This post is from Thana, an Iraqi colleague who has shared in several training programs run by Simmons. She is currently in Chennai (formerly called Madras), India on a six-week training program. She writes:
Monday morning November 10th our lecture was about TQM, total quality management. Dr. Harishchandra (head of central library, Institute of Technology Madras) gave the lecture. We didn?t meet him when we visited the central library because he was out for a work meeting.
The lecturer focused on: What quality means. Why we need quality. Quality design. Quality of performance. Also, he asked us about how we found the central library and our points about it. He wanted to know if this visit effected us to improve our libraries in our countries and he talked about his experience when he visited the library of Cambridge University. Then he showed us how we can use many sites which we need to use as a librarian .
He next showed us his web page full of interesting things. It is http://www.harishchandra.com
The last message he said to us was “Do not be afraid of growing slowly, but be afraid of standing still.”
Want to say a big thank you Dr. Harishchandra – all of us in the training group appreciated what he did for us, and we hope for him a long life full of success.
At evening, we went to visit the American Library Chennai. It is in the United States Consulate, Gemini Circle, Chennai, India. All visitors are requested to conform to security regulations and produce a valid photo ID at the entrance. And, camera is not allowed to use!!! For that we haven?t picture there.
This library offers a wide range of resources, programs and services to provide accurate and up to date information on contemporary American government, its policies, institutions, society, culture & values, literature, history, international relations, US economy & global issues. The library serves people from all walks of life – student, teachers, politicians, etc.
Collection is more than 14000 books, 140 scholarly journals, and electronic databases which provide access to more than 10,000 full text journals and 30,000 other electronic documents. Also there are about 500 video programs and multimedia CDROMs. They also have US government publications, newspapers, and special collections on American studies.
The collection is classified in DDC classification and you can access the catalog at http://americanlibrary.in.library.net For more information you can visit it using http://chennai.usconsulate.gov
At 6:30 we were ready to celebrate Mildred’s birthday – she is from Zambia. We spent a nice time together, listening to music and dancing, and so many talents appear this night! Happy Birthday, Mildred!
Thana