Paper presented at SIS 2012 Conference held at NIT Silchar organised by Dr. K C Satpathy

1. INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT IN COLLEGE LIBRARIES: A
Case Study in Hailakandi District,
Assam
Prepared By
Md. Anwar Hussain Laskar
MLISc, Assam University, Silchar
&
Dr. Mukut Sarmah
Assistant Professor
DLIS, Assam University, Silchar

2. INTRODUCTION
Since the early 1990s, knowledge management has been a popular
issue and discussed amongst all disciplines at all levels. Knowledge
management is the process through which organization generate value from
their intellectual knowledge-based assets. Knowledge Management involves
connecting people to people and people to information. Knowledge
management are realizing how important it is to “know what they know”
and be able to make maximum use of the knowledge.
According to Mickael E. D. Koeing (2008), knowledge
management is the deliberate modification of an organisation to improve its
information and knowledge creation and sharing. It comprises a range of
strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent,
distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. An attempt has
been made to study the real picture of information and knowledge
management in different college libraries of Hailakandi District with some
set aims and objectives.

3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objectives of the study are:
 To ensure the effective and efficient combination of the information and
knowledge available within in a college library;
 To understand the present scenario of college libraries of Hailakandi District;
 To understand the library professionals level of education and experience;
 To analyse staff strength against the collection management of the colleges.
`

4. METHODOLOGY
Survey based study has been adopted and questionnaire along with
observation of the respective colleges have been chosen to collect data. The
structured questionnaire has been designed and circulated to the Librarian/in
charge of the college libraries of Hailakandi District. Collected data are
analysed to present the ground reality of the work with the help of tables,
charts or graphs.

5. FINDINGS
The role of knowledge management in libraries has become more
and more important. Knowledge acquisition is the starting point of
knowledge management in libraries. The application of information
technologies enlarges the scope of knowledge acquisition, raises knowledge
acquisition speed and reduces knowledge acquisition cost. It is impossible to
accomplish such important tasks by using man's brains only in the modern
society in which the knowledge changes with each passing day. The value of
information depends on accuracy and timely accessibility.
Hailakandi district is situated at the southernmost corner of Assam.
Though endowed with rich and diverse human resources, infrastructural
development for higher education is need of the hour in Hailakandi district.
Hailakandi has a literacy rate of 75.26 %.

6. NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS IN HAILAKANDI DISTRICT
Primary Upper High Higher Junior Degree
Primary Provinci Adhoc Secondary College College
alized
1003 238 24 31 09 05 09
This table shows the number of educational institutions in Hailakandi
District. In this district there are 1003 nos. Primary schools, 238 nos. of Upper
primary schools, 24 nos. of Provincialized and 31 nos. of Adcock High schools, 09
nos. of Higher Secondary schools, 05 nos. of Junior Colleges and 09 nos. of
Degree Colleges.

7. NUMBER OF COLLEGES IN HAILAKANDI DISTRICT
SL Name of the College Address Year of
NO establishment
1 S. S. College (SSC) Hailakandi 1950
2 Lala Rural College (LRC) Lala 1964
3 S. C. Dey College (SCDC) Kalinagar 1992
4 Women’s College (WC) Hailakandi 1993
5 S. K. Roy College (SKRC) Katlicherra 1994
6 Dr. S. B. I. of Education (SBIE) Boalipar Bazar 1996
7 Abdul Latif Choudhury College (ALCC) Algapur 1996
8 M.H.C.H. (Science) College (MHCMScC) Algapur 1997
9 S.K.Roy. Memorial Institute of Education Katlicherra 2010
In Hailakandi District, out of 9 colleges affiliated to Assam University, 5 are Arts
Colleges, 2 are Science Colleges and rest are B.Ed. Colleges. This Table shows the colleges
with their addresses and date of establishment.

8. YEAR WISE GROWTH OF COLLEGES IN HAILAKANDI
DISTRICT
Year wise Growth of Colleges
2100
2000
1950 1964 1992 1993 1994 1996 1996 1997 2010
1900
Year of Establishment
This figure reveals that after independence, Srikishan Sarda College was
established in the year 1950. It is the oldest college in Hailakandi District. This college
marked the beginning of higher education in Hailakandi District. Situated in Hailakandi
town this college rendered its service of imparting higher education to the youths. With
growing consciousness of higher education, a need for more colleges was felt. After 14
years in 1964, Lala Rural College was established to share the burden of higher education in
this district. These two colleges alone served till 1992, when the S. C. Dey College was
established. And at last S. K. Roy. Memorial Institute of Education was established in the
year of 2010. With it 7 more colleges were came into being in the 1990’s.

9. COLLECTION STRENGTH OF THE COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN HAILAKANDI
DISTRICT
Name of Books (TB/ Journals & News Paper CD-ROM/
Colleges RB/ BB) Magazine DVD
SSC 18,916 26 6 30
LRC 14,500 8 5 -
SCDC 2,750 5 3 5
SKRC 2,520 - 3 -
ALCC 3,081 - 2 -
WC 800 13 2 -
MHCMScC 5,275 9 4 30
SBIE 4,259 11 3 -
 Here, T.B- Text Book; R.B-Reference Books; B.B-Book Bank.
 S.S.College is one of the oldest colleges in this region. This college has the highest number of
collection. It has 18,916 collections of books followed by the Lala Rural College which has a
collection of 14,500. MHCMScC has a collection of 5275 and Woman College has the least
collection of books which is only 800.All the colleges have subscription to newspapers; with S.S
College having the maximum number 6, followed by Lala Rural College having subscription to 5
newspapers. These colleges also subscribe to journals except SKRC and ALCC. S.S College has the
highest subscription of 26 journals, in this respect Woman College has shown some interest with
subscription to 13 journals and is second in the list.

10. STAFF STRENGTH OF THE COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN
HAILAKANDI DISTRICT
Designation SSS LRC SCDC SKRC ALCC WC MHCMSC SBIE
Librarian/ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
in charge
Library 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 1
Assistant
Library 2 2 0 1 1 1 1 1
Bearer
Total 4 5 2 3 3 2 3 3
In all the colleges, the staffs are not adequate. Although the oldest colleges like
S.S Colleges and Lala Rural colleges have 4 and 5 staffs respectively. This number is not
enough to comply with the collection and students enrolment. Moreover, it is learnt that the
two colleges have no librarian at present. The other colleges have staff numbering, 3 to 2,
which is very small for any higher educational institution.

11. STAFF STRENGTH OF THE COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN
HAILAKANDI DISTRICT
5
5
4
4
3 3 3 3
3
2 2
2
1
Staff Strength
0
SSS LRC SCDC SKRC ALCC WC MHCMSC SBIE
Staff Strength

12. QUALIFICATION OF THE LIBRARIAN
SL Name of Name of Librarian/In Qualification of the
NO College charge Librarian
1 SSC Raba M.A in History
Dutta Chakraborthy
2 LRC M. Nath M.A, LLB, M.Phil.
3 SCDC - BLISc appeared
4 WC - MLISc
5 SKRC Nabanita Dutta Gupta MLIB
6 SBIE H. Begum Barbhuiya MLISC appeared
7 MHCMScC Sufia Khanom MLIS
Mozumder
8 ALCC Abdus MLISc appeared
Sattar Choudhury
This Table revels that most of the college librarians are not having required
professional degree i.e., MLIS degree.

13. FINDINGS
 All the libraries fail to receive enough budgets, and the exercise of the
received budget does not meet its planned design.
 Except S. S. College and Lala rural college, the collection of books of rest of
the colleges is very poor.
 In all the colleges, the staff strength is very small. Except S. S. College, Lala
rural college and A. L. C College, none of these libraries have adequate
professional staff to take up technical works and to organize library services
in scientific manner.
 Three colleges follow DDC classification and one college follow CC
classification system. The rest of the colleges have their own classification
scheme.
 ICT application has not found its roots in most of the colleges. Though, some
of the colleges have computer and some using internet too. Yet, its full
application is not met.

14.  E-resource is only available in S.S. College and M. H. C. M. Sc. College.
 Journals and magazine are subscribed by six of the college libraries. But the
number of subscription to the journals and magazines by these colleges does
not match the standards.
 Membership to N-list programme is carried by only two colleges, S.S.College
and Lala rural college. The other colleges still don’t have the facility and lack
in this area of expertise.
 Cataloguing is not followed by all the college Libraries. Five of the colleges
follow the cataloguing, but still, the three of the colleges don’t follow the
basic tenet of library science.
 All the colleges have computer facility, excluding women’s college. Though
they have this facility, but it is not sufficient to meet the user’s needs, as the
number of computer is not enough.

15. RECOMMENDATIONS
 The college authority must look for skilled library professionals.
 The fund allotted to the library should be utilized in a scientific and
transparent manner.
 The collection of books in these libraries is very weak, so the authorities
must look forward to strengthen the collection.
 The college must look forward to furnish the ICT. In this era of information
revolution all college libraries are expected to have this technology.
 More staff should be engaged. Each of the colleges lack in their staff strength
and as a result it hinders the proper functioning in the libraries.
 The library officials must look forward to increase their e-journals. They
must develop systems so that access and providence of the e-journals is
made possible.

16.  Subscription to journals and magazines should be increased as these
resources provide versatility to the library collection.
 CAS and SDI service should be provided, so as to cater the needs and
demands of the user.
 The libraries can collaborate and establish networking with other libraries
and organization, this will help in better development of knowledge and
better serve.
 The library must draw plans, so that a centralized cataloguing system is
developed.
 Automation of the library can help in better functioning, so college libraries
should plan for introducing computer immediately.
 A library standing committee should be formed to design plans to grow the
library.
 All the libraries must be computerized with the internet facility.

17.  The college libraries must make all the provisions to online subscription of
journals, magazines, books, reports, etc.
 The library must develop proper infrastructure to provide adequate space,
furniture, light, etc.
 All the college libraries must follow the classification schemes like DDC
(Dewey decimal classification), UDC (universal decimal classification) and
CC (Colon classification).
 Minimum qualification for librarian should be master’s degree in Library and
Information Science with National Eligibility Test for Lectureship (NET) or
Ph.D. to provide parity with teaching staff. Librarians should be computer
literates to utilize the ICT’s. Librarian should be included in academic staff
instead of technical support staff.
 Tools of Knowledge management should be introduced in the college
libraries of Hailakandi District.

18. CONCLUSION
Information and Knowledge management is very important to the
success of the organization as it not only helps in discovering the resources
but also it reflects the current scenario of the organization or institutions. An
efficient Knowledge Management System is one that will enable libraries to
store information sources manually or electronically and facilitate the
process of retrieving, sharing, tracking and distributing these information
sources efficiently with their users. It has been revealed from the study that
Knowledge Management tools and services are not implemented in the
libraries of colleges in Hailakandi District. An all-round improvement of
library staff's quality and positioning of the human value has become one of
the objectives of knowledge management in these libraries.

19. REFERENCES
 Agrawal, R.C. Knowledge management tools & techniques. A B D
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 Becarra, Fernandez. Knowledge Management Systems and Processes. Phi
Learning, 2010.
 Davis, J. Knowledge Management: Organizational and Technological
Dimensions. Springer (India) Private Limited, 2009.
 Dell, O. Knowledge Management: A Guide for Your Journey to Best-
Practice Processes. Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited, 2005.
 Elias, Awad M and Ghaziri M Hassan. Knowledge Management. PHI
Learning, 2011.
 Khan, Mohd. Altaf. Knowledge Management. Enkay Publishing House,
2011.
 Knight, Tom and Trevor Howes. Knowledge Management: A Blueprint
for Delivery. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oct 2002.
 Leidner, Dorothy and Fernandez Becerra Irma. Knowledge Management:
An Evolutionary View. Phi Learning, 2009.
 Mahapatra, P.K. Knowledge management in libraries. Ess Ess
Publications. 2010.

20. THANK YOU
HAVE A NICE DAY