Outreach, Jigyasa, Training and Human Resource is newly constituted division to bridge the gap between science and society by fostering dialogues with various stakeholders such as local community, students, academia and educationist, post merger of erstwhile NISCAIR and NISTADS. The division carry out its Science outreach through symposium, publications, Science Literature Film Festivals, Indian Science Communication Congress, National Science Day, Yoga Day celebrations, Science to Society connect programs etc. For reaching out to students, to motivate and bring in scientific temper among them and to have a scientist-student connect, an initiative called ‘Jigyasa’ from Govt. of India, has been adopted. The division is implementing the scheme quite vigorously engaging the students with various events from time to time. This includes inviting students & teachers of Kendra Vidyalayas from the NCT region and showcasing the achievements, activities, live demonstrations and active interactions with the scientists and technologists. As a part of exhibition, medicinal plants and herbs are displayed and students gets “Touch and Feel” of herbs. The division also makes use of India International Science Festival (IISF) platform for outreach programs.
The division is equipped with necessary facilities and manpower to train and prepare science communicators, R&D personnel and library & information science professionals for meeting the challenges of the current times. Human Resource Development Programmes / Skill Training Programmes are conducted under the CSIR Integrated Skill Initiative. The short term training programmes are being conducted since more than 3 decades.
The division also conducts program for national and international participants in areas of Science Communication, Social Media Communication, Information Technology, Information Management, Library Automation etc. Open Source Software, viz. Operating System Linux, Integrated Library Management Software Koha, Institutional Repository Creation Software DSpace, Open Journal Systems (OJS) Software, Content Management Software Joomla with hands on training are also being taught.
The customized training programmes of division are also popular among the library and information science professionals because of the emphasis on “Hands-on” exercises on various software. This helps participants to implement the software they have learnt during the training programme in their respective organizations independently.
Highlighting feature of the division is organizing onsite training courses on topics viz. Science Communication, Social Media Communication, Information Technology, Information Management, Library Automation, Institutional Repositories, Journal Publishing through Open Journal Systems as per the specific requirements of various institutions.
