Chetas Bhagat, Professional Library Assistant, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (Work Period at IITGN: 2012-2014).
To get an appropriate platform and visionary mentor along with the best leader in a combo is a matter of good luck. These elements are very essential to make the best professionals which are beautifully present in the IITGN. I think, getting the best platform during the first job is very important which definitely base building thing for professionals.
My association with IITGN since 2012. It was a golden time for me as being a professional as well as personal which I never forget. Kumbar Sir taught us practical librarianship and various new things with trust and motivation. On the other side, I also learned many things from my library colleagues. Here, I would like to share one experience with you guys. He used to give one topic every week. We have to read, understand, explore, write our views on the given topic and submit the write-ups to him. Most of the time, I did but I had a question at that time. How will it be useful to me? I realized the value of it in 2014 when I appeared in GSET examination. This exercise and many more things that I learned from IITGN helped me a lot for cracking the exam in 1st attempt. Secondly, He also used to give works like making flyers, new arrival lists, compiling bibliographies, and many more. The basic objective of him was” to learn new things”. I had seen him care for us. These are the incredible quality of him.
Let’s have a look on another side of the coin, the faculty members and other staff members of IITGN were so nice, cooperative and always ready to help. They are professionally and personally great people or we can say down to earth personalities.
Still, all these things give a feeling of homely association with IITGN. Whenever I get an opportunity to connect with IITGN, I never miss the opportunity due to my love and affection towards IITGN.
Bhavesh Narayanbhai Sargara, Librarian, Hasmukh Goswami College of Engineering, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (Work Period at IITGN: 2015-2016)
Joined the institute on 1st July 2015 as a library professional trainee. It was my 2nd library professional trainee where I gained the most practical knowledge of the LIS profession, especially the implementation of various IT tools in the library.
The main thing, I like during the traineeship is weekly assignments given by the Kumbar sir for the personal improvement as well as professional improvement.
Before the traineeship, it is difficult to work for 10 hours a day, but after joining the institute like IIT Gandhinagar, its environment motivates me to work for more than 18 hours. So many times we used to go at early 8: 00 am and left the office at midnight. It was a great experience spending more time in the library and knowing each other work by helping them.
I think our batch is different than all other batches because during our traineeship we got the opportunity to shift the library from Visat, Ahmedabad to Palaj, Gandhinagar campus. It was fun and enjoyed the whole week during shifting irrespective of time. And also manage the library work from the main library to the mini library. Our batch also works in the SOUL & KOHA. Also, we enjoyed with IIT student in the hostel.
I was fortunate to got the LIS mentors like Kumbar Sir, Panna mam, Tapas Sir and Viral Sir and their support and guidance shaped me to become a decent professional in LIS community. And I am also thankful to my colleague Manu, Ramswaroop, Amol, Kalsang, Hadungsar, Megha and Madhuri.