Libraries can act as a catalyst for start-ups, said Madhukumar Mehta, chief mentor of creating while delivering a talk at MICA.
Mehta was speaking as part of a day-long seminar on 'Startups India and Role of Libraries' and spoke about how dynamic libraries can play an active role in transforming the Indian society into an enterprising one by providing learning spaces, maker spaces, access to internet, access to numerous subscribed and free online resources, and other services.
"While an entrepreneur cannot be restricted to get resources, a librarian and a library can reduce the time consumed during his journey. Only a librarian can identify right kind of resources which is needed by start-ups to develop any technology, etc," Mehta said.
A variety of speakers were invited to the seminar and they spoke about the interdependence between libraries and startups and the recent developments in both the areas. H Anil Kumar of Vikram Sarabhai Library of the IIMA said, "The problem is while new universities are now realizing the importance of libraries, lot of push and change is needed at the policy level in terms of appointment of librarians, they pay scale, etc. We need to provide the space and ambience to students."
