City librarian makes her mark

PUNE: Pradnya Yogesh, librarian at the city-based software major Mahindra British Telecom Limited, has been awarded the ‘ D ive r s i t y leadership development’ award by the Washington-based Special Libraries Association for the year 2003.
Pradnya, who has been librarian at the software company since 1997, will be presented with a cash award of $1,000 at a special function in New York on June 7.Pradnya, who spoke to TNN on Wednesday, said, “I feel on top of the world. It is good to see that my efforts have been recognised.�
Pradnya, who holds a masters degree in library and information sciences, belongs to the 1993 batch of the University of Pune. Her first break came when she joined the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) in 1989, where she worked till 1994.
“I gained a lot of confidence there because the scientists treated the library like a temple and respected the role of the librarian,� she said. She moved over to the corporate world with a year-long stint at Fujitsu-ICIM Limited (now Zensar Technologies Limited). However, her talent truly blossomed at MBT, where she initiating many new ideas. First was SLIM ++, a fully-integrated, webbased library software. Having done that, Pradnya, become an accredited member of the SLA in 1999.
“I wanted to get newer ideas. I was sure that the membership of an international association would help,� Pradnya says. Pradnya, who attended the International Federation of Library Associations meet at Boston recalls meeting librarians who distributed books on camel back, librarians dealing exclusively with children and corporate librarians. She also visited the libraries of companies like Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.
“The learning was immense,� gushes Pradnya. Back home, Pradnya put some of her international lessons to work. For instance, she introduced fortnightly talks by experts — both internal and external — for MBT staffers. Once every year, she organises a book exhibition and a cartoon show for children of MBT employees. Her latest initiative involves the setting up of a library for a village school in collaboration with MBT.