Saturday, January 31, 2009

Govt set to make available computers @ about Rs 500

To take knowledge to every household and help students get feed on
every subject while sitting home, the government is set to make
available low-cost computers at USD 10 within six months.

Technology for these small devices has been developed by IISC,
Bangalore and IIT Madras. "But lot of testing has to be done to ensure
that the technology works properly. Once the testing is over, the
computers will be made available on commercial basis. The target is to
make it available in six months time," Higher Education Secretary,
Ministry of HRD, R P Agrawal said reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.

The computer will be a small equipment with expandable memory, LAN and
Wi-Fi facilities. The government will also produce e-content on every
subject which will be made available free of cost.

A prototype computer has been designed which is being tested now. "Its
cost will be USD 10. If the parents want to gift something to their
kids, they can easily purchase this item and gift them," he said.

Students can get the e-content feed and load them in their computers
and take advantage of the materials. The government will provide these
computers to educational institutions at a subsidised price, Agrawal
said.

The government is in the process of consultation with different
agencies for production of these computers and are seeking
collaboration with them. These computers can run at two WT power. "The
ultimate target is to have a Virtual Technological University,"
Agrawal said.

The low-cost computers are being developed under the central scheme --
National Mission on Education through Information Communication
Technology (ICT).

The ICT scheme envisages providing broadband connectivity to about
20,000 institutions, including 100 central educational institutions,
in the country.

Institutions run by state governments and private agencies will have
to bear 25 per cent of the cost for the broadband connectivity.

There are about 15,000 institutions in the country which do not have
any connectivity and they will get five MBPS connectivity, Agrawal
said. "The purpose is that the scheme will bridge the digital divide
between institutions," he said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has already approved
the scheme which aims to use ICT in providing personalised and
interactive knowledge modules to students, a step aimed at increasing
enrollment rate by five per cent in higher education in the 11th Plan.

The scheme would cost Rs 4,612 crore in the 11th Plan. "About 40 per
cent of the fund will be spent on developing e-content. The e-content
will be provided free to the institutions and students," he said.

About 10,000 departments of 420 universities will be benefited by the
project. The scheme will be launched at Tirupati on February three.

However, this scheme will be different from National Knowledge Network
(NKN) being launched by the Department of Telecommunication. The NKN
will provide high capacity connectivity to premier institutions.

After the ICT scheme is in place, students will get lectures offered
by IIT professors online and could even get their doubts cleared.

There is a plan to start 100 educational channels beaming them through
EDUSAT, Agrawal said. These channels will spread education in remote
and inaccessible areas.

The government is also starting 1,000 polytechnics at a cost of Rs
6,858 crore. It has released Rs 100 crore for starting 50 such
institutions in the first phase.

At present, there are about 1,250 polytechnics in the country with an
intake for about 4.5 lakh students.

Source | Financial Express | 29 January 2009

Second & Final Announcement Of National Workshop on Library 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

We, at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad are organising a two day
workshop on "Library2.0 : A Global Information Hub.

Date : 5 - 6 February 2009.

Venue : Ramanathan Auditorium in PRL, Ahmedabad

Registration Fees : Rs 1000/- (without accommodation)
Rs 1500/- (with
accomodation)

Main Themes : Understanding Web 2.0
Interoperability
standards and Protocols
Network & RFID
Technologies
Open Source Technologies

Two Days National Level Symposium On "Lirarianship in 21st Century: Challenges & Prospectus", Thakur College of Engineering & Technology

Dates: April 8th -9th , 2009 For more information please contact: Coordinator & Contact person : Mr. Devidas G. Kalwale, Librarian, Thakur College of Engg & Technology, Thakur Village, Kandivali (E), Mumbai 400 101. Ph: 67308131/ Mob: 9869717226. Email: devidas.kalwale@thakureducation.org

Do you know? LIS Links also provides the following services at free of cost Link Library of Open Access English Language Journals: http://lislinks.blogspot.com/ LIS Links: A Link Library in LIS: http://lislinks.110mb.com/ Online Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science: http://sites.google.com/site/lisencyclo/ Jobs in LIS in India: http://lisjob.blogspot.com/ Upcoming Seminars, Conferences, Workshops and Refresher Courses in LIS in India: http://lisseminar.blogspot.com/ Latest Happenings and Contemporary Issues in LIS: http://lislatest.blogspot.com/ Awards, Prizes, Scholarships or Fellowships in LIS: http://lisscholarship.blogspot.com/ Admission Notice for Courses in LIS in India: http://liscourse.blogspot.com/ Indian Library and Information Science Book Review: http://lisbr.blogspot.com/ Reports of Seminars, Conferences and Workshops in LIS in India: http://lisreport.blogspot.com/ LIS Links: Connecting LIS Professional in India: http://lislinks.ning.com/ Note: You can also forward any massage from your institute to be published freely over the “LIS Links” works for wide audience. Just send your massage badanbarman at gmail dot com

International Workshop on Information Literacy (IWIL) – 2009, Independent University, Bangladesh, Baridhara, Dhaka

Date: 22-26 June 2009 Organized by: Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). Sponsored by: The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Venue: Independent University, Bangladesh, Baridhara, Dhaka For more information please contact: M. Hossam Haider Chowdhury, University Librarian, Independent University, Bangladesh. Phone: 880-2-9884498, 880-2-9881917, 880-2-9881681. Fax: 880-2-8823959, 880-2-9896575. E-mail: mhhc@iub.edu.bd

Do you know? LIS Links also provides the following services at free of cost Link Library of Open Access English Language Journals: http://lislinks.blogspot.com/ LIS Links: A Link Library in LIS: http://lislinks.110mb.com/ Online Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science: http://sites.google.com/site/lisencyclo/ Jobs in LIS in India: http://lisjob.blogspot.com/ Upcoming Seminars, Conferences, Workshops and Refresher Courses in LIS in India: http://lisseminar.blogspot.com/ Latest Happenings and Contemporary Issues in LIS: http://lislatest.blogspot.com/ Awards, Prizes, Scholarships or Fellowships in LIS: http://lisscholarship.blogspot.com/ Admission Notice for Courses in LIS in India: http://liscourse.blogspot.com/ Indian Library and Information Science Book Review: http://lisbr.blogspot.com/ Reports of Seminars, Conferences and Workshops in LIS in India: http://lisreport.blogspot.com/ LIS Links: Connecting LIS Professional in India: http://lislinks.ning.com/ Note: You can also forward any massage from your institute to be published freely over the “LIS Links” works for wide audience. Just send your massage badanbarman at gmail dot com

Indian Institute of Technology, Patna is looking for Assistant Librarian

Scale of Pay: Rs.15600-39100

Last Date: Feb 23, 2009

For more information, please check at: http://www.iitp.ac.in/IIT_Patna_jobs_non_faculty.htm

एमबीएचे भवितव्य उज्ज्वल

आयईएस मॅ नेजमेण्ट कॉलेज अॅण्ड रिसर्च सेण्टरमध्ये तीन पूर्णवेळ आणि तीन अर्धवेळ अभ्यासक्रम चालवले जातात.

१) मास्टर ऑफ मॅनेजमेण्ट स्टडीज (एमएमएस)- २ वर्षं - पूर्ण वेळ

२) पोस्ट ग्रॅज्युएट डिप्लोमा इन मॅनेजमेण्ट (पीजीडीएम)- २ वर्षं - पूर्ण वेळ

३) पोस्ट ग्रॅज्युएट डिप्लोमा इन मॅनेजमेण्ट (हेल्थ केअर अॅण्ड फार्मास्युटिकल मॅनेजमेण्ट(पीजीडीएम(एचसीपीएम)- २ वर्षं - पूर्ण वेळ

४) मास्टर ऑफ फायनान्शिअल मॅनेजमेण्ट (एमएफएम)- ३ वर्षं- अर्ध वेळ

५) मास्टर ऑफ माकेर्टिंग मॅनेजमेण्ट (एमएमएम)- ३ वर्षं - अर्ध वेळ

६) मास्टर ऑफ इन्फोर्मेशन मॅनेजमेण्ट (एमआयएम)- ३ वर्षं-अर्ध वेळ

RDFaification of Drupal 6

You don't have to wait for Drupal 7 to RDFaificate your Drupal site. I spent yesterday tweaking my space, and if you access the site now with a tool, such as the Semantic Radar Firefox add-on, you'll see all sorts of semantic goodness. I used a combination of plug-ins and theme modifications to make my changes, and will probably add to the overall effect over time.

Undegradable Intake Protein Supplementation of Compensating Spring-Born Steers and Summer-Born Steers During Summer Grazing

Three trials were conducted to determine the effects of previous winter gain (Trials 1 and 3) and age of calf (Trials 1 and 2) on response to undegradable intake protein (UIP) supplementation during summer grazing. In Trial 1, 48 spring-born steers (243 kg) were used in a 4 2 factorial arrangement. Steers were wintered at four rates of gain: 0.65 (FAST), 0.24 (SLOW), 0.38 (S/F), and 0.38 (F/S) kg/d. The intermediate rates of gain (S/F and F/S) were created by switching steers from slow to fast or fast to slow midway through the wintering period. Following winter treatments, steers were assigned to one of two summer treatments: supplemented (S) or nonsupplemented (NS). In Trial 2, 32 summer-born steers were wintered at an ADG of 0.25 kg/d and allotted to the same summer treatments as Trial 1. The supplement was formulated to supply 200 g/d of UIP. Steers from both trials grazed upland Sandhills range from May to September 1998. In Trial 3, 49 spring-born steers (228 kg) were used in a 2 7 factorial arrangement of treatments. Steers were wintered at two rates of gain, 0.71 (FAST) and 0.24 kg/d (SLOW) and then assigned randomly to one of six levels of UIP supplementation or an energy control. Protein supplements were formulated to deliver 75, 112.5, 150, 187.5 225, or 262.5 g/d of UIP. Sources of UIP for all trials were treated soybean meal and feather meal. In Trial 1, there were no (P > 0.05) winter by summer treatment interactions, and UIP supplementation increased (P = 0.0001) pasture gains over NS steers. In Trial 2, supplementation increased (P = 0.001) pasture ADG of summer-born steers by 0.15 kg/d compared with NS steers. In Trial 3, a winter gain by UIP supplementation interaction was observed (P = 0.09). Gain of FAST steers responded quadratically (P = 0.09) across UIP levels, with the maximum gain occurring at the 150 g/ d UIP level. The SLOW steers responded linearly (P = 0.02) to increasing UIP levels; however, the response was negative. Levels of UIP above 150 g/d reduced steers gains; therefore, the data were reanalyzed excluding these levels. These new analyses showed that FAST steers responded linearly (P = 0.08; 0.2 kg/d) to increasing UIP, whereas the SLOW steers had no response to UIP. In Trials 1 and 3, SLOW steers experienced compensatory gain and had higher gains overall. We concluded that previous winter gain affected the response to UIP supplementation with the FAST winter gain group having a greater response.

NRC Personal Learning Environment project is hiring

The R&D activities will focus across two dimensions: how access to a wide variety of learning opportunities can best be managed in an online environment; and how technologies can be assembled to best provide seamless access to a large variety of educational resources and services. In essence, the scientific problem is one of designing an educational infrastructure based on future best practices and then developing an educational application that will work within that infrastructure. The positions, which are for three years, include:
Researcher specializing in education and pedagogy
Researcher specializing in art, design and new media
Researcher specializing in library and information management
Technology specialist with an emphasis on database support
Technology specialist with an emphasis on application development