in project management, which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project.

First developed by the United States Navy in 1958, it is commonly used in conjunction with the critical path method (CPM) that was introduced in 1957.

PERT is a method of analyzing the tasks involved in completing a given project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed to complete the total project. It incorporates uncertainty by making it possible to schedule a project while not knowing precisely the details and durations of all the activities. It is more of an event-oriented technique rather than start- and completion-oriented, and is used more in those projects where time is the major factor rather than cost. It is applied on very large-scale, one-time, complex, non-routine infrastructure and on Research and Development projects.

PERT offers a management tool, which relies “on arrow and node diagrams of activities and events: arrows represent the activities or work necessary to reach the events or nodes that indicate each completed phase of the total project.”^[1]

PERT and CPM are complementary tools, because “CPM employs one time estimation and one cost estimation for each activity; PERT may utilize three time estimates (optimistic, expected, and pessimistic) and no costs for each activity. Although these are distinct differences, the term PERT is applied increasingly to all critical path scheduling.