Poster presentation: Rethinking university librarianship in the post-pandemic scenario
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Sanyal, Arjun
Post-pandemic, the problem with Indian universities was bringing students back to their former academic selves. The fact of being away from the universities, for long, have led to students developing an indifference towards academic curriculum. Secondly, they have developed a strange problem that goes beyond simple “library anxiety”, as Constance Mellon termed it. I call it “informational anxiety”. This peculiar malady is more about developing a distaste towards the educational informational resources, compounded by the fact of the ubiquitous digital poverty. Thus, being out of touch with the library actually leads to a sort of anxiety, regarding seeking educational information digitally as well as physically, shifting the students’ focus away from academia. The CUHP (Central University of Himachal Pradesh) library team devised a novel strategy to make students discover their love for their studies as an enjoyable pursuit and not as a tiresome obligation. First, we held mind mapping sessions with students on seeking information as regards how library services can be improved. After the completion of the session, we emailed the mind maps along with surveys, to the students, for any improvisations they saw fit. Secondly, we started an experimental makerspace-cum-third space where students could do whatever they felt like writing poetry, painting pictures and so on. Thirdly, we held some library motivational sessions for students relating to healthy lifestyle. Within two months, we saw students developing an interest for coming to campuses, particularly to libraries. In fact, the idea of makerspace-cum-third space and the motivational sessions appealed a lot to them in helping to rediscover the joy of learning by thinking passionately about the social milieu. This, I believe, will be a beneficial approach for libraries in general because learning succeeds when the individual thinks creatively, enthusiastically and in a jargon-free manner about things that appeal to him/her.
 to see if Arjun Sanyal is there. So can you hear me now? Oh, yes. I can hear you very well. Please go ahead, sir. The greetings, everyone. So I'll be just speaking on the idea of how we can rethink university librarianship in the post-pandemic scenario, where we'll just expect you on the experiences from my own university. So basically, the big challenge for Indian universities in the wake of the pandemic, and I believe for any universities globally, was getting students back to school after a long hiatus. Because staying at home away from the friends, away from the physical classroom, was a sort of a disturbing experience for them. And they got increasingly disinterested in academia and the university itself. So one of the major things that occurred to us librarians, when we saw the students back on campus, was that the owners of the responsibility lies on the librarians in equal measure, as much as it lies on the faculty members. So for the librarians, it was like going the extra mile in terms of commitment to bring the students back to the university selves. So what exactly was the problem with the students? So there are three problems, which are listed over here. There is an interference towards the academic curriculum, the informational anxiety, and a sense of loss of belief in one's own abilities. So the first one is the interference towards the academic curriculum, because they were away from the face-to-face classroom teaching. So they became very disinterested in studies itself, and there was an sense of academic privation. And the problem was all the more complicated or worsen, because the infodemic or the fake news that actually sort of penetrated the social spaces. Second was the idea of informational anxiety. Now, we all have heard about the idea of library anxiety, which was propounded by Constance Mellon, which was more so about the library, the size of itself, which actually sort of created a fear in the minds of the students or a sort of inhibition. But when I come to the idea of informational anxiety, it is all the more caused by the idea of digital poverty or digital redlining. And this is basically marked by a strong sense of distaste towards all sorts of educational information resources, particularly the digital ones. Lastly is a strong sense of negative fatalism about oneself. So there is a sense of fear, a sense of I can't do, a sense of whether I am fit for higher education. So basically it was a big challenge for us. So what we thought was that the best way was to pass by the interest or the curiosity among the students in the academia by unlocking the creativity. So we worked on a library roadmap. And on the library roadmap, we actually created a philosophical template, which is basically about rediscovering oneself. So the central idea is rediscovering yourself by bringing you back to your university self. And it has four aspects. The first one is intersectionality. So intersectionality is basically a theoretical idea, which is where a person's social, economic, culture, and various identities actually creates different levels of advantages and disadvantages. And given the fact that we have students from my right social background, so the idea of intersectionality was all the more very relevant. Second was the idea of epistemic justice. As someone who has been in the task, was impressed with the task of instructional library, I see that the idea of a student as a knower, as a speaker is very important. And one of the things which we must do is to make the students rediscover their love for learning, their love for knowing. So one of the major ideas that comes from this is the idea of radical imagination. So we allow or we motivate or we embolden students to think out of the box. And in the process, they should disrupt the status quo, which is the final idea. Because only by disrupting the status quo or only by disrupting the established knowledge template can we allow further research to progress. So basically, the library roadmap for CUHP or my university was, first of all, be an open house session with students regarding how they can improve, how the library services can be improved. And in this, we use mind-numbing tools. Second was a sort of an experimental maker space come third space, which was not consciously in terms of getting on with the studies, but allowing them to do whatever they love. So somebody could just code, somebody could just write poetry, somebody could just paint. And third was organizing motivational lifestyle sessions for students using Lifestyle Coaches from outside the university. So after two months, we did a survey. I'm just not fighting the rug. Could you please wrap up? We've got a lot of work. Please, last sentence. OK, OK. So after two months, we saw university students coming back in large numbers. And there was an uptick in demand for the third space and the motivation of Lifestyle. More importantly, we saw students demanding sessions with both the faculty and the library staff to make learning participatory and enjoyable. So the main motto for this presentation is keep learning and keep enjoying and keep hungry and keep learning. That's all. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you very much. I'd like to give a big round of applause to all of our course participants. Really, really fantastic.
 to see if Arjun Sanyal is there.  So can you hear me now?  Oh, yes.  I can hear you very well.  Please go ahead, sir.  The greetings, everyone.  So I'll be just speaking on the idea of how we can rethink  university librarianship in the post-pandemic scenario,  where we'll just expect you on the experiences  from my own university.  So basically, the big challenge for Indian universities  in the wake of the pandemic, and I believe  for any universities globally, was getting students back  to school after a long hiatus.  Because staying at home away from the friends,  away from the physical classroom,  was a sort of a disturbing experience for them.  And they got increasingly disinterested in academia  and the university itself.  So one of the major things that occurred to us librarians,  when we saw the students back on campus,  was that the owners of the responsibility  lies on the librarians in equal measure,  as much as it lies on the faculty members.  So for the librarians, it was like going the extra mile  in terms of commitment to bring the students back  to the university selves.  So what exactly was the problem with the students?  So there are three problems, which are listed over here.  There is an interference towards the academic curriculum,  the informational anxiety, and a sense of loss of belief  in one's own abilities.  So the first one is the interference  towards the academic curriculum, because they were away  from the face-to-face classroom teaching.  So they became very disinterested in studies itself,  and there was an sense of academic privation.  And the problem was all the more complicated or worsen,  because the infodemic or the fake news  that actually sort of penetrated the social spaces.  Second was the idea of informational anxiety.  Now, we all have heard about the idea of library anxiety,  which was propounded by Constance Mellon,  which was more so about the library, the size of itself,  which actually sort of created a fear in the minds  of the students or a sort of inhibition.  But when I come to the idea of informational anxiety,  it is all the more caused by the idea of digital poverty  or digital redlining.  And this is basically marked by a strong sense of distaste  towards all sorts of educational information resources,  particularly the digital ones.  Lastly is a strong sense of negative fatalism  about oneself.  So there is a sense of fear, a sense of I can't do,  a sense of whether I am fit for higher education.  So basically it was a big challenge for us.  So what we thought was that the best way  was to pass by the interest or the curiosity  among the students in the academia by unlocking the creativity.  So we worked on a library roadmap.  And on the library roadmap, we actually  created a philosophical template, which is basically  about rediscovering oneself.  So the central idea is rediscovering yourself  by bringing you back to your university self.  And it has four aspects.  The first one is intersectionality.  So intersectionality is basically a theoretical idea,  which is where a person's social, economic, culture,  and various identities actually creates  different levels of advantages and disadvantages.  And given the fact that we have students  from my right social background, so the idea  of intersectionality was all the more very relevant.  Second was the idea of epistemic justice.  As someone who has been in the task,  was impressed with the task of instructional library,  I see that the idea of a student as a knower,  as a speaker is very important.  And one of the things which we must do  is to make the students rediscover their love  for learning, their love for knowing.  So one of the major ideas that comes from this  is the idea of radical imagination.  So we allow or we motivate or we embolden students  to think out of the box.  And in the process, they should disrupt the status quo,  which is the final idea.  Because only by disrupting the status quo  or only by disrupting the established knowledge template  can we allow further research to progress.  So basically, the library roadmap for CUHP or my university  was, first of all, be an open house session with students  regarding how they can improve, how the library services can  be improved.  And in this, we use mind-numbing tools.  Second was a sort of an experimental maker space  come third space, which was not consciously  in terms of getting on with the studies,  but allowing them to do whatever they love.  So somebody could just code, somebody could just write poetry,  somebody could just paint.  And third was organizing motivational lifestyle  sessions for students using Lifestyle Coaches  from outside the university.  So after two months, we did a survey.  I'm just not fighting the rug.  Could you please wrap up?  We've got a lot of work.  Please, last sentence.  OK, OK.  So after two months, we saw university students coming back  in large numbers.  And there was an uptick in demand for the third space  and the motivation of Lifestyle.  More importantly, we saw students demanding sessions  with both the faculty and the library staff  to make learning participatory and enjoyable.  So the main motto for this presentation  is keep learning and keep enjoying and keep hungry  and keep learning.  That's all.  Thank you.  Fantastic.  Thank you very much.  I'd like to give a big round of applause  to all of our course participants.  Really, really fantastic.
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