"Rufus, many borrow books, but only a few even bother to return them!" ❤️

On Returning & Referencing | Books

#memoriesfromdiaries

31st October 2000

This day, 23 years ago

From my personal diary entries

Well, while doing my PG Programme in English, I was also simultaneously doing my PGDCA Programme in the afternoon session.

Interestingly, one of our Professors, had also joined the PGDCA Course along with me. She had borrowed my book titled, Digital Computer Design to prepare for the upcoming PGDCA Semester exams, and on this particular day, she had promptly returned it as promised!

Something that I cherish a lot! Keeping her word!

Dr. Nirmal Selvamony used to share this concern with me quite often.

‘Rufus, many borrow books from my precious library collection, and I for my part, gladly give it to them for their reading, and referencing. However, quite sadly, only a few even bother to return them, and that too in good condition’, he used to say!

Interestingly, today, one of our vibrant past students, Ganesh came to see me, after fixing an appointment with me, to return the book titled, Critical Voices: South Asian History, Culture and Literature, edited by D. E. Benet and Samuel Rufus.

I appreciated him on two counts. First, for returning it as promised, and second, for returning it in good condition.

From the Preface to the book, Critical Voices

Then we had an interesting discussion on strategies to help preserve good old vintage journals like the Sangeet Natak, & The Indian Museum Bulletin for posterity.

This in fact, tempts me to discuss a little on this vibrant book!

The book titled, Critical Voices is a Seminar Volume, that evolved out of a National Seminar organized by National College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli, in September 2016.

Back then, the organisers of the Seminar had promised the participants that selected articles would be published in the Conference volume within four months’ time, after blind peer review and critical scrutiny.

We had also mandated that, authors who submit their papers, give their citations from the latest research journals, and latest critical material on the subject. They had gladly obliged.

This volume took us three months of intense labour of love to see the light of day.

And as promised, we published it in December 2016.

This book hence gets its uniqueness not only because of its variety, but also because of its scrupulous attention to detail. Moreover, the editors had also taken care to ensure that, new articles were printed only towards the right side (on odd pages) of the book. 

Impeccable in its typography, layout, and in its citations as well, the book serves as a paradigm for all conference proceedings. 

In this regard, I wish to make reference to yet another Bulletin that I happened to purchase at the Indian Museum, titled, Indian Museum Bulletin, during my visit to Kolkata this year.

The articles that were published in each of the volumes are of such high standards. And yes, as for the citations in these bulletins, I am reminded of Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, Dr. Joseph Dorairaj, Dr. K. Ganesh and Dr. Felix Moses, who used to emphasise on citing a minimum of at least ten print sources, with at least five of them from the latest journals.

From the Indian Museum Bulletin

Giving us all a visual treat into one such volume from the archives of the Indian Museum Bulletin, 1994, a rare volume that I happened to come across at the Indian Museum, Kolkata, this year.

Indian Museum, January, 1975

This five-page article, has references running to three pages.

To sum up this post, then - 

Citations are an essential part of academic writing. They are little acts of acknowledging your sources. They not only add credibility, accuracy and authenticity to your research, but also help in making your paper look genuine, original and reliable.

PS: On a related vein, you may want to look up a good ol’ book published in the year 1889, that’s there in the MCC Library, on our past post HERE.

You may also want to order a copy of Dr. Joseph Dorairaj’s book titled, FAQs on Research in Literature and Language on Amazon HERE.