IIM Ranchi Hosts 27th IIM Libraries Consortium Meeting, Advancing Collaboration and Innovation in Library Services
· Free Press Journal
The 27th IIM Libraries Consortium Meeting was held at IIM Ranchi, bringing together librarians and library professionals representing 20 IIMs from across India.
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The inaugural session was graced by Prof. Deepak Kumar Srivastava, Director, IIM Ranchi, along with Prof. Tanusree Dutta, Dean - Academics and Chairperson, Library Committee, IIM Ranchi, senior faculty members, and librarians from participating IIMs.
Welcoming the participants, Dr. Jayanta Kumar Tripathy, Librarian, IIM Ranchi, highlighted the Consortium’s role in cooperative acquisition, collective negotiations, professional learning, knowledge sharing and exchange of best practices. He emphasised that collaboration among IIM libraries strengthens their collective ability to support teaching, learning and research.
Dr. Narayan Chandra Ghosh, Librarian, IIM Calcutta, traced the growth of the Consortium from its six founding IIMs to 21 participating institutions and highlighted major collaborative initiatives, including the Union Catalogue of IIM Libraries. He emphasised the Consortium’s continuing efforts to facilitate equitable and effective access to scholarly information resources.
Prof. Dutta reflected on the changing information requirements of students, faculty and researchers and emphasised the importance of delivering the right information to the right user at the right time.
In his inaugural address, Prof. Srivastava, highlighted the changing higher-education and management-education ecosystem, emphasising market-driven developments, performance and quality, distinctive institutional governance and culture, and the potential for strengthening revenue generation through research and knowledge activities. He stressed that research should contribute meaningfully to teaching, learning and the wider research ecosystem. He also encouraged IIM libraries to facilitate Pan-India professional forums, discussions and academic conferences involving business and management libraries.
The Consortium discussed several important initiatives and resolved to invite IIM Guwahati to join the Consortium from 2027, subject to applicable procedures and formalities. Members also agreed to explore AI-based tools and applications for library and information services and facilitate the sharing of technical expertise and best practices among IIM libraries, particularly in the adoption of open-source technologies.
The meeting further emphasised the systematic review and evaluation of information products and services before their consideration by the Consortium. The evaluation process will consider factors including content duplication, competing products, infrastructure compatibility, usability, information retrieval and applicable terms of use.
As part of this new evaluation approach, the Consortium conducted a pre-meeting online review, during which 69 information products from 16 vendors/publishers were presented and reviewed. During the three-day meeting at IIM Ranchi, 36 publishers, vendors and content providers presented 170 information products and services, including newly launched and upgraded offerings.
Following the presentations and preliminary evaluation, selected products may be made available to participating IIM libraries on a trial basis. Feedback from member institutions will subsequently be consolidated and considered during deliberations and negotiations with publishers and vendors.
The 27th IIM Libraries Consortium Meeting reaffirmed the commitment of IIM libraries to collaborative resource sharing, technology adoption, professional development, knowledge exchange and strengthening the information ecosystem supporting management education and research in India.
The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Banka Bihari Chand, Librarian, IIM Ahmedabad, who acknowledged the contributions of the Director, academic leadership, Library Committee, participating IIMs and librarians towards the successful conduct of the meeting.