Study abroad in India

During the university's 2012 Winter Term, 12 graduate students led by iSchool professor Dr. Taverekere Srikantaiah embarked upon a 12-day study tour in Bangalore and Mysore, India. Nine students came from the university's iSchool Master's programs in Library Science,Social Sciences and Information Management, Intercultural Anglophone Studies and three joined the group from Indiana University and the University of Illinois.One of the course goals was to compare Library Science and Information Management practices in India with those taught at this institution. Students participated in round-table discussions with information professionals from various sectors, met with professors and students from several business and information management schools and scientific research institutes and attended lectures on topics such as Knowledge Management, leadership, innovation, Indian culture and history, Indian economics, education in India and corporate librarianship.

In Bangalore — the IT capital of India, commonly referred to as India's "Silicon Valley" — students stayed at the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) in Electronics City — the site of many of India's biggest software industries. Students spent an entire day touring the campus of Infosys, India's second largest software firm, and an employer of nearly 150,000 of India's brightest engineers and IT consultants. While in Bangalore, students also visited the following institutions: The Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (IIMB), India's equivalent of MIT or Harvard; the Indian Institute of Science; IndiaCan, a journalism school; the Karnataka State Public Library and Children's Library; and HCL, the fourth largest software consulting company in India.For the second half of the course, students traveled to Mysore, a former princely state within the current state of Karnataka. There, students were hosted by the Infosys Mysore campus, the training center for all new Infosys employees. Course site visits in Mysore also included Mysore University's iSchool the International School of Information Management (ISiM) and the Central Food Technological Research Institute.

In addition to the educational site visits, study tour participants had the opportunity to explore several famous sightseeing locations including the Mysore Palace, Bangalore's Cubbon Park and Lalbagh Gardens, 12th-century Hoysala temples in Belur and Halebid and the Jain statue of Lord Gomateshwara, a 55-ft monolithic sculpture dating to 983AD. For the final experience of the two-week course, students were treated to a stay at the Ratnagiri International coffee estate in the mountains near Chikmagalur where they witnessed the harvesting and curing processes of coffee beans. The program participants departed with a deep respect for the people and culture of India, as well as a new perspective on the field of Library and Information Science as it is practiced both at home and abroad.