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E-books threaten paper volumes, physically
Trainee teachers to be thrown in the deep end Campus Notes
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E-books threaten paper volumes, physically E-book technology, which has set off wails of protest in the German media, is being eagerly taken up by scholars and libraries who cannot afford storage for large book collections. Some of them are digitizing their existing collections and running up against a fateful question: do you then throw the paper book away? The National Library in Florence, Italy, which has just digitized 3,000 of its oldest printed books in cooperation with US-based company ProQuest, certainly won’t be dumping the originals, which are considered a part of the country’s cultural heritage. But the paper books, with their fragile pages and brittle bindings, are more likely to sit undisturbed on shelves in the future. Many scholars will be satisfied to use the digital images instead, according to ProQuest executive Dan Burnstone, who attended the Frankfurt Book Fair recently. For private collections of 20th-century books, digitization may mean destruction, since the books have almost no market value. A recent report in the US Chronicle of Higher Education described how a professor, Alexander Halavais, frees up space in his cramped Manhattan apartment: he slices the binding off each book and puts the loose stack of paper in a page-fed, automatic scanner. The images are saved on his computer and undergo an optical character recognition process to make the files searchable. Halavais then bins the pages. He plans to keep only 500 of his 3,000 paper books, and consult the rest in their digital format. He has so far processed 800 volumes. The report triggered an outcry among readers, who responded using words such as “abhorrent,” “cannibalism” or “like murdering friends.” Halavais himself admitted in a blog post that he felt “blasphemous” just describing the process. Roger Pearse, who writes one of the internet’s top ancient history blogs, said this week in an e-mail interview, “I get rid of books all the time. “If you don’t, you end up surrounded by a vast array of books you know you will never read again and somewhere, in that mass of mental suet, are the few books that you really do want to keep. “I can almost never bring myself to throw them in the bin. So I pile them up in a corner, and every so often I give what is in the pile to charity shops,” said the British scholar, who digitizes some of the old books. A Hamburg illustrator-author with a large private library said he has tried selling surplus books on eBay, but it is hardly worth the trouble of answering bidders’ questions and packing and posting the books sold. Personal libraries loved during life often end up with second-hand dealers after the owners die. Occasionally a modern second-hand book turns out valuable, but only if a special feature might attract buyers, as Gabriele Ceusters- Ditz of Austrian book dealer Liber-Antiqua explains. She has a 1953 bound volume of the science journal Nature on sale at the book fair. It contains the article that announced the discovery of DNA. Asking price for the historic tome: $4,000 . Books may be pulled apart by dealers when it is possible to sell the illustrations individually for a higher total price than the intact book is worth. Ceusters-Ditz, who was also at the Frankfurt Book Fair, estimates this has been going on for 200 or 300 years. “We never do it,” she insisted. “I find it a pity to rip a book apart.” Book reverence is especially widespread in Germany, where the book fair prompted many an ode to the honest virtues of paper and a curse on the digital age. “Who needs e-books? No one,” railed the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper in an editorial, calling digitization “nonsense.” “You can only read one book at a time. Who needs to carry their whole library round with them?” One answer might be: anyone consulting books for research. ProQuest is betting that universities and research bodies will pay for access online to a complete digital library of books published before 1700. The Florence books are a pilot as the scanning project begins, expanding on the company’s Early English Books Online, which already contains 110,000 titles. The bigger version and will embrace all the nations of Europe. “We don’t know exactly how many works we are dealing with, but we think it is about 1 million,” Burnstone said. Some of the same books have already been digitized by Google and are visible online for free. Burnstone said ProQuest’s product would be worth purchasing because it would be much more complete than Google’s and each book would be carefully described and catalogued. Libraries which own the original books will receive the “digital surrogates” at no cost, giving the libraries an option of moving the books into longterm storage and using the images for regular needs. “This is something they will appreciate,” said Burnstone, pointing out that public libraries also suffer from a shortage of shelf space. —DPA
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Trainee teachers to be thrown in the deep end Trainee teachers will be made to start teaching in the classroom much earlier than they currently do. They have adopted the plan following the success of the TeachFirst scheme, which has been recruiting graduates with top degree passes to work in inner-city schools for the past five years. Most of the TeachFirst recruits, who were signed on for two years in the classroom and did not have an education degree, have stayed on as teachers at the end of the two years, and much of their work has been rated as excellent by inspectors. The plan is for a network of up to 500 “super schools” to be set up over the next four years to train teachers in the classroom. It is intended as the cornerstone of a drive by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, to improve the quality of teaching recruits to state schools. Schools ranked as outstanding by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, will be given responsibility for training new recruits — a switch from training colleges to on-the-job training in schools. Academics warn that ministers should not ignore the role of teacher training colleges, citing the annual Ofsted report which says that much of the work done in the colleges is excellent. The schools selected to train teachers must also have heads whose leadership skills have been ranked as outstanding. They will be expected to form partnerships with neighbouring schools so that they can offer training to their recruits. They will be known as teaching schools and have similar responsibilities for the supply of teachers as teaching hospitals have for medical staff. A (pounds sterling)100m fund is to be established to consider bids from schools to receive a teaching classification. The wider shake-up to the education system will also include tougher maths and English tests for all new teaching recruits and curbs on graduates with lower-level degree passes. Only those with 2:2s and above will get finance to join training courses. Responsibility for approving teaching schools will be handed over to the National College for School Leadership. Its chief executive, Steve Munby, said: “How many there will be we don’t exactly know yet but our aim is 500 by the end of this parliament. Obviously, they will be outstanding schools with great teaching and learning. “The criteria will also include evidence of collaboration and partnership and working with other schools. If you want to be a school that doesn’t do this, obviously that’s fair enough but you won’t become a teaching school. “They can use the expertise of any other school in the partnership. One that’s not ranked as outstanding might be able to offer managerial skills or training for bursars, for instance, and have excellence in particular areas. — The Independent
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Campus Notes After the successful commissioning of Community Radio Station (CRS) at the main university campus, HAU is in the process of setting up six more CRSs in the State. All these would be set up at its outstations located at Bawal, Ambala, Sirsa, Yamuna Nagar, Karnal and Mahendergarh. According to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. K.S. Khokhar the funds for Community Radio Stations had already been sanctioned by the Haryana Government and installation work would begin soon.
Training on personality development
The College of Home Science in collaboration with Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), organized a five-day training course on Personality Development and Business Soft Skill Management for the final year B.Sc. (Hons.) students of the college. The students were exposed to techniques for improving communication skills and overall personality development and business skills. They were also given an overview of soft skills management, leadership dynamics, team building and development of non verbal skills and body language.
Chrysanthemum show
A two-day chrysanthemum flower show was held at Haryana Agricultural University. It was organized by the Department of Botany and Plant Physiology in collaboration with Landscape Unit of the university. The show proved a big draw despite inclement weather. As many as 80 varieties of chrysanthemum were on display. The number of entries this year was thrice the number of entries received last year which indicated greater interest of residents of Hisar in cultivating chrysanthemums.
Training for SC & ST students
A15-day training on post harvest technology of horticultural crops for SC and ST students was organised by the Department of Horticulture. The training had been sponsored by Directorate of Students’ Welfare of the university. Dr. V.P. Ahlawat, Head, Department of Horticulture and Course Director said that the training was aimed at updating knowledge of graduates and to give them hands on training so that they were able to face challenges after joining the industry. —
Contributed by Raman Mohan
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