Muhammad Abdur-Rahim Dalvi, 1925 - 2002

A Librarian, author, translator, and mentor. Dr. Dalvi's last project completed in his life time, has been best described in an article in Indian Express:

He believes that people should rightfully know about Islam, as it is. No personal interpretations, no prejudices. Just what the religion says, in a language that's native to the city. And that is why Mohammed Dalvi sat down after his retirement in 1980 and translated the Quran into Marathi - in both forms - poetry and prose.

Also to his credit are other literary works, all pertaining to Islam, written either in English or translated into Marathi. All because ``I feel that there is a paucity of Islamic literature in Marathi, and this can be effectively handled by a man from Maharashtra.''
Hailing from the coastal village of Dabhil, Dalvi headed the British Library in Pune in the years after 1960. A brief stint at the Kenya Institute of Education in Nairobi in 1975 was followed by his retirement five years later.

...While most of us would wish that religion in its true essence is understood by all, very few can or actually do anything towards that end. Here's one man who can rest assured that he has done his bit for harmony and tolerance amongst different faiths.
continue reading: Translating faith, by Rasika Dhavse

[ 1 ]
1400 years of Islam : a deskbook / compiler, Muhammad Abdur-Rahim Dalvi.
1989; ACCESS:Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or Area Studies Reading Rms
CALL NUMBER:BP40 .A13 1989

[ 2 ]
Islamic tales (moral) / retold by Muhammad Dalvi.
1985; ACCESS:Main or Science/Business Reading Rms - STORED OFFSITE
CALL NUMBER:MLCS 93/09847 (B) FT MEADE

[ 3 ]
Kuraāna Karīma : kāvyarupa āśaya rūpāntara / rūpāntara Muhammad Muhammed Abdurarahīma Daḷavī.
1990 ACCESS:Asian Reading Room (Jefferson LJ150) - STORED OFFSITE
CALL NUMBER:PK2418.D235 K87 1990 FT MEADE

[ 4 ]
Sharia : its substance and significance / Muhammad A. Dalvi.
1994; ACCESS:Law Library Reading Room (Madison, LM201)
CALL NUMBER:KBP315 .D35 1994

[ 5 ]
Sharia : its substance and significance / Muhammad A. Dalvi.
1978; ACCESS:Main or Science/Business Reading Rms - STORED OFFSITE
CALL NUMBER:MLCS 93/09812 (K) FT MEADE

Editor’s Column: Applying Machiavellian Ideas on Leadership to Libraries

Michael Lorenzen, Michigan Library Association's MLA Forum, Volume VI, 2008

In the early 16th Century, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince. In this work, he gave advice to the rulers of Renaissance Italy on how to successfully use power to be great leaders. The book was well received and in the following five centuries it has been examined and analyzed by philosophers, military men, politicians, and businessmen. A recent interpretation of Machiavelli was written by Ledeen (1999) in which the author showed how Machiavelli is relevant in the modern world in a variety of settings.
Contents:

Does Machiavellian Theory Fit Library Leadership?

Basic Machiavellian Concepts

Entering into Evil

Conclusion

References:

Forsman, R. B. (2003). Machiavelli and me: Strategies for sidestepping the budget axe during tough times. Colorado libraries, 29(3), 9-11.

Kierkegaard, S. (1954). Fear and trembling. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

Ledeen, M. A. (1999). Machiavelli on modern leadership. New York: St. Martin’s Press.


Lorenzen, M. (2003). Teaching and learning on the Web. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 7(1), 3.

Lorenzen, M. (2006). Strategic planning for academic library instructional programming. Illinois Libraries 86(2): 22-29.
Machiavelli, N. (1964). The Prince. New York: St. Martin Press.

Maxwell, J. (1992). Whether it is better to be loved or feared: Acquisitions librarianship as Machiavelli might have described it. Library acquisitions, 16(2), 113-17.

Quotations about Library by Eli Martin Oboler, 1915 - 1983

Who is Eli Martin Oboler? click here for a bio. See also ALA / IFRT Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award, "The Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award, which consists of $500 and a certificate, is presented for the best published work in the area of intellectual freedom."

"Much as some librarians would like it to be otherwise, the world views the library as a refuge from the world and librarians as unworldly refugees from the actions and passions of our time." in Ideas and the University Library: Essays of an Unorthodox Academic Librarian ~ Eli M. Oboler

    

"The sign SILENCE in any library is an admission that your library is poorly planned, your administration is a failure, and your clientele are captives in a dungeon--kept rather than participants in an educational and fundamentally entertaining enterprise." in Ideas and the University Library: Essays of an Unorthodox Academic Librarian ~ Eli M. Oboler

Quoted from Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations     Edited by Mohamed Taher & L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994) pp. 287, 290. Available @ Amazon.com

Emerson's Conceptual Librarian, Professor of Books -- Library Education Revisited

The idea of a “Professor of Books” originated from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote in his essay on books in 1856: “Meantime the colleges, while they furnish us with libraries, furnish no Professor of Books, and I think no chair is so much wanted.” Quoted from a book that has over fifty quotes by Emerson: A Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations. Edited by Mohamed Taher & L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994) p. 126

Emerson's legacy in practice: "Upon becoming the President of Rollins College, Holt saw the cultural possibilities in Emerson’s suggestion, and believed it suited his hope of making Rollins an ideal small liberal college. He made Grover his first faculty appointee as America’s first “Professor of Books.” Some years later Grover recalled “the thrill which I experienced when I came upon Emerson’s suggestion which was to change my life work and make my new vocation also an avocation. My imagination immediately took wings and I began to mull over the possibilities dormant in Emerson’s idea.” Edwin O. Grover (1870-1965): Professor of Books and Citizen of the Community.

A new book that finds a model for library education is here: The Politics of Professionalism: A Retro-Progressive Proposal for Librarianship ~ Juris Dilevko

Extract from the book: "Instead, building on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “professor of books” model, Dilevko suggests that anyone wishing to work in an academic, research, or public library must independently pass a series of essay-type subject-specific examinations in about ten to fifteen fields or areas of the arts, social sciences, and sciences. In addition, he or she must be able to read and speak at least one non-English language fluently, as well as attend courses about various aspects of the operation of libraries at regional summer institutes."

Interesting is another dig. John Mark Tucker's essay Emerson's Library Legacy: Concepts of Bibliographic Instruction (1984): "Ralph Waldo Emerson's criticism that libraries lack the profession of "professor of books" represents the central problem of bibliographic instruction: an inadequately formed theoretical or conceptual framework. A history of the ideas, notions, terms, and phrases about bibliographic instruction illustrates this."

Bottomline: The notion of 'A professor of books' (not just caretaker or possessor of books), is not new with Emerson. Libraries in the middle ages were managed by a scholar of repute, who had subject-specific knowledge. Period. These caretakers of libraries (the equivalent of modern librarians) were not trained in library schools, but they knew their art and craft of managing the books, providing service to their users, as per the best practices of the time. Examples of such scholarly librarians (with a transition from old-fashioned librarians to the modern librarian), are many. For instance, Ibn al-Nadim (died 995 C.E), and among others the caretakers at the Alexandrian Library, Bodlean Library, Cambridge and Oxford University libraries (details are here: Encyclopedia of Library History ~ Wayne Wiegand ), and much about them here: Some Old-Time Old-World Librarians. Scholar librarians are in the modern era replaced by bibliographers or subject librarians.

Questions for Further Study includes:
"Finally, what difference does the scholarship of librarians make to library users? Are scholarly librarians, and libraries that support and encourage scholarship, more innovative? Is there a measurable relationship between the degree of scholarship undertaken at certain libraries and the quality of library service delivered?" [source: The Scholarship of Canadian Research University Librarians, David Fox, Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, Vol 2, No 2 (2007)]

Knowledge Worth Sharing from a Solo Librarian: Helen Tannenbaum

Knowledge Sharing is...

Joseph Addison said: "When knowledge, instead of being bound up in books, and kept in libraries and retirements, is thus obtruded upon the publick; when it is canvassed in every assembly, and exposed upon every table, I cannot forbear reflecting upon that passage in the proverbs, 'Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets.'" More quotes from the blog: Library & Information Science Quotations.

Then, here is the wisdom, share it, and be empowered:

Extract:
Helen Tannenbaum, editor of Flying Solo, the newsletter of the SOLO Librarians Division of the Special Libraries Association, compiled this top ten list from posts on the dsol-sla electronic discussion list. I think it's great for any librarian!

10. Never lose your enthusiasm over purchasing a book truck.
9. Keep track of the things you do, the questions you are asked, etc.
8. Promote yourself and your services--don't be afraid to blow your own horn.
7. Don't be shy about asking the Solos list a question--that's why we're here.
6. Make nice with the following staff: IT people, office management, supplies purchaser, HR, your boss's assistant, mailroom and receptionist (i.e., Everyone).

Continue reading the complete list posted on the blog by Judith A. Siess:

TOP TEN LIST FOR NEW (OR ALL) LIBRARIANS

On the same shelf:

The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian's Weblog

One Person Library - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One Person Library - Citizendia

The Evolving Role of the Solo Librarian

WHO'S WATCHING OVER OUR LIBRARIES?

Patron Saints of Libraries: from Warrior Librarian Weekly.

The most excellent reference librarian Robert Lee Hadden has completed serious research on the matter of patron saints of libraries. He states that "there are a number of official and unofficial patron saints in the various forms of Christianity." Pope John Paul II recently declared St Isodore of Spain to be the patron of electronic communication, including the Internet...

...However, celestial guardians for libraries are not restricted to Christian religions. In Arabic culture, scrolls were dedicated to the King of the Cockroaches so that lesser bugs wouldn't destroy other documents. In Hindu countries, Ganesh, the elephant headed god of beginnings and remover of obstacles, is the library guardian. As he also invented the Sanskrit alphabet...

On the same shelf:

THE LIBRARIAN'S PRAYER / PRAYER FOR LIBRARIANS

Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is The Jewish Prayer While Logging Onto the Internet

TOP TEN NEW LIBRARIANS REVEALED BY LOVE LIBRARIES CAMPAIGN

By 24 Hour Museum Staff, 07/11/2007
The country’s 'Top Ten New Librarians' have been revealed as part of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s (MLA) Love Libraries campaign. The competition, launched in June, aimed to find ten librarians who have worked in public libraries for under three years, yet are transforming services with creativity and enthusiasm. continue reading

See on the same shelf and aisle:

ENTHUSIASTIC EMMA IS NAMED ONE OF COUNTRY'S TOP LIBRARIANS
Be the first reader to comment on this story
07:30 - 07 November 2007
A plymouth librarian has shown how the old stereotypes can be broken, through her innovative work with children and young offenders.Emma Sherriff, an outreach support officer from Plymouth City Council's library service, has been named one of the country's top 10 new librarians. continue reading