Giridhar Kunkur is one of the esteemed library professionals known widely for his innovative library services for the user community. Having rich experience of working with the premier organizations such as American Center, The Times of India, British Council Libraries, QMed Knowledge Foundation, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, BITS Pilani, Kunkur carved niche for himself and the organizations he served. Presently he is heading the Library of LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT), Jaipur.
In this ‘exclusive’ interview with Siddu Huded, for Open Interview on the occasion of National Library Day, Kunkur opens up his heart to share his glorious professional moments and experiences with the sole intention to inspire the fellow professionals, especially the budding librarians. He shares his observations on how work culture and work environment differ from one set of organization to another and offers varied opportunities to learn and contribute. He specifically talks on how personal effectiveness can change the dynamics of our work culture. He is of the strong view that a service-oriented and passionate professional can make the library matter a lot in the user’s life.
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Over four decades into library and information profession, you have rich experience of working with the premier organizations like American Center, The Times of India, British Council Libraries, QMed Knowledge Foundation, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, BITS Pilani and now LNMIIT. Indeed, you are one among the very few professionals- being the most creative and enterprising professional. How is your professional journey so far? You can begin with your Intern/ Trainee days days.
Well, when I look back, I get a very satisfied smile. Every organization where I worked gave many opportunities to learn something new and that is enriching. I must say that my professional journey was full of learnings – thanks to my bosses, colleagues and of course organizational cultures.
Actually, I started my career as a trainee at Library and Information Services Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai in 1980. Joining BARC as a trainee – even before the announcement of my library science results was quite exciting and made me go through a rigorous training process. Here, I could see for the first time ever in my life – a computer! I was extremely lucky to work under the guidance of Dr. V. A. Kamath then Director of LIS Division, Dr. N M Malwad, Dr. Kelkar, Dr. Pai and Mrs. Joshi. The BARC library was the national centre for research and development of atomic energy and used to prepare the national input for the International Nuclear Information System (INIS). It used to receive the INIS output on magnetic tapes as a standard machine readable data base in the field of nuclear science and technology and BARC Library used to provide SDI service to its scientists, engineers, institutions and universities in the country.
I still remember going to TIFR library along with Mrs. Joshi to get the magnetic tapes processed using their computer facilities. As a fresher, my role was only to observe and learn. Everyone was ready to teach and support. This laid a very strong foundation and I could imbibe a good working culture at the very start of my career.
After two months of training at BARC, I joined American Center Library (USIS), Mumbai as a Presentation Intern on a contractual basis with my first monthly salary of Rs. 500. It was a U S Government’s public library with an American working culture and for the first time, I was exposed to a very sophisticated environment. Coming from a very modest background and educated predominantly in Kannada medium, the most challenging issue was the language! My English was rather poor then (not that I am proficient now). I had to interact with an American boss and Indian colleagues who were extremely good in English. I had to pay a lot of attention on the way the colleagues spoke, their etiquettes, and sense of dress, etc. Soon I realized that if I do not improve my language, behavior or etiquette, I will simply not survive!
One very prominent and well known personality at the American Centre was Mr. K. D. Chandran (father of the renowned bharatanatyam dancer Sudha Chandran) to whom I was reporting. He spoke impeccable English. Merely listening to him was a great learning. Another very important thing that I learnt here was the being in time to the office and promptness in providing the service. The very presentation of the library in terms of its look, neatness, furniture, signage and the way the staff interacted with the users created an everlasting impression and added to my learning. There was so much of “Feel Good Factor”. Ten months of working at the American Centre brought in a lot of confidence in me.
Indeed inspiring. I am sure, this training phase helped you immensely to carve your professional journey in a more meaningful way. Now, let us know your professional journey as librarian.
The next unique place where I could gain specialized service experience was Bennet Coleman and Co. Ltd.i.e. The Times of India, Mumbai, the most diversified media company. Here, I joined as a Reference Librarian in Science Today. That time, it was the only popular science magazine in the country. It had a small library of bound volumes of science journals and it was indeed a “one librarian” show. The primary users were the editors of Science Today and a few from other publications such as Illustrated Weekly of India, Nav Bharat Times and Femina. The main job here was to physically index all journal articles using catalogue cards assigning appropriate keywords and also prepare author and title index as there was no computer available.
My first “on table” black, classic, analog telephone came here!
This device kept me extremely busy as I used to get 8 – 10 request calls from different editors. The challenge here was to provide the requested information almost on the spot to the editors! So the indexing had to be absolutely flawless – not to miss out any article from any journal. It really made me learn the importance of being up-to-date in organizing information and also keep a track on what is being published in Science journals. My first personal experience of the provision of right information to the right user at the right time! Needless to say, in the beginning, I used to get complaints about irrelevant articles that were sent. It really made me learn from my own mistakes. Another important thing that I learnt was maintaining a good inter-personal relationship with the colleagues.
Soon after your stint as Reference Librarian at Bennet Coleman and Co. Ltd., you joined British Council Library, Mumbai where you served almost two and a half decades. Later you served other prestigious organizations.
Yes, in 1983 I joined the British Council in Mumbai. It was my longest tenure where I worked for 24 years. I was lucky to have served in different positions such as Book Promotion Officer, Lending Librarian, Reference Librarian, All India Audio-Visual Librarian and also as Manager of the British Library, Bhopal. As a Head of the British Council Library in Mumbai, I was responsible for effective functioning and Management of British Libraries in Pune and Ahmedabad. It involved managing a library with over 15000 individual and 400 institutional members in Mumbai and west India. That was a huge responsibility. To ensure smooth and efficient functioning of the library we needed to work continuously on quality improvement of various services the library used to provide, lay down the strategies for the library development and marketing plans, set targets and timeframes to achieve the desired results so on and so forth. Leading a team of 17 staff members, delivering customer oriented services, adhering to highest quality standards as stipulated by the British Council were not only challenging but professionally enriching too. A lot of time and effort went behind managing staff, evaluation of their work and performance. We also needed to organize staff training and development programmes to ensure the quality. The most interesting aspect of the work was to come up with achievable and robust marketing strategy and promotional activities and implement the same with a close monitoring process. The work also involved in organizing events to popularize the library and its services and to inculcate reading habits.
Soon after leaving the British Council, I joined QMed Knowledge Foundation (QMedKF) in Mumbai as Programme Director. QMedKF is an NGO which aims to fill in a niche gap in health sciences education and research in India. Here, I was involved in strategic planning, providing support in identifying/refining the medical information services provided by QMedKF. Promoting medicalinformation services to hospitals, medical colleges, medical associations, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare research institutions, organising events such as training programmes on medical literature to help health professionals, doctors, academicians and post graduate medical students, Identifying e-library projects and clients for documentdelivery services,etc. It is a very specialised and unique organisation headed by Mrs. Vasumathi Sriganesh–an extremely dynamic, knowledgeable, seasoned, respected and popular professional in the country. The team I worked here was small but extremely inspiring one. The experience that I gained here,I should put it as a lifelong learning for me.
Having worked in public, private and voluntary (NGO) sectors, my desire was to shift to Academic Libraries. I was indeed very lucky to get an opportunity to join Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, (WeSchool) Mumbai in 2010 which was one of the premier management institutions in the country. Before joining this first academic institute in my career, I wanted to make sure that I follow the best practices of one of the best Business Schools in the country. For this, I decided to spend some quality time at least for two days at IIM Ahmedabad headed by the most renowned and seasoned professional in the country and my a dear friend Dr. Anil Kumar. He gave me quite a few tips on how to make an academic library a vibrant place. That really gave me a tremendous confidence.
As a head of Learning Resource Centre at WeSchool, I could see a real corporate culture in an academic institution under the leadership of Prof. Uday Salunkhe. With a real support from the leadership, colleagues, and faculty members–our main objective was to revamp the entire library by introducing modern infrastructure and facilities to go with the latest trends and to increase the visibility and usage of the library’s online and physical resources.To begin with, we started working on the development of an interactive library portal by engaging a few students to make the library services and resources easily accessible and relevant to the users.
Working very closely with the internal Quality Assessment Team, we could set high service standards and adopt and streamline quality improvement processes to enhance the efficiency and capability of library team to provide customer oriented services. One such initiative was provision of Consolidated Information Service whichwas received very well and admired by the faculty members.
I must share one thing here. I strongly believe that one will learn a lot from informal professional exposure to other well-known libraries and interacting with librarians and other professionals in the library with an open mind to pick up what is good so that the good practices can be adopted in our libraries. We do not have to reinvent the wheel! I always made it a practice to visit other libraries with my colleagues only to learn and get an exposure. From Welingkar institute of Management I decided to take two support staff members who had never gone outside to see other libraries. They were just confined to Welingkar library. With the necessary approvals from the authorities, I took them by flight to Hyderabad to visit Indian School of Business (ISB). Our two-day visit was primarily to look at the infrastructural facilities, technology (RFID) implementation, various services rendered by the library, displays, signage, shelving, seating arrangements and whatever was visibly appealing. For my two colleagues, it was an eye-opener and turned out to be a very fruitful and extremely educative visit. On return, I could see a glaringly noticeable change in their behaviour and also they started taking a lot of interest in the library work and discussed with other team what all could be adopted in this library. Yes, seeing is believing!
In four years, we were able to transform the library including the infrastructure and desired services. I could also gain a lot of confidence in managing an academic library. One learning point here what exactly Steve Job said,“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do”. The most rewarding aspect of this tenure is when the colleagues even after seven years call me to appreciate the work.
My next move was to the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, BITS Pilani as a University Librarian and Chief of Publications and Media Relations. This sprawling 65000 sq. ft.palatial library with a collection of nearly two and a half lakhbooks is indeed an architectural marvel. My primary responsibilities were formulating long termand short term strategic plans and standard operating procedures for the BITS Pilani Library and also co-ordinate with other BITS Pilani campus libraries in Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad. As a Chief of Publications and Media Relations Unit, I was also responsible for managingand publishing of all BITS Pilani official publications such as Annual Reports, BITS Bulletins, BITSCAN, Research@BITS besides print, digital and social media coverage and stories working closely with the national and local newspapers, news agencies and television media.
The most cherishable aspect of my tenure in this library was the support and encouragement that I received from the top management and that enabled me to implement quite a few new services, facilities, collaborative spaces, a Maker Space, Multi-media Studio, BITS Heritage Gallery and revamp G D Birla Rare Books collection. The BITS Pilani library received Wiley’s prestigious “Digitally Transformed Academic Library” award 2019 and Informatics Innovation Award2020.
Incredible experiences. If you see the academic libraries through the prism of your rich academic and corporate experience, what’s your collective experience and observation?
Both have their own beauties. Working in an academic environment is a different ball game all together. The corporate librarianship depends upon the nature of industry it is. Here, the information services primarily go with the industry’s R&D section or to support company’s production or services. At times, it becomes too specialized a service. There are no regulatory bodies to which the “library” is expected to comply with. It is seen as a value addition to the company’s business interests. In other words,it may act as an agent for meeting core requirements of decision makers in the industry, certain needs in the business, patent, personnel, and perhaps safety areas of the industry. A corporate library may be structured as a vital service for research, providing necessary materials on business, production, marketing, management and personal development, and safety procedures.
Whereas, in an academic sector, the libraries definitely follow well established system to meet the norms stipulated by the regulatory bodies such as UGC, NAAC, AICTE, NBA etc. One will find a variety when it comes to user segmentation, subjects, hybrid nature of collections and services. Even the staffing and salary structure is also by and large defined including the designations.
Having worked in both the sectors, I must say that the academic libraries provide wider scope when it comes to application of Library and Information Science principles. You can actually get involved in many innovative services and experimentwithmany of your ideas. You can also academically improve your qualifications pursuing PhD, publishing articles, participating in conferences, workshops, webinars, seminars etc. Your growth in academic library is based on your academic calibre whereas in a corporate sector it is your personal effectiveness.
You were an amazing manager at BCL, Mumbai. I was told that you used to join the staff to shelve books before the Library doors open for the users. Your work was well appreciated and recognized. Could you please share some of the rich experiences and learnings of once being the manager of BCL?
In 1983, Igot the opportunity to join the British Council Library in Mumbai which was the busiest among the British Council Libraries in the world and the staff who worked there were undoubtedly elated because of the kind of reputation BCL had and the respect the people gave.
This is the place where I was leading a very professionally managed library system where marketing, promotion of Library Services and Customer Care were the epitome of our day today functioning.
The selection of the staff at BCL was known for its intense filtering process – primarily focusing on good communication skills and professional knowledge. Ms. Suman Kakodkar was my immediate boss then. She was a very strict boss but kind at heart. One of our daily tasks was to keep our assigned book shelves in the library absolutely in order. This was primarily to ensure that the users find their books on the shelves without wasting their too much of time. This became a good practice and followed it vehemently in all the libraries wherever I worked. I strongly believe that this is a “must to do” activity for every library professional as it gives an opportunity to associate oneself with the kind of books that the library has, their subject content and at the same time, to help the library users find their books quickly.
At the British Council, the personal effectiveness was skill that management used to look at while assessing an employee’s performance. Every staff member had a very well laid down job description and a quarterly job plan. The agreed job plan had to be met with the agreed timeframes. This is what made everyone to be on their toes to perform and prove their worthiness. There used to be a 360oevaluation process. It involved seeking the views on one’s performance from the peer colleagues, subordinates, line-manager, superiors, people working in other departments other than library, members of the library randomly and also from outside clients! So in a nut shell, moving up the ladder was entirely based on one’s effective performance with a higher level of transparency and based on one’s qualifications.
After 10 years of being in vibrant BCL Mumbai, I was promoted as a Librarian of the British Library, Bhopal in 1994. Moving away from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai city life to a very quiet and beautiful Bhopal, I really felt great. In a small city, British Library was a big name. Located in the heart of the city, The British Library was indeed quite popular. It was a matter of prestige for people to become the members of the British Library! Besides college students, academics, general public most of the IAS, IPS officers, Governor of Madhya Pradeshand a few ministers were also active members of the library.
I must share this incident with you. In the first week of my joining the library, one lady – a senior government officer, wanted to meet the new librarian. When she entered my cabin, coming from a Mumbai culture, I stood up and extended my hand to greet and welcome her. Looking steadily at me, she folded her hands and said, ‘Namaste’. I felt a bit embarrassed and I reciprocated Namaste with my folded hands. So a first cultural shock in a small city and a lesson. We sat and she started telling me about her association with the British Library for nearly 10 years! I also shared my experience with the BCLand discussion turned to Bhopal as a city, its heritage and culture, people, educational institutions,etc. We really had good exchange of thoughts over a cup of tea. After about 20 minutes she said, she had to leave for a meeting. I stood up and recalling Bhopal culture, I folded my hands and said Namaste. She laughed and extended her hands to shake my hands! I was baffled and confused but greeted her again with a big smile – People do change their behaviour to match the way you present yourself! When genuinity comes from the bottom of your heart, people will accept you.
Next seven years in Bhopal were absolutely exciting studded with lots of events. The team at British Library indeed worked very hard to make the library quite popular and undoubtedly the membership went up significantly. Those days, the network of British Council Libraries in India was headed by Mr. P. Jayarajan. We used to have two LIS annual meetings where library strategies were discussed at length with a focus on marketing, promotion, customer care, technology, user-oriented services, and revenue generation through memberships. So we used to get our annual target of membership and revenue to be achieved. All British Council Library managers were expected to make presentations on their strategies and marketing plans to achieve these ambitious targets. There was so much of learning from each other. It was indeed a very healthy competition between British Council Libraries and support each other to achieve our targets. Organising events were the highlights of BCL network such as quiz contests, exhibitions, literary and cultural events, talks by prominent personalities, screening of films,etc.
In June 2001, I returned to the British Council Library, Mumbai on promotion as Head, Library and Information Services, West India with regional responsibility covering Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune libraries. By this time, the library was fully automated. Our focus was always on creating and crafting new user-centric services and their user engagement with the library. Though the library was quite attractive in terms of its layout, design, modern outlook and infrastructure, every year it used to go through a refurbishment process. This look and feel of theLibrary used to attract many film producers to shoot their films at the British Council Library. One such movie was Baghban with superstar Amitabh Bhachchanji on the lead role. The shooting was supposed to be from morning 9 am to 5 pm on a Sunday when the library was closed to the public. On the scheduled date, the film crew arrived on time along with Mr. Bachchan. I was there to receive them and to ensure complete arrangement for the shoot.
It was such a golden opportunity for me to spend one whole day with the superstar. I was amazed to see the way he interacted with so much of humility and professionalism with everyone around him. In the movie, it was an author signing session of the book Baghban.
Honestly, my 24 years of being with British Council really made me what I am today. It gave me a very strong professional edge along with managerial, organizational and marketing skills.
Wherever you have served or organizations you are/ were associated, you have not only enriched the functioning of their libraries but also built great work culture and gave an identity to the library as one of the crucial departments of that organization and brought in institutional visibility. How was this possible?
The credit must go to the experience and culture that I imbibed at the British Council Library which had a very strong ethical, professional and creative corporate philosophy. I strongly advocate that libraries should also be seen as collaborative and social spaces. User engagement has always been my main goal. I strongly believe that developing a library based on users’expectations should be the main strategy for any librarian. This requires constant interactions with the users as well as decision makers to understand the users’perceptions of library. In this digital world, we should have a flexible mind-set to adapt to a changing environment and that is possible only when we connect well with the users. Secondly, any change that we need to bring in, should also have the top management/ authority’s approval. So when we put up any proposal, it should be justifiable, feasible, convincing and relevant to the changing trends.
The involvement of all stakeholders including users must be ensured. It is very critical for librarians to attract users and increase the footfalls in the library. That is possible only when we put in our best efforts to bring in customer-oriented services, social and collaborative spaces, the most relevant content , IT infrastructure and “service with a smile” that matter most to our users.
What are your key learnings from British Council Library and BITS Pilani?
The key learnings at the British Council were the importance of personal effectiveness, and inter-personal relationships, exhibiting proactiveness, promoting and marketing of library services, ensuring customer care in every bit of our work, events management, and aesthetical presentation of library, staff management and development.
Coming to BITS Pilani, it gave me ample of opportunities to work on resources management and their visibility, developing innovative library services, implementing emerging new technologies, developing user oriented services, importance of creating collaborative spaces, user engagement, working with faculty and other stakeholdersto develop the library, promoting reading habits among children, reaping the benefits of team building and staff development exercises, building the image and reputation of the library in the campus and among the LIS professionals, using social media platforms to promote library services, resources, events and initiatives.
You have been unique in organizing many user-centric initiatives. It’s your USP. You think and act out of the box. We would love to know the secrete.
As we all know, the users of today, particularly the GenY are very “tech savvy” and demanding. They are always all the time use internet and prefer to use hand held gadgets such as smart phones and laptops and wish to access information from anywhere. In most of the academic libraries the majority of users are GenY. To catch up with these users, we must change the way we present our libraries, gain new skills, adopt emerging new technologies and innovatively customize our services to cater to their needs sothat it stimulates the importance of the libraryand enhances its usage. Otherwise there will be a void between users and the library.
Anything that we want to introduce in the library, it should be in consultation with the users. When we interact more and more with our users, we come to know their perception of a library and what theywish to see in the library. – Just implement those ideas, if they make sense.
Not only user services, even to keep the staff motivated, you introduced meaningful initiatives and created a sense of oneness to serve the user community. What is the secret of staff management?
Respect! Every individual has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. One should focus on the strengths rather than weaknesses and leverage on them. When we value colleagues, they certainly feel recognized. Based on the skill sets, I assign the tasks with a clear outcome of their work within agreed time-frames. Encouraging and appreciating staff for their big and small contributions motivates them. At the same time, staff development and trainings should be taken as a very serious and important activity. We must not forget that anytime, the staff is hugely responsible for running the core functions of the library. Holding regular staff meetings to know the problems faced by them in their day to day work and providing a right kind of solution and support will lead to positive outcomes. Celebrating staff birthdays, taking them out for a picnic and holding team-building exercises brings them close and helps eliminate misunderstandings. It also makes one to know others strengths in a very informal way. Recommending deserving staff members’ names for institutional awards also motivate them. One thing that I always practiced is not to dictate but work with them as a team member.
Can you please share a few interesting memories or incidents of dealing with users which you always cherish?
I would like to share this incident which I always cherish. A BITS alumnus, Prof. Narendra Ahuja who is currently the Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at University of Illinois, US visited the BITS Pilani library a few years ago. He came and requested me whether I could help him in finding the book entitled, What Religion is in the Words of Swami Vivekananda (link), edited by John Yale which he used to read when he was a student in the year 1985 – i.e. thirty five years ago. I said, “Of course, I will check if it is still available”. Fortunately, the OPAC confirmed its availability and I took him to the location of the book on the first floor hoping that I would trace it. Luckily, I could find it on the shelf. The moment I picked up the book from the shelf, he grabbed it from my hand and said,“This is the book that I was looking for and it has changed my life!. I am what I am today because of this book.” He had come along with a professional photographer. He asked him to take a photograph holding the book. He also very carefully took the photograph of the cover page, title page and due date slip page. He particularly showed me three dates when he had borrowed the book. I was amazed that he could remember the months and year of borrowing the book even after 35 years! I was deeply touched and asked him why is he taking the photographs of the book whether it is out of print? He said, “I have a copy of this book at my home. But I was longing to come and touch this book, feel and smell it again which really changed my life!”
This is one good example of how users get emotionally engaged with their library and how libraries help individuals in their lifelong learning. Our traditional way of thinking on “user in the life of the library” should disappear. We must really need to think about “the library in the life of the user!”
You have great working relation with the bosses you worked with so far. Could you please share anything that you learned and your advice to our budding librarians?
Well, building a good working relationship with the boss is extremely important. Look for appropriate opportunities and take initiative to connect with him/her to inform about your plans to develop the library and show him/her all the good work you have done. Involving the boss in all major events organized by the library is another way to showcase your work. Figure out what are his/her interests and keep sharing relevant information on a regular basis. Writing convincing and feasible project proposals to develop the library shows your professional ability as well as interest that makes him/her to develop trust in you. It is a good practice to ask for feedback from the boss as it leads to several good and positive things – does not matter even if some observations are made on our shortcomings. It only helps us in improving the performance as per his/her expectations.
What is your message tothe budding librarians?
Be a good practitioner. Five Laws of Library Science are not something to be hung on the wall of the library but to understand and put them into practice. They are still very much relevant in the present context. The librarianship is an absolutely rewarding field to enter. It fits very well those who love knowledge, learning, reading and innovating.
However, while several personal qualities, helping nature and skills help one to perform better as a librarian there are so many skills and competencies that one needs to acquirein order to succeed in this field. If you wish to thrive as a librarian, then be innovative in your approach. Does not matter which library you are working for, one should look at it as a laboratory and keep experimenting new things. Be assured, it gives you enough opportunities to do so. Do not worry about failures. They will also teach us something and we learn from our own mistakes. Enjoy your job, build the reputation of your library, raise the bar of LIS profession. I keep saying, “If there is a paradise on earth, it is my library!”
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Note · All the answers/ opinion expressed in this interview/document are of the interviewee.
[Disclaimer, Volunteer, Translate]
Cite · Huded, Sidlingappa M. (2021 November, 24). If there is a paradise on earth, it’s my library: Giridhar Kunkur [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://openinterview.org/2021/11/24/if-there-is-a-paradise-on-earth-its-my-library-giridhar-kunkur/
Credits · Kunkur’s photo: digittal2019.wixsite.com/; In-post photos: (Kunkur’s Facebook page); Research assistance and editing: Santosh C. Hulagabali, PhD
Sidlingappa M. Huded (fondly called as Siddu Huded) is an Assistant Librarian at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. His areas of interest are: scholarly communication, archiving, open access and digital content management. He was part of his University team who recently launched Schoolbooks Archive, an open-access international archive of schoolbooks and artefacts.
It is one of the very interesting interviews by Mr. Girish and looking at his various library background experiences it opens the eyes for many service opportunities to users. Also great evoking questions by Siddu Huded. Many things to learn.
Read the interview of Girish Kunkur and enjoyed which is an inspiring one to the budding professionals. I know him from more than 40 years and he enjoyed the work, made users and management always happy. He introduced new things needed to the particular library. Let him serve more and more and help the user community. I wish him all the best. God bless him.
N C Hugar
Lib. Inf. Officer(Rtd)
IIT, Bombay
Such a profound and diversified career you have Kunkur sir!!this interview is not only inspirational to LIS professionals but much important for students too who will set some goals and aspire to achieve dreams to be near you. Many congratulations to Kunkur Sir and Mr. Sidddu 🙏🏻
Giridhar Kunkur is a rare blend of motivation, skill, dedication and humility.
@Siddu, very inspiring interview!
Mr. Giridhar Kunkur is one of the most versatile LIS professional in India. It is commendable that he is continuing the profession even after his retirement. I had an opportunity to see him at BCL Mumbai even though I did not any personal interaction with him. During pandemic, I had an opportunity to attend a webinar in which he described the changes at BITS Pillani. I wish him a long and fruitful professional life.
Girish👏👏🎉🎉privilaged and happy to follow the interview, I mean illustrious career spanning 40 years,that to Gem of the every inning played and coming out with flying colours, is not easy, as, may be I am the one among few, who know the struggle with hardship you went from days of American Center (worth to mention, you went to Bombay with few hundreds in the pocket). Few lines in interview, it is mentioned that you are opening up heart to sole intention for library fatrinity, indeed ur interview is role model for all fratinities👍👍👍Your humbleness, kindness, attitude, caring for human values, intensity and eagerness to learn new things, implementation, above all respect to seniors,fellow workers is asset to any organisation. Last but not least helping nature; loyalness to friendship, made you most sought, held in high esteem among everyone👏👏👏👏Kuduos to you. Best wishes for further, no retirement age💐🎉💐🎉
A must read for all LIS professionals. Lot to put in to actual practice. Thank you Kunkur Sir
That’s all, I recently, described it in one of our WhatsApp group as “Kunkur Librarianship”! As it is quite visible, this is a grand professional voyage of one of the ‘finest Librarians of our time’. Indeed, his charismatic personality and dedication towards the library users are highly commendable and imitable. Though, I did not got a chance to work under his mentorship at The BCL, but, indirectly, I learnt many of his traits/ideas (many I couldn’t/don’t practice now!), but, one thing for sure I do practice is all about the care for, ‘user, user and user’ (a dedicated approach). Do whatever possible towards your user’s knowledge needs. I feel myself great and proud to be associated with Shri.Giridhar Kunkur sir (popularly known as Girish), professionally, personally and socially. Thanks a lot Mr.Siddu for this wonderful interview with a lot of learning experiences.
Management of different kinds of Libraries with fully co-operative and friendly way with all colleague and professional shows good quality of Library Professional. Library is the resource home and user is the family. Librarian can make such effort that user can attract the Library and utilization of resources . I feel that Mr. kunkar done their job very honestly and perfect way following the library Rules and five laws. His focus on the profession is fully dedicated and respectful.
Once again a good choice by Santosh to interview Mr Kunkur an excellent and humble library professional with an extraordinary track record. I think our present generation of library professionals should take a leaf from his career and be inspired to perform better in their job because the LIS field is slowly losing its credibility. While many LIS professionals boast of many things, Giridhar Kunkur seems to be a silent worker. Hats off to him.
What an inspiring interview ! I am one of those hundreds of young librarians who are inspired by Girish Kunkur Sir. I met him for the first time in 2001 at BCL Mumbai. I immediately liked his approach to work and life. The association still continues strong even after more than two decades. I am glad that i met him when i was new to the profession.
He is an epitome of humility, professionalism and concern for LIS profession. He has set very high standards for library services, which serve as a benchmark for any library, be it corporate, research or academic library. I have shared this interview with our MLIS and PG Diploma students. It will certainly inspire them to do much better. I also shared it with my library colleagues at TISS across four campuses.
Thank you Siddu Huded. This interview will continue to inspire young librarians, who may not have had the privilege of knowing him closely. Open Interview is turning out to be a very good initiative Santosh. Keep up this zeal. All the best.
Thank you for such interviews its very inspiring interview to all the LIS Professionals.
–Cross Post– Thank you for sharing this wonderful interview with Mr. Giridhar Kunkur. All of us librarians have a wealth of riches to mine from Mr. Kunkur’s sharing. It is not only the rich experiences he has had but the humility and openness of his learning from every incident and from every person, be it user, staff or management and from visiting other libraries.
I found it really respectful on his part to enable his staff to have experiences from other libraries. How much we can learn from this insightful glimpse of a superb librarian!
With respectful wishes for continued energy and passion to Mr. Kunkur,
Usha Mukunda