This Talk will take place in English exclusively on Zoom. Registration is not required to attend.
 
Abstract: Novel Technologies for Knowledge Dissemination amongst Livestock Sector Stakeholders
Livestock sector is a key component of the global food system, having a pivotal role in ensuring rural employment, food and nutritional security and poverty alleviation by safeguarding a stable rural economy. The expansion and prosperity of livestock industry is highly reliant on the academic proficiency of veterinary students. The comprehension of anatomical, pathological, and other para-clinical and clinical subjects is imperative for strong foundation of high-quality capacity-building programmes. Albeit, in absence of precise understanding of processes/procedures involved, failure on part of learners can lead to the mortality of patient/animals. Furthermore, animal protection regulatory bodies may impose restrictions over in-situ cadaver exposure, leaving a few opportunities for veterinary students to learn with live animals in a practical setting. Besides, the lab to farm transfer of latest research and technologies is pivotal to uplift the livestock sector.
The technological advancements have permeated almost every sector, and veterinary education and extension are not an exception to it. Tech-aided education and outreach programmes play a crucial role in ensuring the dissemination of scientific knowledge and skills to various stakeholders. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) open up new vistas to address these problems by enabling real like animal handling experiences and an immersive environment for better practical learning. These technologies allow students to understand intricate procedure(s) better and resultantly may enhance their clinical reasoning abilities to support healthy livestock industry. These are also paramount to give practical exposure to farmers to various animal husbandry practices at their own convenience. Similarly, 3D printing technology is also witnessing attention of the veterinarians for teaching, clinical practices vis-à-vis extension services with mimicking of various anatomical structures/organs/demonstrative models etc.
During the event being organized under the aegis of LST, speaker envisages to discuss about his exposure to AR/VR, which in collaboration with scientists got transformed to development of AR/VR modules and setting up of an AR/VR laboratory as part of the University Library of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana (Punjab), India for knowledge dissemination amongst the stakeholders. The experiences about use of 3D printing for students’ learning and farmers’ awareness will also be shared.
Speaker: Dr. Nirmal Singh (Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana (Punjab), India)
Dr. Nirmal Singh, Deputy Librarian, is holding the additional charge of University Librarian at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana (Punjab), India. He has more than 16 years’ experience of working at different libraries. He also served as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU for 2½ years. Dr. Singh played an active role in customization and implementation of Learning Management System (LMS) in the University during COVID-19 pandemic breakout, helping the university fraternity to continue teaching-learning activities in an alternative mode during the lockdown. He developed the Digital Repository of the University, having exclusive feature to retrieve publication records of the University faculty by NAAS Rating and Impact Factor. He has prepared teaching manuals and developed educational videos for students. Dr. Singh introduced 3D Printing, and Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies in the University for knowledge dissemination amongst the stakeholders. He has worked in the projects funded by UGC, DST and RKVY. He has more than 40 publications to his credit, and is on the editorial board of two journals. He has been actively involved in implementing anti-plagiarism policy, and introducing e-Governance in the institution. Dr. Singh has contributed five papers for four IFLA-WLICs and its Satellite Meetings held at Finland, Slovakia, Athens (Greece) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands). He attended the IFLA-WLICs held at Athens, Greece in 2019 in physical mode; and at Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2023 in online mode. His subject interests include user studies, scientometric analysis, network visualization, and implementation of emergent technologies to library and information services in particular and educational activities in general.
The Zentralbibliothek Zurich, the CERN Scientific Information Service, and AILIS (Association of International Librarians and Information Specialists, Geneva) jointly organize the Library Science Talks. A programme of talks for 2024 can be found on the AILIS website.