3 June 2011
Cardinal principles .. (contd..)
4. The re-engineered NCSI, being a service centre, will not operate on a
project proposal- funding agency- progress report-publications mode as
in academic departments. A center like ours is expected to provide
services that will bring actual immediate benefits to the user community
: we cannot afford the luxury of individualism, secrecy and knowledge
hoarding- all negative traits of the project mode detrimental to the
functioning of a service center like NCSI.
The objectives of academic departments are all the same: not so
with a centre like NCSI. Academic departments probably thrive
on individualism and internal competition, the common
bottom-line being mainly the number of publications. A centre like NCSI
cannot thrive this way. Academic departments are made up of faculty who
are specialized in their own areas- they then need to set up their own
teams to dig deeper and deeper and contribute to further fragmentation
of knowledge(at least this has been the case for many years). As with
academic departments we at NCSI also find ourselves in different
sub-areas of interest but there is one big difference : all
these sub-areas should contribute and add to the whole to enable
meeting the centre's objectives.
We are in the business of providing SERVICES- not research. To
be able to provide good services, we not only have to be up-to
date with current knowledge but also keep watching out for problems
and service opportunities that open up. And that requires an
internal set-up different from academic departments. A set-up that
encourages team work, not individualism, a set-up that facilitates
integration, not fragmentation. After all, our profession is
about finding solutions to the information overload problem, it is
about separating the wheat from the chaff and it is also about
integration of knowledge. "Less information, more knowledge" is our mantra.
We do not believe in adding to the already polluted information
environment with undue focus on publications.
Academic departments also need to keep up to date with current knowledge
and keep watching out for problems but then the focus shifts to building
on the body of knowledge- often incrementally and culminating in
publications. A service center has to cater to actual needs of users.
While publications may be the end-product of academic departments, the
success of a service center is measured by the extent to which users
are satisfied. We deal with live clients, not dead publications.
A service center can operate in the project mode while conducting
studies that generate knowledge for provision of services but knowledge
production is not the primary goal. It will only be a by-product in the
course of providing services that bring immediate benefits to the
users. Consequently, publications take a back seat in our list of
priorities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manu Rajan
National Centre for Science Information
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Bangalore 560 012
email: manu.rajan134@gmail.com
Cardinal principles .. (contd..)
4. The re-engineered NCSI, being a service centre, will not operate on a
project proposal- funding agency- progress report-publications mode as
in academic departments. A center like ours is expected to provide
services that will bring actual immediate benefits to the user community
: we cannot afford the luxury of individualism, secrecy and knowledge
hoarding- all negative traits of the project mode detrimental to the
functioning of a service center like NCSI.
The objectives of academic departments are all the same: not so
with a centre like NCSI. Academic departments probably thrive
on individualism and internal competition, the common
bottom-line being mainly the number of publications. A centre like NCSI
cannot thrive this way. Academic departments are made up of faculty who
are specialized in their own areas- they then need to set up their own
teams to dig deeper and deeper and contribute to further fragmentation
of knowledge(at least this has been the case for many years). As with
academic departments we at NCSI also find ourselves in different
sub-areas of interest but there is one big difference : all
these sub-areas should contribute and add to the whole to enable
meeting the centre's objectives.
We are in the business of providing SERVICES- not research. To
be able to provide good services, we not only have to be up-to
date with current knowledge but also keep watching out for problems
and service opportunities that open up. And that requires an
internal set-up different from academic departments. A set-up that
encourages team work, not individualism, a set-up that facilitates
integration, not fragmentation. After all, our profession is
about finding solutions to the information overload problem, it is
about separating the wheat from the chaff and it is also about
integration of knowledge. "Less information, more knowledge" is our mantra.
We do not believe in adding to the already polluted information
environment with undue focus on publications.
Academic departments also need to keep up to date with current knowledge
and keep watching out for problems but then the focus shifts to building
on the body of knowledge- often incrementally and culminating in
publications. A service center has to cater to actual needs of users.
While publications may be the end-product of academic departments, the
success of a service center is measured by the extent to which users
are satisfied. We deal with live clients, not dead publications.
A service center can operate in the project mode while conducting
studies that generate knowledge for provision of services but knowledge
production is not the primary goal. It will only be a by-product in the
course of providing services that bring immediate benefits to the
users. Consequently, publications take a back seat in our list of
priorities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manu Rajan
National Centre for Science Information
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Bangalore 560 012
email: manu.rajan134@gmail.com
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