IFLA Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1 2008

IFLA IFLA JOURNAL

Ofﬁ cial Journal of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Volume 34 (2008) No. 1, pp. 1–120. ISSN 0340–0352 SAGE Publications

CONTENTS

Editorial: From Grassroots to National Libraries Stephen Parker ...... 3 The President’s Page Claudia Lux, IFLA President, 2007–2009 ...... 5 Facilitating Grassroots Development: the role of ALP in Division VIII countries G.E. Gorman, Daniel G. Dorner and Birgitta Sandell ...... 7 Reaching Out to Vulnerable Groups in China: a broad library with social inclusion Li Zhaochun and Huang Qunqing ...... 13 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran: reaching out to the world? Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr...... 20 Recognizing Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries Luiza Baptista Melo, Cesaltina Pires and Ana Taveira ...... 34 The Reﬂ ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment: embedding information literacy into student learning through an online environment Helen Partridge, Sylvia Edwards, Andrew Baker and Lynn McAllister...... 55 Library Personalization Systems: an Indian experience V.K.J. Jeevan...... 72 Library Services for Blind People: an African perspective William Rowland ...... 84 The National Library of Pakistan: an overview Pervaiz Ahmad ...... 90 REPORT How to Get Libraries on to the Political Agenda. The President’s Workshop on Successful Lobbying in Durban Bernd Schleh ...... 99 NEWS (with separate Table of Contents) ...... 101 INTERNATIONAL CALENDAR ...... 106 SOMMAIRES 108 — ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN 110 — RESÚMENES 112 — Pефераты статей 114 ...... 108 NNotesotes fforor CContributorsontributors ...... 117

Visit http://iﬂ .sagepub.com Free access to tables of contents and abstracts. Site-wide access to the full text for members of subscribing institutions. IFLA Journal Ofﬁ cial Journal of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions ISSN 0340-0352 [print] 1745-2651 [online] Published 4 times a year in March, June, October and December

Editor: Stephen Parker, Apt. 1C, Edifício Rosa dos Ventos, Rua Rosa Parracho 27, Cascais 2750-778, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]

Editorial Committee David Miller (Chair), Levin Library, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Michèle Battisti, Association des professionels de I’information et de documentation (ADBS), Paris, France. E-mail: [email protected] Galina Kislovskaya, Russian State Library, Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: [email protected] Alli Mcharazo, Tanzania Library Service, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Email: [email protected] Christobal Pasadas Ureña, Universidad de Granada Biblioteca, Facultad de Psicología, Granada, Spain. Email: [email protected] Christine Wellems, Buergerschaftskanzlei, Parlamentarische Informationsdienste, Hamburg, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] Wu Jianzhong, Shanghai Library, Shanghai, China. Email: [email protected] Stephen Parker (United Kingdom) (Editor, ex ofﬁ cio)

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Stephen Parker ‘E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran: reaching out to the world? ‘ by Nancy Beygijanian Appropriately enough, the fi rst paper in this issue and Dr. John V. Richardson Jr. from the University deals with IFLA itself – specifi cally, with its of California Los Angeles (UCLA). This paper aims Advancement of Development through Libraries to reveal the nature and extent of the offi cial (ALP) programme. In ‘Facilitating Grassroots English language websites of the Islamic Republic Development: the role of ALP in Division VIII of Iran and the motivating factors for the use of countries’, Gary E. Gorman, Daniel G. Dorner English on these sites. The main reasons for the and Birgitta Sandell describe the origins and relatively large number of English language sites development of ALP) and outline the ALP philo- are considered to be the promotion of tourism, a sophy, which is based on a belief in grassroots desire for international scientifi c cooperation, and development. Since 1991, 181 ALP projects, mainly increased fi nancial dealings. The paper provides concerned with different aspects of training have information on the English language content of been carried out at a total cost of more than USD the main Iranian government websites, identifi es 3 million. The grassroots approach means that some of the obstacles to effective access to this projects are initiated from within the developing content, and argues for improvements in Iranian regions and carried out by colleagues in the re- website design, so that the Iranian government gions. The paper identifi es the characteristics of can fully achieve its goals. a good project and briefl y describes some examples of good training workshop projects. It From Asia we move to Europe, with a paper on concludes that, while ALP is very important to ‘Recognizing Best Practice in Portuguese Higher library development and the visibility of IFLA Education Libraries’, by Luiza Baptista Melo of in developing countries, the fi nancial support the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto, base – provided up to now mainly by the Nordic Cesaltina Pires of the Management Department countries – needs to be broadened. of Évora University and Ana Taveira of the University of the Azores. The paper describes The next paper provides brief but vivid descriptions an ongoing project to assess the performance of of a number of grassroots activities undertaken by library services, resulting from a partnership of six the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province Portuguese higher education libraries. The study in China. In ‘Reaching out to Vulnerable Groups involves: selection of criteria to be evaluated and in China: a broad library with social inclusion’, selection of their corresponding performance Li Zhaochun, Chief Librarian of the Sun Yat-sen indicators; data collection and analysis; and Library, and his colleague Huang Qunqing point identifi cation of best practices. The selection of the out that various groups of people in China are criteria to be evaluated is based on a mixed model facing social exclusion. They include those who combining the Common Assessment Framework are unemployed or suffer ill health, labourers with and the Balanced Scorecard, while the associated poor skills, teenagers in prisons, residents suffering performance indicators are in accordance with from natural disasters, and peasants in the remote international standards. countryside. The Sun Yat-sen Library has been active in providing services to these vulnerable We remain with academic libraries in the next groups, creating 56 branch libraries countrywide. paper, which describes an e-learning tool designed The paper describes innovative services provided to develop student skill and knowledge in online to residents of a special community for families searching. The tool was developed at the Queens- with fi nancial diffi culties, to prisoners – especially land University of Technology in Australia. ‘The juveniles and prisoner students – to a library de- Refl ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Envir- vastated by fl ooding, and to two remote mountain onment: embedding information literacy into communities in Tibet. student learning through an online environment”, by Helen Partridge, Sylvia Edwards, Andrew Baker A very different aspect of information dis- and Lynn McAllister of Queensland University of semination in Asia is dealt with in the next paper, Technology, provides a demonstration of the ROSS

environment and how it was embedded within and Gambia, and goes on to discuss issues of the curriculum of two contrasting disciplines: literacy and education, scarcity of services, stand- information technology and science. ROSS pushes ards and expectations, and the technological the boundary of online information literacy pro- divide. The author concludes that what we do grams by guiding learners to know, reﬂ ect, and in the ﬁ eld of education, and what we do about practice information literacy concepts through the education in each and every country, will change use of case studies or problem based learning. the future prospects of blind people.

Still in the academic library environment, but The ﬁ nal paper in this issue takes us back once returning to Asia, the next paper, by V.K.J. Jeevan again to Asia. In ‘The National Library of Pakistan: of the Indira Gandhi National Open University an overview’, Pervaiz Ahmad of the Allama Iqbal (IGNOU) in New Delhi, India, deals with ‘Library Open University (AIOU) in Islamabad describes Personalization Systems: an Indian experience’. the history and development of the National The paper reviews the background to personaliza- Library of Pakistan, which was founded in 1949. tion of library resources and reviews the different The prime function of the Library is to receive, components of a content personalization system. preserve, and maintain the literary heritage of Library personalization projects in university Pakistan under copyright provisions, and the libraries in advanced countries are discussed before annual Pakistan National Bibliography, published the paper goes on to describe the personalization by the National Library, is based on copyright prototype developed in the Central Library of receipts. The Library faces many problems, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur both library membership and daily readership are in detail. very low, while services to users very limited. The author concludes that development of staff and Library services to the blind are discussed in services need immediate attention. the next paper, by William Rowland. In ‘Library Services for Blind People: an African perspective’. We welcome in this issue the second ‘President’s The aim of this paper is to raise awareness in Page’, in which IFLA President Claudia Lux the IFLA community regarding the situation of discusses some aspects of her presidential blind people in Africa. There are nearly 7 million theme, ‘Libraries on the Agenda’. This is also blind people in Africa; in most African countries, the subject of the report by Bernd Schleh, ‘How less than 10 percent of blind children receive to Get Libraries on to the Political Agenda. The schooling. This paper is based on information President’s Workshop on Successful Lobbying gathered from African delegates to the IFLA in Durban’, which was attended by over 100 Libraries for the Blind Section Conference in librarians and information specialists during the Grahamstown, South Africa, in August 2007. No recent World Library and Information Congress in information was available about the Francophone Durban, where the different task groups assigned or Lusophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa. to consider the question produced suggestions The paper brieﬂ y outlines the situation of library that were “as colourful and international as their services for the blind in South Africa, Kenya, composition”. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia

4 The President’s Page

Claudia Lux, IFLA President, 2007–2009

‘Hearing the voice and thought of the IFLA President’ – this was what IFLA Journal Editor Stephen Parker asked me to do for this new President’s Page.

‘Hearing the voice’ – this reminds me of an article I have read from a Futurologist: Thomas Frey. When talking about trends relevant for libraries he deﬁ nes the trend of a transition to a verbal society. This trend relies on a citation from Dr William Crossman, Founder/Director of the CompSpeak 2050 Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures, who predicts, “that as we say goodbye to keyboards we will begin the transition to a verbal society. He also predicts that by 2050 literacy will be dead.”1

Even though I do not believe this will happen so Claudia Lux, IFLA President 2007–2009 soon, and I will probably not be able to prove it, the trend of podcasting and using streamlining videos to listen to a conference paper instead of during my travels around the world I still meet reading it is already becoming a part of my life. many colleagues who focus on their books in And this is even more a part of the life of our contradiction to the digital world when discussing young librarians. And my Presidential newsletter2 matters with politicians. This is not at all wrong, will hopefully soon be enhanced by video clips, as some politicians see libraries on one side and addressing IFLA members each month, when our the Internet on the other side. This is not at all IFLANET has its new shape. wrong, as many readers come to the libraries for this reason – to read a book. This is not at all Does this have anything to do with my presidential wrong, as, at least, this is still one of our values. theme ‘Libraries on the Agenda’? But this is wrong, when we stick to printed books and journals only. Yes it does. Our advocacy work supports the implementation of technology in libraries, We all know, better than many politicians, that a access to information for all, no matter in which library is fi rst of all about content and access to format it comes along. Libraries are no longer this content – no matter be it through books or just printed book institutions. Big collections of electronic media. Our competence is to select, fi le, records, cassettes, videos, CD, DVD, CD-ROM, retrieve and preserve knowledge – a competence e-books, e-journals and other electronic fi les are with a growing importance for future students, collected in libraries alongside printed books scholars and businessmen, and for the people and journals, with growing use by their patrons. next door. University libraries and special libraries build up digital repositories with fi les in different formats. The world of knowledge is rich, and it will never This is a big challenge, not only to give access be completely in a monopoly of one publisher or to this material, when needed, but even more to one company of the entertainment industry. As preserve the analogue and the digital material that librarians we see trends very early, which are libraries collect. hindering the access to information for economic or political reasons. Therefore, to stand up for IFLA members know this all and it is nothing free access to information, to support open access new when an IFLA president talks about this. But initiatives world wide and to build up libraries

which are able to provide cross-media access Notes is a part of what I understand to advocate for 1. http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120 “Libraries on the Agenda”. 2. http://www.ifla.org/III/PresidentsProgram.htm# President

6 Facilitating Grassroots Development: the role of ALP in Division VIII countries

G.E. Gorman Abstract Describes the origins and development of the Advancement of Develop- ment through Libraries (ALP), launched as a core programme of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 1984 and funded mainly from sources in the Nordic countries. Outlines the ALP philosophy, based on a belief in grassroots development, and its grassroots framework, expressed in terms of its Strategic Plan. Since 1991, 181 projects, including inservice trainings, training in ICT and information literacy, and travel grants, have been carried out at a total cost of more than USD 3 million. Projects are initiated from within the developing regions and carried out by professionals in the regions. These activities support the three pillars of IFLA: The Profession; Society; and the Membership. Identifi es the characteristics of a good project and briefl y describes examples of good training workshop projects on the Preservation of African Photographic Collections, Managing Digital Libraries and Information Literacy. Concludes that ALP is very important to library development and the visibility of IFLA in developing countries, Daniel G. Dorner but that the fi nancial support base needs to be broadened. Keywords: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions; IFLA; Advancement of Development through Libraries programme; ALP programme; grassroots library development; library and information training; developing countries

Third World is a northern concept. We are less developed and this is good. We sustain ourselves and this is good. We have little waste and this is good. We are not third rate. Peace Corner (2007)

Background

Birgitta Sandell IFLA has taken a special responsibility for its members in developing countries by creating a core programme, Advancement of Development through Libraries (ALP), through which ﬁ nancial and administrative support to regional activities is channelled.

ALP was launched as a new core programme at the IFLA conference in Nairobi 1984. The programme was at the beginning managed by IFLA HQ. As a result of intense discussions within IFLA in the late 1980s, the Nordic countries offered to ﬁ nd a host for and ﬁ nance ALP. In 1989 Sida, the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, offered to fund a pre-study to reformulate the programme. ALP was re-launched at the Stockholm IFLA conference in 1990. Sida also funded most of the programme during the following start-up period 1990–1991.

After these preliminary phases ALP has been fully operational since About the Authors: page 12 1992, with an international focal point hosted by Uppsala University

Library. It is fi nanced by Uppsala University, Sida, ‘Then you will have time to relax, do a little fi shing, IFLA and 20 Nordic library associations and play with your grandchildren and visit friends.’ institutions. Sida is funding most of the projects (Peace Corner, 2007) but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland is also giving support through the Finnish Library What Is ALP’s Philosophy? Association. Up to 2001 Danida, the Danish equivalent to Sida, was one of the donors who contributed most to ALP. Like the fi sherman, we do not accept development for the sake of development – this is pointless for those most in need of development assistance, Learn from the Fisherman and is generally a vehicle for international ‘expert consultants’ to advance their own status. One day a fi sherman returns home from his canoe However, we do believe in development as a and is met by a foreign expert who is working means of empowerment – the empowerment of in this developing country. The expert asks the individuals, communities and cultures, on their fi sherman why he is back so early. The fi sherman own terms. explains that he has already caught enough fi sh to feed his family that day. Likewise, we cannot countenance development as something done by experts to the inexpert; but ‘So what will you do with the rest of the day?’ the we do condone development that arises from a expert asks. need expressed by the local community, and that is undertaken by the local community (with a little The fi sherman’s response: ‘Well, I do a little fi shing. help from their friends). I play with my children. We have a siesta when it gets hot. In the evenings we eat together and In view of this development philosophy, the visit friends.’ ALP standard takes a holistic approach to the needs expressed by people in countries that The expert interrupts: ‘Look here, I have a univer- make up the bulk of the world’s population. sity degree and have studied such matters. I want ALP works at the local level through community to advise you. You should stay out fi shing longer. and professional development, and through the You would earn more money and be able to afford personal empowerment of those who become a bigger boat and soon you would be able to invest involved with us. The key, in other words, is in a fl eet of trawlers.’ grassroots involvement.

‘And then?’ The fi sherman inquires. What Is Our Grassroots Framework? ‘Then, instead of selling fi sh through a middleman you could deal directly with the factory. You could ‘Grassroots’, according to The Free Dictionary leave your village and move to the city, New York, (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/), has two or London and run the company from there. You principal meanings that are relevant to the work could even put your company on the stock market of ALP: and earn millions.’ ‘fundamental’, as in ‘the grassroots factor in ‘How long would this take?’ the fi sherman asks. making the decision’

‘About 25 years,’ the expert says. ‘basic’ – ‘of or involving the common people as constituting a fundamental politico- ‘And then?’ economic group’, as in ‘a grassroots movement for nuclear disarmament’ ‘That’s when life gets interesting. You could retire and move to a small village away from the ‘Grassroots development’ implies that its genesis pollution of the city.’ arises directly from the people most in need of assistance, unlike development that is orchestrated ‘And after that?’ the ﬁ sherman asks. by traditional power structures. Thus ALP works

8 Facilitating Grassroots Development closely with those partners who are most closely The objectives in the Strategic Plan are: attuned to local needs: the International Focal Point of ALP and IFLA’s Regional Offi ces, IFLA’s • To provide opportunities for education and Division VIII and its three Sections for Africa, development of LIS staff. Asia and Oceania and Latin America and the • To facilitate the establishment of new library Caribbean. associations and the implementation of IFLA Guidelines on the management of library Results of grassroots development can inform associations. decisions, signal challenges, confi rm achievements • To promote the function of libraries: information and suggest areas for further development activity. literacy and lifelong learning, and to combat The premise of grassroots development is that functional illiteracy. results are tangible at three levels: individuals, • To promote the use of ICT and the creation of organizations, and the local community or society local electronic resources. at large. Therefore, it is perhaps easiest to visualize a • To increase publishing activities and the dis- continuum pyramid when visualizing the multiple semination of information to the communities, dimensions of grassroots development, progressing with special attention to marginalized groups. from individuals and families, to organizations, to (IFLA ALP Strategic Plan 2008–2009) the community or society at large. Thus it can be seen from the Strategic Plan that Individuals/families → organisations → ALP aims at supporting basic human development community/society. issues: literacy, lifelong learning, bridging the digital divide and sustainable development. And A development project is an investment that should it does this at the individual, organizational and produce both tangible and intangible benefi ts at societal level. every point on this continuum, and ALP seeks to measure and document both. ALP’s experience Supporting the Three Pillars of IFLA has demonstrated that each project can facilitate change and that grassroots development creates results not only for individuals but also for the ALP’s work also supports the three pillars of IFLA: society in which individuals live and organizations The Profession; Society; and the Membership. that serve their needs (such as libraries). (IFLA ALP, 2007)

ALP has been able to support three to four projects With respect to the Profession Pillar, ALP works per year in each region. That means that, since with colleagues and local library stakeholders in 1991, 181 projects has been carried out, 78 per- developing countries to assist in capacity building sons have received inservice training, 49 training for the library profession, library institutions and scholarships in ICT and information literacy have information services. Promoting the development been offered, and 196 persons have received travel of quality in library and information service is an grants. A total of SEK23,048,813 (approximately essential task for ALP and many activities and USD3,157,370) has been spent on projects during projects that have come out of the ALP Strategic this period. Plan cover these issues. Some examples include:

• Inservice training for librarians in Asia and A Grassroots Development Framework Oceania. • Training programme for paraprofessionals to ALP’s grassroots development framework is promote reading. expressed in terms of its Strategic Plan, which in • International Workshop on Library and Infor- turn is based on the strategic plans of the three mation Management Education for Countries regions and has been the guiding principle behind in the Greater Mekong Region of South East the selection and implementation of projects. The Asia. projects are initiated from within the regions and • International workshop on information literacy are also carried out by colleagues in the regions. in Bangladesh. That is the grassroots strength of ALP. • Scholarships to attend training programmes in information literacy education.

9 G.E. Gorman et al.

• A workshop on information literacy in Indonesia. Some Examples of Good Projects

The last three projects mentioned above are all To put fl esh on this somewhat theoretical discus- related to information literacy, so they are also sion, it is appropriate to look at some examples part of the Society Pillar, to promote reading, of well-managed, effective projects in the regions. information literacy and lifelong learning, which We have selected three such projects, as discussed are keys to participation in the information in the following paragraphs. society. Preservation of African Photographic In support of the Membership Pillar, ALP has, as Collections Workshop one of its priorities, to make library associations more effective. The associations in developing The Workshop on Preserving Our Pictorial countries have an important role to play in the Heritage: Photographs in African Collections, improvement of library services and advocacy, held at the National Archives of Namibia from and for the democratic, effective and effi cient 3–7 April 2006 (Project 164 (http://www.ifl a. governance of the associations. org/VII/s25/conf/ws-3-7-April2006.htm), was aimed at curators, librarians and archivists who were directly involved in the day-to-day care of the What is a ‘Good Project’? photographic collections in heritage institutions in Southern Africa. The workshop was advertised ALP works mainly by supporting activities such on the IFLA website so that participants and their as conferences and seminars, scholarships and institutions could apply. Fifteen candidates out of attachments (inservice training) and pilot projects. 34 applicants were chosen. After the workshop an Most projects have involved participants from more evaluation was done and it revealed that the work- than one country. A project should be of relevance shop was relevant and useful as it directly related to several countries in the subregion or region, or, to the participants’ daily practical challenges at if it is national, it should lend itself to development their own institutions; it provided them with prac- as a model or pilot project, able to be repeated. The tical examples of preservation and the care and proposal should come from an institution in the storage of photographs. The workshop method- region and have the support of relevant authorities ology was aimed at keeping things simple in order or organizations. The outcome should be measur- to facilitate the transfer of skills; the activities were able in a good project. Expected effects could be an eye opener for the participants who promised to that a number of people have improved their skills improve the management and care of the photo- or knowledge in a special area. The improved graphic collections. Although it is diffi cult to know skills will not only give the benefi ciaries better for sure what people do with knowledge and under- self-esteem and maybe better job opportunities standing acquired through the training, participants and/or better salaries, they also help them to give promised to train others and raise awareness on better service, and the community – and of course care needed to maintain photographic collections. the institution where they work – will benefi t. Participants were also requested to give written feedback after six months. In the project reports and evaluations ALP receives we can see how many people and who or Managing Digital Libraries Workshop which target group have received training and what they have learned. Unfortunately ALP does Another well-structured and successful project not have the means to follow up all the projects was the Managing Digital Libraries Workshop, before, six months after and a year after, to see held in Gaborone, Botswana, from 23–27 what has changed for the benefi ciaries. However, February 2004 (Project 150 (www.ifl a.org/VII/ ALP also receives reports from librarians who s26/annual/s26-AnnualReport05.pdf). The selec- have received inservice training or scholarships tion procedure here was different. Delegates were in information literacy. These reports shows that required to demonstrate their interest and their they have learned and gained new knowledge and personal commitment by submitting a proposal that they will be able to do better work. outlining a digital library project for their own institution and support for it had to be sought from a superior offi cer in that institution. A further level 10 Facilitating Grassroots Development of accountability was added in the requirement for raising the consciousness of fi fteen principal stake- a progress report from each delegate at six months, holders (Ministry of Education offi cials, policy one year and two years following the workshop. makers, head teachers, principal librarians) who In this manner, a sense of urgency was instilled in are able to serve as ‘champions’ of information the workshop proceedings and an expectation of literacy in Laos. The aim is for the fi nal outcome tangible evidence of applied knowledge gained of the fi rst workshop to be a draft information in the workshop. Evidence of the success of this literacy policy for Laos. strategy was refl ected in the high level of enthusiasm displayed by participants. Practical exercises were The second workshop will cover three days and aimed at building capacity in technical areas of is intended for teachers and librarians. Participants expertise, while interactive sessions provided an will include practising teachers and trainee teachers, opportunity for participants to share ideas and as well as librarians in various organizations likely develop their project proposals on a practical level to be able to implement information literacy to ease re-entry into the workplace. The 20 par- instruction for their constituents. ticipants came from Southern Africa. Over the three days the participants will be introduced to information literacy, examine the Lao Information Literacy Education generic model of information literacy education Workshops in Laos and the contextual factors that affect it – The decision to fund the Lao Information Literacy and will revise the model if needed. They will Education Workshops (Project 264: no published also be introduced to needs assessment for infor- information available as yet) was based on the mation literacy education as preparation for project’s close relationship with Goal 3 in ALP’s developing an information literacy education Strategic Plan: “To promote the function of librar- programme. Curriculum planning, programme ies: information literacy and lifelong learning, and implementation, ex post evaluation and revision, to combat functional illiteracy”. will all be covered.

A preliminary research project funded through A report will be prepared at the end of each work- Victoria University of Wellington was conducted shop and translated into the Lao language to in 2006 by Dr Dan Dorner from Victoria University serve as guidelines for policy development and of Wellington and Dr Aree Cheunwattana from information literacy implementation. A final Srinakhawinarot University in Bangkok. The report and ﬁ nal budget reconciliation will be pre- researchers interviewed teachers and students at pared in English and submitted to ALP by the four schools (including a rural high school) plus Project Manager, with assistance from the Project the Deputy Director of the Lao Ministry of Edu- Advisers. Twelve months following the second cation. This work has provided a basic under- workshop, the Project Manager will report on the standing from which a general model of informa- current situation with regard to the further imple- tion literacy has been developed and which will mentation of information literacy programmes in form the basis of workshop discussion in the Lao Laos, possibly supplemented by a visit from one Project. of the Project Advisers to review progress.

The Project Manager for the Lao Project is Mr Chansy The intention of the Lao project, as well as the Phuangsouketh, University Librarian at the two projects from Southern Africa, as one can see, National University of Laos. Mr. Phuangsouketh is to ensure that there is grassroots involvement learned about the ALP projects as a participant in right from the their conception, through their an ALP project held at Mahasarakham University implementation and their evaluation. in Thailand in 2003 and 2004 about library and information management education in the Greater Where to in the Future? Mekong Region of South East Asia. The Project advisers are Professor G.E. Gorman and Dr Daniel G. Dorner (Victoria University of Wellington). ALP has recently conducted a self-assessment, and an external peer review has also been carried out. The Lao Project will consist of two workshops – These reviews show that ALP is very important to the ﬁ rst one will cover two days devoted to estab- library development and the visibility of IFLA in lishing the sustainability of the project through developing countries. Core human development 11 G.E. Gorman et al.

issues such as literacy, lifelong learning and bridg- for two major projects for Vietnamese information ing the digital divide (all supported by IFLA/ALP) professionals. In addition he has managed or remain the most important areas of development. participated in workshops for information workers When ALP started more than 10 years ago, we in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. He and Dr Dorner thought that it would not be needed for so many are currently part of a team delivering information literacy education training in Laos-Northern Vietnam years. But today it seems as if the need is even and Cambodia-Mekong Delta Vietnam. Professor bigger. Gorman is also Chair of IFLA’s Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania. Contact address: However, a problem area is the fi nancial base, that School of Information Management, Victoria needs to be broadened. Efforts have been made, University, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New but the result has not been very successful. With Zealand. E-mail: [email protected] the Sida contract, ALP has support until 2009, but after that funding from other sources has to be Dr Daniel G. Dorner is Senior Lecturer in the School of found to complement the Sida funding. We hope Information Management at Victoria University of that with the help of our friends we will succeed Wellington. In relation to this paper he has consid- in fi nding new sources. erable experience of information needs and training in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. He is particularly active References in metadata applications, digitization and related IFLA. Action for Development through Libraries Pro- issues. He has written substantial papers and pre- gramme. (2007) Strategic Plan 2008–2009. URL: sented several workshops related to metadata, http://www.ifla.org/VI/1/annual/spalp09.htm. Dublin Core and other issues that affect knowledge Accessed 1 August 2007. organization and management. With Professor IFLA. Action for Development through Libraries Pro- Gorman he is currently preparing a monograph on gramme. (2007) Report: Photographic Preservation information needs analysis. Contact address: School Workshop, [National Archives of Namibia, Windhoek, of Information Management , Victoria University, PO Namibia, 3–7 May 2006]. Prepared by E.N. Namhila, 8 November 2006. Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. E-mail: IFLA. Advancement of Librarianship Programme. (2004) [email protected] Report on the IFLA-ALP Workshop on Managing Digital Libraries, Gaborone, 23–27 February 2004. Birgitta Sandell is the Programme Director of the Prepared by Dr R.P. Peters, 31 March 2004. IFLA Advancement of Development through Libraries Peace Corner. Linking Communities around the World. (ALP) Programme, hosted by Uppsala University, (2007) Perspective on development. URL: http://www. Sweden. She started to work part-time for ALP as peacecorner.org/model.html. Accessed 1 August 2007. Research Librarian in April 1993. In October 2000 The Free Dictionary. URL: http://www.thefreedictionary. she was appointed the Director of ALP whilst working com/. Accessed 5 August 2007. as Acquisition Librarian at the Uppsala University Library with French and Arabic as her specialities. About the Authors Her special interest in other countries and cultures Professor Gary E. Gorman (corresponding author) is developed during the time she lived in Morocco. Professor of Library and Information Management in Contact address: IFLA ALP Programme, c/o Uppsala the School of Information Management at Victoria University Library, Box 510, S 751 20, UPPSALA, University of Wellington. He has considerable Sweden. Tel: +46 18 471 3990. Fax: +46 18 471 experience in Vietnam, having taught and lectured 3994. E-mail: [email protected] (personal); there since 1988, and has also been responsible [email protected] (offi ce).

12 Reaching Out to Vulnerable Groups in China: a broad library with social inclusion

Li Zhaochun Abstract In developing China, groups of people are facing social exclusion. They are citizens unemployed or with ill health, laborers with poor skills, teenagers in prisons, residents suffering a disaster, and peasants in remote country-side. Library service is crucial for these vulnerable groups. The Sun Yat-sen Library has been active in providing services to these vulnerable groups, creating 56 branch libraries countrywide. The paper describes innovative services provided to residents of a special community for families with fi nancial diffi culties, to prisoners – especially juveniles and prisoner students – to a library devastated by fl ooding, and to two remote mountain communities in Tibet. Keywords: Public libraries; social inclusion; disadvantaged groups; prison libraries; children’s libraries; fl ood damage; Guangdong; Tibet; China

Huang Qunqing Introduction

China’s economy has been developing rapidly and unevenly. With the transformation of the social structure, the rich-poor gap is becoming wider. While more rich groups of people are emerging, there exist vulnerable groups who are facing social exclusion. They are the citizens unemployed or with ill health, laborers with poor skills, teenagers in prisons, residents suffering a disaster, and peasants in the remote countryside, all of whom face social resistance. It would lead to serious social problems if this situation is not changed. We realize that, as an essential part of public social services, the public library must do its part to offer services to these vulnerable groups, which can improve their abilities and competence and enhance the stability and harmony of society as well. This is what we are striving for.

The Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province, set up in 1912, is a large provincial public library named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen, carrying forward his great spirit of humanity and for the sake of all the public. It has a collection of 5.2 million items and over 450 staff. Up to November 2007, the Library has set up 56 branches inside or outside Guangdong Province and 25 ‘Reading Bases’ in the prison system of Guangdong Province by cooperation; these services are also accessible to the general public, making it a broad public library. Here are stories of ﬁ ve branches with pictures to demonstrate how the Library reaches out to vulnerable groups.

Tangxia Branch, Reaching Out to Disadvantaged Citizens

Where did we Reach Out to Disadvantaged Citizens? We had a strong sense of the need to reach out to disadvantaged About the Authors: page 19 citizens, but they were too scattered. In September 2002, we read

a report in the newspapers that in Tangxia Street next day. Fortunately, there were rooms with over on the outskirts of Guangzhou, more than 4,000 500 square meters of space in the Tangxia Street poor families, 20,000 disadvantaged persons, Cultural Center, so we agreed on starting a library 200 handicapped persons and a large number of branch soon. We offered books and training and laborers with poor skills were living in Tangde the Street Committee was responsible for rooms, Garden, the largest special community for families staff, management and maintenance. We put in with fi nancial diffi culties. These communities are 30,000 books, 39 periodicals and 2 computers, supported by government; residents live in small which were connected with our digital databases. apartments at low prices. Registered families in It took us only one month from the decision to its Guangzhou with poor household income can opening on 2 December 2002. apply to buy an apartment. If the per capita income of a household is under CNY 300 each What Praise was Received from the month, the family can rent an apartment for only Community Residents? CNY 1.00 per square meter per month. Tangxia branch was the fi rst of its kind started in a community for disadvantaged citizens. Since With Whom did we Cooperate to Set Up a its opening, the branch became popular, with the Branch Library? number of readers doubled at the weekends. The After reading the newspaper report, we understood immigrant workers in this community came to that these disadvantaged people were in great have fun in groups, residents came to read with need of cultural life, but lacked cultural resources, families, and unemployed citizens came to refresh which could play an important role for them. We their knowledge. One gentleman said that he had realized that this was exactly a place to reach graduated in middle school, he wanted to improve out, so we talked with the Street Committee the himself by reading, but he had not read any book

Figure 1. Tangxia Branch Library: the reading room.

14 Reaching Out to Vulnerable Groups in China for nearly two years, because books were too ex- is a member of the Art Association of Guangdong pensive for him and he had to change buses to visit Province, to give lessons every Sunday. Children a library in downtown. Now the library branch made great progress in their painting skills and near his house is free and convenient. Besides enjoyed the happy hours. reading, residents also enjoyed free computer training. As a whole, the residents in this com- Reading Bases, Reaching Out to the munity spoke highly of the library service as timely Prison System cultural rain – the cultural facility came in good time, just like the rain after a drought. Reading Bases for all the 25 Prisons Which Service has become the Most Popular? Prisoners, who serve their sentences for the crimes A child is the hope of a family, especially for poor they committed, even though they are receiving families. We found that the poor families paid punishment and reform, are usually looked down great attention to the education of their children. upon by people. However, when we change our Besides the 9-year free compulsory education in view a little bit, they are just a special vulnerable school, many parents let their children develop group who has lost their freedom; why not let interests such as piano playing, singing, dancing them share in the achievement of social cultural or sports. We understood that the educational construction inside the high prison walls? To fees are a big problem for them; even bus fares to enrich the cultural life in prisons and encourage downtown may become a burden. We therefore the prisoners to turn over a new leaf, we have started a free painting and calligraphy class in agreed with all 25 prisons in Guangdong Province the branch for children from poor families since to build Reading Bases called ‘Seek Knowledge September 2005. We sent a qualiﬁ ed teacher, who for New Life’ since April 2004. We have donated

Figure 2. Tangxia Branch Library: a lesson for the children.

15 Li Zhaochun and Huang Qunqing

over 120,000 books worth over CNY 3.2 million. Much Law Do You Know?’, a lecture competition – We hope that ‘One book more, one mistake less. ‘Law and Life’, and a keep-fi t performance were One library more, one prison less.’ carried out by women prisoners. Through the visual exhibition, women prisoners could learn easily what is legal or illegal in daily life, and Various Activities for Juvenile Prisoners how to protect their legal rights and interests. The Juvenile prisoners mostly have poor literacy, but prison, library and family help teach the women they are energetic and want to learn through prisoners jointly. playing, like other juveniles. For a long time, therefore, we built a partnership with the Juvenile Special Service for Student Prisoners Offender Correctional Institution of Guangdong Province to help teach the juvenile prisoners by Prisoners can continue their study inside the high various activities, such as personal face-to-face walls, treating the prison term as a school term, for conversations, letters, performance, sport, com- bachelors’, masters, or doctoral degrees. To help petitions, stories or lectures by famous persons. these students carry on their study, we provide For example, we invited Ms. Cheng Xiaomin, reference and information services. For example, a weight lifting champion of the Sydney 2000 we sent a total of 66 reference books, of which Olympic Games, to give a lecture in September 16 were subscribed to his topic, and 8 were trans- 2004, confi rming the truth that ‘no pain, no gain’. ferred from the basic preservation stack, to a male In addition, most of our young librarians have prisoner about 50 years old, who had passed all been volunteers to help the young prisoners face the subjects for a doctoral degree before he was im- to face in pairs bimonthly. Although juvenile prisoned. With the help of our books, he fi nished prisoners have to spend their youth in prison, his dissertation in prison by April 2007, and took meanwhile they can enjoy social inclusion as part in the dissertation defense for a doctor of much as others. science in journalism late in May 2007. Completing a dissertation in prison is something unusual in the history of Justice in China. Picture Exhibition for Women Prisoners Women prisoners are mostly puzzled by problems Lechang Branch, Reaching of love, marriage, drugs or fi nance for lack of Out To A Disaster-Hit County understanding of the law, but they are sentimental and long for family love. So we ran a large picture exhibition called ‘Under the Sky of Learning Laws’ which took three months to prepare together with What had we Done for the County? the women’s prison. The exhibition was held in The county libraries in Guangdong province November 2004, and prisoners’ families were also have been developing unevenly. Since 2004, the allowed in. At the opening ceremony, a ‘patter’ Guangdong Mobile Library project has been performance (in which the performers speak put in place as an important act to construct rhythmically, making rhythm with two small a cultural province and a harmonious society. bamboo clappers in their hands) entitled ‘How A special fund of CNY 5 million per year will be used to build mobile branches in the public libraries of underdeveloped counties. We take the responsibility of purchasing books and equipment such as bookshelves, book carts, printers, magnetic monitors, etc. and sending them to each branch, which has a standard quota of 10,000 new books at the beginning and exchanges their new books with other branches every 6 months. The branch in Lechang, a mountainous county in northern Guangdong, as the twenty-second mobile branch, was built in July 2005.

How had the Flood Destroyed the Library? Figure 3. Young prisoners learning to use On July 14, 2006, a catastrophic fl ood caused by computers with volunteers. the hurricane Bilis reached Lechang. Early next 16 Reaching Out to Vulnerable Groups in China morning, the library, located at the riverside, learned from the fl ood forecast department that the river would rise about one meter. Meanwhile, the staff worked hard to move the books and offi ce equipment to the second fl oor until the afternoon. However, the river was in spate, the librarians were unsafe and were moved away by lifeboats. Late at night, the library was fl ooded to a depth of over 5 meters; the mobile branch on the second fl oor was fl ooded to a depth of over 1.62 meters. Almost all the 80,000 volumes of the Lechang public library, which had been collected for decades, and 20,000 volumes of the mobile branch, were destroyed in a moment, so was the offi ce equipment. Figure 4. Lechang Branch Library: the children’s reading room after rebuilding.

What Could we do for the Rebuilding? The fl ood covered the whole town, ruining more Two Branches, Reaching Out to Remote than 12,060 residential homes and 3,000 shops, Counties In Tibet causing a large loss of over CNY 3 billion. Although the government attached great importance to Motuo, a Beautiful Place without a Road rebuilding the homeland, it was hard to rebuild the library in a short term. To meet the residents’ In the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Tibet, there urgent need for cultural life, chief librarians in is a place called Motuo, meaning ‘Hidden Snow Guangdong province got together to discuss ideas Lotus’ in Tibetan Buddhism. It is surrounded by in October and came up with a written proposal, high mountains, which are covered with snow appealing to all libraries and librarians in the from November to April each year. Any of the four province for assistance, donation of books, offi ce paths to the outside leads to a mountain over equipment or money that would help the library 4000 meters high. All supplies have to be carried rebuild and reopen earlier. The proposal was physically, and there have been deaths caused published in newsletters, on websites of public by snow or land slides on the paths every year. libraries and college libraries, and in the blog of Actually, the government has tried many projects the chief librarian of Sun Yat-sen University, with and invested a lot on the road in recent decades, pictures. but it was either too hard for construction or destroyed by landslides after completion. Because of its extremely complicated geology, Motuo is the How Much Later did the Library Reopen? only county in China that has no road for motors The proposal attracted widespread support from up till now. libraries, publishers and librarians. Six months after the disaster, the library opened again. The A County Library with Great Meaning ceremony of donation and unveiling was held on 14 January 2007. We renewed the mobile branch, With less than 1,000 books in total in the local still with the standard quota of 10,000 new books government and schools, and no library in the worth CNY 400,000, sixteen bookshelves, two whole county, the population had been suffering book carts, computers, printers, a magnetic mon- from poor literacy and cultural life. However, itor and other offi ce equipment. The Sun Yat-sen prospects are now different because the Motuo University Press donated 4,000 new books; a library was started in August 2006 as a branch of librarian from Urumchi, a city far away from our library. We provided 17,000 volumes of books, Guangzhou city, contributed CNY 2,000, and so computers, offi ce equipment (including a projector, on. In total the library received a new mobile pocket disk, sound boxes, etc.) and training. The branch from our library, 20,000 books from 20 Motuo library has taken a big stride forward, other libraries and CNY 20,000 from individual for its 1.7 volumes of collection per capita leaps librarians. Its reopening meets the residents’ thirst to the top of all county libraries countrywide. for reading. Reaching out to 36 schools and teaching centers, 17 Li Zhaochun and Huang Qunqing

the library services beneﬁ t the residents in terms donated CNY 150,000 to pay the porters, donated of literacy, health, cultural life, economic activities another CNY 240,000 to support 100 children and understanding the world outside. The books of Monba nationality in Motuo to continue their are mental food and cultural vaccines to help the school life. residents cope with the cultural impacts coming with the road and the Internet. Chayu Branch, another Cultural Fairyland Chayu County, 1,000 kilometers from Lhasa, is A Unique Transport with Strong Responses also located in the remote mountainous area in The 17,000 books and devices we donated weighed Tibet, though with better conditions compared a total of 7,500 kg, and were carried into the with Motuo. But residents still suffered from poor county by 300 porters on their shoulders through cultural life, because there was neither bookstore the tough path for 4 days. From a digital video nor public library here. On 8 May 2007, Chayu taken for this special transport, a 9 year old girl library, also as a branch of Sun Yat-sen Library of porter would catch your eyes. She and her mother Guangdong Province, was born beneath the holy carried a 25 kg load in turn to earn a carriage Demula Snow Mountain. We donated 15,000 new fee of CNY 50. In isolated Motuo, being a porter books, computers and other devices, and sent a is the only way to earn money. Many children work team to help set up the library. They traveled are therefore sent to be porters instead of going a long way from Guangzhou to Chayu, got over to school. After we published the pictures on the 4,700 meter high Sejila Snow Mountain and our website, strong responses have arisen. The Guangdong S.F. Express Company, who had

Figure 7. Cheyu Branch Library: librarians Figure 5. Porters carrying books to Motuo. sorting newly-arrived books.

Figure 8. Cheyu Branch Library: local residents Figure 6. A nine-year-old girl porter. applying for library cards. 18 Reaching Out to Vulnerable Groups in China

About the Authors Li Zhaochun is Chief Librarian of Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. Born in May 1949, Li has been working at Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province since 1975, including as an ofﬁ cial to Qingxin County from 1996 to 1997, and as the chief librarian since 1998. Since 2000, he has assisted in the foundation of 56 library branches inside or outside Guangdong Province. Tel: +86 20 83879727. Fax: +86 20 83831667. E-mail: [email protected]

Huang Qunqing is a Librarian in the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. She was born in January 1965 and graduated from the Department Figure 9. Cheyu Branch Library: girl readers of Library Science at Wuhan University in 1985. She enjoying story books. then began working at the Science and Technology Library of Guangdong Province, where she stayed the 5,080 meter high Demula Snow Mountain, until 2005. Since 2006, she has been working at and started to work in spite of suffering from Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. E-mail: altitude sickness. It was not easy, but they were [email protected]. pleased that the cultural life would be improved, In addition to the above e-mail addresses, both and the digital gap would evidently be narrowed, authors may be contacted at: Sun Yat-sen Library because this library could share the mass storage of Guangdong Province, 213 Wenming Road, Guangzhou 510110, China. digital resources in our central library.

19 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran: reaching out to the world?

Nancy Beygijanian Abstract The purpose of this article is to reveal the nature and extent of the offi cial English language websites of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the motivating factors for this practice. The main reasons for the relatively large number of English language sites are considered to be the promotion of tourism, a desire for international scientifi c cooperation, and increased fi nancial dealings. The paper provides information on the English language content of the main Iranian government websites, identifi es some of the obstacles to effective access to this content, and argues for improvements in Iranian website design, so that the Iranian government can fully achieve its goals. Keywords: electronic government; e-government; government electronic administration; offi cial government websites; information policy; Islamic Republic of Iran

Introduction Dr. John V. Richardson Jr.

The term ‘electronic government’ or ‘e-government’ has been used differently by various authorities in the ﬁ eld of government information. However, a generally accepted deﬁ nition of e-government is the “use of technology, particularly the Internet, to enhance the access to and delivery of government information and services to citizens, businesses, government employees, and other agencies at the federal and state levels.”1 In any case, governments around the world are employing the Internet because of a widely-held belief that “e-government can produce . . . reduced costs, and increased revenue, economic development, reduced redundancy, increased transparency and accountability, and improved services to citizens.”2 The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), like many other nations, has also joined in this new frontier and has designed websites for almost all of its ministries (including its bureaus and departments) and other branches of government including the Majlis and the Judiciary.

It is surprising to discover that Iran, which has been depicted as being anti-West3 for more than two decades by much of the Western media, has chosen to play a traditional American folk song–‘When the Saints Go Marching In’4 –as their call-waiting music at the Ministry of Industries and Mines or that the President spends 15 minutes a week on his personal blog! Another interesting fact about the Iranian government is that they have not only published government information on their websites in Farsi, the ofﬁ cial national language (aka Persian in the west),5 but they have also published many of their websites in English as well as Arabic, Azerbaijani, French, Indonesian, Italian, Kurdish, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu.6

Even more interestingly, the former Iranian President Mohammed About the Authors: page 33 Khatami, when interviewed on 7 January 1998 by Cable News Copyright © 2008 Author. IFLA Journal 34(1): 20–33. 20 IFLA ISSN: 0340-0352. DOI: 10.1177/0340035208088573 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Network’s Christiane Amanpour, “proposed Please note that all of our comments, especially cultural exchanges between the American and in the Implications section below, are intended as Iranian peoples as a way to bring down the walls constructive criticism; we, the authors, applaud of mistrust that had been constructed to separate the Iranian government’s interests in reaching out, them.”7 In this context of this article, ‘cultural ex- especially in these troubled times. change’ is exactly the intention of several of the English-language Iranian federal-level govern- A comprehensive literature review for this article ment websites. For instance, the website of the was conducted in several databases through Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) publishes news November 2007; however the main electronic on Iran and its international relationships. In ones include: Library and Information Science addition, one can also learn that Iran is a member of Abstracts (LISA), which dates back to 1960, ERIC, the International Co-operative Alliance, an NGO which also started in the mid-1960s, Library dating back to 1895, on the website of the Ministry Literature and Information Science, which indexes of Cooperatives. Moreover, the Ministry of Roads materials back to 1984, but with some items from and Transportation’s website provides tidbits as early as 1979, and Dissertation Abstracts on transportation projects between Iran and International, going back to the later part of the neighboring countries. Furthermore, the IRI’s 19th century. Useful, but general, search terms National Library and Archives has an acquisitions included ‘information policy’ as well as ‘govern- policy to collect materials in English. Also, the ment information–internet resources,’ but most Petroleum Ministry website welcomes petroleum productive were the search terms ‘electronic organizations to submit URLs to link to them. government’, ‘e-government’, ‘government information’, and ‘websites.’ These preceding keywords were paired with the keyword ‘Iran.’ Not surpris- Objectives, Literature, and ingly, this search still only revealed a handful of Methodological Issues relevant citations,10 although 34 dissertations have been written about government information The purpose of this article is to increase reference and Iran. librarians’ awareness that all three branches of the Iranian government, but especially the President In order to achieve reliable and valid results for and the Cabinet level ministries, are publishing this research article, the entire population of Iranian government information online in English in government websites needs to be discussed fi rst. addition to Farsi (the offi cial language), so that To get an idea of the magnitude of the Iranian web they will be able to provide this information for presence, one should note that a Google search library users who need offi cial Iranian government retrieves a total of 852,000 web pages on govern- information in English. So, this study focuses on mental servers in Iran and 718,000 in the Farsi the offi cial websites of government ministries language; furthermore, 134,000 pages are in lan- and other federal-level government agencies of guages other than the offi cial language. the Islamic Republic of Iran that provide content in English. As library and information science In terms of scope, this article examines only the researchers, we would like to see the English- English language web pages of the executive language versions of these Iranian government branch including the President and his Ministers websites display their information in a more who make up the Cabinet (i.e., the Ministry level coherent and systematic manner in order to help agencies and their bureaus and departments as people who are looking for information on these well as the Spokesman, the offi cial Iranian gov- websites and also so that the government is able ernment portal site). So, the logical fi rst step to achieve their publicly stated main goals, which required a complete listing and location of all are: of the Iranian ministry websites, so we searched the offi cial websites of the President of Iran11 1. to invite foreign business and the government portal, the Spokesman of 2. to engage in international scientifi c collab- the Republic of Iran,12 as well as the World Wide oration Web via an advanced search of Google, fi ltering 3. to promote tourism, or, as they frame it, dis- for language and domain name. seminating “national and domestic content in English and other foreign languages”8 as well In addition to the President’s Cabinet (see Table 1), as “make relations with other countries.”9 we specifi cally covered the Judicial System of the 21 Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr. Accessed 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 8-Dec-07 m. cial website (F = Farsi) and English information website (E = English) No website No website No No website No website No http://www.aeoi.org.ir/NewWeb/Farsi/ aeoiwebhomepage.aspx http://www.aeoi.org.ir/NewWeb/default1.asp http://www.iranmiras.ir http://www.iranmiras.ir/en_site/Home_E.asp http://www.irandoe.org/doeportal/mainsite/ http://www.irandoe.org/en/ http://www.spac.ir/Portal/Home/ website; top level saysNo “Presiden (sic) Deputy Strategic Planning and Control” http://www.isaar.ir/HomePage.aspx?TabID= 0&Site=DouranPortal&Lang=fa-IR website; top levels saysNo “Foundation of Affair (sic)” Martyrs and Veterans http://javanan.ir/ website; top level saysNo “National Youth Organization” at bottom right http://www.sport.ir/ http://www.president.ir/fa/ http://www.president.ir/en/ website No website No E E E E E E E E E E E Ahmad Masawi F Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei F Fatemeh VaezjavadiFarhad Rahbar F F Mohammad Javad Ali Akbari F Mohammad Ali Abadi F Gholam Reza Aghazadeh F Hossein Dehghan F ce Affairs Foundation Affairs and Tourism Organization and Tourism Protection Organization Planning Organization Sacrifi Organization Education Organization Energy Organization 11 President for Legal and Parliamentary Vice 10 President for Executive Affairs Vice Ali Saeedlou F 4 President and Head of Cultural Heritage Vice 5 President and Head of Environmental Vice 6 President and Head of Management and Vice 7 President and Head of Martyrs and Self Vice 8 President and Head of National Youth Vice 9 President and Head of the Physical Vice 3 President and Head of National Atomic Vice 1 President 2 President First Vice Parviz DavoudiAhmadinejad Mahmoud F F # Position in executive branch Name L Offi Table 1. Alphabetical list of websites for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his 10 Vice Presidents and his 10 Vice Ahmadinejad list of websites for President Mahmoud 1. Alphabetical Table and google.co and http://www.president.ir/en/ Source: “President’s Cabinet” at http://www.president.ir/eng/ahmadinejad/cabinet/ 22 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Islamic Republic of Iran (including the Supreme 2. What are the incentives for the Iranian govern- Court)13 and the Consultative Assembly14 – the ment choosing to publish in English, when the legislative branch. However, we were only inter- offi cial national language is Farsi and especially ested in the secular, political, or civic adminis- when one considers that all Iranian government tration, not the sacred or spiritual power struc- documents are required to be in the offi cial tures of the Supreme Leader or the Council of language, according to the Constitution of the Guardians of the Constitution (see Article 57 Islamic Republic of Iran?15 of the Constitution). Moreover, the 64 Supreme Councils, which are supra-governmental, are not There are three other questions of interest, but analyzed here. And, to be clear, the other two which are outside the scope of this present article. levels of the Iranian government–the 30 provinces First, are the English websites correctly translated and local administrative units – were out of scope from their Farsi versions? We would note, for for our purposes. instance, that much of the content on the Farsi sites is different from the English version, perhaps For a complete list of all 21 of the Iranian Cabinet because the Farsi site is clearly intended mainly Ministries, including the personal names of the for a national audience. Secondly, how current respective cabinet ministers, see ‘Iranian Cabinet’ are any of these websites? Again, this question at http://www.president.ir/eng/ahmadinejad/ cannot be answered at the moment, because cabinet/ (accessed 15 August 2007), presented the offi cial webmasters have not provided every as Table 2. website with a last modifi ed date. Perhaps, if more websites had a news section, this feature could be For clarity, we included the IRI’s embassies of used to determine the latest update. Finally, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs located in such every website has been indexed on the Wayback countries as Finland, Greece, India, New Zealand, Machine, so, one can only speculate as to what and the Republic of South Africa, because they was the fi rst website in English. Nonetheless, it provide English-language web pages. appears that the fi rst website to have an English version was the Ministry of Health and Medical Finally, one methodological issue arose. All of Education, which provides copyright claim of the examined and listed links were current as 1997–2001, according to the website of the of August 2007. After that date, however, IFLA Wayback Machine, which was accessed 3 July Journal readers may fi nd page revisions and a few 2006. A further, but minor, question also arises: page updates as well as other changes. Throughout have these Web sites changed over the course of this investigation, we unfortunately encountered the research? Certainly the websites have changed numerous infrastructure problems including over this period, but no clear pattern emerges. We ‘500–internal server error,’ ‘bad server response,’ found that some English links have disappeared ‘Bandwidth Limit Exceeded,’ just blank English while other new content has been posted. language pages (i.e. constructed pages, but without any content), and links labeled ‘English’ which Findings and Discussion lead to Farsi pages. Indeed, many of the English language pages are not being updated as regularly as when we started this project in early 2006. As mentioned above, we speculated that there Many problems were simple 404 ‘not found’ errors were three primary reasons for providing (note that the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture and, English language web content on offi cial Iranian perhaps, the Ministry of Industries and Mines had government sites. Allow us to address each of the the most numerous dead links) on our visits to these three branches of government seriatim. websites. Nonetheless, we have done our best to provide up-to-date information for this article. Executive Branch (President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) Two Research Questions

Marketing in the English Language for The two main questions posed in this article are: International Business Purposes 1. Which ofﬁ cial Iranian government websites Several criteria have been used as evidence of have some English language content? whether these governmental websites are designed 23 Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr. a/cms/Tehran/en/index.html 7777/mf cial website (F = Farsi) and English information website (E = English) http://hbi.ir or http://mohme.gov.ir http://www.hbi.ir http://www.mhud.gov.ir http://www.mhud.gov.ir/english/default.htm http://www.moa.or.ir or http://www.maj.ir http://www.moa.or.ir http://www.agri-jahad.ir/portal/Home/Default.aspx?CategoryID=Home http://www.icm.gov.ir http://www.icm.gov.ir/Default_icm.aspx http://www.mod.ir http://www.mod.ir/ or http://www.economicaffairs.ir http://www.mefa.gov.ir http://www.mefa.gov.ir/ministry/index-eng.asp http://www.medu.ir http://medu.ir/en/ http://www.moe.org.ir http://www.moe.org.ir/HomePage.aspx?TabID=1&Site=DouranPortal&Lang =en-US http://www.mfa.gov.ir http://www.mfa.gov.ir: E E E E E E E E E 11 Ministry of Health, Medicine, and Medical Education (d) F 12 Ministry of Housing and Urban Development13 Ministry of Industries and Mines F F http://www.mim.gov.ir # Name of cabinet level ministry L Ofﬁ 1 Ministry of Agricultural Jihad (a)2 Ministry of Commerce3 Ministry of Communication and Information Technology4 F Ministry of Cooperatives http://www.ict.gov.ir 5 Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance6 Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (b) F 7 Ministry and Finance of Economy F 8 Ministry of Education F9 http://www.ershad.gov.ir F Ministry of Energy (c) http://www.moc.gov.ir F 10 Ministry of Foreign Affairs F F F F

24 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran /www. the interested ites which have ites which .” d for an international that ministry which si content. As of ght famine by producing as much agriculture as possible,” according agriculture as possible,” ght famine by producing as much http://www.mrt.ir and http://www.mrt.ir/New/static/UcE.asp http://www.mrt.ir/New/MainE.asp E : President’s Cabinet” at http://www.president.ir/en/government/cabinet/index.htm (accessed 30 November 2007) as well http:/ (accessed 30 2007) November : President’s Cabinet” at http://www.president.ir/en/government/cabinet/index.htm : (a) As of August 2007, this Ministry For added an English language page, but dropped the invitations for foreign investment. : (a) As of August 2007, 14 Ministry of Intelligence (and Security) aka Information15 Ministry of Interior 16 Ministry of Justice website No 17 Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs18 Ministry of Petroleum19 Ministry of Roads and Transportation F http://www.irimlsa.ir F F http://www.moi.ir F http://www.moj.gov.ir/Portal/Home/ F http://www.nioc.org 20 Ministry and Technology of Science, Research, 21 and Social Security Ministry of Welfare F http://msrt.ir F http://www2.refah.gov.ir/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=PUB.1001.83 Table 2. Alphabetical list of the 21 IRI ministries which belong to the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Cabinet and those 11 s list of the 21 IRI Ahmadinejad’s belong to the President Mahmoud 2. Alphabetical ministries which Table 2005) as of 14 August had English information (and approved by Parliament, Sources sokhangoo.net/en/ and www.google.com. Notes reader, Jihad-e-Agriculture should be translated as “using human endeavor to ﬁ reader, to Diana Badalian, a native Farsi speaker. (b) Because the Ministry of Defense requires a username and password in English, but not Farsi, we assume that it is designe audience; furthermore, the Spokesman’s website listed this ministry’s site as of 28 June 2006, but it included another URL for defaulted to Farsi and did not have an English language link. so the link leads to Far the Ministry back has updated its website, but the English link is not ready, 2007, (c) As of November there is no longer an English version of this website – “The encountering problems.” however, 2007, November there is no longer an English version of this website – “The encountering problems however, 2007, of November (d) As 25 Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr.

for the international business community. The downloadable forms for an assessment, the con- obvious fi rst criterion is whether the government tractor’s prequalifi cation assessment, and written offers a website in English. The reason the English instructions for completing the form as well as language was chosen is because English is used contact information along with a mailing address.21 commonly in the global market. It is common Moreover, the website of the Iranian Fuel Conser- knowledge that English is one of the most popular vation Organization (IFCO), which is a subsidiary languages in the world, being spoken by more of the National Iranian Oil Company, invites than 300 million people as a fi rst language. The international and national companies to submit other criteria that were employed are, whether bids on purchases made by the fuel company.22 the English-language ministry websites link to Also, international investors clicking on the web- web pages or websites that invite foreigners to site of the Kala Naft Company (Tehran) will fi nd invest in Iran and/or provide downloadable busi- a link to the Twelfth International Oil, Gas, and ness registration forms for foreign companies, Petrochemicals Exhibition, its date on 18 to 22 or publish business laws/policies for foreign April 2007, the location of the event, contact infor- entrepreneurs, or make announcements on inter- mation, rules and regulations, and even an online national business exhibitions in Iran, and give registration form.23 contact information. On the MFA’s website, which links to the Iranian As of 17 November 2006, the Ministry of Energy Embassies in different countries, there is a range posted a variety of links leading to foreign invest- of information that promotes international busi- ment invitations including the Law of Promotion ness relations with Iran. For instance, the websites of Investment in Iranian Water Project.16 On the of the Iranian Embassies in Finland, Greece, India, website of the Ministry of Industries and Mines a New Zealand, and the Republic of South Africa variety of links can be found for foreign investors. provide either links to web pages or websites that Policies of the Foreign Investment Promotion and lead to information on Iranian foreign business Protection Act (FIPPA), a link to the Tehran Stock laws, Iranian companies, and business and/or Exchange, instructions for registering branches of work permit visa applications to Iran.24 In add- foreign companies in Iran as well as the Minister’s ition, these embassies as well as the MFA’s site contact information are just some of the details provide relevant contact information. listed for foreign investors.17 Moreover, under the heading ‘Investing in Iran,’ links lead to ‘Forms,’18 Presently, the website of the Ministry of Economic which in turn lead to functioning downloadable Affairs and Finance publishes all kinds of Iranian forms for different investment licenses, such as taxation laws, which some are intended for foreign buyback and fi nancing contract forms. Furthermore, nationals, such as Title A of Article 1(5), which the ‘Exhibition’19 links provide past and upcoming covers taxation rules for non-Iranians conducting international exhibitions, along with their dates, business with Iran.25 Moreover, the Ministry links such as the Thirteenth International Exhibition to the website of the Organization for Investment, of Pack and Print Machineries of 2007. Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Customhouse26 and Interestingly, the website of the Ministry of local Teheran banks.27 Petroleum does not default to English as it did in early 2006, but its English version still connects Creating Websites for International Scientifi c to sites which usually have English links. On the Collaboration home page of the Ministry of Petroleum, one can fi nd information for foreign investment, such as The standards that have been employed to identify the link ‘Tenders & Auctions’, which provides whether the Iranian Ministry websites are primarily announcements for submitting tenders along intended for promoting international scientifi c with contact details.20 Another link, which con- collaboration include: whether the website is in nects to the website of the National Iranian the English language; does the website lead to Oil Engineering and Construction Company, announcements on international conferences; are publicizes a current project entitled the ‘Tehran conference registration forms available for an Refi nery Products Upgrading Project’, which it attendee; and is contact information provided. plans to tender to a contractor or consortium, Again, English is used as one of the criteria be- and provides the preliminary estimated cost in cause scientifi c publications are mainly in the Euros. In addition, the link to this project offers English language. 26 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Several of the ministry websites fulfi lled part guidelines, which clearly encourage international of the criteria mentioned above including the students to apply.34 Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For example, the Petroleum Ministry links Finally, the link ‘Education and Research’ on to the National Petrochemical Company, which in the MFA’s website leads to a website called the turn, connects to an announcement for the First ‘Institute for Political and International Studies’ Iranian Knowledge Management Conference but which defaults to a link entitled ‘Upcoming (4–5 September 2007)28 which includes an online Events’ and provides the title, date, and location of registration form as well as contact information. international conferences hosted by Iran, such as the Fifteenth International Conference on Central Other bureaus and departments, such as the Asia and the Caucasus held in October 2007.35 Geological Survey of Iran and the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran as well Using the English Language to Promote as the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Tourism Medical Sciences, provide English text. Notably, though, the page on ‘Workshops, Meetings, Con- In investigating for evidence of promotion of ferences and Symposia’29 on the website of the tourism to the international community through Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry websites, fi ve measurements have Iran, does not provide the most recent dates on been utilized. The fi rst test is whether the website international congresses nor any registration offers links to Iranian Embassies in other coun- forms for an attendee. Nevertheless, the Academy tries. The second test is if the embassy site has has made the effort to collaborate with fellow contact information. The third measurement is scientists from around the world by posting, in whether the embassy provides downloadable the past, announcements on scientifi c meetings forms for a tourist visa. The fourth standard asks, in Iran and other countries. does the embassy encourage tourism to Iran? The fi fth criterion is whether the embassy links At fi rst glance, the English website of the Academy have an English version, since “a large number of of Medical Sciences may appear to offer the educated people in Europe, Asia, Latin America, international medical researcher little useful and other areas have studied English as a foreign information in English because there is a just single language.”36 link labeled ‘General.’30 Yet this site links to the Iranian Medical Academy (IMA), which provides The only ministry website that meets all these useful websites for foreign physicians who might requirements is the website of the MFA. Although want to collaborate with their fellow Iranian several Iranian Embassy links are listed for dif- doctors. For instance, the IMA’s ‘Publications’ ferent countries, not all lead to a government link leads to ‘Govaresh’ which connects to the website and some that do are not in the English Iranian Association of Gastroenterology and language.37 Listed in alphabetical order are some Hepatology’s website. Here, medical researchers of the embassies that were accessed and which can register online for upcoming meetings such also meet the fi ve criteria, specifi cally the Iranian as the American Association for Study of Liver Embassies in Denmark, Finland, Greece, Indonesia, Disease for 29 December 2007.31 Another inter- Japan, the Republic of South Africa and also the esting facet of the Academy’s home page is that Iranian Consulate General of Hong Kong.38 the ‘Medical’ link lists a variety of useful resources including one entitled ‘Medicine Related Islamic Consultative Assembly Congresses Worldwide.’32 This site which defaults (Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami) to a website called the Doctor’s Guide Congress Resource Center allows physicians to specify their interests. For example, if a physician chooses The Consultative Assembly or simply Majles, Tehran as a location to attend a conference, s/he plays an important role in Iranian international will fi nd several upcoming Iranian conference relationships because the Constitution requires announcements such as the First International that “International treaties, protocols, contracts, Online Medical Conference.33 In addition, the link and agreements must be approved by the Islamic labeled ‘Medical’ connects to medical universities’ Consultative Assembly.”39 Not surprisingly, the websites, and perhaps surprisingly to the Tabriz Iranian Parliament’s top level page opens in University of Medical Sciences’ stated admissions Farsi with fi ve menu options.40 Two of these links 27 Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr.

offer functioning English language options on the perspective. For instance, offi cial Iranian gov- second level down, leading to the Parliamentary ernment information on Iran’s Supreme Court, Library (PL)41 and to the SAC, or Supreme Audit which “is the highest judicial authority in the Court (with beautiful calligraphy and pre-Islamic country”48 can be found under ‘Courts.’49 This site music using Macromedia’s Shockwave Flash).42 includes descriptions of how the Administrative Court of Justice50 and the Revolutionary Courts51 The Parliamentary Library, established in 1909, function. Furthermore, information seekers can provides an aesthetically satisfying website which learn some offi cial information under the main also includes options to search their own OPAC link ‘Affi liated Organizations’ on the Judiciary site, or dozens of other national library catalogs, all such as how the Iranian Judicial Organization of arranged alphabetically by country. In addition, the Armed Forces handles court cases that are one can search nearly two dozen online databases related to army personnel.52 As far as the link (with additional links to patent databases as well ‘Laws’ is concerned, the only link under it that was as theses and dissertations worldwide). However, not under construction was labeled ‘Links.’53 It led the e-resources page loads with labels to ‘books to a webpage listing such options as Banking Law, and journals’ as well as ‘newspapers,’ but no active Crime Prevention, Human Rights, IP (intellectual links. As for the ‘web resources,’ although this page property), and Law of Nations. Surprisingly enough, loads, it is blank at the moment; and fi nally, the under Human Rights, there is a link to Amnesty link labeled ‘search the web’ provides three International’s website, which contains several options including search engines, meta-search articles about Iran’s violation of human rights.54 engines, and general directories.43 On a more positive note, ‘Links’ also connects to According to Articles 54 and 55 of the Constitution,44 the website of the United Nations55 and the World the SAC was founded in 1906 as the national ac- Intellectual Property Organization,56 of which the counting agency and is responsible for auditing Islamic Republic of Iran is a member. If the web- those public institutions which benefi t from the site of the Judicial System of the Islamic Republic Beit-ul-mal (i.e. the public treasury). From this of Iran were to spend more time and money on site, one can download a booklet as well as a their international site, which would enable more brochure detailing its history, responsibilities people to read about Iran’s judicial system from and powers, its organizational structure, auditing that country’s perspective, we believe that would procedures, the role of the General Board as well result in less fear and anxiety of the unknown and as the Public Prosecutor’s Offi ce and the Judicial allow a mutual respect to develop. Boards.45 An additional twelve options offer news and announcements as well as publications (such Implications as the 2002 Annual Report) and reports (listing only the yearly ECOSAI Circular from Pakistan) along with the usual contact information and a First of all, there are social and technical diffi - functioning site map.46 culties with many of the Iranian government websites. Although the Iranian government is using its websites in the three branches to Judicial System of the IRI and the High communicate with an international, non-Farsi Council of the Judiciary speaking audience, notably in the English language, the present inconsistencies in all of these Currently, most of the links on the international websites makes fi nding information an arduous site of the Judicial System of the Islamic Republic task at times. The website design or programming of Iran are either under construction, lead to no errors include links that lead to Farsi content content, or contain some links leading to the rather than English, different URLs listed for wrong place. For example, the link under ‘Crime the same agency, and links listed under vague or Prevention’47 leads to the webpage of the Faculty grammatically incorrect titles. These problems of Computer Science at the University of Vienna, suggest the need for better technical training. which has nothing to do with preventing crime! Furthermore, e-mails bounce back and numerous However, the few links that the Judiciary site of server diffi culties (e.g. internal server error or bad Iran has posted which have authentic judicial server response) suggest that the ITC infrastructure content are informative and provide insight needs enhancement. Another reason for these into the country’s judicial system from Iran’s discrepancies in the Iranian government websites 28 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran lies in the fact that “none of them have a [w]eb collaborative projects with the United States than projection strategy.”57 The term ‘web projection with any other nation,”63 the Iranian web editors strategy’ was “a phrase coined by [the] Neda should check to make certain that a Farsi page Rayaneh Executive Project Team back in 1997. has been translated into the English language Derived from the marketing strategy deployed when it is listed on the English site, in order to by mostly US information fi rms, such as Dialog help facilitate communication. For example, the Corporation in the early 1990s, the strategy offered website of the Ministry of Petroleum, which has benchmarks in the design and deployment stage an ‘Exhibitions and Conferences’ link, has been of [Iranian government websites].”58 However, carelessly linked to a conference announcement many web designers in Iran either do not want to for The First Iranian Thermodynamics Confer- follow site design standards or are not aware of ence, which only has Farsi text on its English site.64 any standards.59 Technical training is an issue. Careless errors, such as the one mentioned, may cause less motivated information seekers to give Next, if the Islamic Republic of Iran wants to up their search because fi nding relevant infor- conduct business with other countries, it would mation is extremely time-consuming for the non- be prudent for the Iranian web designers to Farsi speaking audience. follow web design standards. “Textual content on government websites is an important source Furthermore, Iran is using its Embassy web- of information. Citizens increasingly use informa- sites to publicize tourism. Yet it is diffi cult to fi nd tion on government websites to research issues, tourism information, such as tourist sites, hotels understand government programs, and obtain and other lodging, because this information is benefi ts.”60 Therefore, foreign investors, as well as not provided consistently. First of all, not every anyone who seeks offi cial government information Iranian Embassy website provides information about which Iranian oil, gas, and petrochemical for tourist accommodations, such as links to company seeks foreign investment, will be able to travel agencies in Iran, in a manner that is easy to fi nd that information faster if the web designers locate. For example, the Embassy in India lists of the Ministry of Petroleum list those companies tourism information under the heading entitled under a new heading, such as ‘Foreign Investment’ ‘Iran Links.’65 The other diffi culty is that, rather rather than under the current heading, ‘Related than listing the offi cial Iranian tourism and travel Links.’ Additionally, the link that leads to contact website under ‘Tourist Information,’ it is listed information, including the URL address for the under two different links: once, under the ‘Media Organization for Investment, Economic and Section’ and again in the ‘Cultural Section’ on Technical Assistance of Iran, which is one of the the Embassy website in Greece.66 Also, not every organizations that coordinates “all referrals by Embassy connects to an Embassy web page, foreign-investment applicants,”61 is also listed such as the IRI Embassy in Kiev. Or in one case, under ‘Related Link’ on the Ministry of Industries the name of the Iranian Embassy is listed under and Mines’ website. Such an ambiguous title can the wrong country’s name – that is, the Iranian confuse and/or frustrate a user who is looking for Embassy in New Zealand is listed under the specifi c information. Thus, web designers should country of Venezuela!67 Since it is diffi cult to make the effort to place website information fi nd tourist information on some of the embassy under title headings that are informative (i.e. clear websites, it would be helpful if the Ministry of and logical). Foreign Affairs directly linked Iran’s official tourist website at http://www.irpedia.com/ on The policies of the Fourth Five-Year Development the home page, in order to attract the attention Plan of 2005–2009 are supposed to continue to of an interested traveler to Iran much faster. encourage foreign investment and privatization. Furthermore, the editors for the ministries should However, the current parliament and the President conduct link checking to make certain that the favor reducing privatization as well as foreign correct URL address is provided for the ministry investment and increasing support to state-owned websites. companies.62 Therefore, whether there will be further design improvement with those ministry Conclusion websites that could be used to encourage foreign investment remains uncertain for now. The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has Moreover, since Iran is seeking collaboration implemented electronic government extensively in with international scientists and “has more the executive branch’s Ministries as well as in its 29 Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr.

legislative and judicial branches and has chosen and Information Studies at the Infotronic Lab for his to disseminate government information not only help as well as offering his opinion on my thesis when in Farsi, but also in English. Impressively, one can I initially wrote my fi rst draft of February 2006. Note that our preliminary fi ndings were communicated on 19 fi nd English language websites for eleven of the December 2006 via an IVisit™ video-conference with 21 ministries, or almost 50 percent of their executive Professor Naghshineh’s ‘ICT on Mind Tools’ class. branch websites. English language websites exist in the other two branches of government as well. References The majority of the government websites which provide an English language option appear to be 1. Hernon, Peter; Harold C. Relyea; Dugan, Robert E.; doing so in order to encourage foreign business, and Cheverie, Joan F. United States Government information: policies and sources (Westport, CT: promote international scientifi c collaboration, and Libraries Unlimited, 2002), p. 388. promote tourism. We believe that the legislative 2. Jaeger, Paul T. The endless wire: e-government branch does so for similar reasons, especially for as global phenomenon. Government Information transparency in international business dealings. Quarterly, 20 (no. 4, 2003): 327. 3. For a better understanding of the Iranian stance toward the western world, one might profi tably read Yet these websites are encountering some diffi - Al Ahmad, Jalal. Gharbzadegi = Weststruckness; culties. Echoing Kaaya’s fi nding for the govern- translated from the Persian by John Green and Ahmad ment of Tanzania, many of the Iranian websites Alizadeh. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1997. experience server problems due to poor telecom- 4. Indeed, this song “has acquired a permanent place in munications infrastructure and many sites experi- the repertory of American popular songs” according ence discrepancies in their language translations to Ewen, David, ed. American popular songs: from the revolutionary war to the present. New York: Random due to poorly trained IT staff. Underlying these House, 1966. p. 433. social barriers are economic barriers including 5. The IRI’s SAC website says “The language spoken the lack of physical resources and sufficient in Iran is Persian (wrongly known as Farsi)” at http:// fi nancial support.68 Right now, it is diffi cult to www.dmk.ir/en/07-1.html (accessed 5 December determine how much traffi c these governmental 2007); this matter is controversial, see Kamran Talattof, ‘Persian or Farsi: the debate continues’ at English-language websites are attracting, for http://www.iranian.com/Features/Dec97/Persian/ two reasons. The fi rst reason is that most of the (accessed 5 December 2007). websites do not have a visible site counter; there- 6. The IRI Broadcasting provides ‘Worldservice Radio’ fore, it is not clear how many people are visiting in 27 languages including Asian languages (e.g. some of these sites. The second reason is that the Chinese and Japanese), Western European languages international community might not even con- (such as French, German, and Italian) as well as Hebrew and English, according to http://www.irib. sider that a supposedly ‘anti-West’ country is ir/ (accessed 27 November 2007). disseminating any government information in 7. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, ‘New the English language online. Hence, the inter- political currents in Iran’. In Strategic Survey, 1997/98 national community might think that Iran’s (London: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 162–163; government information is published solely in for the offi cial ‘Transcript of interview with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami,’ see http://www.cnn. Farsi and therefore, will not take the time to visit com/WORLD/9801/07/iran/interview.html (accessed Iran’s government sites if they cannot read in 22 November 2007). Farsi. But one thing is certain, by publishing their 8. Tabesh, Yahya; Khansari, Mohammad; Zarkalam, government information in Farsi and English, Sattar; and Saljooghi, Khosro. ‘Digital review of Iran.’ the Islamic Republic of Iran can reach a broader In Proceedings of the Meeting and Workshop on audience and thus, appear more transparent to Development of a National IT Strategy: Focusing on Indigenous Content Development, Tehran, Iran, the world. October 2004. English translation by Tavakkoli (Teheran: Ministry of Science, Research & Technology Iranian Information & Documentation Center, 2004), p. 141. Acknowledgements 9. Lila Mortezaie to Beygijanian, 31 January 2006. This article began as a term paper in Professor Richardson’s 10. Most relevant citations for the study at hand are: UCLA DIS 455 ‘Government Information’ class in the Kaaya, Janet O. ‘Examining the adoption, imple- winter 2006 term. The fi rst author wishes to thank Lila mentation, institutionalization and sustainability of Mortezaie, faculty member, and Dr. Hussein Gharibi, e-government strategies: the case of Tanzania using Director, at the Iranian Information and Documentation an institutional perspective.’ PhD Dissertation, UCLA, Center (better known, simply as IRANDOC) for their help. 2006; Davarpanah, M. R. and Khaleghi, Narges, In addition, the fi rst author also wishes to thank Professor ‘Evaluating websites: a systematic investigation of Nader D. Naghshineh of the University of Tehran’s School Internet site quality from a single country domain of Psychology and Education and Department of Library name [i.e. .ir or Iran].’ Library Review, 55 (no. 9, 2006): 30 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran

621–631 and Hossein Sharifi and Behrouz Zarei. ‘An Mode’ at http://www.nioc.org/tenders/default.asp adaptive approach for implementing e-government in and then click on ‘Live Tender,’ then ‘View’ (accessed I.R. Iran’. Journal of Government Information, 30 (no. 6 August 2007). 5–6, 2004): 600–619. 21. For the Ministry of Petroleum’s current advertisements 11. The websites of the President’s Ministries are avail- for new projects, see under ‘Tenders’ at http://www. able at http://www.president.ir/eng/ahmadinejad/ nioec.org/tenders.html (accessed 8 August 2007). cabinet/contact (accessed 3 August 2007) which 22. For the Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization’s brings up the ‘Data Bases of I. R. of Iran Government (IFCO) ‘Tenders,’ click on http://www.ifco.ir/english/ Establishments’ or http://www.president.ir/eng/ tender.asp (accessed 6 August 2007). government/ (accessed 3 August 2007). Note, how- 23. ‘KalaNaft Co., Teheran. Manufacturing Support and ever, that only 16 of the 21 Ministry websites can be Procurement for the Iranian Oil Industry.’ at http:// found on the President’s ‘Data Bases’ website through www.kalanaft-tehran.com/ (accessed 22 August the ‘Cabinet Contact’ link or ‘Links to Gov. Sites.’ 2007). 12. Note that the ‘Spokesman of IRI Government’ at www. 24. In Finland, for Iranian business laws, see http://www. spokesman.gov.ir, which serves as the Farsi language iran.fi /report.htm; for Iranian companies, see http:// portal for government websites, has an English www.iran.fi/links.htm#Economics; for business/ language link; however, clicking on it connects to entry/work permits and visas, see http://www.iran.fi / a non-governmental site at www.sokhangoo.net. visa.htm; and for consulate contacts see http://www. Nonetheless, 20 of the 21 ministry websites on the iran.fi /contact.htm. In Greece, for Iranian business Spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran can laws, see http://www.iranworld.com/; for Iranian be found at http://www.sokhangoo.net/en/index. companies, see http://www.iranembassy.gr/eng/ php?option=com_weblinks&catid=40&Itemid=54 eco_link99.htmI; for business/entry/work permits and (accessed 3 August 2007). visas, see http://www.iranembassy.gr/eng/con_visa. 13. “The Supreme Court and the four-member High htm; and for consulate contacts, see http://www. Council of the Judiciary,” according to the CIA’s World iranembassy.gr/eng/contact.htm. In India, for Iranian Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ business laws, see http://www.iran-embassy.org.in/ the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html (accessed 22 affairs.asp?fi eld23=economic1; for Iranian companies November 2007) and investment opportunities, see http://www.iran- 14. The “unicameral Islamic Consultative Assembly or embassy.org.in/affairs.asp?fi eld23=economicf3; for Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami or Majles” according to work permits and visa applications, see http://www. the CIA’s World Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/ iran-embassy.org.in/affairs.asp?fi eld23=consular1; library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html and Embassy contacts, see http://www.iran-embassy. (accessed 22 November 2007). org.in/More_affairs1.asp?ID=1200. In New Zealand, 15. Flanz, Gisbert H. Constitution of the Islamic Republic for Iranian business laws, see http://www.iranembassy. of Iran. In Constitutions of the countries of the world, org.nz/economic-en.htm; for Iranian companies, see volume 9 , edited by Albert P. Blaustein and Gisbert H. http://www.iranembassy.org.nz/economic-en.htm; Flanz. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, for business visas or work permits, see http://www. 1992, p. 23. For an electronic version, see ‘ICL–Iran– iranembassy.org.nz/consular/visa_entry.htm; consular Constitution’ at http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/ contacts, see http://www.iranembassy.org.nz/contact. ir00000_.html (accessed 30 November 2007). htm. In South Africa, for Iranian business laws, 16. ‘Promotion of Investment in Water Projects in see http://www.iranembassy-sa.org.za/E/Trade/ Iran’ under the Iran Water Resources Management MTrade.htm; for Iranian companies and investment Company at http://www.wrm.ir/en/index.asp opportunities, see http://www.iranembassy-sa.org. (accessed 27 November 2007). As an aside, Babak za/E/Trade/MTrade.htm; business visas and work Rahimi asserts that the Ministry of Energy developed permits, see http://www.iranembassy-sa.org.za/E/ its online presence as early as 1994; see ‘Cyberdissent: Visa/MVisa.htm. In South Africa, for Embassy contact the Internet in Revolutionary Iran.’ MERIA Journal, 7 information, see http://www.iranembassy-sa.org.za/ (no. 3, September 2003) at http://meria.idc.ac.il/ (accessed 10 August 2007). journal/2003/issue3/jv7n3a7.html (accessed 17 25. See ‘Laws and Regulations,’ then ‘Direct Tax,’ and then February 2006). ‘Taxable Persons’ at http://www.mefa.gov.ir/laws/ 17. See the FIPPA Homepage at http://intl.mim.gov.ir, the ShowELst.asp?nFrom=1&nTo=2&DN=1 (accessed Tehran Stock Exchange at (http://www.iranbourse. 10 August 2007) com/Default.aspx?alias=www.iranbourse.com/en), 26. See ‘Institutes’ of the Ministry of Economics and and for instructions on how to register with branches Affairs of Finance at http://www.mefa.gov.ir/di/ of foreign companies in Iran (http://intl.mim.gov. index_institutes_eng.asp (accessed 10 August 2007). ir/Investment1.aspx?Kid=27) as well as the Minister’s 27. ‘Banks’ of the Ministry of Economics and Affairs contact information at (http://intl.mim.gov.ir/cont. of Finance at http://www.mefa.gov.ir/di/index_ aspx?ID=3) (accessed 28 August 2007). institutes_eng.asp (accessed 10 August 2007). 18. See ‘Forms’ at http://intl.mim.gov.ir/Investment1. 28. For a list of other conferences in Iran, see ‘Events’ aspx?Kid=24 (accessed 28 August 2007). on the National Petrochemical Company’s website 19. See forthcoming ‘International Exhibition[s] To at http://www.nipc.net/indexen.php (accessed 15 Be Held In Tehran’ at http://intl.mim.gov.ir/cont. August 2007). aspx?ID=7 (accessed 22 August 2007). 29. See the link, Workshops, Meetings, Conferences and 20. To fi nd these materials along with ‘invitations to Symposia’ on the website of The Academy of Sciences tender,’ one fi rst must click the link entitled ‘Visitor of the Islamic Republic of Iran at http://www.ias.ac.ir/ 31 Nancy Beygijanian and John V. Richardson Jr.

pages/seminars_held.htm (accessed 26 November http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/ir00000_.html 2007). (accessed 5 December 2007). 30. For example, under Internet Resources, the ‘General’ 45. ‘Supreme Audit Court Offi cial Website, About Iran: links provides ‘General Search Engines’ as well as Language’ at http://www.dmk.ir/en/07-1.html English-language dictionaries at http://www.ams. (accessed 5 December 2007). ac.ir/htmls/general.htm (accessed 27 November 46. ‘Supreme Audit Court, Offi cial Website, Contact Us or 2007). Site Map’ at http://www.dmk.ir/en/10.html (accessed 31. For examples of congresses, seminars, workshops, 5 December 2007). and monthly meetings, see ‘CME Activities’ on the 47. Under ‘Crime Prevention’ at http://www.iranjudiciary. drop-down menu at http://www.iagh.org/portal. org/laws-lawslinks-en.html (accessed 6 December aspx (accessed 27 November 2007); to see the online 2007). registration form, go to the link ‘Register’ at http:// 48. See http://www.iranjudiciary.org/courts-supreme www.iagh.org/portal.aspx?tabid=101 (accessed courts-en.html (accessed 6 December 2007). 27 November 2007) or at http://www.iagh.org/ 49. For more on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme EditModule.aspx?tabid=101&def=Register (accessed Court, see http://www.iranjudiciary.org/courts- 27 November 2007). Contact information is available supremecourts-en.html (accessed 6 December 2007). at http://www.iagh.org/portal.aspx?tabid=108 50. A description of the responsibilities of the Admin- (accessed 27 November 2007). istrative Court of Justice can be found at http://www. 32. See http://www.iagh.org/EditModule.aspx?tabid=10 iranjudiciary.org/courtsadministrativecourtjustice- 8&def=Register (accessed 27 November 2007). en.html (accessed 6 December 2007). 33. For conference announcements, see http://www. 51. For information on Revolutionary Courts, see http:// docguide.com/crc.nsf/web-byregion?OpenForm&ci www.iranjudiciary.org/courts-revolutionarycourts- ty=Tehran–ir (accessed 27 November 2007); contact en.html (accessed 6 December 2007). information can be found on each respective site. 52. See ‘Affi liated Organizations’ including its sub-links at 34. For admission requirements to Tabriz University http://www.iranjudiciary.org/affi liatedorganizations- of Medical Sciences, see http://www.tbzmed.ac.ir/ prisons-en.html (accessed 6 December 2007). catalog/TBZ-University/Admission-Requirment.htm 53. See ‘Judiciary of IRI’ at http://www.iranjudiciary.org/ (accessed 28 November 2007). laws-lawslinks-en.html (accessed 7 December 35. Department of Research and Education of the IRI’s 2007). Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘IPIS: Institute for Political 54. See ‘Links’ at http://www.iranjudiciary.org/laws- and International Studies’ at http://www.mfa. lawslinks-en.html (accessed 7 December 2007); gov.ir/mfa/cms/Tehran/en/educations/ (accessed select ‘Human Rights’ and then http://www.amnesty. 22 August 2007). org/ (accessed 7 December 2007); type ‘Iran’ in the 36. Harris, Chauncey D. ‘English as international langu- Search box for the results of human rights violations at age in geography: development and limitations.’ The http://www.amnesty.org/airesults/search?sort=date% Geographical Review, 91 (no. 4, October 2001): 685. 3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&oe=UTF- 37. The working websites for the Iranian Embassies but 8&ie=iso88591&client=eng&proxystylesheet=eng&s which do not have an English version are the Iranian ite=default_collection&lr=lang_en&q=Iran (accessed Embassies in Brazil (http://www.webiran.org.br/), 7 December 2007). Qatar (http://www.iranembassy.org.qa/, Russia 55. See ‘United Nations Member States’ at http://www. (http://www.iranembassy.ru/), and Yemen (http:// un.org/members/list.shtml#i (accessed 7 December www.iranyemen.com.ye/). These Embassy websites 2007). only have links for Farsi and the native language of 56. See the website of the World Intellectual Property the country, with the exception of Doha, Qatar which Organization for the Islamic Republic of Iran at http:// has text only in Farsi. www.wipo.int/members/en/details.jsp?country_ 38. The Iranian Consulate in Hong Kong at http://www. id=82&country_code=IR (accessed 7 December iranconsulate.org.hk/ has one link entitled ‘News,’ 2007). but it is in Chinese while the Iranian Embassy site for 57. Nader D. Naghshineh to Beygijanian, 19 February Japan has English, Farsi as well as Japanese language 2006. links. 58. Nader D. Naghshineh to Beygijanian, 8 June 2006. 39. See ‘Iran–Constitution, Chapter VI, Section 2, Article 77 59. Nader D. Naghshineh to Beygijanian, 11 June 2006. [Treaties]’ at http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/ 60. Eschenfelder, Kristin R. ‘How do government agencies ir00000_.html (accessed 5 December 2007). review and approve text content for publication on 40. ‘IR Iran Parliament’ at http://www.majlis.ir/ (accessed their websites? A framework to compare web content 2 December 2007). management practices.’ Library and Information 41. ‘Islamic Consultative Assembly Library (ICALIB)’ Science Research, 26 (no. 4, 2004): 463. at http://www.majlislib.com/ (accessed 2 December 61. ‘Country Commerce.’ The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2007). (March 2007), p. 15 at http://www.eiu.com (accessed 42. ‘Supreme Audit Court’ at http://www.dmk.ir/ (accessed 1 August 2007). 2 December 2007). 62. Ibid., p. 9. 43. See http://www.majlislib.com/websearch_e.htm and 63. Stone, Richard. ‘Science in Iran: an Islamic science http://www.majlislib.com/web.htm and respectively revolution?’ Science, 16 September 2005, p. 1804 (accessed 2 December 2007). at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/ 44. See ‘Iran–Constitution, Chapter IV, Articles 54–55 309/5742/1802?ijkey=Iy.8bbpzThe2 (accessed 27 [Accounting Agency and Auditing, Report]’ at November 2007). 32 E-Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran

64. ‘Thermodynamics Conference of the University of MLIS degree from UCLA’s Department of Information Isfahan.’ at http://www.thcui.com/ (accessed 30 Studies. Currently, she serves on the Association of November 2007). College and Research Libraries’ Anthropology and 65. ‘Visit Iran, Travel & Tourism Guide, Tours and Hotel: Sociology Conference Program Planning Committee. Irpedia’ at http://www.irpedia.com/ (accessed 30 E-mail: [email protected]. November 2007). 66. For the ‘Media Section,’ see http://www.iranembassy. gr/eng/media.htm (accessed 30 November 2007) and John Richardson is a Professor of Information for ‘Cultural Section,’ see http://www.iranembassy. Studies at UCLA. He has written for IFLA Journal gr/eng/cultural.htm (accessed 30 November 2007). about the status of libraries in Eritrea in 2004 and 67. Start at http://www.mfa.gov.ir/mfa/cms/Tehran/en/ Turkmenistan in 2006. Tel. +1 (310) 206 9369 index.html, click on ‘Links,’ then ‘Embassies’ to see (UCLA Ofﬁ ce) Fax: +1 (310) 206-4460. E-mail: the Iranian embassies’ websites around the world. [email protected]. Website: http://purl.org/net/ 68. Kaaya, Janet O. ‘Examining the adoption, imple- jrichardson mentation, institutionalization and sustainability of e-government strategies: the case of Tanzania using Both authors may be contacted at: Department of an institutional perspective,” PhD Dissertation, UCLA, Information Studies, 204 GSE&IS Bldg, 300 Charles 2006. E. Young Drive NW, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520, USA. About the Authors Nancy Beygijanian holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2007, she graduated with an

33 Recognizing Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

Luiza Baptista Melo Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify best practices in order to improve the quality of services in Portuguese academic libraries. This article describes an ongoing project to assess the performance of library services, resulting from a partnership of six Portuguese higher education libraries. The study has three main steps: (1) selection of criteria to be evaluated and selection of their corresponding performance indicators; (2) data collection and analysis; (3) identiﬁ cation of best practices. The selection of the criteria to be evaluated is based on a mixed model combining the Common Assessment Framework and the Balanced Scorecard. The associated performance indicators are in accordance with International Standards ISO 11620:1998 and ISO 2789:2006. Keywords: benchmarking; academic libraries; performance assessment; Portugal

Cesaltina Pires Introduction

This article describes a project to assess the performance of library services, resulting from a partnership of the Libraries of the Applied Mathematics and Pure Mathematics Departments of the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto, the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Porto (ICBAS), the Lusíada University of Famalicão, the European Documentation Centre at the General Library of the University of the Azores, and the Documentation Centre of the Higher School of Nursing of Porto – S. João.

In an age of constant change and great competitiveness among companies, benchmarking has been widely used in commerce and industry over the past 25 years, in order to improve the quality of Ana Taveira services and products (Camp, 1989). In an effort to improve the performance of documentation services, librarians and information managers all over the world have used this tool together with quality assessment models and performance indicators.

The vast body of literature on the subject provides multiple deﬁ n- itions of benchmarking. Cullen (2003) states that, in its application to libraries and information services, Foot offers a useful and pertinent concept – “a process of measuring your service’s processes and performance and systematically comparing them to the performance of others in order to seek best practice” (Foot, 1998). This deﬁ nition focuses several concepts in the area of Quality Man- agement which are extremely relevant: systematic comparison; processes; performance; and analysis to achieve best practices.

Ponjuán (1998) identiﬁ ed 5 stages of the benchmarking process:

1. deﬁ nition of the purpose of the benchmarking study (deﬁ ne About the Authors: page 50 critical factors of success) Copyright © 2008 Author. IFLA Journal 34(1): 34–54. 34 IFLA ISSN: 0340-0352. DOI: 10.1177/0340035208088574 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

2. formation of a benchmarking team Assessment Framework and the Balanced Score- 3. identifi cation of the benchmarking partners card. The associated performance indicators (defi ne organizations that can offer useful solu- are in accordance with International Standards tions to problems) ISO 11620:1998 and ISO 2789:2006. 4. collect and analyze benchmarking data 5. act (obtain best practices and use them to en- The remainder of this paper is organized as fol- hance services/products). lows: in Section 2 we present the methodology used. Section 3 describes our sample and Section 4 These stages are represented in Figure 1 (adapted presents and discusses the results. The fi nal sec- from Grandi and Ferrari, 2005). Our study follows tion concludes the paper. the general benchmarking process. However we did not follow the sequence presented in Figure 1. Methodology The librarians involved in the project worked together from the beginning. Thus step 2 and 3 preceded step 1 and all the benchmarking par- The project ‘Recognizing Best Practices in Higher tners participated in the selection of criteria to Portuguese Education Libraries’ presented in this be evaluated. article results from a partnership of six academic libraries that are using a performance assessment Our study has three main steps: system based on two familiar methods: the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) (European Institute 1. Selection of criteria to be evaluated and selec- of Public Administration, 2006) and the Balanced tion of their corresponding performance Scorecard (BSC) (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). indicators. 2. Data collection and analysis. Figure 2 describes the three steps of the method- 3. Identifi cation of best practices. ology used: selection of criteria to be evaluated and selection of the associated performance indi- The selection of the criteria to be evaluated is cators; data collection and analysis and identifi ca- based on a mixed model combining the Common tion of best practices.

Figure 1. Stages of the benchmarking process. 35 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

Figure 2. Steps of the methodology.

Selection of the Criteria and Performance The criteria for results are: Indicators • customer outcomes The top part of Figure 2 illustrates the fi rst step of • staff outcomes our methodology: the selection of the criteria and • impact on society associated performance indicators to be evaluated. • fi nancial performance outcomes. The selection of the criteria is based on a model developed by Melo (2005) which combines the The Balanced Scorecard is a model for perform- CAF and the BSC. ance management that can be used in organizations of any size, to translate the strategy used into The CAF is a self-assessment tool which comprises specifi c, measurable objectives. This tool is based “an assessment based on evidence, against a set of on the breakdown of vision and strategy into four criteria which has become widely accepted across aspects: the public sector in Europe” (European Institute of Public Administration, 2006). The organization 1. fi nancial is questioned about nine criteria for means and 2. internal processes results (subdivided into 32 sub-criteria) which are 3. learning and innovation predefi ned and classifi ed on a scale of 0 to 5. The 4. the customer. assessment must then be validated by defi ning the actions, concrete practices, objective facts and The CAF-BSC mixed model (Melo, 2005) is illu- data identifi ed. strated in the top left part of Figure 2. Each one of the four aspects of the BSC corresponds to a The criteria for the enablers are: subset of criteria in the CAF assessment tool. The mixed model has a set of measures which proves • leadership very effective because it deals with various aspects • strategy and planning at the same time, namely: • human resources management • management of resources and partnerships • the development of an organizational model • management of internal processes. based on teamwork

36 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

• performance assessment 3. the collection of statistical data on performance • the identifi cation of areas to be perfected for the use of benchmarking techniques • the adoption of benchmarking techniques for the recognition of best practices Management of Resources and Partnerships • the defi nition of a set of strategic objectives relating to the measures to be assessed and to 1. number of monographs, journals (print the respective initiatives involved. version) 2. number of seating places for reading in the A set of criteria was adopted based on this model library which was linked to the respective performance 3. partnerships to minimize costs indicators in accordance with international standards issued by the International Standards Management of Internal Processes Organisation, namely, ISO11620:1998, ISO11620: amend.1:2003, ISO 2789:2003 and some indicators 1. average time to retrieve a free access document used in performance assessment initiatives carried 2. average time to provide a document that does out in universities in Germany, Australia, Sweden, not exist in the library the United Kingdom and Denmark (Poll, 2007). Tables 1 and 2 present the various criteria and the The Client corresponding performance indicators, and indicate how they relate to both the CAF and BSC 1. number of library visits per capita models. 2. loans per capita 3. rate of use of electronic information In this project we focused on the following criteria: resources leadership; planning and strategy; management 4. user satisfaction of resources and partnerships; management of internal processes; the client; the staff; and, the The Staff impact on society. Thus, we only excluded the fi nancial perspective. We believe that it would 1. collaborator satisfaction be desirable to include the fi nancial perspective in our benchmarking exercise. However our The Impact on Society partnership includes both private and public institutions, which leads to very different budget 1. amount of academic publications policies and budget implementation. In addition, 2. amount of academic publications and papers institutions are quite reluctant to provide this type by the library staff of information. As a consequence we were forced 3. amount of training sessions for library users to pursue our project without the inclusion of the 4. the adoption of sustained development fi nancial perspective. principles.

In order to assess these criteria, the following 20 Data Collection performance indicators were applied: The data collection process included three types of questionnaires: a user questionnaire (see Annex Leadership A), a librarian questionnaire (see Annex B), 1. the deﬁ nition and divulgation of the library’s and a questionnaire for other staff of the library concepts of mission and vision (see Annex C). In the case of the users, the ques- 2. the development of the library management tionnaire was applied to a sample of potential system based on the knowledge of the users in each institution. On the other hand, stakeholders every member of library staff answered the cor- 3. the promotion of learning and activities to responding questionnaire. improve the library’s performance The questionnaires were based on the performance indicators to assess academic libraries Planning and Strategy enablers and results (see Table 1 and Table 2). 1. the conduct of a survey of library users The performance indicators that use the CAF 2. updating of the strategic plan methodology are based on the data collected 37 Luiza Baptista Melo et al. Adapt. ISO 11620 B.2.3.2 Adapt. ISO 2789 3.2.32 Adapt. ISO 2789 CAF criterion 4.1 CAF criterion 2.1 CAF criterion 2.2 CAF criterion 2.3 CAF criterion 1.1 CAF criterion 1.2 CAF criterion 1.3 cation of strategic partners and the median time of document acquisitionmedian time of document retrieval from Open Access Area to assess market penetration of electronic service A.6.2 Adapt. ISO 2789 Adapt. ISO 11620 B.3.1.1 Number of monographs. e-books journal and e- journals Opening hours per weekThe identiﬁ nature of the relationships 3.4.3 Adapt. ISO 2789 The systematic gathering of information about the needs and expectations of the users The reorganization and improvement strategies and methods of library activities The development and application of methods to measure the library performance and benchmarking Communicating the vision and mission to all employees in the organization and to other stakeholders The development of an organizational structure in accordance with the tasks of the library The promotion and training to improvement the activities Measurement issue Performance indicator Source of indicator Process management to get quality services Management of the resources and partnerships to support the effective operation of the library activities Strategy and planning of structure and operations taking account of the priorities and needs library users How librarians develop and facilitate of the achievement mission and vision of the library BSC perspective Internal Processes and learning Process and change management External Partnerships and Resources Strategy and planning Leadership Innovation CAF criterion Table 1. Criteria and performance indicators to assess academic library enablers. Table 38 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries CAF criterion 8.1 CAF criterion 8.2 Adapt. ISO 11620 B.2.4.2 per capita

Cost per library visit Adapt. ISO 11620 B.2.1.3 The degree of compliance with environmental principles (for ex. energy saving, reduction of use of recycled material) waste and packaging. Rate of professors and researchers publicationRate of professors and researchers Rate of the library staff participation in internal CAF criterion 8.1 discussion groups. international professional meetings with senior librarians, etc. Overall user satisfaction (between 0–5)Overall staff satisfaction (between 0–5) ISO 11620 B.1.1.1 CAF criterion 7.2 Loans c research c Measurement issue Performance indicator Source of indicator Librarianship and information science research Integration of the principles sustainable development in the decision making process Staff satisfaction outcomesScientiﬁ Levels of absenteeism or sickness CAF criterion 7.2 BSC perspective Financial Costs Cost per user (student or professor) Adapt. ISO 11620 B.2.1.2 Customer User satisfaction outcomes Library visits per capita Adapt. ISO 11620 B.2.1.3 Performance outcomes Staff outcomes Impact on society CAF criterion Customer outcomes Table 2. Criteria and performance indicators to assess academic library results. Table 39 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

Score Enablers Results 0 No evidence or only anecdotal evidence of No results are measured. an approach. 1 An approach is planned P (plan). Key results are measured and show negative or stable trends. 2 An approach is planned and implemented Results show modest progress. D (do). 3 An approach is planned implemented and Results show substantial progress. reviewed C (check). 4 An approach is planned, implemented and Excellent results are achieved and positive reviewed on the basis of benchmarking comparisons to own targets are made. data and adjusted accordingly A (act). 5 An approach is planned, implemented, Excellent results are achieved, positive reviewed on the basis of benchmarking comparisons to own targets are made data adjusted and fully integrated into the and positive benchmarks against relevant organization. organizations are made. Table 3. Assessment scale of the model CAF for enablers and for results (EIPA, 2006).

through the various questionnaires and classifi ed in the questionnaire. We decided to estimate con- on a scale of 0 to 5 as defi ned in Table 3 (European fi dence intervals for the population mean of each Institute of Public Administration 2006). institution. This is preferable to just presenting a point estimate, since it gives us an indication To measure user satisfaction we conducted sur- of how accurate our prediction is. The accuracy veys. The data used to assess the degree of satis- depends on the sample size (the bigger the sample faction with the various services and resources the more accurate will be the estimate) and on the were obtained using Likert scales (a scale to variability in the population for the variable under measure opinions, attitudes or satisfaction in a analysis (the smaller the population variability non-neutral way, that is, it presents negative, the higher will be the accuracy). The confi dence neutral and positive poles (Hill, 2002)), and each interval for the population mean, µ, is given by: category was scored from 1 to 5, complying with ⎡ ⎛ ⎞ ⎛ ⎞⎤ the recommendations of International Standard − s + s ⎢xzα/2 ⎜ ⎟, xzα /2 ⎜ ⎟⎥ ISO 11620:1998. ⎣ ⎝ n ⎠ ⎝ n ⎠⎦

Since there exists a very large number of poten- where x¯ is the sample mean, s is the sample tial users among the participating libraries, the standard deviation (which is the estimator of the

questionnaires were applied to a sample of the population variability), n is the sample size and zα/2 population. In order for us to able to make infer- is the critical value from the normal distribution ences about the population, we have to use prob- for a confi dence level of (1–a) × 100%. The confi d- abilistic sampling methods, such as simple ence level indicates the degree of confi dence that random sampling or stratifi ed random sampling. the estimated interval contains the true value of In our case we used stratifi ed random sampling the population mean. In our case we worked with in each institution participating in the study. In a 95 percent confi dence level. The confi dence each institution we tried to obtain a sample large intervals can be estimated using any statistical enough to guarantee accurate estimates. software, such as the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) or even Excel (using the Data Analysis Tool). Data Analysis The fi rst step of the analysis is to summarize the The next step involved the comparison between data collected. In the case of user satisfaction institutions of the values obtained for each per- this involves estimating the mean for each item formance indicator. For the performance indicators 40 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries which are based on sample data we intend to pur- Table 4 presents data on the potential library sue, in a future study, additional analysis will be users (students, teachers and personnel in each needed in the future, so as to test if the observed of the institutions). It should be noted that the differences are statistically signifi cant. In fact, institutions vary quite a lot in size. The smallest an institution might present a better average is the Higher School of Nursing of Porto (776 mean just due to sampling error (with a different people) and the largest is the Faculty of Sciences sample the result might have been different). We of the University of Porto (4174 people). In the last intend in future to perform t-test to compare each line of Table 4 we present the percentage of each institution with the best performing institution in institution in the total population under analysis each item. Let mx and my be the population means (10,861 people). of institutions x and y, respectively. We will test the null hypothesis that there is no difference We used a stratifi ed sampling procedure. We divided µ µ between the two institutions, x – y = 0, against the population into three groups: teaching staff, µ µ the one-sided alternative that x – y > 0, (where students and non-teaching staff of the institutions. x is the institution though to be the best perform- Then in each group we selected randomly the ing one). If the null hypothesis is rejected, one can elements of the sample. The questionnaires were conclude that there is evidence that institution sent by e-mail to all elements of the sample. In x performs better than institution y. The t-statistic addition, to increase the response rate, the ele- is calculated as follows: ments of the sample were also contacted in the library installations, in the classrooms and in − xy the corridors of the institutions. The percentage 2 s2 sample we aimed for was 25 percent. sx + y

nx ny Table 5 presents the number of respondents in Assuming large samples one can use the normal each institution and their percentage of the total distribution (many statistics books assume that of 1,285 respondents. Due to differences in the nx and ny larger than 30 is enough for the normal willingness to answer the questionnaires we to be used). The null hypothesis is rejected if the did not get a proportional stratifi ed sample (for value of the statistic is larger than zα, where zα is example, University of Azores represents only the critical value of the normal distribution for 9 percent of the respondents). The two fi rst insti- the level of signifi cance of a (usually 1 percent, tutions represent a smaller proportion of the 5 percent or 10 percent). respondents than their proportion in the total population and the reverse holds for the last three institutions. Although this may look as a serious Identifi cation of Best Practices drawback of our study, it should be noticed that The previous step allows us to identify the institu- for comparison purposes it is not necessary to tion which performs best in terms each of critical have a proportional sample. For example, if one success factor. Once this is done, one needs to wants to do t-tests to compare means between two identify the reasons for the better performance. different institutions, what is important is that, Which practices explain that a given institution for each institution, the sample is large enough performs better? If all the process is done correctly, to provide us with accurate estimators for the at the end of the process we will have identifi ed population of that institution. In that respect the the best practices and actions to be taken so that most problematic sample of respondents is the the other institutions can adopt them. one from the University of the Azores, which is the smallest both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the population (representing only 4 Description of the Sample percent of the population of the institution). This implies that our estimates for University of Azores The assessment was based on three types of ques- will be less accurate. For the remaining institutions tionnaire: one for librarians, one for collaborators the respondents sample sizes are much higher and and one for library users (the questionnaires are are considered excellent representations of the presented in Annexes A, B and C). All librarians universes under investigation. and collaborators answered their questionnaires. The library users questionnaire was administered to a sample of the population of library users. 41 Luiza Baptista Melo et al. Totals Totals ULusíada ULusíada Famalicão Famalicão SJ SJ ESEnfPorto ESEnfPorto ICBAS ICBAS UPorto UPorto FCUPorto FCUPorto Mathematics Mathematics 410151722 Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada TeachersPersonnel 27 10 31 19 28 10 8 5 12 5 106 49 TeachersPersonnel 270 276 283 163 273 117 54 33 69 40 949 629 UAzores TotalPercentage 2546 4174 24 1943 381422 776 18 10861 7 13 100 Universe Students 2000 3728 1553 689 1313 9283 Respondents StudentsTotal 75PercentageRespondents as % of Institution Universe 388 112 9 259 438 34 117 297 23 291 130 10 1130 308 24 1285 100 UAzores Table 4. Description of the universe library users. Table Table 5. Description of library users respondents. Table 42 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

Analysis of the Results

In this section we present the preliminary results of our study. We start by analyzing the results of the user surveys. These results are particularly important for measuring the performance of library services, since the users are the ultimate judges of whether the quality of the services is good or not. Next we analyze the results obtained for the 20 performance indicators, which are based on the user surveys and the questionnaires and interviews with the librarians and other staff of each library.

Results of the User Surveys The user satisfaction surveys involved 1,285 questionnaires and were conducted from 15 October to 15 November 2006. Table 6 and Table 7 summarize the results of these surveys. Table 6 shows the percentage use of the library and the users’ satisfaction with the various library services; Table 7 presents the percentage use of electronic resources.

The ﬁ rst item in Table 6 indicates the percentages of respondents who said they had used the library FCUPorto ICBAS ESEnfPorto Ulusíada or documentation centre in the previous 12 months. The ﬁ gures show that this percentage varied from 74 percent to 100 percent, depending on the institution and type of user. The data reveal the extent to which the services have been used.

The next item, Analysis of services/resources, presents the average of the user satisfaction degree with various services/resources of the library. As mentioned before these questions used a Likert scale from 1 to 5 (5 – very good, 4 – good, 3 – satisfactory, 2 – mediocre and 1 – bad). The average level of satisfaction with speciﬁ c library services or resources ranged from 2.7 to 4.3.

The General Library of the University of the Azores, TeachersPersonnel 96 80 97 100 89 90 88 100 100 100 the Mathematics Libraries of the FCUP and the Documentation Centre of the Higher School of Nursing of Porto have particularly good results in relation to the comfort of their installations. The ICBAS library obtained a lower score (3.2), which can be explained by the fact that the library building is relatively old (beginning of the 20th century) with bad illumination (this was indicated by the respondents).

With respect to the updating of the documentation, Assessment UAzores Use in last year (%) StudentsAnalysis services/resourcesComfort of installationsUpdated documentationComputer equipment 89Document loansPhotocopying/Printing servicesOverall satisfaction with library (Average) 74 4.3 3.76 3.4 3.2 3.0 88 3.9 3.76 3.7 3.7 Arithmetic Average 3.4 3.2 86 3.2 3.44 3.5 3.4 3.3 2.7 82 3.83 3.9 3.5 3.6 3.3 2.7 3.36 3.6 3.2 3.8 3.1 2.9 3.3

the Mathematics Libraries of the FCUP are at 6: Results of user surveys and percentage of library use). (user satisfaction Table 43 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

the forefront, whilst the lending services are and the remaining institutions (the teachers of considered good (we consider a score above the Faculty of Sciences of Porto University are 3.5 ‘good’) in all of the libraries in this project, also frequent users of the catalogue). This might with the exception of the services of the Lusíada be explained by the location of the computer University of Famalicão. The most likely cause terminals in the library, very close to the library for this result is the very short loan period (3 entrance. days) in this institution. Thus, an extension of the loan period is suggested to meet with user Regarding the electronic resources the teachers expectations. have the highest percentage use in all institutions except in the Documentation Centre of the Higher The lowest average ﬁ gures refer to the degree School of Nursing of Porto. In addition, the teachers of satisfaction with the information technology access these resources in the institution but not in equipment available. This is due to the fact that the Library. It is also interesting to notice that, in in recent years there has not been a signiﬁ cant general, the students seem to be lagging behind growth in the number of wired network terminals in the use of these resources. This suggests the (in the open question of the questionnaire many need for marketing strategies especially directed respondents complained about the small number to students. The objective is to inform and train of terminals). The option was to make wireless the user on the utilization of these resources, so networks widely available on the campuses of as to increase their autonomy and to alleviate the the academic institutions, hoping that students reference services. would acquire laptop computers in order to access the electronic services/resources. The comments Results for the Performance Indicators of the respondents show that users desire more terminals for their work. Let us now analyze the results for the 20 performance indicators which were chosen to assess Regarding the photocopying/printing services performance. Table 8 shows the quantitative the level of users satisfaction is very similar across and qualitative results obtained for the various institutions (varies between 3.1 and 3.4). performance indicators.

The last item in Table 6, Overall Degree of Satis- The fi gures in Table 8 come from different sources. faction with the Library, assesses the set of services/ The scores, which are in the shaded cells, were resources that the library or documentation centre assigned as a result of the questionnaires and inter- provides. The average of the overall satisfaction views with the librarians, using the CAF scoring is relatively good in all the institutions, varying criteria, on a scale of 0 to 5, as described in Table 3. between 3.36 in Lusíada University and 3.83 in The user satisfaction indicator is the overall satis- Documentation Centre of the Higher School of faction score obtained in the user survey (from Nursing of Porto – S. João. The last institution Table 6). The remaining fi gures in white cells refer benefi ts from spacious, comfortable installations, to hard data collected by the librarians. up-to-date documentation and the loan service functions smoothly in the opinion of its users. Leadership Table 7 shows information about the rate of use All the academic libraries involved in this project of the open access catalogue and of various elec- have a clear defi nition of their mission and vision. tronic resources, as well as the places where these In addition, they develop management policies resources were used. which take the dialogue with collaborators into consideration and promote activities to improve It should be noted that the percentage of users who the library’s performance, with the exception utilize open access catalogues, bibliographic data of the General Library of the University of the bases and full text journals is already noticeable, Azores. Thus the various institutions show a good although it varies quite a lot among the various performance regarding the leadership criterion, institutions and types of users. On the contrary, excepting the General Library of the University the percentage use of e-books is very small. of the Azores. This institution does not promote activities to improve the library’s performance With respect to the open access catalogue there is and the management system has not been based a striking difference between the Azores University on the knowledge of the stakeholders. 44 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

Assessment UAzores FCUPorto ICBAS ESEnfPorto ULusíada Use of on-line services/ Percentage resources Catalogue Students 81 48 54 47 46 Teachers 89 90 36 25 58 Personnel 75 75 70 100 25 Satisfaction with catalogue Modal response and respective frequency 45-Good 29- Good 34-Good 30-Enough 33-Enough Percentage Electronic Students 63 55 57 52 45 resources Teachers 89 90 82 50 50 Personnel 63 75 50 100 25 Bibliographic Students 68 49 38 43 37 data-bases Teachers 70 87 64 63 50 Personnel 63 75 40 0 0 e-books Students 0 10 10 4 13 Teachers 4 19 18 13 8 Personnel 0 50 0 0 0 Full text journals Students 15 15 35 28 10 Teachers 44 74 61 50 25 Personnel 25 25 30 0 0 Place of use Percentage Library Students 52 32 39 24 22 Teachers 15 23 7 13 17 Personnel 25 25 20 100 25 Institution Students 11 16 19 21 15 Teachers 70 87 71 38 33 Personnel 38 50 40 0 0 Remote Students 17 16 17 18 20 Teachers 30 23 7 13 17 Personnel 38 50 0 0 25 Table 7. Results of the percentage use of various electronic resources.

45 Luiza Baptista Melo et al. ULusíada Famalicão SJ ESEnfPorto ICBAS UPorto Assessment FCUPorto Mathematics 44444 34444 25555 34343 34444 44444 44444 Ponta Delgada UAzores nition and divulgation of the library’s concepts of Leadership The deﬁ mission and vision The development of the library management system based on the knowledge of stakeholders The promotion of learning and activities to improve the library’s performance Planning and Strategy The conduct of surveys of library users Updating of the strategic plan The collection of statistical data on performance for the use of techniques benchmarking Management of Resources and Partnerships (print version) Number of monographs /Number Journals Number of seating places for reading in the library 11810 / 554 / 380 Partnerships to minimize costs 23474 / 1114 19779 Management of Internal Processes 4832 time to retrieve a free access document / 121Average Percentage use electronic resources (weighted average) 9240 / 389 239 66% 166 – 58% 46 1’ 21’’ 60% 1’15’’ 80 54% – 120 45% 1’ 10’’ Performance indicator

46 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries 4 3.6 4 3.7 3 3.4 5454 4 3.9 – 0.9 6.4 11.3 4.1 –3333 –4323 –4232 33233 3 3.2 4 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks 4 weeks [3.60; 3.90] [3.69;3.83] [3.36;3.52] [3.73;3.93] [3.28;3.44] dence interval for the population mean ( 95% dence level) dence : the symbol – means that we were not able to get data for that performance indicator. : the symbol – means that we were not able to get data for that performance indicator. Average time to provide a document that does not exist in the Average library The Clients Number of library visits per capita(from 15th Oct. to Nov. 2006) Loans per capitaUser satisfaction – Sample Arithmetic AverageConﬁ conﬁ 3.76 3.76 3.44 – 3.83 1.4 3.36 – 10.7 4.9 The Staff Collaborator satisfaction (Arithmetic Average) Number of the library staffThe Impact on Society Amount of academic publications per capita (2005) Amount of academic publications and papers by the library staff (2005) Amount of training sessions for library users The adoption of sustained development principles (Model CAF Scale) Arithmetic Average 13 Table 8: Results for the 20 performance indicators. Table Note 47 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

Planning and Strategy far, the best performance in these two indicators. From the interviews with the librarians and also In terms of planning and strategy the various from site visits, we believe this is due to the more libraries show a very similar performance. They practical nature of the course taught in this routinely collect statistical data for benchmarking school, which requires students to do many group purposes and perform user surveys. In addition projects. The students use the Documentation they update their strategic plans. We believe this Centre both as a place of group meetings and to result is due in large part to the ongoing par- do bibliographic searches. tnership which has encouraged these types of procedures. Table 8 shows the point estimate of the average user satisfaction in each institution. In addition, Management of Resources and Partnerships it also shows the confi dence interval for that parameter, with a confi dence level of 95 percent. In terms of resources there exists a wide vari- One can infer that, with a confi dence level of ation across the participating institutions. The 95 percent, the average satisfaction of the popula- Documentation Centre of the Higher School of tions of each institution fall within the intervals Nursing of Porto has the smallest collections of observed in Table 8. As expected our estimative monographs and print journals, whereas the Mathe- is less accurate for the University of Azores, due matics Libraries of the FCUP have the largest to the smaller sample size. As described in the monographs collection and the Abel Salazar Insti- previous subsection the overall user satisfaction tute of Biomedical Sciences of the University of is relatively good in all the institutions. The best Porto has the highest number of print journals. performing partner is the Documentation Centre It should be noted that in recent years, with the of the Higher School of Nursing of Porto. appearance of online editions, many institutions have gradually suspended the acquisition of the The quality of the services provided by a library print editions of journals. This explains why some or documentation centre does not depend on the libraries (such as the Mathematics Libraries of size of the document collection but rather the de- the FCUP) have relatively small print journals gree to which the user’s expectations are satisfi ed. collections but a relatively good performance in This fact is well illustrated in our results. The terms of academic publications per capita. Documentation Centre of the Higher School of Nursing of Porto – S. João has the highest User Management of Internal Processes Satisfaction, 3.83 with a 95 percent confi dence interval of [3.73;3.93] even though its collection Regarding the effi ciency of the internal processes is the smallest. the institutions are quite similar in terms of the average time to provide a document that does not The Staff exist in the library (which varies between 3 and 4 weeks) and the average time to retrieve a free With respect to the staff satisfaction level (obtained access document. through the staff questionnaire) all institutions have the same value (3). From the open questions In terms of the overall use of electronic resources comments we can conclude that the satisfactory the Azores University is at the forefront. In fact, level of satisfaction is more related to factors such if we compute a weighted average of the percent- as the lack of job security and the level of salaries age use of electronic resources taking into account than the specifi c work environment. the weight of each group in the institution population, the percentage use in Azores University is The Impact on Society 66 percent whereas Lusíada University is the one with the lowest use (45 percent). Regarding the impact on society criterion, the Mathematics Libraries stand out as a consequence of the level of scientifi c production (amount of The Clients scientifi c publications per capita 2005 both for With respect to the number of library visits and academic and library staff) loans per capita there exist wide differences across institutions. The Documentation Centre All the institutions have realized formal training of the Higher School of Nursing of Porto has, by sessions for library users, except the ICBAS 48 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

Library (however users are helped whenever they to value the existence of spacious and comfortable need it). As a result of our benchmarking exercise, installations, up-to-date information and smooth the librarians in this institution are already plann- loan services. Our results also show that the use of ing to do formal training sessions. electronic resources is still low among students, which suggests the need of marketing strategies Regarding the adoption of sustainable develop- directed to students. The participating institutions ment principles, it should be noted that libraries show a good performance in terms of leadership, and documentation services have adopted pro- planning and strategy, which is partly due to the cedures in that direction, although there is still ongoing partnership which has encouraged these room for improvement in some institutions. The type of procedures. following good practices were identifi ed during this project: the provision of separate containers for Our benchmarking team involves libraries with the disposal of materials such as paper, cardboard, very different characteristics and dealing with plastics and batteries; the use of recycled toners different areas of knowledge. However, for some and ink cartridges in copying for library users, so performance indicators (such as academic pub- that support material can be returned and reused; lications and library visits per capita) it would be and, the use of fl uorescent light bulbs. preferable to compare institutions in the same area of knowledge (Sciences, Medicine, Social Sciences, The Arithmetic Averages in the last row of Table 8 Human Sciences, Arts). In spite of this, we believe represent the average of the scores of the various that our exercise has been worthwhile. CAF criteria (the shaded cells). Acknowledgement Conclusions The authors wish to express their deep appreciation to the librarians, Alice Rodrigues (ICBAS – University of Porto), Helena Barbosa (Faculty of Science – University Academic documentation and information of Porto), Orísia Pereira (Escola Superior de Enfermagem services should strive incessantly to revitalize do Porto – S. João), Olinda Martins (Lusíada University – themselves for the benefi t of internal users and Famalicão), who generously took the time to participate the academic community, in harmony with the in our partnership. institution they have to serve. It is essential to take on a creative, dynamic, renovating position References to better provide for the needs of a constantly Camp, R.C. (1989) Benchmarking: the search for industry changing society. best practices that lead to superior performance. American Society for Quality Control, Milwaukee, WI. In this article we presented a methodology that Cullen, R. (2003)Benchmarking: overview and context. can be used to identify best practices in order Paper presented at the 69th IFLA Council and General Conference Berlin, available at: www.ifla.org/IV/ to improve the quality of services in higher ifl a69/papers/015e-Cullen.pdf education libraries. Our methodology is based European Institute of Public Administration. (2006) CAF on the idea of benchmarking and it requires – Common Assessment Framework. EIPA Maastricht, the cooperation of all benchmarking partners. available at: www.eipa.nl/CAF/CAF_2006/Brochures/ Through the systematic measurement of several English_2006.pdf performance indicators and their comparison Foot, J. (1998) How to do benchmarking: a practitioners’ guide. Inter-Authorities Group, London. between participating institutions one can identify Grandi, M.E.G. and Ferrari, A.C. (2005) Aprendendo com the best performing institution in the various as melhores práticas (benchmarking). In Ferrari, A.C., performance dimensions. Identifying the reasons Grandi, M.E.G. and Sampaio, M.I.C. (eds). Qualidade why an institution performs better than others will em serviços de informação: uma experiência de allow the remaining institutions to adopt such EAD. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo. Sistema Integrado de Bibliotecas, São Paulo, 2005. p.119. best practices so as to improve the quality of their Hill, M.M. and Hill, A. (2002) Investigação por questionário, services. 2nd ed. Sílabo, Lisboa. ISO 11620. (1998) Information and documentation In our ongoing benchmarking process we al- – library performance indicators. International ready obtained some interesting results. The Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva. fi rst is related to the fact that the best performing ISO 11620. (2003) Information and documentation – library performance indicators: amendment 1: institutions in terms of user satisfaction are not additional performance des bibliothèques. International the ones with the largest collections. Users seem Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva. 49 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

ISO 2789. (2006) Information and documentation Cesaltina Pires holds a PhD in Economics from the – international library statistics. International Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is an Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva. Associate Professor in the Management Department Kaplan, R.S. and Norton, D.P. (1992) The balanced of Évora University in Portugal. Her main research scorecard – measures that drive performance . Harvard interests are in management and economics Business Review, Vol. January /February, pp. 71–79. (industrial organization, game theory and decision Melo, L.B. (2005) Avaliação de desempenho das Bibliotecas da Universidade do Porto: modelo de theory). She has published two textbooks and several actuação. Libraries and Information Science Master’s academic articles in these ﬁ elds. Recently she has thesis, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal. been doing joint work with library and information Poll, R. (2007) Benchmarking with quality indicators: science researchers, applying management con- national projects. Performance Measurement and cepts to this area of knowledge. She may be con- Metrics, Vol.8, No.1, pp. 41–53. tacted at: CEFAGE-UE and Departamento de Gestão, Ponjúan Dante, G. (1998) Gestión de información las Universidade de Évora, Largo dos Colegiais, 7000- organizaciones: principios, conceptos y aplicaciones. 803 Évora, Portugal Phone: +351 266740892. CECAPI/Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile. E-mail: [email protected]

About the Authors Ana Taveira has been in charge of researching scientifi c events, scholarships, grants and projects Luiza Baptista Melo has been a university librarian for the university community at the University of the since 1988. She currently works in the Library of Azores, Portugal, since 2006. She was previously the Faculty of Science, University of Porto (Applied responsible for the European Documentation Centre Mathematics Department) in Portugal. She originally at the University of the Azores, and was involved in a graduated in chemistry, then obtained postgraduate project coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für qualifi cations in information and library science Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) for the creation (1991) and a master’s degree in library science of a European Documentation Centre in Brasília, from Évora University (2005). She was an executive Brazil. She was co-founder of the Azorean Regional member of the Portuguese North Regional Branch Branch of the Association of Librarians, Archivists of the Association of Librarians, Archivists and and Documentalists; she holds the degree of Documentalists (2005–2007). Her research and Bachelor of Arts from Southeastern Massachusetts professional interests include library performance University-UMASS Dartmouth (1979), and a post- assessment and scientometrics. She has published graduate degree in library science and archives some articles in these fi elds. She may be contacted from the University of Azores (1995). She may be at: CIDEHUS-UE and Departamento de Matemática contacted at: Centro de Documentação Europeia – Aplicada – Biblioteca, Faculdade de Ciências da Biblioteca Central Universidade dos Azores 9510- Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 082 Ponta Delgada, Portugal Phone: +351 296 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal. Phone: + 351 650060. E-mail: [email protected] 220402242. E-mail: [email protected]

50 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

ANNEX A – User Survey

Library or Documentation Center 1. Indicate your position in the Institution. Student Teacher Staff Other 2. Have you used the Library or Documentation Center during the previous 12 months ? Yes No 3. The Library or Documentation Center offers several services. Indicate your satisfaction degree, in a scale from Bad to Very Good: 3.1. Comfort of the installations Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 3.2. Updated Documentation Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 3.3. Available computer equipment Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 3.4. Loan Services Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good .5. Photocopying/Printing Services Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 4. The Library or Documentation Center has an Open Access Catalogue, which contains the description of the information that one can ﬁ nd in this service. Do you use this catalogue to search the documents you are looking for? Yes No 4.1 Indicate the degree of satisfaction relatively to the Open Access Catalogue. Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 5. Do you use the electronic resources such as Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS, B-on (Library of Knowledge Online Portuguese Consortium)), e-books, e-journals available in the Institution net? Yes No 5.1. If you answered Yes, in what location? In the Library Other places in the Institution Other places 5.2. What type of information resources do you use? Bibliographic Data Bases (such as Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS and B-on (Library of Knowledge Online Portuguese Consortium) e-books Full text journals 6. In a scale from Bad to Very Good give an overall grade to the Library or Documentation Center services. Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 7. Suggestions. Indicate any suggestion you may have to improve the quality of the existing services. If you have suggestion regarding other services that the Library or Documentation Center could offer to improve its performance, indicate them too.

Thank you!

51 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

ANNEX B – Librarians’ Questionnaire

Library or Documentation Center

1 – The size of the population under study is represented by the potential users of the Library or Documentation Center. Total number of students (undergraduate, master and PhD students) Number of Professors and Teaching Assistants Number of Researchers Number of Non-Teaching Staff Number of potential users (equal to a)+b)+c)+d))? 2 – Based on the CAF-Balanced Scorecard mixed model the following criteria will be evaluated: leadership; planning and strategy; management of resources and partnerships; management of internal processes; the client; the staff; and, the impact on society. These criteria are associated with performance indicators deﬁ ned by ISO11620 and ISO2789. 2.1 – Leadership Do you deﬁ ne and divulge the concepts of mission and vision of the Library or Documentation Center? Yes No b) If Yes, in what form? In a brochure of the Library. In the Internet page of the Library. Other. Which one? If No, why? Do you have a management system of the Library based on the knowledge of the users needs and the degree of satisfaction of the users and the staff of the library? Yes No If Yes, in which way? Creation of new services following the users suggestions. Promoting the dialogue with the staff so as to obtain suggestions to improve the service processes and quality. Other. Which one? If No, why? Do you promote learning activities to improve the performance of the Library services? Yes No If Yes, how? Participate in Training Programs Incentive the other staff to participate in Training Programs Other. Which one? If No, why? 2.2 – Planning and Strategy Do you perform surveys to the users of the Library or Documentation Center? Yes No Do you do Activity Reports based on the needs of the users and the staff? Yes No If No, why? Do you collect data regarding performance to be used for the purpose of benchmarking ? Yes No

52 Best Practice in Portuguese Higher Education Libraries

2.3– Management of Resources and Partnerships a) Dimension of the collection Number of monographs? Number of journals (print version)? Number of e-books? Number of bibliographic data bases? Number of electronic subscriptions? b) The Library has a computerized open access catalogue? Yes No c) Number of seating places in the Library Do you establish partnerships so as to maximize beneﬁ ts and minimize costs? Yes No If Yes, which ones? Participation in closed consortiums, for example B-on (Library of Knowledge Online Portuguese Consortium). Participation in open consortiums, Which? Other. Which? 2.4 – Management of Internal Processes What is the average time to provide a document that does not exist in the Library or Documentation Center (acquisition of monographs or scientiﬁ c articles)? 3 weeks 1 month 2 months Other. Which? What is the average time to retrieve a free access document (for a sample of 30 tests)

What is the percentage use of the bibliographic electronic resources available in the Library or Documentation Center (based on question 5 of the user questionnaire) 2.5 – Client Number of visits per capita in the period from October 15 to November 15. Number of loans per capita during 2005. Indicate the average of the overall degree of satisfaction obtained in the users survey. Number of the library staff Indicate the average of the staff satisfaction degree, obtained in the staff questionnaire. 2.6 – Impact on Society Number of scientiﬁ c articles published by the users of the Library or Documentation Center during 2005? Number of articles or communications of the Library or Documentation Center staff during 2005? Number of Training Programs directed to the users during the academic year 2005/2006?

In your activities do you follow sustained development principles? Yes No If Yes, which ones? Provision of separate containers for material disposal Utilization of recycled paper Utilization of toners and ink cartridges which can be recycled Utilization of ﬂ uorescent light bulbs. Others. Which?

Thank you!

53 Luiza Baptista Melo et al.

ANNEX C – Other Staff Questionnaire

Library or Documentation Center 1 - In a scale from Bad to Very Good classify the degree of satisfaction relatively to the functions/ activities that you perform in the Library or Documentation Center. Bad Mediocre Satisfactory Good Very Good 2 - Would you like to participate in a Training Program? Yes No If Yes, which one? 3 - Do you have any suggestion to improve the quality of the services provided to the users? Yes No If Yes, which one? 4 - Suggestions. Indicate any suggestion you may have to improve the quality of the existing services.

Thank you!

54 The Reﬂ ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment: embedding information literacy into student learning through an online environment

Helen Partridge Abstract The Refl ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment is an e- learning tool that fosters the development of student skill and knowledge in online searching. It was developed with the support of Faculty of Information Technology and the Teaching and Learning Support Services at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). In 2007 ROSS is being developed for use within the fi rst year curriculum of other faculties within QUT. This paper will provide a demonstration of the ROSS environment and how it was embedded within the curriculum of two contrasting disciplines: IT and Science. Many online information literacy tools are static, modular, linear and heavily text based, and have failed to Sylvia Edwards incorporate an interactive approach to the learning process. This paper will demonstrate that ROSS pushes the boundary of online information literacy programs by guiding learners to know, refl ect, and practice information literacy concepts through the use of case studies or problem based learning. Keywords: Information literacy; e-learning; online searching; university students; Australia

Introduction

In recent years information literacy has become a topic of consid- Andrew Baker erable discussion within higher education. The current literature suggests that information literacy is an important skill for undergraduate students. For example, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) (2000) state in their Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education that “developing lifelong learners is central to the mission of higher education institutions” (para 10), and that by ensuring “individuals have the intellectual abilities of reasoning and critical thinking, and by helping them construct a framework for learning how to learn, colleges and universities provide the foundation for continued growth throughout their careers, as well as in their roles as informed citizens and members of communities” (para. 10). According to the Lynn McAllister ACRL Standards, IL is a “key component of, and contributor to, lifelong learning” (para. 10). The response of the higher education sector to the need for development of information literacy skills in students is perhaps best reﬂ ected in the view of Johnston and Webber (2003) who point out that information literacy is a social response to the need for effective use of the huge amount of information accessible in today’s information society. As interest in information literacy continues to build, the scholarly discussion has begun to consider how information literacy can be developed using the latest technology to adapt to the diverse student learning styles.

This paper will report on an ongoing project to build an e-learning About the Authors: page 70 environment that can be used by to help support students – in any

discipline – develop their skill and knowledge skills and attitudes which enables the individual in online searching. The paper will discuss the to “recognize when information is needed and challenges in developing a generic tool that have the capacity to locate, evaluate, and use can be used within the curriculum of different effectively the needed information” (American disciplines where those disciplines have very Library Association, 1989). different student cohorts. The paper will refl ect upon what the two contrasting student cohorts Models of Information Literacy liked and disliked and what they found inspir- ing, boring or simply confusing with the online As Lupton (2004) notes, information literacy is environment. The paper is divided into two currently an important curricular focus in all parts. Part one will provide a brief discussion on educational sectors. She identifi es three classes of information literacy within higher education and models developed to conceptualize information the growing interest in e-learning as a vehicle for literacy in educational terms: standards based, information literacy development. The approach process based, and relational models. The stand- to information literacy at QUT is highlighted. ards based models include the CAUL standards Part two will provide a brief overview of ROSS, (CAUL 2001b) which underpin information lit- including the theoretical framework that informed eracy at the Queensland University of Technology its development. This part will also discuss two (QUT). The Big Six Process Model (Eisenberg case studies that illustrate how ROSS can be used and Berkowitz, 1988) and the Information Search in two contrasting learning contexts. Process (Kuhlthau, 1993) both refl ect the staged understanding of information use. The process models are most frequently used in primary and Information Literacy and Higher secondary education and stress information Education: A Brief Overview literacy as a series of steps. The relational model of information literacy proposed by Bruce (1997), focuses on the unique experience of the individual A Defi nition in the information transaction and has informed Recent research indicates a diverse range of many recent studies in information literacy in the understandings of information literacy in higher higher education sector. education, including information literacy as a set of information seeking behaviours; as a skill Information Literacy and E-learning involving technical expertise and as a discipline in itself. Information literacy is also recognized as Information literacy learning opportunities in being an important generic skill or student attri- higher education settings are commonly delivered bute (S.L. Edwards, Bruce and McAllister 2005). by librarians or through collaborative programs Alternatively, the Council of Australian University between librarians and faculty in both face-to-face Librarians (CAUL) (2001a) considers information situations and via online tutorials. There is an ap- literacy in terms of “an intellectual framework for parent emphasis on information literacy teaching recognising the need for, understanding, fi nding, for undergraduates, particularly fi rst-year students evaluating, and using information”, and Lupton (Abbott and Peach, 2000; de Bruyn and Prior, (2004) found that information literacy may be 2001) and effort is now centred on embedding understood as a “learning approach”. Bruce (1997) these information literacy sessions within specifi c noted that information literacy includes aspects of disciplines. computer literacy, learning to learn, information skills, IT literacy, and library skills. It is important to Kasowitz-Scheer and Pasqualoni (2002) note note, that Bruce’s broader meaning of information that information literacy is more frequently being literacy incorporates an understanding that offered online, and that this is in response to an some of these aspects overlap, that information increased demand for rapid sharing of informa- literacy may in fact be a series of “seven faces” tion and access to online resources. Of interest that may be used as a repertoire of the ways of then, is the fi nding by Gutierrez and Wang (2001) experiencing information literacy. Bruce’s study that undergraduates entering university from highlighted aspects of information literacy which school prefer the electronic medium for library are especially pertinent for the university student. instruction. In terms of the current research, For the purposes of the present paper, we adhere the study by Gutierrez and Wang is interesting to the view that information literacy is the set of because they took into account the fi ndings of 56 The Refl ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment

Chamlongsupalak (1997, as quoted in Gutierrez identifying and promoting generic capabilities and Wang 2001) that students believe they learn and of encouraging students to refl ect on their best when there is a human interface. Gutierrez development of generic skills at QUT (Queensland and Wang found that online learning in library University of Technology, 2004a). Embedding of literacy can be enhanced by having it embedded information literacy skills across all programs/ within a lecture structure so students have human courses is a current challenge of information intervention. Their study also supported the notion literacy learning and teaching at QUT. This is that research skills require the opportunity for occurring within a learning and teaching envir- repeated practice, which is a feature encouraged onment also demanding an increasingly fl ex- and supported within the ROSS Environment. ible, inclusive and student-centred approach (Queensland University of Technology, 2004b). In response to the increase in the online or e- learning delivery of higher education courses, The Refl ective Online Searching Skills many information literacy modules/tutorials/ (ROSS) Environment packages have been developed for this sector. Packages such as QUT – Pilot (Queensland Uni- versity of Technology Library, 2003) or Kent State Introducing the ROSS Environment University’s SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) (2002) are just a ROSS was developed as a means of fostering couple of the packages currently in use. Many of students’ skills and knowledge of online searching these packages are designed and made available and is based on qualitative research into how through the library, often in collaboration with students learn online information searching faculty or teaching and learning support staff and (S.L. Edwards, 2006). ROSS was developed with technical support staff. Commonly, these packages fi nancial support from the School of Information possess a modular, linear and heavily text-based Systems, and with technical support from the uni- structure. The level of interaction encouraged versity Teaching and Learning Support Services. through use of Flash (used in the Texas University Students complete a series of eight interrelated TILT program (The University of Texas System modules that requires them to use the online infor- Digital Library, 2004) and similar technologies is mation searching process to meet an information at best only moderately interactive. need. Each of the modules is interactive, requiring students to answer questions, make observations, Overall, these information literacy programmes and complete exercises. Each subsequent module may actually have even further potential if we builds on the learning in the previous module. On view them as a form of learning object. Learning completion of the ROSS modules, the student will objects are considered by some people to be have experienced fi rst hand the process of online mere “granules of knowledge”, able to be shared searching to meet a specifi c information need. throughout an organization. However Clark In addition to working on the ROSS scenario (1998: 60) points out that in educational contexts, the student can apply what they are learning in learning objects may be viewed as instructional. ROSS to their own assignment via a Refl ective These objects can be stored, revised, and even Workspace. The students are also provided mixed and matched to create new learning ample opportunity to critically refl ect upon the experiences for our students (Veronikas and development of their own online searching skill Shaughnessy, 2004); this way of viewing learning and knowledge. objects is interesting when information literacy packages that are used throughout an educational The Theoretical Framework institution are considered. Teaching and learning research to date has found that the best way to learn something (be it a skill or Information Literacy at QUT a concept) is to experience what you are learning The learning and teaching of information literacy in qualitatively changed ways (Marton and Booth, at QUT is underpinned by the Australia and New 1997; Shulman, 1986). By experiencing a skill or Zealand Information Literacy Standards (CAUL, concept in different ways, individuals are able to 2001b). Information literacy is recognized as a compare their original (or old) experience of that generic skills requirement of QUT graduates. skill or concept to their new experience of the skill Each faculty has been given the responsibility of or concept. The individual therefore, is given the 57 Helen Partridge et al.

opportunity to discern the variation between the The principles outlined by Edwards were used to old and the new experiences, and according to guide the design and development of the ROSS Runesson (1999), it is this process of discernment environment. that is a signifi cant attribute of learning. Case Study One: The Bachelor S.L. Edwards (2006) has applied this view of of Information Technology learning to information searching. Using the phenomenographic method, Edwards identifi ed variation in the experience of information search- The Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) ing in the online environment. Participants in the is the primary course offered within the QUT study were 32 students from six of the eight QUT Faculty of Information Technology. The course is academic faculties, with a total of 44 interview completed in 3 years full time or 6 years part time. transcripts. Different cultures, ages and genders All students complete a common fi rst year of eight were represented. Four categories that captured introductory units. From this base, students choose the variation in the students’ different ways of a major in areas such as data communications, searching and learning to search for information information systems, software engineering, elec- were identifi ed. The categories include: tronic commerce, or emerging technologies. The BIT is aimed at providing students with the Category 1: Information searching is seen as theoretical skills and practical knowledge required looking for a needle in a haystack to become successful practitioners in the ever- Category 2: Information searching is seen as changing IT industry. Graduates from the BIT fi nding a way through a maze can enter a diverse range of careers, including: Category 3: Information searching is seen as using systems programmer, computer scientist, systems the tools as a fi lter analyst, information manager, games developer, Category 4: Information searching is seen as multimedia specialist, data base manager and web panning for gold. developer.

A detailed summary and discussion on each ITB322 Information Resources category and the different meanings assigned to each search experience can be found in S.L. ITB322 Information Resources is an elective unit Edwards (2006). In short, Edwards concluded that offered within the QUT Faculty of Information for students to successfully develop information Technology. The unit introduces students to the searching skills the teaching and learning environ- value of information both personally and pro- ment needs to be designed to encourage “students fessionally by encouraging them to explore the … to see things happening differently to what they wide variety of information resources available, have previously experienced in order to discern a independent of the resources format. There is a difference” (S.L. Edwards, 2004, p. 112). That is, major focus on the identifi cation of user needs students need to experience the wide variation of and the development of information searching online searching experiences so they may compare skills across a wide variety of online resources, in- and contrast these different experiences to their cluding bibliographic databases, the Internet and own. Edwards contends that “if we can do this, we traditional print materials such as grey literature will move our students into a deeper understanding books, journals and conference proceedings. The of the searching experience, we will provide them unit can be taken by any undergraduate enrolled the opportunity to discern a variation in what they at QUT, and has an average enrolment of 50 have previously experienced, and, hopefully, we students per semester. may encourage learning” (S.L. Edwards, 2004, p. 112). Edwards provides four guiding principles The Teaching and Learning Approach when designing a learning experience that will allow students to experience variation: provide Students enrolled in ITB322 are required to attend students with opportunities for refl ection; improve three hours of classes (lectures and computer assessment to make it both authentic and to based practicals) per week for 13 weeks. During encourage students to see the variation; use online the course of the semester students complete tools to further enhance the learning experience; three assessment items. Table 1 provides a brief and fi nally, encourage staff development to enable description of the three items. The assignments understanding and application of the fi ndings. provide the students the opportunity to refl ect 58 The Refl ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment

Assessment 1: Resource Guide Conducted: In small Weighting: 40% groups Summary: Students are required in teams to develop a resource guide on a topic of their own choosing. The resource guide should provide only the best quality resources on the topic and should be able to guide anyone interested in the topic (i.e. a business in that area) to fi nd answers to any questions they may have. Assessment 2: Information Conducted: Weighting: 40% Consultant’s Report Individually Summary: Students are asked to pretend they have recently been appointed as an Information Consultant for a large information service. They have been approached by their fi rst client and are required to meet their specifi c information need (i.e. they are to select from 3 possible scenarios provided to them by the unit coordinator). To meet this need students are required to design and conduct a sophisticated search of online resources (i.e. bibliographic databases or Internet search tools) that will produce high quality results. Students are asked to recommend only the top 20–25 results. Assessment 3: Refl ective Learning Conducted: Weighting: 20% Journal Individually Summary: Each student is required to write and submit six journal entries over the course of the semester. Entries are submitted fortnightly. Students are asked to write their critical and refl ective thoughts on what they are doing, seeing, reading, hearing and learning.

Table 1. ITB322 assessment items. upon, develop and practice their information basis for the ROSS environment. Students are searching skills. The assignments are designed to introduced to the overall structure and purpose provide authentic learning experiences based upon of the environment in the Introduction to the ‘real life’ practices of industry professionals. ROSS Environment page, which is presented in Figure 3. Using ROSS in ITB322 ROSS consists of eight modules. The modules The ROSS environment was used to directly are inter-related, with subsequent modules build- support the third assignment – the Information ing upon the former. A brief summary of the Consultant’s Report. A link to ROSS is provided eight modules can be found in Figure 4. A short from the unit’s blackboard site (see Figure 1). video introduces the students to each module, ROSS was incorporated into the learning envir- explaining the purpose of the module and the onment during Weeks 7 through to 13. Each week activities to be completed. Although the students during this period students attended a three-hour complete the modules in class time, they are also computer laboratory based class. encouraged to use the ROSS environment as a self-paced learning tool that they can access at ROSS requires the students to take on the role any time during the course of the unit. of an information consultant who has been approached by a client with a speciﬁ c information Each module is interactive, requiring the students need. Figure 2 shows the role play synopsis of the to answer questions, make observations and com- client and the information need. plete exercises. For example, in Module 2, students are introduced to the steps involved in planning The student is required to locate information to and preparing the online search. Students are in- meet the client’s information need by selecting and vited to view a short video introducing the Module searching online resources (i.e. Internet search and its learning objectives. After watching the tools or bibliographic databases). The Reﬂ ect- video, students are asked to complete Activity 1 ive Online Searching Model guides the student by selecting the appropriate link on the menu through this process and consequently forms the on the left-hand side of the screen. Students are 59 Helen Partridge et al.

Figure 1. ROSS within the ITB322 Blackboard site.

TO: Jane, Information Broker FROM: Mr E. Jones (Secretary to Dr Jonas Faultless) SUBJECT: Request for Information

Dr Jonas Faultless is a world class medical scientist working for a prominent Australian hospital. Dr Faultless has just been informed that due to a colleague’s severe illness he will have to give a speech at this year’s annual national medical convention. The topic of the presentation is the use of nanotechnology in medicine - this unfortunately is not Dr Faultless’ area of expertise. The Doctor would like to obtain information on nanotechnology and its application in medicine. The Doctor is also interested in obtaining some data on who is currently using nanotechnology to aid medical practice. As the presentation is for an Australian conference, Dr Faultless is particularly interested in current use of nanotechnology in the Australian medical context. The Doctor is interested in obtaining the views of experts and researchers in the area and any key organizations. Case studies of the use of nanotechnology in medical practice would be helpful.

Figure 2. ROSS Client information need synopsis.

required in Activity 1 to respond to a serious of recorded for them to return to at a later date. questions which encourage the student to en- After completing Activity 1 students are invited to gage with, and reﬂ ect upon, the video content. commence Activity 2 by selecting the appropriate Responses to each of the questions are recorded link on the menu on the left-hand side of the in the notepads provided. By selecting the Save screen. Figure 5 shows an excerpt from Module 2 Button, the students’ answers are permanently Activity 1. 60 The Reﬂ ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment

Figure 3. The introduction to ROSS page.

Module 1: Understanding the information need – introduces the process of obtaining information from a client to successfully understand a client’s information need. Module 2: Preparing for the information search – introduces the steps to follow when preparing to conduct an online search. Module 3: Selecting the online information resources – introduces the process of selecting online information resources relevant to the information need. Module 4: Designing and running the information search – introduces the process of developing search strategies specifi c to the online resources selected. Module 5: Refl ecting on the information search – introduces the process of refl ecting on search results and refi ning and running a revised search. Module 6: Identifying high quality results – introduces the process of selecting high quality results from the many results obtained from the searches. Module 7: Creating an alert – introduces how to keep up to date on the information need by creating and running an alert. Module 8: Critical refl ection – provides the opportunity to critically refl ect upon the new skills developed.

Figure 4. The eight modules of ROSS.

A Reﬂ ective Workspace is provided for the stu- The Evaluation of ROSS in ITB322 dents (Figure 6). The Workspace acts as a ‘sandpit The ROSS Environment has been used in the unit site’ where students can apply what they are doing for 4 years. According to J. Edwards (1991), evalu- within the ROSS Modules (such as Module 2 ation seeks to “describe and explain experiences above) to their own assignment. of students and teachers and to make judgements 61 Helen Partridge et al.

Figure 5. ROSS Module 2 Activity 1. 62 The Reﬂ ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment

Figure 6. The Reﬂ ective Workspace.

63 Helen Partridge et al.

and [interpret] their effectiveness”. With this pur- of self-paced instruction alongside the benefi ts of pose in mind a number of evaluation strategies maintaining a collaborative learning community were used to obtain data from both stakeholders in which peer discussion and small group work in the intervention – the teaching staff and the play central roles. It was noted by the teaching students. Student evaluation was obtained by staff that whilst students worked on the modules eliciting comments via the fortnightly Refl ective during class time, the different student working Learning Journal and from self-administered ques- styles and paces directly impacted on the extent to tionnaires and semi-structured interviews with which the learning environment could be designed students at the end of each semester. The results of to provide students the opportunity to actively the evaluation are available from Partridge and engage in peer discussion on the work being Edwards (2004). In short, both the students and undertaken. The most signifi cant observation the teaching staff viewed the experience of using noted by the teaching staff was the impact of ROSS ROSS favourably. Student responses clearly upon student learning. Anecdotally, the overall indi-cate that ROSS is an online learning tool of quality of Assignment 2 had improved, with many merit, they found the environment “easy to use of the students showing a sound understanding and understand” and it “increased fl exibility in my of the online searching model and being able to studies within this unit”, “helped me to understand effectively apply the model to the information the unit’s content” “improved the teaching and need outlined in the assignment guidelines. It is, learning value in the unit”. Comments received however, acknowledged that the small class size from the students included: for the unit may have allowed the development of a learning context in which a more individualized, “I now realize that there is more to searching and consequently more effective learning envir- online than typing the keyword to be onment arose. searched in google.com and pressing the search button” Case Study 2: The Bachelor of Applied Science “I really like how…ROSS [has] been developed to directly relate to what you are doing in the assignment, this is a very good The Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) is the way of putting into practice what you have primary course offered within the QUT Faculty learnt in class” of Science. The course is completed in 3 years full time or 6 years part time. Students choose a major Students however did indicate areas for further specialization from the ten discipline areas: improvements, with comments such as the biochemistry; biotechnology; chemistry; ecology; following being provided: “some modules were environmental science; forensic science; geo- too large and could be broken into small modules” science; mathematics; microbiology; and physics. and “it is time consuming”. The majority of The BAS is aimed at providing students with the comments focused on the time-consuming nature theoretical skills and practical knowledge re- of the modules and the repetitive questions and quired to become successful practitioners in the activities between the modules. Students frequently broad and ever-changing domain of science. commented that the need to “do the assignment” Graduates from the BAS can enter a diverse stopped them from working through all the range of careers including forensic scientist, modules and activities. Students also indicated geologist, chemist, physicist, microbiologist or that whilst they valued the self-paced instructional environmental scientist. aspect to ROSS they felt it was equally important to attend classes to ensure a rich and well-rounded NRB100 Environmental Science learning experience. These comments are being used to make refi nements to the ROSS environment NRB100 is a fi rst year core unit offered within the and its application with ITB322. Faculty of Science. The unit introduces students to the broad fi eld of environmental science, the From the teaching perspective, ROSS provided concept of the environment, and its component a wonderful means of introducing new energy parts and the infl uence of human activities. It into the unit. However, it also posed challenges is a foundation unit to further studies in science, in how best to integrate the technology into the and develops from a basic knowledge of science curriculum in a manner that balanced the virtues at secondary level. The unit also has a focus on 64 The Refl ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment generic capabilities such as communication, team- practicals and tutorials and three-hour practicals work and the ability to search for, and critically at various stages throughout the semester. The evaluate, information from a variety of sources. unit is team taught with three lecturers sharing the The unit is a core unit taken by BAS students in teaching load. During the course of the semester the ecology, environmental science and geoscience students complete fi ve assessment items. Table 2 specializations and is one of several elective stu- provides a brief description of the fi ve items. The dents can take in the other specializations. The assessments provide the students the opportunity unit has an average enrolment of 220 students to develop not only their discipline knowledge but per semester and is taught concurrently at two to also refl ect upon and develop practical skills and campuses (Gardens Point and Carseldine). The knowledge in regards to the science method. BAS first year curriculum is currently being reviewed and it is expected that NRB100 will Using ROSS in NRB100 become one of four core units that all BAS students will complete. This will lead to an average The ROSS environment was used to directly enrolment of 300 (or more) students in next year’s support the fourth assessment item – Fish Kill. offering of the unit. The Fish Kill assignment has been designed to provide an authentic learning experience based upon ‘real life’ practices of science professionals. Teaching and Learning Approach Using problem based learning the students are Students enrolled in NRB100 are required to presented with a hypothetical environmental attend a three-hour lecture each week, one-hour incident (outlined in Figure 7). The students are

Assessment 1: Mid semester Conducted: Weighting: 10% examination Individually Summary: A mid semester multiple choice examination of all theory covered during the fi rst half of the unit (i.e. weeks 1 to 5 approximately). Assessment 2: Practical log book Conducted: Weighting: 15% Individually Summary: Students complete exercises during the practical sessions. Feedback will be provided from a lab demonstrator at the close of each practical. Upon the mark of "satisfactory" being awarded for your annotated results and rough, interpretive discussion at the close of the practical session, you will be given the opportunity of modifying your work in your own time and presenting a more detailed write-up in your practical log book, which will be submitted at the close of the semester. Assessment 3: Tutorial participation Conducted: Weighting: 10% Individually Summary: You will participate in a series of tutorials throughout the semester. These tutorials will draw and expand on material presented in the lectures. Your level of participation in each tutorial will be assessed. Assessment 4: Fish Kill Conducted: Weighting: 20% Individually Summary: You will use web-based resources to investigate a hypothetical environmental incident and determine its likely cause. This project will enable you to develop skills associated with scientifi c investigation, problem-solving and information literacy. You will write a detailed scientifi c report on your fi ndings that will be submitted and assessed at the close of the semester. Assessment 5: Final Examination Conducted: Weighting: 45% Individually Summary: Cumulative examination which assesses both your surface and deep learning through the use of multiple choice, short answer and problem-solving essay questions.

Table 2. NRB100 assessment items. 65 Helen Partridge et al.

It is the year 2013. Computer technology has evolved to a remarkable degree - video conferencing, internet newspapers and internet radio broadcasts are now commonplace. But at the same time environmental problems have become more frequent and more serious. You have recently started work with the newly formed “Environmental Response Group” (ERG) which has been formed by the State Government to deal with the rising number of serious environmental problems that have been occurring in the south-east corner of the state in 2013. Overnight, there has been a fi sh kill incident that has been widely reported in the media. Hundreds of dead fi sh have been washed up on the river banks. You have been given the responsibility of fi nding what caused this incident and recommending how similar incidents can be prevented from happening in the future.

Figure 7. The Fish Kill hypothetical environmental incident.

Figure 8. The Fish Kill Environment.

66 The Refl ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment charged with the task of determining the most Several modifi cations were made to the ROSS likely cause of the incident by using the scientifi c environment to establish a better learning fi t with method. the Fish Kill assignment specifi cally, and the science context generally. Firstly, the content was revised. Students are introduced to the environmental This included removing one of the modules (on incident and work through the assignment re- Selective Dissemination of Information or Alerts) quirements via an online environment that is and reworking the Introduction to ROSS page to available from the unit’s online teaching site (see include a targeted discussion on the role of ROSS Figure 8). The environment was developed to in the Fish Kill assignment specifi cally and online be an interactive, visual and authentic learning searching within the scientifi c method generally experience for the students. The Fish Kill (see Figure 10). The Refl ective Workspace was environment was funded by two QUT Large also removed. Secondly, the ‘look and feel’ of Teaching and Learning Grants (1998–1999 and ROSS was modifi ed to establish a seamless fi t 2005–2007). within the Fish Kill environment. This included removing the main page (see Figure 10), altering Students are introduced to the Fish Kill assign- the background colours and introducing the ment (and the online learning environment) in Fish Kill ‘guide’ “Silent Bob’ within each of the week 8 of semester. ROSS is embedded within modules. the Fish Kill environment (see Figure 9). ROSS is introduced to students as a stand alone, self-paced The Evaluation of ROSS in NRB100 learning tool that they can use to support their development of online searching skill and know- The Fishkill assignment has been used as an ledge. Students do not use the ROSS environment assessment task within NRB100 for 5 years, with within their classroom learning. the ROSS component for the last 2 years. Although

Figure 9. ROSS within the Fish Kill environment.

67 Helen Partridge et al.

Figure 10. The revised Introduction to ROSS page.

a number of improvements have been made to these exemplars successfully as a reference point Fishkill over its lifetime (not least transferral and gauge for their own work; they learn what online), it is nonetheless possible to make a few makes a good assignment and what pitfalls to preliminary observations about the infl uence of avoid submitting below par work. The third area ROSS on student learning outcomes in the unit. of improvement, quality and quantity of sourced Anecdotally, the teaching staff has noted that the literature, has been positively affected by merging quality of Fishkill reports submitted has improved and contextualizing ROSS within Fishkill. A key over the past years. There are a number of attributes element of scientifi c research lies in the investi- to submitted assignments that are generally of gator making specific reference to relevant, higher quality: hypothesis development, correct published journal literature. This is because it use of Popperian falsifi cation and the scientifi c represents a formal and critical component of method; presentation/analysis of collected data the iterative modern scientifi c method, namely and scientifi c language; quality and quantity of interpretation of data in light of previous, peer- literature used strategically in the assignment reviewed, anonymously critiqued research; this discussion to place the current study in context. The for subsequent modifi cation of theories under fi rst two of these improvements (and skills in models of future testing. The improvements in contextualization in the third) have arisen, at this component of the students’ submitted work least in part, from the introduction in the last year are striking; very few students are now using of online exemplar assignments. Incorporation inappropriate web sources (a major problem of exemplars necessitated the introduction of a in pre-ROSS iterations of Fishkill); the vast wholly novel environmental problem, analogous majority of students are now accessing not only to, but distinct from, Fishkill. Both good and bad journal articles and published government reports exemplar assignments have been introduced into of high quality and relevance, but the relative the Fishkill environment. These exemplars are quantity of appropriate literature has increased supplemented with thorough critiques, aligned and it is used more strategically for interpretation with assessment criteria. Students have used of their data.

68 The Reﬂ ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment

Unlike the IT case study ROSS in this instance was 2001a). The ROSS environment also pushes the used as an optional self-paced learning tool that boundaries of online information literacy pro- students could choose to engage with during their grams by guiding learners to know, refl ect, and studies. Initial data suggests that approximately practice information literacy concepts through the half of the NRB101 students chose to use ROSS. use of case studies or problem based learning. The Comments received from the students indicated ROSS Environment also lends itself well to being they found ROSS a valuable learning aid: “it customized for use across all programs/courses; a outlined every part of the process”; “it guaranteed necessary feature of valuable learning objects. good sources”; “has taken me to a right track approach”. It is also important to note that students Conclusion indicated areas for further improvement with comments such as the following being provided: “asked too many questions”; “when it asks you to The development of the ROSS Environment has write down sentences that’s too time consuming”; occurred within a higher education environment “it was a long drawn out process”. Like the IT currently demanding increased focus on student- students the majority of comments provided centred and fl exible learning opportunities. This focused on the time-consuming nature of the demand stems from increased moves towards modules. The Science students however raised e-learning, based on benefi ts which have been a second area of concern – the extent of reading widely discussed in recent literature (Imel, 2002). required. It should be noted here that many of In conclusion, to date this research has seen the comments in regards to this latter point were ROSS evolve from an embedded delivery learning made in reference to the Fish Kill/ROSS online environment to now be considered as a learning environment generally. This is an interesting object that may be used in other contexts within the observation as it suggests that the students were university to enhance the development of generic viewing and experiencing ROSS and the Fish Kill information literacy skills. While the project is environment as one online learning environment. ongoing, ultimately the development of these skills Thus, suggesting that the efforts made to streamline will enhance the graduate capabilities of any QUT the two systems into one were successful. student who uses the ROSS environment.

The Signifi cance of ROSS References Abbott, W. and Peach, D. (2000) Building info-skills by Many online information literacy tools are static, degrees: embedding information literacy in university modular, linear and heavily text-based, and have study. Paper presented at Virtual libraries: virtual failed to incorporate an interactive approach to communities: 21st IATUL Conference. 3–7 July 2000, Brisbane, Australia. http://www.iatul.org/doclibrary/ the learning process. While allowing the fl exibility public/Conf_Proceedings/2000/Abbott.rtf inherent in online learning, they do not involve American Library Association (1989) American Library the students in an interactive and dynamic way Association Presidential Committee on Information to refl ect on their own unique experience. The Literacy final report. Washington DC: American development of ROSS may be seen as a signifi cant Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. response to the need for student-centred learning Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) environments which promote the development of (2000) Information Literacy Competency Standards generic online searching skills acquisition through for Higher Education. American Library Association. refl ective practice. It can also be viewed in terms http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informati of the evolution of an online learning tool as a onliteracycompetency.htm dynamic and valuable learning object which Bruce, C.S. (1997) The seven faces of information literacy. Adelaide: Auslib Press. facilitates information literacy development for Chamlongsupalak, S. (1997) Web-based Instruction for students, across the full range of university and Teaching Library Literacy Skills to Undergraduate higher education courses. Students. PhD Dissertation. Menomonie, WI: University of Wisconsin-Stout. ROSS enables students to focus on the process Clark, R.C. (1998) Recycling knowledge with learning objects. Training and Development, Oct, 60 and 63. of information seeking, an important activity Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). supporting the need for “critical discernment and (2001a) Australian information literacy standards. reasoning” which has been stressed as the most Retrieved June 22 2005 from http://www.caul.edu. important aspect of information literacy (CAUL, au/caul-doc/InfoLitStandards2001.doc 69 Helen Partridge et al.

Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). Integrated Learning Environments, 3rd November (2001b) Information literacy standards (1st ed.). 2004. Brisbane, Australia: QUT. pp. 149–158. Canberra: CAUL (Council of Australian University Queensland University of Technology. (2004a) MOPP Libraries). Policy C/1.4 Graduate capabilities. Retrieved 23 June, de Bruyn, L. and Prior, J. (2001) Changing student learning 2005, from http://www.qut.edu.au/admin/mopp/C/ focus in natural resource management education- C_01_04.html problems (and some solutions) with using problem Queensland University of Technology. (2004b) MOPP based learning. Paper presented at the ASET-HERDSA Policy C/1.1 Approach to and context of teaching and 2000 Conference, Toowoomba, Qld. learning. Retrieved 23 June, 2005, from http://www. Edwards, J. (1991) Evaluation in adult and further qut.edu.au/admin/mopp/C/C_01_01.html education. Liverpool: Wirral Education Authority. Queensland University of Technology Library. (2003) Edwards, S.L. (2004) Web-based information searching: Pilot: your information navigator. Retrieved 22nd June, understanding student experiences in order to enhance 2005, from http://www.library.qut.edu.au/pilot/ the development of this critical graduate attribute. In Runesson, U. (1999). Teaching as constituting a space P. A. Danaher, C. Macpherson, F. Nouwens and D. Orr of variation. Paper presented at the 8th EARLI (Eds). Lifelong learning: Whose responsibility and Conference, August 24–28, 1999, Goteborg, Sweden. what is your contribution? Proceedings of the 3rd Shulman, L. (1986) Paradigms and research programs in International Lifelong Learning Conference, Yeppoon, the study of teaching: a contemporary perspective. In Queensland, Australia, 13–16 June. Rockhampton: M. Wittorack (Ed.) Handbook of research on teaching. Central Queensland University Press. New York: MacMillan. Edwards, S.L. (2006) Panning for gold: Influencing The University of Texas System Digital Library. (2004) the experience of web-based information searching. TILT (Texas Information Literacy Tutorial). Retrieved Adelaide: Auslib Press. 30 November, 2007, from http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu Edwards, S.L., Bruce, C.S. and McAllister, L.M. (2005) Veronikas, S.W., and Shaughnessy, M.F. (2004) Teaching Information literacy research: the consolidation of a and learning in a hybrid world. Educause Review, theme. In M. Middleton (Ed.) Research applications July/Aug, 51–62. in information and library studies seminar (RAILS): Proceedings of the research applications in information and library studies seminar held at the Queensland About the Authors University of Technology Brisbane, September 20th, Helen Partridge is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty 2004. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University Centre of Information Technology at QUT. She is the for Information Studies. pp. 26–53. Course Coordinator for the Master of Information Eisenberg, M.B. and Berkowitz, R.E. (1988) Library and information skills curriculum. Scope and sequence: Management. Helen teaches in the areas of the big six. In Curriculum initiative: an agenda and reference and information services, information strategy for librarians. Norwood: Ablex. pp. 99–120. retrieval, collection and access management, Gutierrez, C. and Wang, J. (2001) A comparison of an information literacy education and professional electronic vs print workbook for information literacy practice. Helen has published widely in the area instruction. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 27(3), of teaching and learning and has won a number 208–212. of teaching awards including the 2004 QUT Vice Imel, S. (2002) E-learning: trends and issues alert: IEEE Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award, and the 1484.12.1-2002, 15 July 2002, Draft Standard for 2004 Online Teaching Compassionate Pioneer Award. Learning Object Metadata (No. 40). In 2007 Helen was appointed as a QUT teaching Johnston, B. and Webber, S. (2003) Information literacy fellow. Helen’s research interests include community in higher education: a review and case study. Studies in Higher Education, 28(3), 335–352. information literacy, evidence based library and Kasowitz-Scheer, A. and Pasqualoni, M. (2002) Information information practice, library and information science literacy instruction in higher education: Trends and education and teaching and learning in higher issues. ERIC Digest ED465375. Retrieved 26 June from education. E-mail: [email protected] http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/information.htm Kent State University. (2002) Project Sails. Retrieved Sylvia Lauretta Edwards is an Associate Professor 22nd June, 2005, from http://sails.lms.kent.edu/index. and Assistant Dean Teaching & Learning in the html Faculty of Information Technology at QUT. Her Kuhlthau, C.C. (1993) Seeking meaning: a process approach numerous performance and teaching awards include to library and information services. Norwood: Ablex. the 2006 Carrick Australian Award for University Lupton, M. (2004) The learning connection: Information Teaching Excellence and the 1999 QUT Outstanding literacy and the student experience. Adelaide, Auslib Press. Academic Achievement Award. Her research Marton, F. and Booth, S. (1997) Learning and awareness. interests include information behaviour, information Mahwah, NJ, Erlbaum Associates. literacy and higher education. Sylvia is well known Partridge, H. and Edwards, S.L. (2004) The rippling pond: for her authentic learning practices, creating learning ruminations and other musings on the development environments characterized by novelty, variety and and use of an online learning environment in the diversity. These environments are based on her Faculty of Information Technology. In OLT 2004 research into current student experiences. Online Teaching and Learning Conference: Exploring 70 The Reﬂ ective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment

Dr Andrew Baker teaches environmental science Librarian with the Faculty of Education (Maths, and ecology at QUT in Brisbane, Australia. In 2005, Science and Technology). Her areas of interest are Andrew was awarded the QUT Vice-Chancellors evidence based practice and eLearning design, Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence; in in particular, development and support of the 2006, he was awarded the position of QUT Teaching ePortfolio to enhance students’ learning outcomes. Fellow; in 2007, he was nominated by the QUT Lynn has been at QUT since 2003 and has worked Science Faculty for a 2008 National Carrick Award on numerous projects as well as in the Library. for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Her approach to professional practice has been Since 2005, Andrew has held dual positions of Head recognised through a nomination for the 2007 QUT of Natural Resource Science Learning and Teaching Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for professional Committee and School representative on the staff. She has academic qualiﬁ cations spanning Science Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee. librarianship and education. Lynn is also an active He also sits on the Science Learning Network member of Australian Library and Information Committee and coordinates the Undergraduate Association. Curriculum Development Committee.

Lynn McAllister is currently seconded to the ePortfolio project from her position as Liaison

71 Library Personalization Systems: an Indian experience

V.K.J. Jeevan Abstract Personalization of library resources is projected as a viable alternative to tide over the information explosion and to conserve the time of users for more productive intellectual tasks. Personalization needs suffi cient electronic content at one’s site as well as suitable mechanisms to identify the user through his or her profi le, selectively search the content that matches the user profi le, and arrange and present it to the user in an appealing fashion. The different components of a content personalization system include: ‘Content Serving System’ to host electronic content beyond a critical mass, ‘User Interest Management System’ to manage dynamic user profi les, ‘Search Engine’ to automatically match content with profi les and ‘Personalized Content Delivery’ mechanisms for delivering matched results to the user. Technological advancements made by web enabled computing coupled with continued user interest to gather information resources available on the web led many popular portals to bring in the concept of content personalization suiting varied user interests. A few such initiatives are explained. Library personalization projects like MyLibrary in different university libraries in advanced countries are discussed. To explore the effi cacy of library personalization systems in Dr V.K.J. Jeevan is currently a a developing country, the SAI personalization prototype developed in Deputy Librarian in the Library the Central Library of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is & Documentation Division of described in detail. Indira Gandhi National Open Keywords: library websites; library personalization systems; Indian University (IGNOU), New Delhi, Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; India India. Prior to this he worked for around 9 years as Assistant Librarian in the Central Library of Introduction the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and for over 2 years as Libraries since time immemorial have attempted to collect, organize Library Assistant in the Nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi. He and disseminate information resources of interest to their clients. holds master’s degrees in Physics, They use a variety of tools and techniques to effectively conduct Library and Information Science these tasks and devise a host of services to support the varied and Computer Science, a PhD in requirements of their users. There were diffi culties in achieving Library and Information Science, one-to-one mapping of information resources and users in the print and has over 15 years of pro- environment since options to connect the two basically needed fessional experience. He has surrogates like card, indexes, documentation lists etc. The onset also successfully completed the of computer and information technology enabled this mapping National Level Test for Research to be more effi cient, especially because of the ease with which a Fellowship and Lectureship document can be indexed and represented using multiple terms. and has undergone the year The same functionality emerged for representing a user’s interests, long training in Information and in most cases having both in the same computerized system Technology Applications at the National Centre for Science facilitated the easy linking of relevant sources with prospective Information, Indian Institute of users. With widespread availability of full text information resources Science, Bangalore. He was the such as electronic books, electronic journals and Internet resources, recipient of the Young Information the signifi cance of computer based linking of sources and users has Scientist Award by the Society for become more pronounced. The accessibility of electronic resources Information Science, New Delhi also tempted users to satisfy their information needs beyond the four walls of the library. These two virtues of electronic information About the Author continued on and the presence of information technology tools prompted page 83 libraries in the advanced countries to opt for personalization of

Copyright © 2008 Author. IFLA Journal 34(1): 72–83. 72 IFLA ISSN: 0340-0352. DOI: 10.1177/0340035208088576 Library Personalization Systems library resources for maximizing user benefi t. Personalization of library resources is projected Personalization as a viable alternative to tide over the information explosion and to conserve the time of users for Kramer, Noronha and Vergo (2000) defi ne per- more productive intellectual tasks. It is thus sonalization as ‘a toolbox of technologies and a natural corollary of the large quantum of application features; from simple display of the e-information available and of functional web end-user’s name on a Web page, to complex cata- technologies to effi ciently manipulate them in logue navigation and product customization based accordance with individual user needs. In short, on deep models of users’ needs and behaviours; personalization provides the library with a viable used in the design of an end-user experience’. mechanism to manipulate the information base Perugini and Ramakrishnan (2003) define using available technologies so that the library personalization as the automatic adjustment of appears as a set of separate smaller libraries to information content, structure and presentation individual users, who fi nd it more effective and tailored to an individual user. Personalization convenient to use these small personal libraries chooses content for the user automatically, with- which cater to their specifi c needs. out direct user request, the process of choosing content remaining hidden. As the system becomes The easy search and access features associated more familiar with user habits by observing with electronic information made it possible for behaviour, it achieves increased accuracy in many service providers to profi le and select con- predicting future behaviour and interests. Person- tents based on various attributes of the service alization is a process of gathering and storing seekers. The technological advances character- information about site visitors, analyzing the izing web-based computing and the continued stored information and, based on the analysis, interest of users in gathering information re- delivering the right information to each visitor at sources on the web enabled many popular portals the right time. Personalization in the perspective to personalize their contents to suit varied user of a library aims at dynamically selecting and interests. Apart from libraries, other service pro- delivering electronic content as per the expressed viders also resort to personalization to attract as well as observed needs of individual users. This more users and site visitors. Electronic commerce is different from customization, where the focus of and related applications are also increasingly the content does not change until the user changes focusing on identifying and attracting individual it explicitly. Personalization thus uses a complex users. This enables services to be provided to and dynamic set of features for implicit content potential clients in a targeted manner at frequent selection, unlike customization, which requires intervals, leading to a substantial increase in both explicit user involvement through relatively static the volume of use and the number of satisfi ed and simpler web site mechanisms. However, the customers. Apart from selecting content, some success of a personalization system ultimately services also provide options for selecting the depends on its effi cacy in mapping user interests appearance of web pages like background colours, and feedback, continuous interactive support fonts, order of menus, etc. In the perspective of received from benefi ciaries to sustain and improve a modern library setting, content personalization its performance, and a large electronic resource involves dynamically scanning and delivering base to work with. electronic content (especially newly added content, at regular intervals) in accordance with Information Sources for Personalization individual user interests as determined through their expressed and observed needs. This may Some of the personalized services offered, such as seem to be very similar to typical library services details about books issued, renewed, and reserved such as current awareness services (CAS) or by users through the library automation system, selective dissemination of information (SDI) electronic notice boards to discuss events and services. However, the major difference lies in the academic activities in the institution etc., need attempt to map and provide full text information not require subject specialization from the users. rather than mere surrogates like indexes or Hence, these can be offered without any direct abstracts, increased application of web technology user input, unlike services like online public to gather user interests, and selective search and access catalogues (OPACs) of library holdings, delivery of information ahead of user demand in e-mail contacts of librarians and other staff, keeping with specifi c user requirements. recommendations for book and journal purchases, 73 V.K.J. Jeevan

requests for interlibrary loan or document delivery • electronic submission of theses and research (ILL/DD) services, etc. Services utilizing a semi- publications manual or manual approach need to be automated in the fi rst place for interfacing them with the per- Components of a Personalization sonalization system. The availability of electronic System databases, web access to subscribed and consortia journals and intranet serving of several electronic components have promoted a suffi cient quantity Personalization needs suffi cient electronic content of electronic resources in many libraries. Further, at one’s site as well as suitable mechanisms to coupled with the rapid advances and interest in identify the users through profi les, selectively digital libraries, there is an increasing presence search the content that matches the user profi les, of an institutional digital library facility on the and arrange and present it to the user in an appeal- intranet to encompass in one place in-house teaching fashion. The different components of a content ing and research information such as lecture notes, personalization system include: question papers, preprints of publications, theses and dissertations, proceedings of conference • Content Serving System to host electronic hosted by the institution, reports of research and content development (R&D) and consultancy projects • User Interest Management System to manage undertaken, etc. The only requirement in the dynamic user profi les emerging context is to properly frame patron • Search Engine to automatically match content interests and connect them with internally and over profi les externally procured and accessed electronic • Personalized Content Delivery mechanisms for information to generate personalized alerting and delivering matched results to the user selective retrieval. Content Serving System Among the various services offered by personalization projects in libraries in advanced coun- Libraries attached to academic and research tries, libraries attached to premier research and institutions in general and technical libraries higher education institutions already have the in particular are experiencing the virtues of following: electronic information in the form of e-journals, e-books, bibliographic or full text electronic data- • patron information regarding books issued, bases on CD-ROM or through web access, and renewed and reserved by users from an so on. The Indian National Digital Library in OPAC of library holdings, aided by the library Engineering Science and Technology (INDEST) automation system consortium enabled many of its members to • e-journal access to subscribed and consortia register a ten-fold growth in access to e-journals journals from publishers’ websites, facilitated from 100 to 500 to more than 4,000. Similar through links from the library website or progress is also happening in many universities managed through portals like j-gate/Ingenta of India with the help of the University Grants • standalone and networked access to biblio- Commission’s InfoNet consortium, operational graphic and full text CD-ROM databases through INFLIBNET Centre. • e-mail contacts with librarians and other staff regarding queries about various activities User Interest Management System • ILL/DDS services handled in a manual or semi- electronic form, largely for printed sources Library science works on the principle of clas- • recommendations for book and journal pur- sifying and arranging information resources chases through signed manual forms due to of interest to users and devising effective and purchase formalities effi cient techniques for their selective retrieval. • electronic notice boards to discuss events and Thus profi ling users to manage user interests is as academic activities taking place in the Insti- important as collection development and access tution management activities. In a library, apart from • information regarding courses, lecture notes, collections and staff, the user is the vital link in etc., put up by faculty members on their per- the information consumption chain, the other two sonal websites existing only for the user.

74 Library Personalization Systems

So far, user interest management in libraries has Personalized Content Delivery not been taken up in an integrated manner due In a wired campus where everyone is comfortably to the diversity of electronic systems used, forcing familiar with information technology (IT), content the captured or recorded user interests to remain delivery in electronic form is the obvious choice. scattered. The library automation system holds However, sending content by e-mail, though easy, a complete inventory of books issued, returned, is also discouraging in the present day spam- renewed and reserved by a user, as well as user dominated e-mail scenario. Creating personal or department profi les for CAS/SDI of current pages for researchers on the personalization server books. CAS/SDI services for journal articles are and alerting them about new postings (obviously operated with the help of an electronic biblio- through e-mail as and when required) would be graphic database using detailed user profi les or the ideal option. user groups. Recommendations from individual users are seriously sought and considered for procuring books, and such recommendations Personalization by Web Portals on a departmental or group of departments basis defi nitely infl uence addition or deletion of Technological advances in web-enabled com- journals. However, since user recommendations puting coupled with continued user interest to and preferences are recorded only in the software gather information resources available on the of the automation systems in use, or in native web led many popular portals to bring in the software systems, they fail to give an integrated concept of content personalization to suit varied picture of user interests. While constructing user user interests. Apart from selecting content, profi les, apart from expressed needs, many do some services also provide options like choice not consider usage statistics and use behaviour of background colours, fonts, order of menus observable from library databases, the records of etc. to select the appearance of pages. Bradley the ILL/Resource Sharing unit or the Reprography (1999) discusses the currently popular trend of Section, etc., to be important – most likely due to many leading search engines offering personal- diffi culties in recording. ized content in the form of ‘My XYZ’ (for example My AltaVista, My Yahoo! My Excite and My Lycos), in which subject content is arranged under Search Engine broad headings like business, technology, world A search engine is vital as better results could be news, sports, etc. mined from the content servers using profi le terms, depending on the effi cacy of the search facility. Technical obstacles concerning searching Library Personalization Projects from proprietary systems only using native search engines may impede library-centred In the context of libraries, through personaliza- solutions for concurrent searching of multiple tion, users start with a generic library and by databases. Currently, a modern technical library making selections and choices create a personal has to work with different proprietary search library with pre-selected and relevant e-journals, engines of individual electronic resources such e-books, databases, reference works, websites and as ScienceDirect of Elsevier Science, Digital other information resources. Also, they can view Library of the Association for Computing the different services offered by the library through Machinery (ACM), the IEEE/IET Electronic a single window implementation strategy (there Library (IEL) of the Institute of Electrical and may be different systems for in-house resources Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution and network accessed information, however, they of Engineering and Technology (IET), etc., as per appear as a single system to the user using the the existing licenses. Copying bibliographic data of facilities) with provision for confi guring alerts and interest to local users with the full text link from automatic updates, enabling users to add/remove the different services in a local database system resources of their choice. Since many projects could be another option. The same database have been undertaken by different libraries, only can also hold metadata and even the full text a few important ones are listed as an illustration of internal digital resources so that concrete to refl ect what is possible. coverage of resources is possible.

75 V.K.J. Jeevan

MyLibrary@Notre Dame University allows (eLib) programme explored the possibilities of patrons to personalize and customize their view providing personalized content to its users (this of the Libraries’ website by cultivating more project is now completed and the website is no person-to-person relationships between patrons longer updated). The Digital Portfolio Archives and librarians (Morgan and Fox, 2007). At North (DPAs) project at the University of California Carolina State University, MyLibrary@NCState at Los Angeles concentrates on developing pro- (http://my.lib.ncsu.edu/) is a user-driven, custom- cess models that transform primary sources into izable information service that allows creating a digital library content; allow teachers to build portable Web page, listing the available informa- a personalized information system or DPAs tion resources by providing a little information containing the content and descriptions; and about users. The BUILDER Hybrid Library enable students to incorporate components of Demonstrator at the University of Birmingham the teachers’ DPA and additional project-related (UK) aimed to demonstrate ‘seamlessness’, where materials into their own DPAs (Gilliland-Swetland, all resources are accessible through the same Kafai and Maddox, n.d.). interface and ‘profiling’, where the resources offered are relevant to individual user needs. The Personalized Selective Access (Pinfi eld,1998). The Open Library 2.0 Project of Information System in Kharagpur the Open University (UK) (http://library.open. ac.uk/about/libprojects/current/index.cfm? id=6434) aims to develop a new Library website The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur for the OU community which will provide a database driven platform for further delivery of Library The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 2.0 services. The MyLibrary@LANL service at set up in 1950 as the fi rst in the chain of seven the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) such Institutes, is a premier centre for education allows users to collect and organize general web and research in engineering, technology and resources or other selected information contained sciences in India. The alumni of the Institute at the Library’s website (Di Giacomo et al., n.d.). occupy prestigious positions in the country and Other MyLibrary projects to personalize contents abroad and the contributions of the Institute are currently operational at the libraries of Cornell and its alumni to the application and growth of University (Cohen et al., 2000) and Virginia technology are well known. The Institute now Commonwealth University (Ghaphery, 2002). As has 31 academic departments, centres or schools of the use of digital libraries increases, users expect excellence with a vast tree-laden campus spread- more than simply being able to fi lter, retrieve and ing over 2,100 acres, located almost 120 km. south refer to library materials, preferring instead to gain west of Kolkata. Currently the Institute has about personalized access to library materials according 450 faculty, 2,200 employees and 5,000 students to their personal requirements and interests. on the campus. The Institute offers undergraduate courses in 17 disciplines, and postgraduate courses NewsAgent for Libraries, one of the projects in 60 disciplines, apart from PhD programmes funded by the Electronic Libraries Programme in most of the departments, centres or schools. (eLib) in the UK (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ It also offers higher education programmes in metadata/newsagent/) aimed to create for library management, medical sciences and law with an and information professionals a user confi gurable emphasis on the application of technology in these electronic news and current awareness service fi elds. More details of the Institute are available characterized by a mixture of content streams at the website www.iitkgp.ac.in including metadata (Tedd and Yeates, 1998). The Personal Digital Library (PDL) under the The Central Library, IIT Kharagpur ELINOR Electronic Library Project at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, attempted The Central Library, IIT Kharagpur began its to develop a personal information system which existence in 1951. Since then, it has grown in size acts as a front end to other electronic library and content along with the Indian Institute of systems and manages users’ total information Technology to take its present shape. The Library requirements (Zhao, 1998). The Hybrid Electronic collection stands at about 350,000 volumes Access and Delivery in the Library Networked including books, back volumes of periodicals, Environment (Headline) (http://www.headline. microforms, video forms, theses, patents and ac.uk/) project under the Electronic Libraries standards. The journal subscription exceeds 1,000 76 Library Personalization Systems and the Library has electronic access rights to • web server to host service using web tools over 7,000 journals either through its own sub- • database engine MySQL to collect and manipu- scriptions or through consortia. The Central late user interests Library has been among the pioneers in adopting • php/Java scripts to communicate between the the latest computer and information technology database engine and the web server (client tools for providing client-centred electronic in- request) formation services in the country, aided as it is • web browser for client access by an extremely rich and unique collection of e-journals, e-books, and bibliographic and full Steps in SAI Personalization text electronic databases, either in standalone format or via networked CD-ROMS, through Step 1: Confi guring a Linux based web server web access and so on. The website of the Library for content personalization with local hosting (www.library.iitkgp.ernet.in) provides more of INDEST contents would be the fi rst step in information about the facility. proceeding with this initiative. Since local hosting is not considered in the fi rst step of INDEST activity, the personalization server should work The Central Library’s Personalization System with or without locally hosted bibliographic or Apart from providing a few important biblio- table of contents data and seek contents as and graphic and full text databases in standalone when needed from the distributed publishers’ and networked modes in its Electronic Library web servers. This requires the incorporation (now renamed as Digital Library), the Central of a personalization server as an intermediary Library has also offered an Electronic Selective before interaction between the Institute’s gateway Dissemination of Information (E-SDI) service and publishers’ sites. The performance of the for faculty members, using some of the frequently personalization system depends on many technical updated bibliographic electronic databases. The and operational overheads. strategy consists of preparing profi les of faculty members based on their subject specializations, Step 2: Web pages incorporating user details searching these profi les vis-à-vis latest updates and their fi elds of interest are to be created for of the database, and sending the bibliographic the Institute’s faculty, scientific and research information to the concerned faculty members staff. These pages should be created with the through e-mail. The diffi culty in automating the active participation of the users so that they feel E-SDI service due to the proprietary software suffi ciently involved in the process. This may also used, the constraints in offering the full texts of help to correctly map the crucial area of subject retrieved references since many journals were not specialization of the individual concerned. The subscribed to by the Library or by other libraries personalization server will be intelligent and with which it had collaborative interlibrary loan capable enough to continuously monitor the use or document delivery arrangements, and the patterns at an individual user level. It may start spread of web access to journals, etc., forced the with user profi les entered and modifi ed by the user Library to modify this service and transform it or an information intermediary using web forms. into a personalization service, utilizing the current The server must also use the content caching and proliferation of electronic resources and emerging cookies stored in the Institute gateway to mon- web technology. Support from the Ministry of itor the status of information usage and to iden- Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 2003 tify frequently used contents. Personalization for a research project, ‘A Personalized Selective identifi es the visitor using a cookie or session Access Information System (SAI)’, with a grant logon and dynamically generates a page specifi c of INR 800,000 (approximately USD 17,000) has to the visitor, which is not cached at proxy servers helped the library to concentrate more productively and most server caches. on implementing a suitable personalization system for IIT Kharagpur with provision for possible Step 3: The search engine performs the task of extension to other libraries. matching and generating the matched contents. The matched contents with links to full text are The system developed for personalizing elec- hosted in their web pages in the personalization tronic resources for the faculty and researchers server or sent as e-mail alerts. Since the IITs make of the Institute consists of the following basic use of fi bre optic ATM Intranet, the links can be components: easily downloaded by users after perusing the 77 V.K.J. Jeevan

results sent through e-mail or from the person- 1. Users need not retype search parameters in the alization site. different search interfaces offered by web links of different service providers. Step 4: The Feedback and Profi le Modifi cation 2. Search terms entered may be redirected auto- step is vital as it would provide inputs about the matically to the native search engine of the utility of the results generated by the person- selected resource, saving user time and effort. alization system and constructively guide the system to modify the user profi les. This step may Personalized Content Delivery also act as an indirect evaluation of the personalized information service. Being aware of the benefi ts and limitations of the ‘push’ technology of e-mail while operating the Electronic SDI, it was decided to go for the System Components ‘pull’ approach of keeping retrieved results with their web links in the personalized pages of Content Serving System faculty members. However, whenever a page is Electronic resources are made accessible through refreshed with new records, a general alert can the campus LAN from publishers’ or providers’ be sent through e-mail, stating the updating of servers as part of subscriptions to the printed their personalized page. Resources can be selected counterparts and through the INDEST con- by the user as required using tick boxes. Users sortium. Apart from this, electronic resources, also can customize page layouts as well as the databases, electronic supplements of printed order and arrangement of personal links. The books available in local LAN, higher education client browser must support cookies and must be resources available on the Internet and portals confi gured to not look for content in its cache. as well as search engines on the web are also incorporated as pools of content to serve the Working of the System immediate information requirements of Institute researchers and faculty members. The user needs to login to the system with a password (encrypted and stored in the database for online validation) to access his or her personalized User Interest Management System page. The system has provisions to gather the The profi les developed earlier for the Electronic subject interests of researchers from their web- SDI are suitably modifi ed and augmented with sites and their ongoing interactions with the additional information from the home pages of Library as well as the personalization system. faculty members, websites of the Institute and There is further provision for the user to add or other sources available in the Institute (Annual remove subject terms and access appropriate Report, 1997–2003, A Profi le of Research and virtual links to the different services offered. These Development at IIT Kharagpur, 2003, Research terms automatically scan the different online and Development Handbook-1996, 1996). services and e-journals available to fl ash a list of information resources matching the search term. Search Engine There is added provision for the user to select a term for a particular service (such as IEL online or Since most of the resources are provided with ScienceDirect) or use more than one term on one native search engines, it is extremely diffi cult to service or a group of services. Apart from inter- bypass these due to restrictions imposed by the facing the locally available (full text and biblio- database providers because of the commercial graphic databases, e-books) and network ac- interests involved. Licensing rights as part of con- cessible electronic resources (e-journals and sortium and access rights through subscriptions bibliographic or full text databases), the system permit only selective search and access of a few also provides virtual links to the following: records and hence it is beyond the permissible rights of the Library to copy complete records • free electronic journals available on the into the local servers for working with the search Internet engine developed locally. To work with these con- • free e-books on the web straints, the search engine presently developed • news sites covering science and technology as contains the following features: well as general information

78 Library Personalization Systems

• academic information on the Internet such Portal, Elsevier ScienceDirect etc. are placed in a as the websites of research and educational drop down box, so that the user can quickly and institutions easily retrieve the required information using any • search engines and portals on the web database or search engine from one window.

The user needs simply to confi gure the choices After the initial login, the user is presented with on the personalization page to achieve suitable a personal page (see Figure 1), the contents and results. Apart from the mere add or remove option, links of which are based on his or her subject the user can also create fresh links and sub-links specialization. refl ecting his or her requirements. The system also provides options for searching the library online The contents include public access catalogue (OPAC) for information regarding the borrowing details and a web form • Welcome message with his address, e-mail and to address queries to the librarian. phone number. • Search: The user is provided with his areas of interest and multiple search engines. Just System Features by clicking on his area of interest he can con- The system allows users to search, collect and nect to the search engine of his choice and organize general web resources relating to their get quick results without explicitly typing the specifi c interests. It is thus a combination of a keyword(s). manual decision rule system and a content-based • Library Links: A link to the library is provided to system. The system incorporates features enabl- check information regarding books borrowed, ing users to search the library database as well corresponding due dates, overdue charged as the World Wide Web with more functionality, and any other person-centric queries from the without expending much time and effort getting Library housekeeping database system. familiar with the intricacies of the various native • E-journals and E-books: The user is provided search interfaces developed by different pub- with links to e-journals and e-books related to lishers and database providers. Another advantage his areas of interest. He or she can also add of the system is that it offers users the ability to any additional links related to e-journals and create personal web links, interact with the library, e-books of his choice in the add page. Further, use a protection mechanism to access their data a checkbox option is provided to delete links and have the web links checked and updated when if a particular link is found to be irrelevant in they are not functioning. This feature, when used satisfying the impending information needs. effi ciently, may lead to a single window system to • News Links: The SAI design includes news collect, manipulate, use and manage electronic links for users, which provide further links resources of interest to them, to disseminate infor- regarding upcoming worldwide conferences, mation regarding their publications and also to science and technology magazines, etc. participate in virtual research communities. • Personal Links: Facilitate the addition of links of users’ personal interests. As an initial step, the contact details of faculty • Ask a Librarian: This link provides a facility members in different departments of the Institute to use the suggestion form for the library and their research interests are collected and stored and to contact the Library Head or Section- in the database. URLs and subject specializations in-charges. of e-journals, e-books and other research materials • Protect Mechanism: SAI utilizes a unique available on the web are also collected and stored protection mechanism based on username in the database. When a particular user connects and encrypted password through which only to the personalization web server through user a registered user can login to view the person- login and password, the PHP (Hyper-text Pre- alized page. processor) embedded in the HTML connects to the user database and retrieves her or his personal Problems and Prospects information from the personal details table; areas of interests from the subject terms table; journal links from the journal table; books links from the Some of the problems identifi ed and their possible books table and news links from the news table. solutions for stabilizing library personalization Search engines like Google, AltaVista, IEL, ACM systems are: 79 V.K.J. Jeevan

Figure 1. Screenshot of a researcher’s personalized page.

Multiple Systems different e-resources so that users do not have to bother about the formalities of the solution Since libraries are equipped with many of the providers and access passwords, etc. Though contents and solutions essential for a person- many libraries in India are equipped with a good alization system among a multitude of systems, set of external resources, the internal digital what is required is to focus on a single system to library component is still not very substantial and deal with all the library operations and services. for this, libraries have to concentrate on various Since most of these libraries use commercial fronts like digitizing locally owned resources, library automation systems, customization is hosting institution-generated academic and required to provide an open source interface to research information, etc., along with creating a access these proprietary solutions or a library single window information facility for external personalization system’s interface to access the resources. backend of the library database system. Similarly, the conditions for web and consortia access to journals always constrain libraries to do this Personnel Problems only through publishers’ website links. When There are doubts, not only on the part of users, cumulation and management of these journals but also among library professionals regarding the is required, the solution of redirecting to links utility and benefi ts of personalization, custom- in distributed servers is not considered a very ization, personal links, quick searches, etc. Users intelligent approach. What is required is to create have reservations about library professionals’ and develop a proprietary system that may appear ability to understand and map their complex like a single system aggregating the individual specializations into personalization systems. systems to work in the background with the Library professionals are busily engaged in personalized system to search and access the their routine professional tasks and essential IT 80 Library Personalization Systems applications of database creation and support, the receipt of useful references; general com- leaving very little time to think, plan and execute ments such as ‘helpful in obtaining current fresh services. Continuing education programmes information’, etc. for library and information professionals enable • critical comments and suggestions regarding the them to get acquainted with the latest technology improvement of the service such as the inclu- tools and techniques, leading to their pragmatic sion of additional databases to improve journal application for better information organization coverage, linking with ILL/DDS services to and effective information services. Such applica- provide the full text of those journals currently tions would often find more takers from the available only in contents/abstract form, etc. user community and may also provide better • critical comments regarding the extension of cooperation in planning, implementing and the content and style of service operating such services. • users’ interest to have a single interface for search and retrieval of useful references from all resources subscribed by and accessed in the Standards library In the current scenario, there exists a lack of • users being critical about the utility of some of standards for describing resources and profi ling the references provided by the system users as well as the modalities of setting up the personalization system and operating the ser- Some of the improvements currently under imple- vices. Since many personalization projects give mentation or in the planning stage as a result of strong importance to database and web-related these user feedbacks include: tools for their implementation, standardization is indirectly followed to certain extent. Standard- • increasing use of web mining techniques to ization may gain prominence only with the refi ne the user profi les based on the use of implementation of many personalization pro- retrieved results jects and their successful operation for a certain • identifying the increasing number of free web period. resources and merging them in a classifi ed order with the existing system resources • using different options for retrieving personalized Managing User Interests search results (through the personalized pages The central issue is how effectively and intelli- of individual faculty, by click and access mode gently the personalization system can capture from a hierarchical term listing, etc.) and represent the users’ preferences based on • using standardized subject terms available books issued, books requested, articles referred in the discipline concerned to enhance the or cited, etc. The personalization mechanism retrieval effi ciency of users’ terms and the user interest gathering tools it utilizes • using clustering techniques for mapping the should be able to employ input from users as well relations between terms, thus aiding context- as capture information based on self-learning based retrieval from observable use patterns. In many cases, the • properly marking newly retrieved results by feedback mechanism fails to work as interactively different search engines so that users need not as desired because of the library professionals’ refer to old results while scanning new ones focus on ‘recall’ compared to users’ preference for • carrying on testing of searching in the back- ‘precision’. Several use- and user-centred attributes ground to do away with users accessing their reside in the client machines; hence the success pages and clicking on resources or typing terms of personalization tasks depends to a large extent to be searched on collecting this data. Specifi c responses received from users as a result of conducting this service It is diffi cult to quantify use since the library stat- could be broadly classifi ed into the following istics deal only with explicit use; however, there categories: also exists implicit use (browsing, consulting, etc.), which is too arduous to be quantifi ed. At the • suggestions for profi le modifi cation, like adding same time, there are vital questions about whether or deleting subject terms merely issuing a book or taking a photocopy of a • appreciation of the utility of the service, such journal article constitutes use, and this warrants as ‘good’, ‘useful’, ‘interested in receiving further qualitative assessment of use. Even the usage outputs’; illustrative examples highlighting statistics offered by publishers or aggregators for 81 V.K.J. Jeevan

full text journal access through consortia fail to besides further augmenting the confi dence of its provide information on the qualitative aspects of clientele. In the current scenario, libraries can use. Merely clicking a link, downloading a page or discard their image as predominantly passive holding a page in the desktop may not constitute service organizations only by bringing fresh insight use in real terms. The correct estimation of use into old services and venturing into new ones with needs to follow direct and indirect methods, trad- age-old expertise in information consolidation and itional and modern means, and there exists no repackaging. Any personalization service or other single option to gather all the required information user-focused and client response driven service because users use resources at their convenience, relating to electronic information must at some where libraries have limited options to monitor point or other make constructive efforts towards effectively. identifying and mapping user interests, merging these interest profi les in an integrated fashion so as to interface with all aspects of library work Subject Terms like collection development and information ser- Assigning standardized subject terms to the vices, thus leading to the betterment of each of personalization system for greater precision and these activities. Managing users’ dynamic subject relevance in retrieval calls for a special keyword interests and information requirements involves assignment system. This requires considerable sprucing up the existing library and information effort in compiling the subject terms and sub- management activities. It is highly required for sequently grouping them as broader and narrower, all concerned to rethink, adapt their time tested with synonyms often requiring the support of a skills and interface them with the latest customer subject expert. Since the system consists of an ex- care tools and techniques to further improve haustive list of subjects of interest to the faculty and library services and give users their rightful place research community, it could be effectively utilized in library and information activities. The library for making intelligent decisions regarding other personalization systems discussed in this study services, like addition of new books, subscription will undoubtedly motivate many other libraries to to new journals, etc. It could additionally be used devise similar solutions so that library resources to provide vital inputs about implementing future are put to optimum use by connecting relevant programmes and services. The system would information with targeted potential users. also help in identifying experts for undertaking impending research and consultancy projects. Acknowledgements Subject heading lists and thesauri are not available for certain disciplines whereas multiple The work discussed in this paper was undertaken when the author worked as Assistant Librarian in the Indian sources of classifi cation exist for certain others. Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. The author gratefully Thus, identifi cation and selection of subject terms acknowledges the help received from the Institute, MHRD often becomes complex, particularly due to their Project Grant, Prof. RV Raja Kumar, Prof. P Padhi and dynamic nature in refl ecting current research Ms. B S Sirisha. activity in the discipline concerned as well as aiding and assisting suitable retrieval in current References areas. Intelligence and self-learning being integral Bradley, P. (1999) Personalised news services: how components of a personalization system, a subject personal, how much news? Information World Review. term classifi cation and retrieval system to learn 152; Nov 1999; 47–48. and represent new terms based on a well described Cohen, Suzanne; Fereira, John; Horne, Angela; Kibbee, heuristics and knowledge representation system Bob; Mistlebauer, Holly; Smith, Adam. (2000) needs to be developed. MyLibrary: personalized electronic services in the Cornell University Library. D-Lib Magazine. 6, 4; April 2000. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april00/mistlebauer/ Conclusion 04mistlebauer.html Di Giacomo, Mariella; Mahoney, Dan; Bollen, Johan; Monroy-Hernandez, Andres; Ruiz Meraz, Cesar Rather than merely facilitating access to elec- M. (n.d.) MyLibrary, a personalization service for tronic resources by alerting the user community digital library environments. http://www.ercim.org/ publication/ws-proceedings/DelNoe02/ Giacomo. about the available resources, the evolution of a pdf proactive service for electronic content personal- Gilliland-Swetland, Anne; Kafai, Yasmin; Maddox, ization will defi nitely improve the library’s image, Anthony. (n.d.) Digital Portfolio Archives in learning: 82 Library Personalization Systems

modeling primary content transformation for science Zhao, D. (1998) The Personal Digital Library. In ELINOR: education. http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/research/dpa/ Electronic Library Project. London: Bowker-Saur for digport.html British Library. 1998; 97–103. Ghaphery, James. (2002) MyLibrary at Virginia Commonwealth University: third year evaluation. D- Lib Magazine. 8, 7/8; July/August 2002. http://www. About the Author continued dlib.org/dlib/july02/ghaphery/07ghaphery.html Kramer, Joseph; Noronha, Sunil and Vergo, John. (2000) in 2000; Second Prize in the Award for Contributing A user-centred design approach to personalization. Article of the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Communications of the ACM. 43; 8; August 2000; Kolkata in 2001–2002; the P V Verghese Best 44–48. Paper Award from the Indian Library Association in Morgan, Eric Lease; Fox, Robert. (2007) MyLibrary: a 2002–2003 and the Indian Association of Special digital library framework & toolbox. http://mylibrary. Libraries and Information Centres Ranganathan library.nd.edu/readme/ Best Article Award in 2004. He specializes in Perugini, S. and Ramakrishnan, N. (2003) Personalizing digital libraries, computerized information services, Web sites with mixed-initiative interaction. IT Professional. 5; 2; March-April, 2003; 9–15. library databases, innovative librarianship, resource Pinfield, S. (1998) Project BUILDER, Ariadne Also sharing, library education and library jobs. He is available at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue15/ acting as the Moderator of INDIA-LIS, a listserv builder/, 15, 9 –9. (Publication No. 000201) owned by IFLA, and operated from INIST, France. Tedd, L.A. and Yeates, R. (1998) A personalised current Contact address: Indira Gandhi National Open awareness service for library and information services University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi 110068, India. staff: an overview of the NewsAgent for Libraries E-mail: [email protected] project. Program. 32, 4; Oct 1998; 373–90.

83 Library Services for Blind People: an African perspective

William Rowland Abstract The aim of this paper is to raise awareness in the IFLA community regarding the situation of blind people in Africa. There are nearly 7 million blind people in Africa; in most African countries, less than 10 percent of blind children receive schooling. This paper is based on information gathered from African delegates to the IFLA Libraries for the Blind Section Conference in Grahamstown, South Africa, in August 2007. No information was available about the Francophone or Lusophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The paper briefl y outlines the situation of library services for the blind in South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia, and goes on to discuss issues of literacy and education, scarcity of services, standards and expectations, and the technological divide. The author concludes that what we do in the fi eld of education, and what we do about education in each and every country, will change the future prospects of blind people. Keywords: Library services; blind people; Sub-Saharan Africa; South Africa; William Rowland was educated at Kenya; Zambia; Zimbabwe; Nigeria; Sierra Leone; Liberia; Gambia the Pioneer School for the Blind in Worcester, South Africa, and possesses philosophy degrees Introduction from the University of South Africa and a doctorate from the University of Cape Town. He My objective in researching and writing this paper has been to was for many years the National raise awareness in the IFLA community regarding the situation Executive Director of the South of blind people in Africa and the issues retarding progress in the African National Council for the areas of literacy and library services. The picture is stark, but as Blind and more recently CEO of the African Century gets under way there is reason for optimism, the Thabo Mbeki Development as I will demonstrate. Trust for Disabled People, based in Johannesburg. Until late 2007 he was chairperson of the South Africa: Her Neglected Children African Library for the Blind, in which capacity he was host to an IFLA pre-conference held in Africa’s population is 935 million. The number of Africans who are Grahamstown during August blind is 6.68 million and the number with low vision is 20 million. 2007. He may be contacted at: In the majority of countries, less than 10 percent of blind children World Blind Union, PO Box 95525, receive schooling, and of those who complete their schooling, no more Waterkloof, 0145 Pretoria, South than 5 percent will fi nd jobs. Only in South Africa do unemployed Africa. E-mail: [email protected] blind persons receive a social grant of any signifi cance.

Organizations of blind people, who are our chief advocates, exist in nearly all of the 53 African countries, but they are weak and poorly resourced. Increasingly, though, they are being strengthened through the actions of the African Union of the Blind (AFUB) and the World Blind Union (WBU), and of partners in the north.

Library Services: an Overview of Very Little

In what follows, I draw on information gathered by means of a questionnaire distributed amongst African delegates registered for the IFLA Libraries for the Blind Section Conference in Grahamstown

(August 2007). I have contrasted the models of Government. Such problems as exist in the library delivery and stages of development. The focus is services in the main parallel those of industrial- on the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where ized countries, but a low Braille literacy rate does the need is surely the greatest. The outlook in temper the rosy picture I have painted. A growing the countries of North Africa is on the whole number of blind people own personal computers more favourable, if one is to judge by information and increasingly this group is reading electronic received from Tunisia and Morocco. I regret that text drawn from a wide variety of sources on the I have no information from the Francophone or Internet, and this includes books. Lusophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, something on education, because of its relevance to the eventual use of libraries. There South Africa – We are the Lucky Ones are 20 schools for the blind in South Africa, but In South Africa, blind readers enjoy comprehensive the majority of them are to be converted into library services, as provided by two well-resourced resource centres in the transition to inclusive organizations. The model of delivery is one of education. Our model of inclusive education is centralized distribution through the freepost, being piloted at 30 ‘full service schools’, of which supplemented by so-called minilibs serving par- fi ve of the 20 special schools form part. These ticular local communities or institutions. full service schools are intended to accommodate any individual with a learning diffi culty or social The South African Library for the Blind in disadvantage. Despite the fact that our provision Grahamstown distributes both Braille and audio is relatively good, not all blind children in South books and magazines. A personalized information Africa can be said to be at school. service is available on request. The Library also benefi ts from exchange agreements with several overseas libraries in English-speaking countries. Kenya: An Integrated Model The membership comprises 2 ,595 Braille readers Services to visually impaired persons are delivered and 2,923 audio readers, and the collection in- via the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS), cludes 12,300 Braille book titles and 10,574 audio with its network of 45 branches throughout the book titles. The Library also supports 80 minilibs. country. The KNLS Board is mandated by an Act The conversion of the audio library to the Digital of Parliament (CAP 225 of the Laws of Kenya) Accessible Information System (DAISY) for to promote, establish, equip, manage, maintain, talking books is well underway, with over 755 and develop libraries for the general population, titles in reserve. Blindlib, as it is popularly known, and, as part of this, KNLS operates three active operates under its own Act of Parliament, the library services for visually impaired persons in South African Library for the Blind Act (Act 91 the strategic locations of Nairobi, Thika, and of 1998), and receives substantial funding from Kisii. Braille and audio books are available and the Department of Arts and Culture. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and Internet use supported. The attendance is 250 blind and Tape Aids for the Blind is headquartered in low vision persons per month. Durban, but its production capacity and service to readers are greatly enhanced by a system of The Kenya Institute for the Blind and the Kenya local branches and a corps of 700 volunteers. The Society for the Blind also provide limited library 27 recording studios of Tape Aids put out books, services. The Kenyatta University has its own magazines, and general information in all eleven library where students can access academic papers offi cial languages. Some 9,300 members have in Braille, Braille and audio textbooks, and three 31,000 book titles to choose from plus 23 audio daily newspapers. They also have use of CCTV magazines. The organization also supports 438 equipment and computers. minilibs. Tape Aids has one of the most successful fundraising programmes of any organization in While there are 19 integrated education pro- the country, enabling it to operate entirely inde- grammes in Kenya spanning 34 of the 72 districts, pendently of government funding. 24 schools actively integrate visually impaired learners. Three schools have libraries of their own Besides these two library services, South Africa and there are two Braille production units in the has three Braille production houses, while a country. variety of Braille and audio publications are put out by other institutions and the South African 85 William Rowland

Zambia: A Symbiotic Model And let it be said that this is done in circumstances of growing chaos. Much of the work is carried The Zambian National Library and Cultural out in private homes because people do not have Centre for the Blind is located in Lusaka. It pro- money for fuel. Workers who make it to Dorothy vides a lending service and carries out Braille Duncan are hungry and somehow have to be fed. transcription and audio production. It offers For these achievements, I pay special tribute to Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training to my dear and admired friend, Sister Catherine newly blinded individuals, as well as a literacy Jackson, and her indomitable co-workers. programme plus computer literacy. Around 1,000 blind persons make use of these services. Nigeria: Uncoordinated Fragmentation While inclusive education has been introduced Nigeria has a population of 120 million. Of the very recently, the Ndola School for the Blind, 1 million people estimated to be blind or visually Magwero School for the Blind, Sefula School impaired, more than 25,000 are of school-going for the Blind, St Mary’s School, and Mporokoso age. Less than 10 percent of these actually attend School for the Blind continue with their tuition. school, with the remaining 90 percent conﬁ ned to These schools serve as subcentres for the National houses or roaming the streets as beggars. Library. However, their service is restricted because of a lack of funds. Although the numbers are limited, blind and visually impaired students are found at all types of Zimbabwe: Where Faith and Attitude educational institution – primary and secondary Overcome Obstacles schools, polytechnics, universities, and vocational training centres. The production and distribution The Dorothy Duncan Centre for the Blind in Harare of information resources in alternative formats provides materials in Braille, audio formats (tapes, to meet the needs of these students is haphazard compact discs, and DAISY), large print, and and uncoordinated. standard print with Braille overlays for children and parents. Materials are supplied in English, There are five institutions producing Braille, Shona, and Ndebele, and, on occasion, needs three in the south and two in the north, and three have even been met in French, German, and of them also undertake audio production. The Portuguese. Anglo Nigeria Welfare Association for the Blind (ANWAB), in Lagos, has a collection of some On request books are lent out to schools or 200 titles in Braille and 200 on tape sorted into individual students, to be returned at the end of subject areas for adults, children, and students the academic year. This includes an increasing at the University of Lagos. Out of the 36 state number of children who have been taken out of libraries in the country, only three – those in Oyo, school because parents cannot pay the school Imo, and Abia – offer library services to blind and fees. Books are transcribed for all levels of visually impaired students. These state libraries education – primary, secondary, and tertiary – do not produce books; they only receive Braille and it is estimated that 95 percent of the books books from donors and make them available in in alternative formats in the country come from their library collections. Dorothy Duncan. The Centre also gives training in the use of Perkins braillers, tape recorders, DAISY Morayo Ibironke Atinmo of the University of players, computers with JAWS (the most popular Ibadan has tackled the formidable task of setting screen reader for blind people worldwide), and up a computerized catalogue and distribution CCTV equipment. database of alternative format materials for blind and visually impaired persons in Nigeria. For this Comparatively speaking, the statistics of the achievement she received a best practice award Dorothy Duncan Centre are impressive, with from the Ulverscroft Foundation in 2003. 3,000 students, 300 plus elderly persons using large print, 300 plus readers on audio, and 20 users of DAISY. Sierra Leone and Liberia: First Building Blocks There are three schools for the blind and 24 spe- Both Sierra Leone and Liberia have been ravaged cial units in the mainstream, down from a former by civil wars of the utmost cruelty and barbarity. level of 54 units. 86 Library Services for Blind People

This means that both countries are in transition, learners only. The library of the Gambian Organ- working off an extremely low economic base. ization for the Visually Impaired (GOVI) comprises one room stocked with outdated Braille In Sierra Leone, only some 12 percent of blind materials and equipment, while Braille and audio people are “in the mainstream of learning”, to quote production facilities are non-existent. my correspondent at the Educational Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired. There are Context Issues fi ve special schools and educational centres in the country, but none of them have libraries, including the Milton Margai School for the Blind, Let me turn now to what we may call ‘context established as long ago as 1956. My correspondent issues’. Here I will focus on those issues which registered for law at the University of Sierra Leone have acute relevance to Africa and the developing in 1999, but was unable to complete his studies. world, which is not to say that they do not have He attributes this to the lack of a library service. relevance for industrialized countries. They ought More encouraging is the fact that the Educational also to have particular importance for IFLA, the Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired does International Council for Education of People have a Braille printer, thanks to the support of the with Visual Impairment (ICEVI), and the WBU. FORCE Foundation, a charitable organization based in The Netherlands that seeks to improve the lives of visually impaired people through Literacy and Education education and training. And the fi rst of these issues is literacy and education. Where education is provided in special Likewise, in Liberia, there is no library service schools, the number of learners tends to be limited whatsoever. In the past, learners attending to the capacity of existing schools. In inclusive school in integrated settings have had to make settings, enrolment levels, dropout numbers, use of volunteers from the local community, inadequate support and material resourcing, spending long hours in transcribing their own and lack of specialized teacher training are textbooks. A special school is administered by the challenges to be overcome. It follows that the government, while the Rehab Institute of the wherever these circumstances prevail literacy Christian Association of the Blind is being trans- rates will be low. In South Africa, where school formed into a National Resource Centre with attendance is relatively high, I have applied classroom facilities for 300 learners and dormitory an equation based on the national census and accommodation for 110 children and youth. Also, taking into account the number of school leavers a Braille production unit is under development, each year, as well as the number of readers of thanks to the support of the FORCE Foundation, magazines and books from the national library. once again. And now for a piece of particularly My conclusion is that the Braille literacy rate is good news: At the National Resource Centre, the no more than 1.2 percent. establishment of a library with Internet access is in prospect through a potential grant from Quick Now the level of education and the promotion Impact, the United Nations Special Projects of a culture of reading, on the one hand, and the Programme in the country. development of library services to meet growing needs and stimulate usage, on the other hand, are interdependent forces. This means that educators Gambia: Virtually a Zero Base and librarians, in partnership with organizations of The situation in The Gambia, I suspect, parallels blind people, are jointly and severally responsible that in the majority of least developed countries for advancement in these areas. One of the and poignantly illustrates the need for coordinated basic needs that I would emphasize is that in international and national effort. every school setting blind children and children with low vision should have access to a library The Gambian Organization for the Visually service. Impaired operates the only school for the blind in the country, with fi ve classrooms and a resource Scarcity of Services centre cum library. After Grade 4, learners are admitted to inclusive settings in the mainstream, The next issue I want to point to is the scarcity supported by itinerant teachers. Some of the of services and resources. From the brief country schools do have library facilities, but for sighted reports included in this paper, and even more from 87 William Rowland

impressions on the ground in Africa, it is clear that watershed in our affairs, of that there can be no there are only a scattering of Braille production doubt. units, few libraries, and very few libraries operating optimally. Such libraries as do exist work in The Right to Read isolation and it is to be doubted whether these libraries and production units are archiving and Finally, I have laid before you some stark facts cataloguing their materials effectively. Frequently, and daunting challenges, but I fi rmly believe that there is an emphasis on leisure reading, while there is cause for optimism. We are experiencing educational and professional needs are neglected. a gathering wave of new activism in the disability Another unpalatable truth is that professional rights movement, globally and in Africa, and we librarians do not consider employment in library fi nd ourselves empowered and greatly strengthened services for the blind to be a serious career option. in our efforts by a variety of instruments and A system of peer support, twinning, and personnel initiatives, including: exchanges could go some way to addressing this negative factor. • The new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with its monitoring mechanisms and implementation plans, at Standards and Expectations both the international and national levels; Another question to consider is what standards • The African Decade of Disabled Persons, with our libraries ought to aspire to. How many readers its continental objectives; are to be served via what formats? How big should • The Education for All Visually Impaired the collection be? What support should be given Children (EFA-VI) programme of ICEVI to schools, and what training can be offered to and the WBU, to push forward the inclusive individuals in the community? education agenda; • The WBU Copyright negotiations with the World The reverse side of the coin is equally important. Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) What expectations can blind people rightly have and the International Publishers Association of their library services, in terms of their diverse (IPA); and needs, pressing as well as less urgent? And to • Increasing cohesion in the work of the WBU what extent can an information service become and AFUB with its development partners. part of the demand? These are not philosophical questions, but practical ones that have to be trans- And there is more; but it is what we do in the fi eld lated into our expectations of governments and of education, and what we do about education in ourselves. each and every country, that will change the future prospects of blind people. And let me here emphasize an element in the EFA-VI campaign The Technological Divide which we consider to be absolutely essential: that The fi nal issue I will raise today is relevant to in our campaigning there must be a demand- library services for the blind everywhere. It is side in the action, a demand for inclusive edu- the technological divide, not only between the cation vocally and unrelentingly expressed by ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, but also between an older organizations of blind people and the parents of and a younger generation. There is a younger blind children. generation of blind people skilled in the use of computers and for whom the Internet and the As part of this, we assert a universal right to read. burgeoning electronic media have become their For the right to read to be realized, there has to source of information and intellectual satisfaction. be the ability to read and something to read. And I am acquainted with blind individuals who are this is why educators and librarians are allies with avid readers and who have not ordered a book us in the disability rights movement. I believe from any library for a long time. A father recently progress to be imminent, and when I think of the expressed to me the hope that his blind daughter instruments now at our disposal and the energy will be able to carry in her pocket a single device rising in our ranks, I am exhilarated. It is the same that will be for her a means of communication, kind of exhilaration one feels when one takes information, and entertainment. The challenge in up a good book to enter its world of unlimited this technological age is how to make our libraries possibilities. relevant to this emergent generation. We are at a 88 Library Services for Blind People

Acknowledgements (Liberia); Matilda Johnson (Gambia); Dr Imed Eddine Chaker (Tunisia); and Christopher Friend (United I gratefully acknowledge the ideas and information Kingdom). contributed by many colleagues and friends, including: Johan Roos, Francois Hendrikz, Pauline Hoffman, Obert Maguvhe and Marie Schoeman (South Africa); Rosemary Paper presented at the IFLA Libraries for the Ayiera Kombo (Kenya); James Mwitwa (Zambia); Sister Blind Section Conference, Grahamstown,South Catherine Jackson (Zimbabwe); Morayo Ibironke Atinmo Africa , August 2007. (Nigeria); Thomas Alieu (Sierra Leone); Beyan Kota

89 The National Library of Pakistan: an overview

Pervaiz Ahmad Abstract Describes the history and development of the National Library of Pakistan, which was founded in 1949, merged with the Liquat Memorial Library in 1954 and separated again in 1968. The Library moved to its own building at Islamabad in 1988, and opened to the public in 1993. The Library is administered by the Department of Libraries of the Directorate of Libraries and Archives in the Ministry of Education. The prime function of the National Library of Pakistan is to receive, preserve, and maintain the literary heritage of the country under copyright provisions. The annual Pakistan National Bibliography is based on copyright receipts, mainly books. The National Library receives about 66 percent of serial publications and 50–55 percent of books published in the country. Electronic publications are not yet covered by the copyright laws. The Library assigns ISBNs to nearly half of all books published. Library membership and daily readership are very low and services to users very limited. The development of staff and services need immediate Pervaiz Ahmad obtained his attention. master’s degree in Library and Keywords: national libraries; copyright; national bibliography; National Information Science from the Library of Pakistan. Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan in 1992. He currently holds the position of Assistant Introduction Professor in the Department of Library and Information Sciences at Allama Iqbal Open University Pakistan, born on 14 August 1947 as a result of the partition of (AIOU) (www.aiou.edu.pk), British India, is now a federation of four provinces in South Asia. The Islamabad – the federal capital country has an area of 796,096 square kilometres and a population of Pakistan. He also worked as of 161 million.1 The national language of Pakistan is Urdu. Assistant Director in the National Library of Pakistan from 1993 The early library scenario in Pakistan was not encouraging. The to 1995 and as Lecturer in the newly formed government could not pay attention to the library Islamia University of Bahawalpur sector due to other priorities. There was no library movement in from 1996 to 2000. His research the country because of the meagre economy and migration and interests include library education, settlement of the masses. At Partition, all the major libraries in curriculum, information needs and information seeking behaviour. former British India went to the lot of India. Pakistan inherited He is a member of the editorial only two libraries of signifi cance, the Punjab University Library board of the Pakistan Journal of (1908), and the Punjab Public Library (1884) – both at Lahore. Education. He may be contacted The establishment of the Directorate of Archives and Libraries was at: Department of Library and the fi rst noteworthy step towards library development.2-3 Information Sciences, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. Tel. +92 51 Library Education and Training 9250179. E-mail: pervaiz@asia. com An American librarian, Mr. Asa Don Dickinson, introduced a library science certifi cate course of short duration at university level in the subcontinent in 1915. The University of the Punjab, Lahore, appointed him as librarian and library science teacher.4 Several subsequent proposals were made by different library associations and individuals of the subcontinent to start library education at postgraduate level. Delhi University fi rst introduced a degree course in library science in 1947.5

The library course at the University of the Punjab libraries at Islamabad, namely the National Library was closed in 1947 when Pakistan came into of Pakistan, the Islamabad Public Library, and being. This course was revived in 1950 and re- the Model Children’s Library.15 The government organized in 1955. Enrolment was restricted demolished the building of Model Children’s only to graduates. It was a university-based post- Library in July 2007 after the military operation graduate programme of one year’s duration, but at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and Jamia Hafsa it was still called a certifi cate course. Most of (Hafsa University), as it was adjacent to these the early librarians of Pakistan had passed this buildings. course before independence. A number of other certifi cate courses were started in non-university A non-professional was the Director General of settings during the fi rst few years after Pakistan’s the Department of Libraries form July 2003 to creation. The University of Karachi was the fi rst in July 2004 (Hafi z Khubaib Ahmad, personal com- Pakistan to introduce a postgraduate diploma munication, December 5, 2007). Non-librarians in library science in 1956 and a master’s degree have headed the Directorate of Public Libraries, in 1962.6 Punjab (1981) and the Punjab Library Foundation (1985) from the inception of these organizations Out of a total of 87 universities in Pakistan, there to the present (Shaukat Hussain, personal com- are now 11 (nine in the public sector and two munication, December 5, 2007). in the private sector) in Pakistan having LIS programmes at postgraduate level. Five of these The National Library of Pakistan universities offer LIS education up to MPhil and PhD level.7 There is minor disagreement among Pakistani library experts about the year of establishment Establishment of Directorate of the National Library of Pakistan. However, the of Archives and Libraries majority agree upon 1949 as the founding year.16

The Government of Pakistan appointed Mr. K.M. Although the National Library was created in Asadullah (founding Secretary-General of the 1949, it existed on paper only and was without any Indian Library Association and ex-librarian of the physical building. The National Library started National Library in Calcutta) as Offi cer on Special functioning in the real sense when it was renamed Duty after his migration to Pakistan in early 1948. as the Liaquat National Library in 1954 after it Mr. Asadullah and his colleague, Mr. Muhammad was merged with the Liaquat Memorial Library. Shafi , prepared and submitted to government a The Liaquat Public Library was founded in 1950 plan for establishing a directorate of libraries with in Karachi in the name of Pakistan’s fi rst premier, archives and a national library in the country. It Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (assassinated on was due to this proposal that the Ministry of Edu- 16 October 1951), and renamed as the Liaquat cation established the Directorate of Archives and Memorial Library in 1951. This merger ended Libraries (DAL) at Karachi in 1949 8-9 to preserve in 1968 because the government designated the national documents, manuscripts and other lit- National Library of Pakistan at Islamabad and the erary heritage of historical importance as well as Liaquat Memorial Library (reverted to previous to institute, govern and promote libraries.10-11 name) at Karachi both as copyright depositories under the copyright ordinance of 1962. The The Directorate comprised two major units, Liaquat Memorial Library was handed over to dealing respectively with archives and libraries. the government of Sindh province in 1986.17 It is Although the Directorate was established in a question for the National Library of Pakistan the early years of Pakistan, library development administration as to why its rightful share of thereafter was slow due to want of necessary the rich collection built up over the years was leadership, as non-librarians always headed the not taken from the Liaquat Memorial Library Directorate. In 1973 the government divided when it was handed over to the Sindh provincial the Directorate into two separate departments, government. the Department of Archives at Islamabad and the Department of Libraries at Karachi.12-14 The National Library started building its own collection in 1967 with copyright receipts and The Department of Libraries is mainly entrusted began purchasing books in the mid-1970s, when with the administration of its three subordinate it got its first ever budget. The Library was 91 Pervaiz Ahmad

moved among various buildings – mostly rented – Board of Revenue, the radio station and the like. in Islamabad and Rawalpindi from 1968 to This power zone has further minimized public 1988. The initial plan for the construction of the access to National Library of Pakistan in sensitive National Library’s own building at Islamabad conditions. was prepared in 1968, revised in 1973, and fi nally approved in 1980. Construction started in 1982 Functions, Activities and Objectives and was completed in December 1988 at a cost of PKR 130,322 million, now approximately The main functions, activities and objectives of equivalent to USD 2,172 million. The collection of the National Library 27 are: 70,000 volumes which had already been acquired under copyright law and through purchases was 1. To acquire library materials generally, and then moved to the new building.18-23 The National particularly a comprehensive collection, both Library of Pakistan was formally opened to the current and retrospective, relating to Pakistan public by the then premier on 24 August 1993.24 and its people and in accordance with national requirements. It is astonishing that the copyright ordinance 2. To receive and maintain the national published was only enforced in 1967, fi ve years after its heritage under copyright law. approval. Further, it took 20 years from the 3. To promote and encourage the use of library initial plan to the fi nal construction of the library materials through user orientation, informa- building and fi ve more years to inaugurate the tion, and document delivery services to the library. This clearly shows that libraries were not key people in Pakistan’s socioeconomic and given immediate importance by the people then cultural development sectors. at the helm of affairs. 4. To produce current and retrospective national bibliographies. 5. To participate in the planning of all types of The National Library Building library services in the country to build support The National Library building is a beautiful, four- services and cooperation between libraries. storey centrally heated and air conditioned 6. To act as an organizing agency for international modular building on a 500,112 ft2 plot comprising lending and exchange of library material. a covered area of 168,844 ft2 designed to accom- 7. To organize courses, seminars, workshops, modate one million volumes, 500 general readers’ conferences, etc. for the training and education seats, work areas for staff, an auditorium with a of librarians and to encourage the use of new seating capacity of 450, and other services.25-26 technologies. 8. To play an effective role in raising the standards The physical location of the National Library has of libraries and library services and conduct made it almost inaccessible for the populace research to determine information needs. of capital; it is more suited to the people of the 9. To take measures towards the establishment diplomatic enclave. Besides, the Library is sur- of union catalogues or databases of resources rounded by the Prime Minister’s and President’s of important libraries of Pakistan regarding secretariats, the Supreme Court, foreign missions, coordinated use. the National Assembly and Senate, the Central 10. To participate in international library meetings, conferences, etc. for mutual benefi t. 11. To promote such other activities which contribute to the enlightenment, enjoyment and community life of the people of Pakistan.

The National Library of Pakistan is a member of IFLA and of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL).28

The Library has organized some seminars and a workshop since 2000. It hosted the Pakistan Library Association’s 17th annual conference and a focus group discussion conducted by the library Figure 1. The National Library of Pakistan. and information science (LIS) teachers of Punjab 92 The National Library of Pakistan

University in 2007. The offi ce of the Federal Branch budget amounting to PKR 6 million was also of the Pakistan Library Association (PLA) has been allocated during the same fi scal year (Chaudhry situated in the National Library since 1995. Muhammad Nazir, personal communication, November 22, 2007). Firm determination and sincere efforts are required to make some of the above objectives real- Collections istic and achievable like international lending, encouragement in the use of new technologies The collections shown in Table 129 have been (relevant laboratories should be established fi rst), gradually built through purchase, copyright playing an effective role in raising the standards deposit, gifts, exchange, and donations. of libraries and library services, conducting research to determine information needs, and the The book collection includes 40,100 volumes establishment of union catalogues or databases received through copyright deposit. The acquisition of resources of important libraries of Pakistan of copies of 30 PhD dissertations on Pakistan regarding coordinated use. Nevertheless, the from different American universities has further organizing or hosting of a few useful professional enriched the collection. events is commendable. Access to worldwide online digital resources is provided to 250 local institutions by the Higher Staff Education Commission (HEC) under the national The National Library of Pakistan now employs digital library programme – “A programme to 180 people, including 33 professionals and semi- provide researchers within public and private professionals. A professionally qualified and universities in Pakistan and non-profi t research experienced Director General heads the Library. and development organizations with access to Other professional positions include directors international scholarly literature based on elec- (2), deputy directors (2), assistant directors (9), tronic (online) delivery, providing access to high bibliographer (1), editor (1), and semi-professional quality, peer-reviewed journals, databases and junior librarians (17). The basic qualifi cation re- articles across a wide range of disciplines.” These quired for all the professional positions is at least a resources comprise 30 databases having over master’s degree in library and information science 20,000 full-text research journals and other peri- (Haji Dad Khan and Zulfi qar Ahmad, personal odical literature and 40,000 books from the communication, November 22, 2007). world’s leading publishers.30 However, the Higher Education Commission has not yet included the The staff of the National Library of Pakistan National Library in this programme, nor does seemed to be reluctant when asked by the author the National Library maintain direct subscriptions for some critical information about their internal to such sources. Instead some foreign magazines work environment, staff interrelations and job (e.g. Time, etc) are purchased from local vendors satisfaction level, problems, attitude of the admin- (Fazal-e-Majid, personal communication, istration towards professional staff and vice December 6, 2007). versa, the cost of Virtua, stocktaking results, etc. There has also been a brain drain; many capable persons who could be assets to the Library have Category Quantity left. It appears that there is frustration and lack of coordination and communication among the Books 130,000 volumes staff due to the lack of promotion for senior pro- Manuscripts 555 titles fessionals, who have been working in the same grade for more than 14 years. Microfi lms 45 reels Microfi ches 48000 cards Budget Magazines 845 titles An approximate budget of PKR 40 million, in- Newspapers 135 titles cluding a book budget of PKR 3.5 million, has been provided to the Department of Libraries Table 1. National Library of Pakistan. for the fi nancial year 2007–2008. A development Collections, November 19, 2007.

93 Pervaiz Ahmad

National Bibliographical Unit may involve more expenditure and labour than the cost of a book or periodical and the penalty, The National Bibliographical Unit (NBU) is the which is only PKR 500 (Zulfi qar Ahmad, personal oldest section of the National Library. It was communication, December 6, 2007). According established in 1962 in the Liaquat National Library to the Pakistan Statistical Yearbook for 2007 after approval of the copyright ordinance and a total of 1464 periodical titles were published subsequently inherited by the Department of in Pakistan in 2006. All these titles should be Libraries in 1973. Its primary aim is to prepare the available in the National Library under copyright Pakistan National Bibliography (PNB). The unit law. However, as shown in Table 1, the periodical has so far prepared and published 39 volumes of collection of the National Library comprises only the PNB from 1962 to 2006. The PNB follows the 980 periodical titles (845 magazines and 135 pattern of the British National Bibliography. The newspapers), including some foreign serial bibliography from 1947 to 1961 was published publications. The National Library’s periodical in 1962 by a separate organization, the Pakistan receipts under copyright law would therefore Bibliographical Working Group. The Unit also appear to be less than 66 percent of the total an- sends a bibliography of Urdu translations of nual production of periodical titles in Pakistan. foreign works to UNESCO. The copyright law It is estimated that copyright deposit receipts was amended in 1992 and implemented as an act of Pakistan book titles may be between 50 and to include serial publications.31-33 The PNB has 55 percent of the total published output, since frequently been published with a time lag of one to books are far more costly than periodicals. Unfor- two years due to manual formatting, preparation, tunately, statistics on book publishing output and typing, etc. deposits are not available. The extension of copyright law to embrace non- book publications has been in the pipeline for Acquisition Section more than a decade. The National Library of This section started functioning in 1975. At pre- Pakistan should work on this matter promptly to sent it has two major duties; the fi rst is to fi ll avoid further loss of these publications. As long the publications gap from 1947 to 1967 through ago as 1999, an average of 30 video discs/cassettes purchase, etc., especially from privately held per month was being published in Pakistan.34 personal collections; the second is the acquisition This will have increased by three to four times of foreign publications.36 Four members of the by now. professional staff comprise the committee formed for the selection of books. Weeding has never Delivery of Book and Newspaper Branch been done, so that many knowledge resources have become outdated. The acquisitions budget The Delivery of Book and Newspaper Branch of about PKR 3.1 million is spent on the purchase (DBNB) is the second oldest section of the of local books (mostly in Urdu and English) and National Library, established in 1967 to receive foreign books (in English). Books purchased publications under copyright law. According to during the fi nancial year 2006–2007 on almost this law, it is obligatory for Pakistani publishers all disciplines with an emphasis on social to deposit one best copy of their publications sciences and humanities are 1596 (Irshad Ahmad with the National Library within 30 days without Sherwani, Zulfi qar Ahmad and Haji Dad Khan, any charges.35 The PNB is the product of such personal communication, December 6, 2007). depository publications, almost all books. There is no record of whether or not the books received bear ISBNs. ISBN Agency The International ISBN Agency in Berlin nomin- The copyright receipts, according to a rough esti- ated the National Library of Pakistan in 1985 for mate, comprise between 50 and 60 percent of registering publishers and assigning ISBNs to the total published literature of Pakistan. This is local publications. Nearly 1200 codes have so far due to complications and procedural fl aws in the been allotted to publishers out of 1842 codes given copyright law such as prolonged process from the by the International ISBN Agency37. The National National Library to the Ministry of Law through Library has so far assigned near 25,500 ISBNs to the Ministry of Education and prolonged trials in Pakistani publications (Zulfi qar Ahmad, personal court through the public prosecutor. No publisher communication, November 23, 2007). has been sued so far, for the litigation process 94 The National Library of Pakistan

The agency is believed to receive requests from students – visit the Library every day (Hafiz publishers for ISBN assignment in respect of Khubaib Ahmad, Zulfi qar Ahmad and Liaquat about half the estimated annual output of book Ali Chatta, personal communication, December titles. Most minor publishers might not apply to 8, 2007). get ISBNs for their books, either due to lack of awareness about the existence or importance Technical Processing Section of ISBNs or the fact that applying for an ISBN would bring the publication to the notice of the This section started functioning in 1993. Classi- National Library, which would then expect to fi cation, subject assigning, cataloguing and allied receive a copy of the book after publication under tasks, data input and computerization, fi ling and the copyright law. cataloguing in publication (CIP) are the main functions of this section.40 Bibliographic details of almost all the occidental and oriental book Readers Services collection have been computerized using the This section started functioning in 1993 after the new software, Virtua. Typographic errors made formal opening of National Library for the general at the data input stage are now being removed. public. The services of this section encompass: (Sheikh Iqrar Hussain, personal communication, November 16, 2007). • reference, information, reading and research services Since technical processing (subject cataloguing, • audiovisual and reprographic services, free fi ling of catalogue entries, ordered shelving, etc.) Internet surfi ng on 10 PCs, online public access of books only started in 1993, a large part of the catalogue (OPAC) book collection was unidentifiable and thus • book exhibitions on important national events unserviceable for about 26 years from 1967. Most • orientation tours for national and international of the collection would have become outdated delegates, and membership service. during this period.

Besides discipline-wise reading halls, 14 separate Conservation and Preservation Section rooms have also been built for researchers. Reprographic facilities, mostly photostat, are This section was established in 1994. An MSc available at a fee. The Library remains open on in chemistry heads this section. Binding and Monday through Saturday from 08:00 am to repairing, fumigation, lamination, microfi lming, 07:00 pm. Any citizen of Pakistan above 20 years and photocopying and duplicating are among the of age is entitled to become a member. Citizens main responsibilities of this section. A modern of foreign countries who live or work in Pakistan conservation laboratory with an adjunct of a may also become members.38-39 bindery has been established to conserve and preserve the collections. Books are regularly The National Library of Pakistan is a reference fumigated. Manuscripts and rare books have been library without any lending service. Membership microfi lmed. Tissue lamination is being done for is granted only to postgraduates against a fee the restoration of manuscripts and rare books. of PKR100 for life. There are 795 registered Optical scanning of important national dailies members, representing about 2 percent of the has also been planned. estimated postgraduate population of some 39,000 in Islamabad. Since non-members may use the Computer and Information Technology Section library without any fees or charges, there are seemingly no advantages, in terms of facilities This section, which now has more infl uence on and services, in being a member. Loan services, the Library’s administration than professional delivery services, distance services to people in librarians, and comprises an IT team headed other parts of the country, extension and fi eld by a systems analyst, was established in 1993. services, virtual accessibility to digitized resources, The National Library initially prepared inhouse chat reference service and CAS/SDI, livelihood library automation software developed through guidance, or reading halls in different locations a local private company, at a cost of more than of Islamabad do not exist at present. Between PKR 1 million. Bibliographic data input started 50 and 70 (average 60) users (0.007 percent) out in 1998, but the Urdu version of the software of 780,000 Islamabad adult population – mostly could not be developed. The software could not 95 Pervaiz Ahmad

cope with international changes in information The Pakistan National Bibliography should follow and communication technologies (ICTs). Hence some standard format for indexing. There should the National Library of Pakistan purchased the be separate and brief indices for author, title and international client-server software ‘Virtua’ and subject entries. To determine the number of indi- started using it in 2005 with a 16-user license. vidual titles included in the PNB it is necessary The Library now has modern PCs, database ser- to count all the entries manually one by one. The vers, gateway servers, a proxy server, a network price of the PNB (PKR 1100, USD 60) should server, a load sharing server, heavy duty printers be reduced to make it affordable for all those inter- and scanners, a multimedia projector, and un- ested. The PNB should also contain a value-added interruptible power supply (UPS) equipment. statistical portion in terms of book publishing There is also an intranet of 48 nodes with a digital output of the country, content and bibliometric subscriber line (DSL) connection.41-43 analysis, printing trends, price modes, authorship statistics, publishers’ trends towards getting The switch from inhouse software to Virtua is ISBNs, etc. Preparation of the bibliography in a under criticism in professional circles. People timely manner should not be a difﬁ cult task using consider that the move represents a heavy loss (of today’s electronic means. some PKR 4 to 5 million) to the national exchequer of a developing country and ask why the inhouse In addition to publishing the Pakistan National (and costly) software was not upgraded to meet Bibliography, the National Library should also the needs. Though all the bibliographic data publish a newsletter and library journal, either of the book collections has been fed into Virtua, independently or in collaboration with the Federal all the modules and facilities of this software have branch of the Pakistan Library Association. not yet been fully explored. The present OPAC of the English collection is still using the database The logic behind the name ‘Delivery of Book and created with the previous software. Newspaper Branch’ is not understandable. This section may either be merged in the acquisition section or the National Bibliographical Unit or Security Section renamed as ‘Copyright Receipt Department’. This section was established for the safety and security of the literary resources, building and A collection development policy should be auditorium, staff and readers. In addition to devised. If the National Library of Pakistan is professional events, hundreds of non-library intended to be a reference library for all purposes, national and international conferences, seminars, a working place for scholars, postgraduate students workshops, etc. have been conducted in the of social sciences and humanities, then there auditorium by other organizations. The security should also be relevant scholars and scientists in section is equipped with modern technology like the book/material selection committee. Outdated closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, metal reference books need to be replaced with the detectors, a sensitized electromagnetic entrance latest editions. and mobile radio.44 There is a need to launch awareness campaigns Besides the above sections, there are others deal- through various media regarding the importance ing with establishment/administration, planning of ISBN. This would also enhance the copyright and research, serials and accounts. deposits.

The National Library of Pakistan should seriously Recommendations concentrate on enhancing its membership and readership. Either the restriction of membership The National Library should convince the auth- to postgraduates should be waived or additional orities of Higher Education Commission, Pakistan facilities and incentives should be provided for regarding its inclusion in the National Digital members only. These should include: lending Library Programme to gain access to world- services, mobile services, outreach and extension wide online digital resources. This facility may services, online access to digitized resources enhance the readership and membership of the (newspaper archives, rare books and manuscripts Library. collection, etc) and real-time digital document 96 The National Library of Pakistan delivery, interactive digital reference service, As this study did not take into account the evalu- current awareness service (CAS) and selective ation of National Library of Pakistan against dissemination of information (SDI), career and standards or its comparison with any other research counselling, self-employment and house- national library of repute, future studies can be hold maintenance workshops, encouragement conducted in this context. This would be helpful to users with sincerity and devotion, building of in providing information on how the National reading halls in different sectors of Islamabad and Library of Pakistan can improve further. marketing and public relation campaigns keeping in view the AIDA (awareness, interest, desire, action) model. All these are direly needed. The Acknowledgements staff should be given training in modern marketing The author is deeply indebted to the administration techniques. and offi cers of National Library of Pakistan, especially Chaudhry Muhammad Nazir (Director General), Syed The infl uence of IT professionals in librarianship Ghayyur Hussain (Research Offi cer), Zulfi qar Ahmad is growing day by day. Lest they should replace (Director), Hafi z Khubaib Ahmad (Deputy Director), library professionals in future, library schools in Haji Dad Khan (Assistant Director), Sheikh Iqrar Hussain (Assistant Director), Irshad Ahmad Sherwani Pakistan need to emphasize more on the ICT (Editor), Fazal-e-Majid (Computer Programmer), and module of the LIS curriculum for the training of Amjad Majeed (Assistant Director), for all their help and prospective librarians. information provided. Mr. Liaqat Ali Chatta (Assistant Census Commissioner in Population Census Organization) The Virtua software should be fully explored and is appreciated for giving population statistics. Professor Doctor Khalid Mahmood of Punjab University is highly utilized. For such costly software, the integration thanked for fi nally reviewing this paper. of all library operations, automatic generation of the PNB and accessions lists, indexing, authority fi ling, OPAC, cross referencing, system-generated References CAS and SDI on the basis of already maintained 1. Population Census Organization. (n.d.). Statistics: users’ profi les, automatic reply to FAQs, virtual Demographic indicators, 1998 census. Retrieved November 20, 2007 from http://www.statpak.gov. reference service, various reports and statistics, pk/depts/pco.html management information system, and the like 2. Haider, S.J. (1995) Library planning in third world: should be minor tasks. The case of Pakistan. Pakistan Library Bulletin, XXVI(2), 1–17. 3. Haider, S.J. (1996) Libraries and library agencies in Conclusion Pakistan. Libri, 46, 159–167. 4. Qarshi, A.H. (1992) Development of curriculum at the University of the Punjab: Dickinson’s contributions National libraries are the symbols of civilized and afterwards. In Sajjad ur Rehman, Abdus Sattar nations. Indeed the National Library of Pakistan Chaudhry and Afzal Haq Qarshi (eds.). Library has added more to the glory of Pakistan. Still there education in Pakistan: Past, present and future. Lahore: PULSAA. pp.77–91. is a lot for the National Library to do. It should 5. Khurshid, A. (1992) Library education in Pakistan: be the topmost information and resource centre. Concerns, issues and practices. In Sajjad ur Rehman, It should work in collaboration with the PLA as Abdus Sattar Chaudhry and Afzal Haq Qarshi (eds.). a coordinating force for all libraries, and the Library education in Pakistan: Past, present and fountainhead of all kinds of library development future. Lahore: PULSAA. pp.14–15. 6. Ibid. pp.15–20. in the country. For this purpose, the promulgation 7. Ahmad, P. (2007) LIS education in Pakistan at of a national library law and the structuring and re- postgraduate level. Pakistan Library and Information organization of the National Library are essential. Science Journal, 38(2), 12–23. The National Library should establish branches 8. Anwar, M.A. (1993) Founding of the National Library in the four provincial headquarters as copyright of Pakistan. In Muhammad Asghar, Afzal Haq Qarshi and Syed Jamil Ahmad Rizvi (Eds.). Hallmarks of depositories for backup purposes. Finally, there is library and information services in Pakistan. Lahore: a need to inculcate a professional culture in the PULSAA. pp.263–269. National Library of Pakistan. Nonetheless, the 9. Haider, S.J. (1995) op.cit. p.2. present leadership, having visionary traits, seems 10. Haider, S.J. (1996) op.cit. p.161. 11. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) Department of Libraries. to be resourceful and enthusiastic to make the [Unpublished unit prepared in Urdu for Allama Iqbal National Library of Pakistan an example for its Open University students]. global counterparts. 12. Ibid. 97 Pervaiz Ahmad

13. Zaheer, M.A. (2002) Conference of Directors of 31. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) op.cit. National Libraries 2002: Country reports: Pakistan. 32. Zaheer, M.A. (2002) op.cit. Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://www.nla.gov. 33. Qarshi, A.H. (1993) Institutions of bibliographical au/initiatives/meetings/cdnl/ pakistan.rtf control in Pakistan [Urdu]. In Muhammad Asghar, 14. Haider, S.J. (1996) op.cit. p.162. Afzal Haq Qarshi and Syed Jamil Ahmad Rizvi (Eds.). 15. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) op.cit. Hallmarks of library and information services in 16. Anwar. M.A. (1993) op.cit. pp.263–264. Pakistan. Lahore: PULSAA. pp.171–191. 17. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) op.cit. 34. Aslam, M. (1999) Intellectual property rights: The 18. Ibid. need for respect. Pakistan and Gulf Economist, 19. Anwar. M.A. (1993) op.cit. pp.264–265. August 2–8. Retrieved November 21, 2007 from 20. Dad, H. (2005) National Library of Pakistan: A survey http://www.pakistaneconomist.com/issue1999/ of its resources. Pakistan Library and Information issue31/cover.htm Science Journal, 36(2), 3–8. 35. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) op.cit. 21. Haider, S.J. (1996) op.cit. p.163. 36. Ibid. 22. Zaheer, M.A. (2002) op.cit. 37. Ibid. 23. Mahmood, K. (1998). Information technology in 38. Ibid. libraries: A Pakistani perspective. Lahore: Pak Book 39. National Library of Pakistan. (2002) op.cit. Corporation. pp.189–190. 40. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) op.cit. 24. National Library of Pakistan. (2002). Retrieved 41. Ibid. November 19, 2007 from http://www.nlp.gov.pk 42. National Library of Pakistan. (2002) op.cit. 25. Ibid. 43. Visionary Technology in Library Solutions (VTLS). 26. Zaheer, M.A. (2002) op.cit. (2006) National Library of Pakistan chooses VIRTUA. 27. National Library of Pakistan. (2002) op.cit. Retrieved November 23, 2007 from http://www.vtls. 28. Zaheer, M.A. (2002) op.cit. com/Corporate/Releases/2006/15.shtml 29. National Library of Pakistan. (2002) op.cit. 44. Hussain, S.G. (n.d.) op.cit. 30. Pakistan, Higher Education Commission. (2006). Digital library. Retrieved November 21, 2007 from http://www.hec.gov.pk/new/eReforms/Digital_ Libraries.htm

98 How to Get Libraries on to the Political Agenda

REPORT

How to Get Libraries on to the Political Agenda. The President’s Workshop on Successful Lobbying in Durban

Bernd Schleh that these pieces of advice cannot be applied to all libraries in all countries in the same way. It makes At Congresses – national and international – word a difference whether you promote the extension has already gotten about: while participants at of a library in a highly developed industrial nation most events can sit back relax and simply listen, or in a rural community in Southern Africa, where participation is in order with the new IFLA establishing a library is competing with setting up President Claudia Lux – but still the rush is big. water supplies. Over 100 librarians and information specialists poured into Lux’s workshop in Durban. They In her introduction, Claudia Lux therefore made up an impressive list of references for outlined what matters in lobbying for libraries the lobbying of librarians and agreed on which – no matter in which situation: “It’s about pointing mistakes are to be avoided at any rate. out the value of libraries.” Those who, in addition, manage to bravely think ahead and keep in regular There are sufﬁ cient instructions on successful contact with the decision makers in the library’s lobbying, above all from the US and Scandinavia. external environment are well prepared and make During a joint brainstorming it became apparent an important contribution to put into action the current theme of the IFLA presidency ‘Libraries on the Agenda!’

The suggestions coming from the different task groups were as colourful and international as their composition. The questions that needed answering were:

• How to establish the ﬁ rst contact? • How to present one’s ideas? • Which are the corner pillars of successful lobbying? • What ought to be avoided?

A short summary of the most important suggestions:

• act convincingly, self-conﬁ dently and professionally – and passionately if it’s appropriate • show solutions instead of complaining about problems • try to convince VIPs from the public sector (politics, culture, sports) of your aims • cooperate with professional lobbyists if necessary Claudia Lux during the Workshop. • approach the media

Participants get down to work in the President’s Workshop.

• be aware of government and council programmes to take a step backwards fi rst to reach your and place your institution within goal) • establish circles of friends for libraries • include customers into your strategy (often they • be persistent and keep applying can put more pressure onto decision makers • when talking to decision makers: know what and achieve more than librarians themselves) you want to achieve and stick to the subject • during negotiations, be well prepared and • express your request in a style common in produce solid numbers and statements politics • libraries have to present themselves in public • address your dialogue partner correctly life – and this applies just as well to scientifi c • when on an engagement with decision makers: libraries have an antenna for how much talking is appropriate and take time to listen Those who take to heart these pieces of advice • call attention to your library and surprise with stand a good chance of putting their libraries’ its services and campaigns work in perspective and receiving more political • allow your library to be used in different and fi nancial support to reach their goals. Of contexts and functions: e.g. as a polling station course lobbying also offers plenty opportunities like in some Scandinavian countries to put one’s foot in it. The participants of the • emphasize the various possibilities your library international workshop spotted mainly two offers concerning integration issues danger zones. First of all: never appear pitiful! • invite decision makers into the library Second: never appear as a petitioner but always • strategically plan your lobbying at eye level! • put yourself in a politician’s position and make it clear how your library can contribute to Note achieving his or her political goals and thus Translated by Kirsten Wieczorek (Dec. 2007) help with his or her re-election • be fl exible during negotiations and also make compromises (it sometimes can be helpful

100 IFLA Policies and Plans

NEWS

From the Secretariat

into association management in and Information Science in Copen- NEWS CONTENTS the early 1990s and was appointed hagen, Denmark, and he gained From the Secretariat . . . . . 101 Executive Director of the Australian his Masters LIS qualifi cation from Membership Matters . . . . . 102 Library and Information Association University College London. His Future IFLA Conferences (ALIA) from 1999 to the end of 2005, PhD research examined freedom and Meetings ...... 102 following fi ve years as the Deputy of access to information on the IFLA Publications ...... 104 Executive Director. ALIA is the Internet worldwide, and the ways national professional body for the in which libraries can overcome library and information sector, with barriers such as censorship or the 5000 personal members and 1000 digital divide to ensure that library New Secretary General institutional members. Jennefer was users receive the best possible access instrumental in the Association’s to online information resources. He renewal and restructure process, has lectured extensively around the and in expanding ALIA’s advocacy world on his PhD subject and other and participative role in the wider intellectual freedom matters, and community. his fi ndings have been published in print and online journals. For the past year Jennefer has been working with the Australian Stuart worked for IFLA’s FAIFE Government on media and content Office in Copenhagen between policy, and a major national broad- 2001–2006 at the same time as com- band strategy. pleting his PhD. During this time he was able to build an extensive Jennefer has over ten years’ in- network of experts in intellectual volvement in IFLA. She completed freedom who were able to contribute her second term as a member of to the work of FAIFE, and he was the IFLA Management of Library also able to research and develop Associations Section at WLIC IFLA policy through involvement in Durban 2007, and has also served a areas where freedom of expression term on the Education and Training has been under pressure. He has Section. In addition, Jennefer has travelled to Cuba, Israel and the Jennefer Nicholson extensive experience as a director or Occupied Palestinian Territories and member of a number of government also to Tunisia where he assessed IFLA is pleased to announce the and industry advisory bodies in the the situation in the country in the appointment of Jennefer Nicholson cultural, education and training, as its new Secretary General, and association sectors. from September 2008. She will join IFLA’s Headquarters in The New Senior Policy Hague on 1 June 2008 as Secretary General designate and work with Adviser the outgoing Secretary General, Prof. Peter Lor, until she takes over IFLA is pleased to announce the on 6 September 2008. appointment of Stuart Hamilton as its new Senior Policy Advisor. Jennefer Nicholson has gradu- Stuart will begin work at IFLA’s ate qualifications in library and Headquarters in The Hague in information science and in public January 2008 and his appointment policy and has spent most of her will last for three years. working life in the information sector – in advertising, information Stuart Hamilton holds a PhD in brokerage, and the library and infor- Library and Information Science mation services sector. She moved from the Royal School of Library Stuart Hamilton

run up to the 2005 World Summit Stuart has a background in pub- of building a network and firm on the Information Society in Tunis. lic libraries, working at Brighton base in the library profession, and Since 2005 he has been involved in Library on the south coast of in 2003 co-founded IFLA’s New FAIFE’s outreach efforts in relation England before moving to Denmark Professionals Discussion Group to to the IFLA Internet Manifesto in 2001. In Brighton he specialized address these issues. and has organized workshops on in Internet training for the Internet freedom of access to information and studied for his LIS Masters quali- on the Internet in Europe, the ﬁ cation part-time. He has always Caribbean and South America. been interested in the difﬁ culties

Membership Matters

Parent Library Community of Ms Rosemary Ilunamhe, Nigeria New Members Serbia, Republic of Serbia Ms Vathiswa Majaja-Magwentshu, Thailand Knowledge Park, South Africa Thailand Ms Elsie Okobi, United States We bid a warm welcome to the San Francisco Public Library, Joy Sentman-Paz, United States following 22 members who have United States Paul Signorelli, United States joined the Federation between 28 Ryan Womack, United States of September and 14 of December. Personal Affi liates Student Affi liates Abile Atitihoun, Benin Institutions John Slater, Canada Ms Maria Helena de Lima Hatschbach, Ms Carly Bachman, Chile Brazil WHO Regional Offi ce for Africa, Ms Claire Palemer, China Ms Veronika Leibrecht, Germany Library, Congo Ruperto Arce, Costa Rica Ms Mara Thacker, United States Ferdowsi University, Information Ms Jane Wilson-Giron, France Ms Alice Campbell, United States Center & Central Library, Iran, Ms Binta Cadan Farouk, Nigeria Islamic Republic of

Future IFLA Conferences and Meetings

on digitization of library col- Audiovisual and Multimedia IFLA WLIC Quebec, 2008 lections Section, with the Committee on Africa Section. Globalization: Copyright and Other Legal challenges and opportunities for Matters, the National Libraries World Library and Information African libraries Section, and the Section on Congress:74th IFLA General Con- Agricultural Libraries Discussion Bibliography. The legal deposit ference and Council, Québec, Group in association with IAALD of audiovisual and multimedia Canada, 10–15 August 2008. (International Association of materials: practice around the Theme: Libraries without borders: Agricultural Information Spe- world navigating towards global under- cialists) . Agricultural information Bibliography Section. National standing. transfer systems worldwide bibliography agencies without ALP program In conjunction with borders? Experiences on collab- 74e Congrès mondial des Biblio- the Association internationale oration with other producers of thèques et de l’Information, Ville Francophone des Bibliothécaires bibliographic data de Québec, Québec, Canada, 10–14 et Documentalistes (AIFBD) Cataloguing Section. RDA: Re- août 2008. Thème: Bibliothèques first congress/À l’occasion du source Description and Access: sans frontières : naviguer vers une premier congrès de l’AIFBD. foundations, changes and imple- compréhension globale Francophonies et bibliothèques: mentation innovations, changements et Cataloguing Section. Sharing Sessions and Satellite Meetings réseautage/Association inter- standards: cooperation with nationale francophone des biblio- other actors Academic and Research Libraries thécaires et documentalistes, Division for Regional Activities. Section. Consortia and cooper- supported by the IFLA ALP Indigenous knowledge: lan- ative programmes Core Activity. Libraries and the guage, culture and information Acquisition and Collection Develop- French-speaking communities technology ment Section. In and out (of copy- of the world: innovation, change Document Delivery and Resource right): contrasting perspectives and networking Sharing Section. Global resource 102 Future IFLA Conferences and Meetings

sharing across borders: crossing Libraries for Children And Young Activity on Preservation and geographical, language and con- Adults Section. Setting sails for Conservation (PAC) and IFLA ceptual boundaries in interlibrary new horizons: what tools do we Law Libraries Section: Session 1: loan and document delivery need and do we want? Digital objects on physical car- services Library and Research Services for riers; Session 2: Preservation Education And Training Section. Parliaments Section. Legislative infrastructures LIS support staff education: libraries: partners in democracy Public Libraries Section with the library technicians & library Library Buildings and Equipment Libraries for Children and Young assistants? Section in conjunction with the Adults Section. In these days of Education And Training Section. Metropolitan Libraries Section. technology, how can public Recruiting students into LIS Renovating and renewing libraries attract and keep youth programmes: navigating towards libraries: the wow factor patrons? global understanding Library Services to Multicultural Rare Books and Manuscripts Sec- Genealogy and Local History Sec- Populations Section. Multi- tion with the Geography and Map tion with the Reference and cultural library services: success Libraries Section. Rare maps of Information Services Section. stories from Canada and around North America: their cultural Genealogy and local history the world signiﬁ cance, their research value, for all – focus on family and Library Services to Multicultural and their security local history collection and Populations Section. Library ser- Rare Books and Manuscripts reference services for multi- vices without cultural borders: Section. Expanding frontiers of cultural communities navigating through demographic knowledge: documents of explor- Geography and Map Libraries realities and best practices in ation, discovery, and travel Section. Mapping North America: multicultural library services Reading Section. Global Village: a graphic journey through history Library Theory and Research beyond bricks and bookshelves. Government Information and Section. Theoretical approaches Innovation in the development of Official Publications Section. to research on libraries as space community and school libraries Globalization of government and place Reading Section in co-operation information: creating digital Management and Marketing Sec- with the Public Libraries and archives for increased access tion; Statistics and Evaluation Multicultural Sections. The Government Libraries Section. Section; and Library Theory Global Literacy and Reading Fair: Conquering barriers : the politics and Research Section. Manag- sharing good library practices in of information: communication, ing libraries in a changing support of the United Nations collaboration, and content environment – legal, technical, Literacy Decade 2003-2012 Health and Biosciences Section. The and organizational aspects Reference and Information Services role of evidence-based research Management of Library Associ- Section. Have we have blown up in medical libraries ations Section with Continuing the reference desk? Reference Health and Biosciences Libraries Professional Development and Services in virtual worlds Section. The role of humanities Workplace Learning Section School Libraries and Resource in medical education and patient and Action for Development Centres Section. Boys and read- care through Libraries Programme. ing; Web 2.0 and maximizing the Information Literacy Section and Leadership skills and advocacy presence of the school librarians Academic and Research Libraries for libraries: best practices in and libraries; Getting school Section. Retour sur investisse- library association management libraries on the political agenda at ment: évaluer l’enseignement National Libraries Section and the regional or local level; School de la maîtrise de l’information. Statistics and Evaluation Section. librarians training: international Qu’apprennent-ils vraiment et à Ensuring quality in national issues in relation to training; quel prix ? libraries: performance measures Evidence based practice Information Technology Section. and quality evaluation supporting Science and Technology Libraries Enabling access to the global cultural heritage and research Section with the Government library – small is beautiful: Preservation and Conservation Sec- Information and Ofﬁ cial Publi- distributed deployment of library tion with the National Libraries cations Section. National science services for small and special Section and possibly the IFLA policies and science portals libraries Preservation and Conservation Science and Technology Libraries Latin American and the Caribbean Core Activity. Preserving cultural Section. Science across libraries: Section. Cultural identity and heritage: the Canadian view provision of science and tech- technology in Latin America Preservation and Conservation nology information resources and the Caribbean libraries / Section, IFLA CDNL Alliance and services in diverse settings Identidad cultural y tecnología on Bibliographic Standards Serials and Other Continuing Re- en las bibliotecas de América (ICABS), IFLA Information sources Section. Navigating the Latina y el Caribe Technology Section, IFLA Core world of serials: new initiatives in management and cataloguing 103 News

Social Science Libraries Section. Tél.: +31 70 314 0884. Fax: + 31 70 Further information: IFLA 2009 Disappearing disciplinary borders 383 4827. Courriel: ifl a@ifl a.org. Secretariat, 4B, 50 Speirs Wharf, in the social science library – Site Web: www.ifl a.org Port Dundas, Glasgow G4 9th, global studies or sea change? Scotland, UK. Tel: +44(0)141 331 Statistics and Evaluation Section. Secrétariat du Congrès IFLA/WLIC, 0123. Fax: +44(0)207 117 4561. Library statistics for the 21st- Concorde Services Ltd., 4B, 50 E-mail: [email protected] century world Speirs Wharf, Port Dundas, Glasgow, Conference website: http://www. G4 9TH, Scotland. Tel: +(44)(141) ifla.org/IV/ifla75/1st-ann2009- More information about the location 331 0123. Fax: +(44)(141) 331 0234. en.pdf and the dates for these meetings is E-mail: [email protected]. available from the conference [email protected]. Web: or website. www.concorde-uk.com Milan City National Committee, Contact Details: Comité d’organisation – Québec, IFLA 2009 Milan, Italy, Associazione WLIC 2008 Québec, Canada, Italiana Biblioteche. E-mail: ifl a2009- IFLA/WLIC Conference Secretariat, Association pour l’avancement des [email protected] Website: www.aib.it Concorde Services Ltd., 4B, 50 sciences et des techniques de la docu- Speirs Wharf, Port Dundas, Glasgow, mentation (ASTED), 3414, avenue G4 9TH, Scotland. Tel: +(44)(141) du Parc, bureau 202, Montréal, IFLA WLIC 2010 in 331 0123. Fax: +(44)(141) 331 0234. Québec, Canada, H2X 2H5. Tél. Australia E-mail: [email protected]. +1 (514) 281–5012. Fax: (514) Web: www.concorde-uk.com 281–8219. Courriel: info@asted. The Australian Library and Infor- org. Site Web: www.asted.org mation Association and the city IFLA Headquarters, PO Box of Brisbane have been selected to 95312, 2509 CH The Hague, The Further information: host the International Federation Netherlands. Phone: +31 70 314 of Library Associations and Insti- 0884. Fax: +31 70 383 4827. E-mail: English: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ tutions (IFLA) World Library and ifl a@ifl a.org. Website: www.ifl a.org ifl a74/fi nalann2008en.pdf Information Congress in 2010.

Quebec City National Committee, French: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ Further informationfrom: IFLA WLIC 2008 Québec, Canada, ifl a74/fi nalann2008fr.pdf Headquarters, PO Box 95312, 2509 Association pour l’avancement CH The Hague, The Netherlands. des sciences et des techniques IFLA WLIC 2009 in Italy Phone: +31 70 314 0884. Fax: +31 de la documentation (ASTED), 70 383 4827. IFLA Headquarters, 3414, avenue du Parc, bureau 202, PO Box 95312 ,2509 CH The Montréal, Québec, Canada, H2X The IFLA World Library and Hague, The Netherlands. Phone: 2H5. Tel: (514) 281–5012 Fax: (514) Information Congress: 75th IFLA +31 70 314 0884. Fax: +31 70 383 281–8219 get. E-mail: info@asted. General Conference and Council 4827. E-mail: ifl a@ifl a.org. Website: org Website: www.asted.org will be held from 23–27 August www.ifl a.org 2009 in Milan, Italy, on the theme:. Secrétariat de l’IFLA: Casier postal Libraries create futures: building on 95312, 2509 CH La Haye, Pays-Bas. digital heritage.

IFLA Publications

World Guide to Library, Archive are carried out at a tertiary level of rates, library and technological and Information Science Edu- education or higher. facilities, continuing education, cation. 3rd new and completely etc.; revised edition. Edited by Axel • More than 900 universities and • Along with its alphabetical index Schniederjürgen. Munich: K.G. other institutions, and more than of institutions and an index by Saur, 2007 (IFLA Publications; 1,500 relevant programmes from place names, this makes it an 128/129). ISBN 978-3-598-22035-7. all over the world; up-to-date tool, indispensable for Price: EUR 168,00 (EUR 148,00 for • Clearly laid out, entries provide networking, as well as quick and IFLA Members) address and contact details, as easy reference. well as information regarding The third edition of this guide- teaching staff and students, Published by: K.G. Saur Verlag, book lists education institutions programmes’ contents, duration PO Box 701620, 81316 Munich, world-wide where professional and level, admission and com- Germany. Tel: +49-89-76902-300. education and training programmes pletion requirements, tuition Fax: +49-89-76902-150/250). 104 IFLA Publications

E-mail: [email protected]. Website: practical recommendations on how Vol. 36, No. 4, October/December www.saur.de to provide mental stimulation with 2007. books and other library materials. Guidelines for Library Services The publication also includes sug- News and Events to Persons with Dementia. gestions for library staff on how to “Tomorrow Never Knows”: the End Helle Arendrup Mortensen and tailor such services to the target of Cataloguing? Alan Danskin Gyda Skat Nielsen. The Hague, population. The examples included UNIMARC Registry. Hugo IFLA Headquarters, 2007. 20p. are mostly taken from public li- Manguinhas, Nuno Freire, José (IFLA Professional Reports : 104) braries in Denmark. Borbinha ISBN 978-90-77897-22-5. Automated Text Classifi cation Using ISSN 0168-1931. This publication is part of a series Library Classifi cation Schemes: of guidelines publications from the Trends, Issues, and Challenges. The purpose of these guidelines IFLA Standing Committee Libraries Kwan Yi is to raise awareness in libraries, Serving Disadvantaged Persons Abbreviations and Mark Symbols among library professionals, care (LSDP) focusing on persons with Recommended by Thesaurus givers, public policy makers, as specific disabilities or special Standards and Authority Guid- well as among families and friends needs. elines: a Need for Uniform Criteria. of persons suffering from dementia, Ana M. Martínez that many types of library services Available from: IFLA Headquarters, Microfi lming and Cataloging the and materials can help stimulate the PO Box 95312, 2509 CH The Newspapers in the National Diet memory while providing pleasure Hague, Netherlands. Tel: +31 70 Library (NDL). Keiyu Horikoshi and entertainment. Experience 3140884. Fax: +31 70 3834827. E- Harmonising CIDOC CRM and shows that even persons with a mail: ifl a@ifl a.org FRBR. Patrick Le Bœuf & Martin middle-stage dementia can benefi t Doerr from reading literature and obtaining International Cataloguing and information. These guidelines give Bibliographical Control. Contents,

105 International Calendar

INTERNATIONAL CALENDAR

B, Phileo Damansara II, No. 15, Chair and Coordinator, H.R. 2008 Jalan 16/11, 46350 Petaling Arabnia, PhD, Professor, Computer Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Science, Editor-in-Chief, The Malaysia. Tel: (603) 7955 2922. Journal of Supercomputing April 21–22, 2008. Amsterdam, Fax: (603) 7955 2933. E-mail: (Springer), University of Georgia, The Netherlands. [email protected]. Website: Department of Computer Science, International Copyright Sym- http://www.wcit2008.org 415 Graduate Studies Research posium: The Book in the Internet Center, Athens, Georgia 30602- Era: Copyright and the Future May 28–30, 2008. Accra, Ghana. 7404, USA. Tel: (706) 542-3480. for Authors, Publishers and eLA 2008: 3rd International Fax: (706) 542-2966. E-mail: Libraries. Conference on ICT for Develop- [email protected] Provisional programme: www. ment, Education and Training. amsterdamworldbookcapital. Further information: http://www. August 10–15, 2008.Québec, com. elearning-africa.com/ Canada. IFLA World Library and 5–7 de mayo de 2008. Salamanca, June 2–7, 2008.Dubrovnik and Information Congress: 74th España. Mljet, Croatia. IFLA General Conference III Encuentro Ibérico de Libraries in the Digital Age and Council. Theme: Libraries Docentes e Investigadores en (LIDA) 2008. without borders: navigating Información y Documentación. Course co-directors: towards global understanding. Formación, Investigación y Tatjana Aparac-Jelusic, PhD, Contact Details Mercado Laboral en Información Department of Information IFLA/WLIC Conference y Documentación en España y Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy. Secretariat, Concorde Services Portugal. J.J. Strossmayer University, Ltd., 4B, 50 Speirs Wharf, Port Información: Correo electrónico: 31000 Osijek, Croatia. E-mail Dundas, Glasgow, G4 9TH, dirección [email protected]. [email protected] (contact for Scotland. Tel: +(44)(141) 331 http://www.edibcic.org/ general correspondence): 0123. Fax: +(44)(141) 331 0234. Tefko Saracevic, PhD, School E-mail: [email protected]. April 27–30, 2008. Wooster, OHIO, of Communication, Information Web: www.concorde-uk.com USA. and Library Studies; Rutgers IFLA Headquarters, PO Box United States Agricultural University, New Brunswick, NJ, 95312, 2509 CH The Hague, Information Network (USAIN) 08901 USA. E-mail: tefko@scils. The Netherlands .Phone: +31 70 Conference 2008. Theme: rutgers.edu 314 0884. Fax: +31 70 383 4827. Tradition in Transition: infor- E-mail: [email protected]. Website: mation fueling the future of July 2008. Lusaka, Zambia. www.iﬂ a.org agbiosciences. XVIII Standing Conference of Quebec City National Committee, More information: www.oardc. Eastern, Central and Southern WLIC 2008 Québec, Canada, ohio-state.edu/usain/ Africa Library and Information Association pour l’avancement Associations (SCECSAL). des sciences et des techniques May 14–16, 2008. Windhoek, Theme: Libraries and information de la documentation (ASTED), Namibia. services towards the attainment 3414, avenue du Parc, bureau IST-Africa 2008: Regional of the Millennium Development 202, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Impact of Information Society Goals (MDGs). H2X 2H5.Tel: (514) 281–5012 Technologies in Africa Confer- Further information: http://www. Fax: (514) 281–8219 get. E-mail: ence 2008. scecsal.org/zcall.html [email protected] Website: www. More information: www.IST- asted.org Africa.org/Conference2008. July 14–17, 2008. Las Vegas, USA. Secrétariat de l’IFLA: Casier WORLDCOMP’08: World postal 95312 , 2509 CH La Haye, May 18–22, 2008. Kuala Lumpur, Congress in Computer Science, Pays-Bas. Tél. : +31 70 314 0884. Malaysia. Computer Engineering, and Fax: + 31 70 383 4827. Courriel: World Congress on Information Applied Computing. (Composed [email protected]. Site Web: www. Technology 2008 (WCIT 2008). of 25 International Conferences on iﬂ a.org Further information: WCIT 2008 various aspects of computing.) Secrétariat du Congrès IFLA/ SDN BHD, 1106 & 1107, Block Further information: General WLIC, Concorde Services Ltd.,

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4B, 50 Speirs Wharf, Port Dundas, 2 629 2429 or +32 2 629 2609. August 23–27, 2009. Milan, Italy. Glasgow, G4 9TH, Scotland. Telex 61051 vubco-b. Classical IFLA World Library and Infor- Tel: +(44)(141) 331 0123. mail: STIMULATE-ITP (or Paul mation Congress: 75th IFLA Fax: +(44)(141) 331 0234. NIEUWENHUYSEN), University General Conference and Council. E-mail: [email protected]. Library, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Theme: Libraries create futures: [email protected]. Web: Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, building on digital heritage. www.concorde-uk.com BELGIUM. Website: http:// Further information: IFLA 2009 Comité d’organisation – Québec, www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/itp/ Secretariat, 4B, 50 Speirs Wharf, WLIC 2008 Québec, Canada, Port Dundas, Glasgow G4 9TH, Association pour l’avancement October 14–16, 2008. Beijing, Scotland, UK. Tel: +44(0)141 331 des sciences et des techniques China. 0123. Fax: +44(0)207 117 4561. de la documentation (ASTED), International Conference on E-mail: [email protected] 3414, avenue du Parc, bureau 202, the Development of Subject Conference website: http://www. Montréal, Québec, Canada, H2X Librarianship and Personal ifla.org/IV/ifla75/1st-ann2009- 2H5. Tél. +1 (514) 281–5012. Librarianship. Themes: Develop- en.pdf Fax: (514) 281–8219. Courriel: ment of subject librarianship and [email protected]. Site Web: www. personal librarianship. or asted.org Further information: Michael Further information: Bailou Huang, LAc, MAc, MLS, Milan City National Committee, English: http://www.ifl a.org/IV/ MEd, Associate Librarian, Stony IFLA 2009 Milan, Italy, Asso- ifl a74/fi nalann2008en.pdf Brook University, Health Sciences ciazione Italiana Biblioteche. French: http://www.ifl a.org/IV/ Library, HSC Level 3, Rm 136, E-mail: [email protected] ifl a74/fi nalann2008fr.pdf Stony Brook, NY 11794-8034, Website: www.aib.it USA. Tel.: +1 631-444-3794, August 24–27, 2008. Tokyo, Japan. Cell: +1 631-786-7023, Fax: +1 World Conference on Agricul- 631-444-6649. E-mail: michael. 2010 tural Information 2008. Theme: [email protected] The agricultural information community of the future: progress, August, 2010. Brisbane, Australia. development, partnerships. 2009 More details on the programme IFLA World Library and and logistics will follow: http:// Information Congress: 76th iaald.blogspot.com/2007/05/ IFLA General Conference and iaald-world-congress-2008.html January 20–22, 2009. Sydney Council. Australia. Information regarding the 76th October 1–December 19, 2008. Information Online 2009. IFLA General Conference and Brussels, Belgium. Further information: Conference Council will be available on the STIMULATE: Scientific and website: www.information-online. IFLANET website at a later date: Technological Information com.au http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla76/ Management in Universities index.htm and Libraries: an Active Training July 27–31, 2009. Florianópolis, Further information: IFLA Environment. (Edition 8). SC, Brazil. Headquarters, PO Box 95312, Further information: E-mail WCCE 2009: 9th IFIP World 2509 CH The Hague, The (Internet): [email protected] Conference on Computers in Netherlands. Phone: +31 70 or Paul.Nieuwenhuysen@vub. Education. 314 0884. Fax: +31 70 383 4827. ac.be Fax: +32 2 629 2693 (or Further information: E-mail: E-mail: ifl a@ifl a.org. 2282). Tel. +32 2 629 2629 or +32 [email protected]

107 Sommaires

SOMMAIRES

G.E. Gorman, Daniel G. Dorner Groups in China: a broad library internationale et à l’augmentation and Birgitta Sandell. Facilitating with social inclusion. [Aider les des transactions fi nancières. L’article Grassroots Development: the role groupes vulnérables en Chine: donne des informations sur le of ALP in Division VIII countries. une vaste bibliothèque à caractère contenu en anglais des principaux [Aider au développement à la social.] sites gouvernementaux iraniens, base: le rôle de l’ALP dans les pays IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, identifie certains des obstacles de la Division VIII.] pp. 13–19 empêchant d’accéder de façon IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, effi cace à ce contenu et invoque le pp. 7–12 Dans la Chine en plein développe- besoin d’améliorer la conception des ment, certains groupes d’individus sites iraniens afi n que le gouverne- Décrit les origines et l’évolution sont confrontés à l’exclusion ment iranien puisse pleinement de l’Action pour le Développement sociale. Il s’agit de chômeurs ou de atteindre ses objectifs. à travers le Programme des bib- personnes malades, de travailleurs liothèques (Advancement of peu qualifiés, d’adolescents en Luiza Baptista Melo, Cesaltina Pires Development through Libraries prison, de personnes victimes d’un and Ana Taveira. Recognizing Best ou ALP), lancé en 1984 comme désastre et de paysans de régions Practice in Portuguese Higher programme prioritaire de la isolées. Les services bibliothécaires Education Libraries. [Identifier Fédération internationale des sont cruciaux pour ces groupes vul- les pratiques d’excellence au sein associations et institutions bib- nérables, comprenant chômeurs des bibliothèques universitaires liothécaires (IFLA) et financé ou personnes malades, travailleurs portugaises.] principalement à partir de sources peu qualifi és, adolescents en prison, IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, provenant des pays nordiques. personnes victimes d’un désastre pp. 34–54 Évoque la philosophie de l’ALP basée et paysans de régions isolées. La sur la foi dans le développement à bibliothèque Sun Yat-sen s’est Cet article s’attache à identifier la base et son cadre populaire, employée à leur fournir des ser- les pratiques d’excellence afin exprimée dans les termes de son vices en créant 56 antennes biblio- d’améliorer la qualité des services Plan stratégique. Depuis 1991, thécaires dans tout le pays. L’article dans les bibliothèques universitaires 181 projets, y compris formations donne des exemples de services portugaises. Il décrit un projet en continues, formation aux TIC et à novateurs mis à la disposition de cours pour évaluer les performances la culture de l’information ainsi que certaines communautés: familles des services bibliothécaires résult- bourses de voyage, ont été menés à ayant des difficultés financières, ant d’un partenariat entre six biblio- bien moyennant un coût total de prisonniers – en particulier jeunes thèques universitaires portugaises. plus de 3 millions US$. Les projets et personnes étudiant en prison – L’étude comprend trois niveaux prin- sont initiés depuis les régions en bibliothèque dévastée par une cipaux: (1) la sélection des critères voie de développement et menés inondation et deux communautés devant être évalués et la sélection à bien par des professionnels dans montagnardes isolées au Tibet. des indicateurs de performance qui ces régions. Ces activités viennent leur correspondent; (2) le rassem- étayer les trois piliers fondateurs Nancy Beygijanian and Dr. John V. blement et l’analyse des données; de l’IFLA: profession, société et Richardson Jr. E-Government in the (3) l’identification des pratiques appartenance. L’article identifie Islamic Republic of Iran: reaching d’excellence. La sélection des critères ce qui caractérise un bon projet out to the world? [Gouvernement devant être évalués est basée sur un et décrit brièvement quelques en ligne dans la République modèle mixte combinant Cadre exemples de projets de qualité avec Islamique d’Iran: une ouverture d’autoévaluation des fonctions des ateliers de formation sur la sur le monde?] publiques (Common Assessment conservation des collections photo- Framework ou CAF) et tableau graphiques africaines, la gestion IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, de bord prospectif (Balanced des bibliothèques numériques pp. 20–33 Scorecard). Les indicateurs associés et la culture de l’information. Il de performance sont conformes conclut en disant que l’ALP est Cet article a pour objet de révéler la aux normes internationales ISO essentielle pour le développement nature et l’étendue des sites Web 11620:1998 et ISO 2789:2006. des bibliothèques et la présence offi ciels en anglais de la République de l’IFLA dans les pays en voie Islamique d’Iran et les facteurs ayant Helen Partridge, Sylvia Edwards, de développement, mais qu’il faut motivé cette pratique. Ces sites en Andrew Baker and Lynn McAllister. élargir la base de soutien fi nancier. anglais relativement nombreux The Refl ective Online Searching semblent devoir leur création à la Skills (ROSS) Environment: Li Zhaochun and Huang Qunqing. promotion du tourisme, au désir embedding information literacy into Reaching Out to Vulnerable d’une coopération scientifique student learning through an online

Copyright © 2007 International Federation of Library Associations & IFLA Institutions (www.ifl a.org). IFLA Journal 34(1): 108–116. 108 ISSN: 0340-0352. DOI: 10.1177/0340035208088582 Sommaires environment. [L’environnement faire face à l’augmentation explosive L’objectif de cet article est de faire sur les aptitudes réflexives de des informations et pour faire prendre conscience à la communauté recherche en ligne (ROSS): inclure gagner du temps aux utilisateurs de l’IFLA de la situation des aveugles la culture de l’information dans en vue de tâches intellectuelles plus en Afrique. L’Afrique compte près l’apprentissage étudiant grâce à un productives. La personnalisation de 7 millions d’aveugles. Dans la environnement en ligne.] nécessite un contenu électronique plupart des pays africains, moins IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, suffi sant sur le site concerné ainsi de 10% des enfants aveugles sont pp. 55–71 que des mécanismes adaptés pour scolarisés. Cet article se fonde sur identifi er l’utilisateur grâce à son des informations rassemblées par L’environnement sur les aptitudes profi l, rechercher de façon sélective des délégués africains au séminaire réflexives de recherche en ligne le contenu correspondant au profi l de la section des bibliothèques pour (Refl ective Online Searching Skills de l’utilisateur et l’agencer afi n de le aveugles de l’IFLA à Grahamstown ou ROSS) est un outil d’apprentissage présenter à son utilisateur de façon en Afrique du Sud en août 2007. en ligne qui encourage le dével- attractive. Les différents composants Aucune information n’était dis- oppement des aptitudes et des d’un système de personnalisation du ponible à propos des pays franco- connaissances des étudiants en contenu comprennent: ‘Système de phones ou lusophones d’Afrique matière de recherche en ligne. Il a été gestion du contenu’ pour héberger le subsaharienne. L’article évoque conçu avec le soutien de la Faculté contenu électronique au-delà d’une brièvement la situation des services des Technologies de l’Information masse critique, ‘Système de gestion bibliothécaires pour les aveugles et les services de pédagogie et des intérêts de l’utilisateur’ pour en Afrique du Sud, au Kenya, en d’apprentissage de l’Université gérer les profils dynamiques des Zambie, au Zimbabwe, au Nigeria, de Technologie de Queensland utilisateurs, ‘Moteur de recherche’ en Sierra Leone, au Liberia et en (QUT). En 2007, ROSS a été mis pour faire automatiquement Gambie, et poursuit en parlant au point pour être utilisé au cours coïncider le contenu avec les profi ls, des problèmes d’alphabétisation et de la première année d’études dans et des mécanismes de ‘Fourniture de d’éducation, de la rareté des services, d’autres facultés au sein de QUT. Cet contenu personnalisé’ pour fournir des critères et des attentes ainsi article donne une démonstration des résultats adaptés à l’utilisateur. que de la fracture technologique. de l’environnement ROSS et de Les progrès technologiques faits L’auteur constate en conclusion que la façon dont il a été inclus dans par l’informatique sur le Web ce que nous faisons dans le domaine le programme d’enseignement de associés au fait que les utilisateurs de l’éducation et ce que nous faisons deux disciplines très différentes: sont constamment intéressés par en matière d’éducation dans chaque Technologies de l’information et la possibilité de rassembler les pays en particulier peut modifi er les Science. De nombreux outils en ressources d’information disponibles perspectives d’avenir des aveugles. ligne de culture de l’information sur le Web ont mené de nombreux sont statiques, modulaires, linéaires portails populaires à introduire Pervaiz Ahmad. The National et très fortement basés sur des le concept de personnalisation Library of Pakistan: an overview. textes, et ils ne sont pas parvenus du contenu adapté aux intérêts [La Bibliothèque Nationale du à intégrer une approche interactive variés des utilisateurs. Quelques Pakistan: une vue d’ensemble.] du processus d’apprentissage. initiatives de ce type sont expliquées. IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Cet article démontre que ROSS Des projets de personnalisation pp. 90–98 repousse les limites des programmes bibliothécaire dans différentes en ligne de culture de l’information bibliothèques universitaires de Retrace l’historique et le développe- en guidant les étudiants afi n qu’ils pays développés sont évoqués, ment de la Bibliothèque Nationale puissent connaître, réfl échir sur et notamment MyLibrary. Afin du Pakistan. Fondée en 1949, elle pratiquer les concepts de culture de d’explorer l’effi cacité des systèmes de a fusionné avec la Bibliothèque du l’information en utilisant des études personnalisation bibliothécaire dans Mémorial Liaquat en 1954 pour s’en de cas ou l’apprentissage fondé sur un pays en voie de développement, séparer en 1968. La bibliothèque des problèmes. le prototype de personnalisation SAI s’est installée dans son propre mis au point dans la Bibliothèque bâtiment à Islamabad en 1988 et V.K.J. Jeevan. Library Personal- centrale de l’Institut indien de a été ouverte au public en 1993. ization Systems: an Indian technologie de Kharagpur est décrit La Bibliothèque est administrée experience. [Systèmes de person- en détails. par le département bibliothécaire nalisation bibliothécaire: une de la direction des bibliothèques expérience indienne.] William Rowland. Library Ser- et des archives du Ministère de IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, pp. vices for Blind People: an African l’Éducation. La fonction première 72–83 perspective. [Services biblio- de la Bibliothèque Nationale du thécaires pour aveugles: une Pakistan est de recevoir, conserver La personnalisation des ressources perspective africaine.] et entretenir l’héritage littéraire du bibliothécaires est envisagée IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, pays faisant l’objet de copyright. La comme une alternative viable pour pp. 84–94 bibliographie nationale pakistanaise 109 Zusammenfassungen

annuelle est basée sur le dépôt légal, ne sont pas encore couvertes par journaliers est très peu élevé et les principalement de livres. La Biblio- la législation sur le copyright. La services aux utilisateurs très limités. thèque Nationale reçoit environ bibliothèque attribue des ISBN à Le développement du personnel et 66% des publications périodiques et près de la moitié de tous les livres des services nécessite une attention 50 à 55% des livres publiés dans le publiés. Le nombre d’adhérents immédiate. pays. Les publications électroniques à la bibliothèque et de lecteurs

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN

G.E. Gorman, Daniel G. Dorner Beispiele für gute Schulungs- 56 Zweigstellen geschaffen. and Birgitta Sandell. Facilitating Workshopprojekte zum Erhalt der Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit Grassroots Development: the role afrikanischen Fotosammlungen den innovativen Dienstleistungen, of ALP in Division VIII countries. (Preservation of African Photo- die für Bürger einer speziellen [Förderung einer grundlegenden graphic Collections), zur Verwaltung Gemeinschaft geboten werden, Entwicklung: die Rolle des ALP- digitaler Bibliotheken (Managing für Familien, die in finanzielle Programms in den Ländern der Digital Libraries) und zur Infor- Schwierigkeiten geraten sind, für Division VIII.] mationskompetenz (Information Gefängnisinsassen – insbesondere IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Literacy). Die Schlussfolgerung Jugendliche und Studenten. pp. 7–12 läuft darauf hinaus, dass das Unterstützung erhielten ebenfalls ALP-Programm eine erhebliche eine Bibliothek, die durch eine Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der Flutkatastrophe zerstört wurde, Ursprünge und die Entwicklung Bibliotheken und die öffentliche sowie zwei weit entlegene Bergdörfer des ALP-Programms (Advancement Präsenz der IFLA in den Entwick- in Tibet. of Development through Libraries). lungsländern hat, dass jedoch die Dieses begann im Jahr 1984 als ein Basis für die ﬁ nanzielle Unterstützung Nancy Beygijanian and Dr. John V. Kernprogramm der International breiter werden muss. Richardson Jr. E-Government in the Federation of Library Associations Islamic Republic of Iran: reaching und Institutions (IFLA); ﬁ nanzielle Li Zhaochun and Huang Qunqing. out to the world. [E-Government Unterstützung wurde in erster Reaching Out to Vulnerable in der Islamischen Republik Iran: Linie aus Quellen in den nordischen Groups in China: a broad library Kontakt zur Welt.] Ländern bezogen. Die Autoren with social inclusion. [Kontakt zu IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, skizzieren die Philosophie des gefährdeten Gruppen in China: pp. 20–33 ALP-Programms, die sich auf den eine breit angelegte Bibliothek mit festen Glauben an die grundlegende sozialer Integration.] Dieser Artikel beschreibt die Art Entwicklung des Menschen stützt, IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, und den Umfang der offiziellen und das entsprechende grundle- pp. 13–19 englischsprachigen Websites gende Rahmenwerk, das seinen der islamischen Republik Iran konkreten Ausdruck im strategischen In China als Entwicklungsland sind und legt auch die Faktoren dar, Plan gefunden hat. Seit 1991 ganze Gruppen von Menschen von die diesen zugrunde liegen. Die wurden insgesamt 181 Projekte sozialer Ausgrenzung betroffen. wesentlichen Gründe für die relativ realisiert, einschließlich Inservice- Dabei handelt es sich um arbeitslose große Zahl an englischsprachigen Schulungen, ICT-Schulungen sowie oder kranke Mitmenschen, schlecht Sites sind augenscheinlich in Kurse zur Informationskompetenz; ausgebildete Arbeiter, Teenager im der Tourismuswerbung, einem zudem wurden auch Reisezuschüsse Gefängnis, Katastrophenopfer und Verlangen nach internationaler gewährt. Die entsprechenden Kosten Kleinbauern in weit entlegenen wissenschaftlicher Zusammen- belaufen sich auf über 3 Millionen Gebieten. Der Bibliotheksservice arbeit sowie verstärkten Finanz- US-Dollar. Initiiert werden die ist für diese gefährdeten Gruppen beziehungen zu suchen. Der Beitrag Projekte aus den entsprechenden entscheidend; dazu zählen arbeits- enthält Informationen über den Entwicklungsregionen heraus und lose oder kranke Mitmenschen, englischsprachigen Inhalt der werden dann von Fachkräften in den schlecht ausgebildete Arbeiter, führenden Websites der Regierung fraglichen Regionen durchgeführt. Teenager im Gefängnis, Opfer von im Iran, er identifiziert einige Diese Tätigkeiten stützen die drei Naturkatastrophen und Kleinbauern Hindernisse, die den effektiven Pfeiler der IFLA, den Berufsstand, die in weit entlegenen Gebieten. Die Sun Zugriff auf diese Inhalte erschweren Gesellschaft und die Mitgliedschaft. Yat-sen – Bibliothek hat sich aktiv und plädiert für die Verbesserung Die Autoren identifizieren die darum bemüht, diesen gefährdeten des Website-Designs, so dass die Eigenschaften eines guten Projekts Gruppen einen Service zu bieten Regierung im Iran ihre Ziele im vollen und beschreiben kurz einige und hat landesweit insgesamt Umfang verwirklichen kann.

110 Zusammenfassungen

Luiza Baptista Melo, Cesaltina Pires Technology (der Fakultät für Infor- Darstellung zu präsentieren. Die and Ana Taveira. Recognizing Best mationstechnologie) und den einzelnen Komponenten eines Practice in Portuguese Higher Teaching und Learning Support inhaltlichen Individualisierungs Education Libraries. [Die beste Services (Support-Services für Lehre systems beinhalten ein “Content Strategie für portugiesische und Lernen) an der Queensland Serving System” für das Hosting Hochschulbibliotheken.] University of Technology (QUT). elektronischer Inhalte, die über IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Im Jahr 2007 wird ROSS zur eine gewisse kritische Masse pp. 34–54 Verwendung für Studienanfänger hinausgehen, ein “User Interest entwickelt, die ihr erstes Jahr an Management System” zur Ver- Dieser Beitrag möchte das beste anderen Fakultäten der QUT waltung dynamischer Benutzer- Verfahren zur Verbesserung der ableisten. Der vorliegende Beitrag profile, eine “Search Engine” Qualität der Dienstleistungen an bietet eine Einführung in die ROSS- (Suchmaschine) zur automatischen den Unibibliotheken in Portugal Umgebung und zeigt auf, wie diese Zuordnung der Inhalte zu den identifi zieren. Der Artikel beschreibt in das Curriculum zwei völlig einzelnen Profi len sowie “Person- ein laufendes Projekt zur Messung unterschiedlicher Fachbereiche alized Content Delivery” – der Leistung des Bibliotheks-Service, – IT und Wissenschaft – eingebettet Mechanismen zur Übermittlung der sich aus der Partnerschaft von worden ist. Viele Online-Tools der zugeordneten Ergebnisse sechs Hochschulbibliotheken in zur Informationskompetenz sind an die einzelnen Benutzer. Die Portugal ergibt. Die Studie ist in drei statisch, modular, linear und stark technologischen Fortschritte des Schritte zu unterteilen: (1) Auswahl textbezogen und haben bisher keine Web Enabled Computing (des der auszuwertenden Kriterien und interaktive Lernmethode bieten webgestützten Computing) in Komb- Selektion der entsprechenden können. Der vorliegende Artikel ination mit dem benutzerseitigen Leistungskennzahlen; (2) Datener- zeigt, dass ROSS die Grenzen Interesse an der Sammlung der fassung und Analyse; (3) Festlegung der Online-Programme zur Infor- auf dem Web verfügbaren Infor- der besten Verfahren. Die Auswahl mationskompetenz verschiebt, mationsquellen haben dazu der zu evaluierenden Kriterien indem die Lernenden anhand geführt, dass viele populäre Portale basiert auf einem gemischten entsprechender Fallstudien oder das Konzept der inhaltlichen Modell, einer Kombination aus dem mithilfe des problembasierten Individualisierung eingeführt haben, Bewertungssystem des „Common Lernens (Problem-based Learning) um den spezifi schen Interessen der Assessment Framework” und der an die Kenntnis, Reflexion und einzelnen Benutzer gerecht zu “balanced Scorecard” (der ausge- Praktizierung der Konzepte werden. Einige dieser Initiativen wogenen Wertungsliste). Die damit zur Informationskompetenz werden hier erläutert. Zur Sprache verbundenen Leistungskennzahlen herangeführt werden. kommen in diesem Zusammenhang entsprechen den internationalen Individualisierungsprojekte für ISO 11620:1998 und ISO 2789:2006 V.K.J. Jeevan. Library Person- Bibliotheken, wie beispielsweise – Normen. alization Systems: an Indian MyLibrary, was in einer Reihe von experience. [Individualisieru Unibibliotheken in den Indus- Helen Partridge, Sylvia Edwards, ngssysteme für Bibliotheken: trienationen verfügbar ist. Um die Andrew Baker and Lynn McAllister. Erfahrungen aus Indien.] Zugkraft der Individualisierungss The Refl ective Online Searching IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, ysteme für Bibliotheken in einem Skills (ROSS) Environment: pp. 72–83 Entwicklungsland zu überprüfen, embedding information literacy wird in diesem Zusammenhang der into student learning through Die Individualisierung der Biblio- in der Zentralbibliothek (Central an online environment. [Die theksressourcen wird als eine pra- Library) des Indian Institute of Refl ective Online Searching Skills ktikable Alternative zum Umgang Technology (der technischen – Umgebung (ROSS): Einbettung mit der Informationsexplosion Hochschule Indiens) in Kharagpur der Informationskompetenz in dargestellt und soll den Benutzern entwickelte Individualisierungsp den Lernvorgang der Studenten Zeit sparen helfen, um sich produkt- rototyp SAI in allen Einzelheiten in einer Online-Umgebung.] iveren intellektuellen Aufgaben beschrieben. IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, widmen zu können. Zur Individu- pp. 55–71 alisierung werden hinreichende Willaim Rowland. Library Services elektronische Inhalte auf der for Blind People: an African Die Reflective Online Searching eigenen Site sowie geeignete Mech- perspective. [Bibliotheks-Service Skills (ROSS) – Umgebung ist anismen zur Identifizierung des für Blinde: eine afrikanische ein E-Learning-Tool, das die Benutzers anhand seines oder ihres Perspektive.] Entwicklung der studentischen Profils benötigt. Zudem muss es IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Fähigkeiten und Kenntnisse im möglich sein, die zum jeweiligen pp. 84–89 Hinblick auf die Online-Suche Benutzerprofi l passenden Inhalte fördert. Entwickelt wurde sie selektiv zu suchen, anzuordnen und Mit diesem Artikel möchte der mithilfe der Faculty of Information dem Benutzer in einer attraktiven Autor die IFLA-Gemeinschaft 111 Resúmenes

auf die Situation der Blinden in Sprache. Der Autor gelangt zu der Direktion für Bibliotheken und Afrika hinweisen. In Afrika gibt Schlussfolgerung, dass die Zukunft Archive im Bildungsministerium. es fast 7 Millionen Blinde; in den der Blinden im Wesentlichen davon Die wichtigste Aufgabe der meisten afrikanischen Ländern abhängt, was wir in Bezug auf das Nationalbibliothek von Pakistan gehen noch nicht einmal 10 Prozent Bildungswesen tun und in welcher besteht darin, das literarische Erbe aller blinden Kinder überhaupt zur Weise wir uns um den Unterricht in des Landes unter Beachtung der Schule. Dieser Beitrag stützt sich auf den einzelnen Ländern kümmern. Urheberrechte zu sammeln, zu Informationen von afrikanischen bewahren und zu erhalten. Die Delegierten, die diese anlässlich Pervaiz Ahmad. The National jährlich herausgegebene Pakistan der IFLA Libraries for the Blind Library of Pakistan: an overview. National Bibliography basiert auf Section Conference (der Konferenz [Die Nationalbibliothek von Urheberrechtsbelegen, in erster der IFLA-Sektion “Bibliotheken Pakistan: ein Überblick.] Linie im Zusammenhang mit für Blinde”) in Grahamstown IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Büchern. Die Nationalbibliothek in Südafrika im August 2007 pp. 90–98 erhält etwa 66 Prozent aller Serien- mitgeteilt haben. Leider waren publikationen und 50 bis 55 jedoch keine Informationen über In diesem Beitrag geht es um die Prozent aller Bücher, die landesweit die frankophonen beziehungsweise Geschichte und Entwicklung der veröffentlicht werden. Elektronische lusophonen Länder im Sub-Sahara- Nationalbibliothek von Pakistan, Publikationen unterliegen bisher Afrika verfügbar. Der Beitrag geht die im Jahr 1949 gegründet wurde, noch keinen Urheberrechtsgesetzen. kurz auf Bibliotheks-Services sich im Jahr 1954 mit der Liaquat Die Bibliothek versieht fast die für Blinde in Südafrika, Kenia, Memorial Library zusammen- Hälfte aller veröffentlichten Bücher Sambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, geschlossen hat und ab 1968 wieder mit ISBN-Nummern. Die Biblioth Sierra Leone und Liberia sowie eigene Wege gegangen ist. Im eksmitgliedschaft und die tägliche Gambia ein; danach kommen Jahr 1988 hat die Bibliothek ihr Leserschaft sind sehr gering und Themen im Zusammenhang mit eigenes Gebäude in Islamabad den Benutzern wird nur sehr wenig der Alphabetisierung und Bildung, bezogen und ihre Tore im Jahr Service geboten. Bezüglich der der Knappheit der Services, den 1993 der Öffentlichkeit geöffnet. Entwicklung der Mitarbeiter und Standards und Erwartungen sowie Verwaltet wird die Bibliothek der Services herrscht ein dringender mit der technologischen Kluft zur von der Bibliotheksabteilung der Bedarf.

RESÚMENES

G.E. Gorman, Daniel G. Dorner expresados en términos de su Plan IFLA en los países en desarrollo, y Birgitta Sandell. Facilitating Estratégico. Desde 1991 se han pero que es necesario ampliar el Grassroots Development: the role llevado a cabo 181 proyectos, apoyo fi nanciero. of ALP in Division VIII countries. incluidos cursos de formación [Ayudar a sentar las bases: la continua, formación en informática Li Zhaochun y Huang Qunqing. función que desempeña ALP en y sistemas de información, siendo Reaching Out to Vulnerable los países de la División VIII.] el coste total de estas iniciativas Groups in China: a broad library IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, superior a los 3 millones de USD. with social inclusión. [Llegar hasta pp. 7–12 Los proyectos se inician en las re- los grupos de población vulnerables giones en desarrollo y su gestión en China: una biblioteca amplia Describe los orígenes y la evolución corre a cargo de los profesionales de que contemple la integración del programa Advancement of dichos territorios. Estas actividades social.] Development through Libraries sostienen los tres pilares de IFLA: IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, (Adelanto del desarrollo mediante la profesión, la sociedad y los pp. 13–19 las bibliotecas) o ALP, que se miembros. Identifi ca las caracter- lanzó como una iniciativa básica ísticas que debe tener un buen En la China en desarrollo existen de la Federación Internacional de proyecto y describe brevemente grupos de personas que se en- Asociaciones e Instituciones ejemplos de proyectos para talleres frentan a la exclusión social. Son Bibliotecarias (IFLA) en 1984, y de formación efectivos sobre la ciudadanos desempleados o en- cuya fi nanciación se realiza prin- conservación de las colecciones fermos, trabajadores con escasa cipalmente con recursos de los fotográfi cas de África, gestión de cualificación, adolescentes en países nórdicos. Defi ne la fi losofía bibliotecas digitales y alfabetización prisiones, residentes víctimas de de ALP, que se fundamenta en la informática. Concluye que ALP es desastres y campesinos en zonas confi anza en el establecimiento de muy importante para la mejora de rurales remotas. El servicio de bib- las bases, y en sus principios básicos las bibliotecas y la visibilidad de liotecas es fundamental para estos

112 Resúmenes grupos vulnerables, incluidas todas El propósito de este documento ROSS y cómo se ha integrado en las personas pertenecientes a los es identificar mejores prácticas el currículum de dos disciplinas grupos antes citados. La biblioteca para mejorar la calidad de los antagónicas: las tecnologías de Sun Yat-sen ha desarrollado una servicios que se prestan en las bib- la información y la ciencia. Muchas labor activa prestando servicios liotecas académicas portuguesas. de las herramientas de alfabetización a estos grupos vulnerables con la Este artículo describe un proyecto informática son estáticas, modulares, creación de 56 bibliotecas sucursales continuo para evaluar los resultados lineales y muy basadas en textos, y en todo el país. Este documento de los servicios bibliotecarios y es han fracasado a la hora de incorporar describe los servicios innovadores resultado de una alianza de seis un enfoque interactivo en el proceso que se prestan a los residentes de una bibliotecas portuguesas de edu- de aprendizaje. Este documento comunidad especial formada por cación superior. El estudio consta demostrará que ROSS va más allá familias con difi cultades fi nancieras, de tres fases principales: (1) selec- de las fronteras de los programas a las personas presas –especialmente ción de los criterios que deben de alfabetización informática de la jóvenes y estudiantes–, a una biblio- evaluarse y de sus correspondientes red al orientar a los estudiantes a teca devastada por una inundación indicadores de resultados; (2) re- conocer, refl exionar y practicar los y a dos comunidades ubicadas en copilación y análisis de los datos; conceptos de alfabetización infor- montañas remotas del Tibet. (3) identifi cación de las mejores mática mediante el uso de casos prácticas. La selección de los prácticos o el aprendizaje basado en Nancy Beygijanian y Dr. John V. criterios que deben evaluarse se basa la resolución de problemas. Richardson Jr. E-Government en un modelo mixto que combina in the Islamic Republic of Iran: el marco común de evaluación V.K.J. Jeevan. Library Person- reaching out to the World. y el cuadro de mando integral. alization Systems: an Indian experi- [Administración electrónica en la Los indicadores de rendimiento ence. [Sistemas de personalización República Islámica de Irán: ¿una asociados se establecen conforme de bibliotecas: una experiencia en puerta al mundo exterior.] a las normas internacionales ISO la India.] IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, 11620:1998 e ISO 2789:2006. IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, pp. 20–33 pp. 72–83 Helen Partridge, Sylvia Edwards, El propósito de este artículo es Andrew Baker y Lynn McAllister. La personalización de los recursos revelar la naturaleza y el alcance The Refl ective Online Searching de bibliotecas se proyecta como una de los sitio Web ofi ciales en inglés Skills (ROSS) Environment: alternativa viable para resolver los de la República Islámica de Irán, así embedding information literacy problemas de la proliferación de como los factores que motivan esta into student learning through an datos y permitir que los usuarios práctica. Los motivos principales de online environment. [El entorno dispongan de más tiempo para que exista un número relativamente para la adquisición de habilidades realizar tareas intelectuales más elevado de sitios Web en inglés son de búsqueda en la red (ROSS): inte- atractivas. Para llevar a cabo la promoción del turismo, el deseo grar la alfabetización informática la personalización es necesario de establecer una cooperación en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes disponer de contenido electrónico científi ca internacional y el aumento mediante un entorno en línea.] sufi ciente en los centros, así como de las operaciones fi nancieras. El IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, mecanismos adecuados para iden- documento proporciona informa- pp. 55–71 tificar al usuario a través de su ción sobre el contenido en inglés perfi l, buscar de manera selectiva el de las principales páginas Web del El entorno para la adquisición de contenido que se corresponda a dicho gobierno iraní, identifi ca algunos habilidades de búsqueda en la red perfi l, y organizarlo y presentarlo de los obstáculos para acceder (ROSS) es una herramienta de e- al usuario de manera atractiva. correctamente a este contenido learning cuyo objetivo es mejorar Un sistema de personalización y sugiere mejoras en el diseño de las habilidades y los conocimientos de contenidos se compone de: un dichos sitios para que el gobierno de los estudiantes para realizar sistema que facilite contenidos para iraní pueda alcanzar plenamente búsquedas en línea. Fue desarrollada albergar información electrónica sus objetivos. con la ayuda de la facultad de más allá de una masa crítica; un Tecnologías de la Información y sistema de gestión de intereses para Luiza Baptista Melo, Cesaltina Pires los servicios de Formación y administrar los perfi les dinámicos de y Ana Taveira. Recognizing Best Aprendizaje de la Universidad de los usuarios; un motor de búsqueda Practice in Portuguese Higher Tecnología de Queensland (QUT). para establecer correspondencias Education Libraries. [Recon- A lo largo de 2007, ROSS se ha ido automáticas entre el contenido y ocimiento de las mejores prácticas desarrollando para utilizarse en los perfi les y mecanismos person- en las bibliotecas portuguesas de el currículum del primer año de alizados de entrega de contenidos educación superior.] otras facultades pertenecientes para facilitar los resultados coin- IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, a QUT. Este documento ofrece cidentes con los perfi les de usuario. pp. 34–54 una demostración del entorno de Los avances tecnológicos gracias a 113 Pефераты статей

la informática habilitada por la red, ciegas y, en la mayoría de los países, que se fundó en 1949, se fusionó junto con el continuo interés de los la tasa de escolarización de los con la biblioteca histórica Liaquart usuarios de recopilar recursos de niños invidentes es inferior al 10%. en 1954 y se volvió a separar en información disponibles en la Web, Este documento se basa en la infor- 1968. La biblioteca se trasladó a pueden conducir a que muchos mación que han recopilado los dele- su propio ediﬁ cio en Islamabad en portales populares incorporen el gados africanos en la sección de 1988 y abrió al público en 1993. concepto de personalización de Bibliotecas de IFLA para invidentes La administración del centro corre contenidos conforme a los distintos de la conferencia celebrada en a cargo del Departamento de Biblio- intereses de los usuarios. En el docu- Grahamstown, Sudáfrica, en agosto tecas del Consejo de Bibliotecas y mento se explican algunas de estas de 2007. No se dispone de infor- Archivos del Ministerio de Edu- iniciativas. También se exponen mación sobre los países francófonos cación. La principal función de la proyectos de personalización, como o lusófonos del África Subsahariana. Biblioteca Nacional de Pakistán MyLibrary, en distintas bibliotecas El documento resume brevemente es recibir, preservar y mantener el universitarias de países avanzados. la situación de los servicios biblio- patrimonio literario del país mediante Asimismo, el prototipo de personal- tecarios para los invidentes en la protección de los derechos de ización SAI desarrollado en la Sudáfrica, Kenia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, autor. La bibliografía anual de la Biblioteca Central del Instituto Nigeria, Sierra Leona, Liberia y Biblioteca Nacional de Pakistán se Indio de Tecnología, en Kharagpur, Gambia, y expone los problemas compone de reseñas protegidas por se describe en detalle para explorar de alfabetización y educación, derechos de propiedad intelectual, la eficiencia de los sistemas de escasez de servicios, calidad y principalmente libros. La Biblioteca personalización de bibliotecas en expectativas, así como la brecha Nacional recibe alrededor del 66% un país en desarrollo. tecnológica. El autor concluye que de las publicaciones periódicas y lo que hagamos en el área de la del 50 al 55% de los libros pub- William Rowland. Library Services educación y cómo abordemos esta licados en el país. Las publicaciones for Blind People: an African per- cuestión en cada uno de los países electrónicas aún no están protegidas spective. [Servicios bibliotecarios cambiará las perspectivas de futuro por las leyes de propiedad intelec- para personas invidentes: una de las personas invidentes. tual. La biblioteca asigna ISBN perspectiva africana.] a cerca de la mitad de los libros IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Pervaiz Ahmad. The National publicados. El número de socios pp. 84–89 Library of Pakistan: an overview. [La de la biblioteca y el uso diario de Biblioteca Nacional de Pakistán: la misma son realmente bajos, y El propósito de este documento visión general.] los servicios a los usuarios son es aumentar la concienciación de IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, muy escasos. Es necesario abordar la comunidad de IFLA sobre la pp. 90–98 inmediatamente las necesidades de situación de las personas invidentes formación del personal y de mejora en África. En este continente hay Describe la historia y evolución de de los servicios. cerca de 7 millones de personas la Biblioteca Nacional de Pakistán,

Pефераты статей

Г.Е.Горман, Даниэл Г. Дорнер и в основном из источников в Северных поддерживают три главных идеи Биргитта Сандел. Facilitating странах. Излагается философия ИФЛА: Профессия, Общество и Grassroots Development: the role ALP, выраженная в терминах ее Членство. Идентифицируются of ALP in Division VIII countries. Стратегического плана, которая критерии хорошего проекта и коротко [Облегчение развития на местном основана на вере в развитие на местном рассматриваются примеры удачных уровне: роль ALP в странах VIII уровне и на ее концепции массовости. обучающих семинаров в рамках дивизиона.] Начиная с 1991 года, был реализован проектов по сохранению коллекции IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, 181 проект на общую сумму более африканских фотографий, управлению pp. 7–12 3 млн. долларов США, включая цифровыми библиотеками, обучение без отрыва от производства, информационной грамотности. Описывается происхождение обучение информационно- Содержится заключение о большой и становление программы ALP коммуникационным технологиям и важности ALP для развития библиотек (Продвижение развития посредством информационной грамотности, а также и большей узнаваемости ИФЛА в библиотек), запущенной в 1984 году предоставление грантов на путевые развивающихся странах, в то же в качестве ключевой программы расходы. Проекты инициируются время указывается на необходимость Международной федерации изнутри развивающихся регионов и расширения базы финансовой библиотечных ассоциаций и осуществляются профессионалами в поддержки. учреждений (ИФЛА) и финансируемой этих регионах. Эти виды деятельности 114 Pефераты статей

Ли Джаохун и Хуанг Кункинг. большого числа англоязычных сайтов, embedding information literacy Reaching out to Vulnerable Groups как полагают, вызвано в основном into student learning through an in China: a broad library with social соображениями продвижения туризма, online environment. [Среда для inclusion. [Как дотянуться до стремлением к международному рефлективных поисковых навыков уязвимых групп населения в Китае: научному сотрудничеству, а также в интерактивном режиме (ROSS): библиотека с широким охватом в возросшим объемом финансовых внедрение информационной целях социальной интеграции.] операций. В работе представлена грамотности в процесс IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, информация о контенте основных обучения студентов посредством pp. 13–19 иранских правительственных сайтов интерактивной среды.] на английском языке, определены IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, В развивающемся Китае целые некоторые препятствия на пути pp. 55–71 группы населения живут в условиях эффективного доступа к их контенту, социальной изоляции. К таким а также приводятся доводы в пользу Среда для рефлективных поисковых группам относятся безработные улучшения дизайна иранских навыков в интерактивном режиме или граждане с плохим здоровьем, веб-сайтов с тем, чтобы иранское (ROSS) представляет собой работники со слабыми навыками, правительство смогло полностью программу электронного обучения, заключенные в тюрьму подростки, достичь поставленных целей. которая способствует развитию у население, пострадавшее от стихийных студентов навыков и умений поиска бедствий, а также крестьяне из Луиза Баптиста Мело, Чесалтина в интерактивном режиме. Она отдаленных районов. Библиотечные Пирес и Ана Тавейра. Recognizing была разработана при поддержке услуги критически важны для таких Best Practice in Portuguese факультета информационных уязвимых групп населения, включая Higher Education Libraries. технологий и службы поддержки безработных или граждан с плохим [Идентификация «лучших практик» процесса обучения и изучения здоровьем, работников со слабыми в библиотеках высших учебных Технологического университета навыками, заключенных в тюрьму заведений Португалии.] Куинслэнда. В 2007 году программу подростков, население, пострадавшее IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, ROSS стали водить в учебные планы от стихийных бедствий, а также pp. 34–54 первого года обучения на других крестьян из отдаленных районов. факультетах этого университета. В Библиотека Сунь Ятсена, создав 56 Целью написания данной статьи настоящей работе демонстрируются своих отделений по всей стране, является определение «лучших особенности среды ROSS и то, как активно занимается предоставлением практик» для повышения качества она была внедрена в учебные планы услуг таким уязвимым группам услуг в академических библиотеках двух контрастирующих дисциплин: населения. В данной работе Португалии. В данной статье информационных технологий описываются инновационные услуги, описывается находящийся на и естественных наук. Во многих оказываемые резидентам специальной стадии реализации проект по оценке интерактивных программах по общины для семей с серьезными предоставляемых библиотеками информационной грамотности финансовыми проблемами; услуг, который является результатом превалируют элементы статичности, заключенным, особенно малолетним и партнерства шести библиотек высших модульности, прямолинейности с студентам; пострадавшей в результате учебных заведений Португалии. Это сильной опорой на текст. С их помощью наводнения библиотеке; а также двум исследование разворачивается по так и не удалось инкорпорировать отдаленным тибетским поселениям. трем основным направлениям: (1) интерактивный подход в учебный отбор критериев для оценки и выборка процесс. В настоящей работе будет Нэнси Бейджижаниан и д-р соответствующих показателей их продемонстрировано, что среда ROSS Джон В.Ричардсон, младший. эффективного исполнения; (2) сбор и раздвигает границы интерактивных E-Government in the Islamic Republic анализ информации; (3) определение программ по информационной of Iran: reaching out to the world? «лучших практик». Отбор критериев грамотности, помогая студентам [Электронное правительство в для оценки основывается на познавать, обдумывать и применять на исламской Республике Иран: смешанной модели, сочетающей в практике концепцию информационной поддерживая связь с миром?] себе Общую оценочную концепцию и грамотности посредством IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, Сбалансированную карту показателей использования учебных примеров pp. 20–33 деятельности. Соотнесенные или проблемно-ориентированного показатели эффективности исполнения обучения. Задачей данной статьи является соответствуют международным выявление основных характеристик стандартам ISO 11620:1998 и ISO В.К.Дж. Джееван. Library и распространенности официальных 2789:2006. Personalization Systems: an Indian англоязычных вэб-сайтов, experience. [Библиотечные системы действующих в Исламской Республики Хелен Партридж, Сильвия Эдвардс, персонализации: опыт Индии.] Иран, а также мотивирующих Эндрю Бэйкер и Линн Макаллистер. IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, факторов для сохранения такой The Reflective Online Searching pp. 72–83 практики. Существование достаточно Skills (ROSS) Environment: 115 Pефераты статей

Персонализация библиотечных развитых стран мира. Для исследования этих стран, – все это должно изменить ресурсов рассматривается в эффективности библиотечных систем будущее слепых людей. качестве действенной альтернативы персонализации в развивающейся для того, чтобы пережить стадию стране детально описывается прототип Первэйз Ахмад. The National «информационного взрыва» и сберечь персонализации SAI, разработанный в Library of Pakistan: an overview. время пользователей для более Центральной библиотеке Индийского [Национальная библиотека продуктивных интеллектуальных технологического института, Пакистана: обзор.] задач. Для персонализации требуется г.Харагпур. IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, достаточный электронный контент на pp. 90-98 каждом отдельном веб-сайте, а также Уильям Роуланд. Library Services for удобный механизм для идентификации Blind People: an African perspective. Описывается история создания и пользователя посредством [Библиотечные услуги для слепых развития Национальной библиотеки размещения его или ее параметров, людей: на примере африканских Пакистана, которая была основана в выборочного поиска контента, стран.] 1949 году, объединена с Мемориальной сопоставимого с параметрами IFLA Journal 34 (2008) No. 1, библиотекой Liaquat в 1954 году и пользователя, а также систематизации pp. 84–89 снова стала самостоятельной в 1968 и представления его пользователю году. В 1988 году библиотеке было в привлекательной форме. Целью данной публикации является предоставлено собственное здание Различные компоненты системы улучшение осведомленности в г. Исламабаде, и в 1993 году она персонализации контента включают сообщества, занимающегося открыла двери для широкой публики. в себя: «Систему обслуживания проблематикой ИФЛА, о положении Библиотека находится в ведении контента» для хостинга электронного слепых в Африке. В Африке департамента библиотек Директората контента сверх предельной массы, насчитывается около 7 млн. слепых библиотек и архивов Министерства «Систему управления интересами людей, в большинстве африканских образования. Основной функцией пользователя» для управления стран менее 10% слепых детей Национальной библиотеки Пакистана динамичными параметрами получают школьное образование. является получение, сохранение и пользователя, «Поисковую систему» Данная работа основывается на поддержание литературного наследия для автоматического сопоставления информации, предоставленной страны в соответствии с требованиями контента с параметрами пользователя африканскими участниками авторского права. Ежегодное издание и механизм «Персонализированной секционной Конференции ИФЛА Национальной библиографии доставки контента» для доставки по тематике библиотек для слепых, Пакистана основывается на пользователю сопоставленных которая прошла в г. Грахамстауне, охраняемых авторским правом результатов. Прогресс в развитии ЮАР в августе 2007 г. Отсутствовала поступлениях, главным образом, компьютерных технологий, какая-либо информация о странах книгах. Национальная библиотека основанных на доступе к Интернету, Африки, говорящих на французском получает порядка 66% серийных в сочетании с непрекращающимся и португальском языках, периодических изданий и 50-55% книг, интересом пользователей к которые расположены к югу от издаваемых в стране. Электронные размещаемым в Интернете Сахары. В публикации в краткой публикации пока еще не подпадают информационным ресурсам стали форме описывается ситуация с под действие законов об авторских причиной внедрения многими библиотечными услугами для слепых правах. Библиотека присваивает популярными порталами концепции в ЮАР, Кении, Замбии, Зимбабве, ISBN (международный стандартный персонализации контента, Нигерии, Сьерра Леоне, Либерии номер книги) практически половине удовлетворяющего интересам и Гамбии. Также рассматриваются всех опубликованных книг. различных пользователей. вопросы грамотности и образования, Количественные показатели членства Разъясняется несколько таких недостатка услуг, стандартов и в библиотеке и ежедневного круга инициатив. Обсуждаются особенности ожиданий, различий в технологиях. читателей являются весьма низкими, проектов по персонализации Автор приходит к следующему а услуги пользователям – крайне библиотечных ресурсов, таких заключению: то, что мы делаем в ограниченными. Требуются срочные как MyLibrary, в различных области образования, и то, что мы меры по комплектованию штата и университетских библиотеках делаем с образованием в каждой из развитию предлагаемых услуг.

116 Limits to Freedom of Expression?

IFLA JOURNAL – NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Aims and Scope IFLA Journal is an international journal which publishes original peer reviewed articles, a selection of peer reviewed IFLA conference papers, and news of current IFLA activities. Content is selected to refl ect the variety of the international information profession, ranging from freedom of access to information, knowledge management, services to the visually impaired and intellectual property. Writing for the IFLA Journal Contributions to the journal may include: original articles and features; news and information about current and forthcoming activities and events in the fi eld of library and information services; announcements of new publications, products or services; information about education and training opportunities, fellowships, honours and awards; personal news; obituaries; letters to the Editor. Articles and features Articles and features are normally published only in English. Authors whose fi rst language is not English should not be inhibited from submitting contributions in English because of this; the correction of minor grammatical and linguistic errors in English is considered to be an integral part of the editorial process. Articles and features should normally be between 2000 and 7000 words in length. Longer contributions may be accepted occasionally and, if necessary, published in two or more parts in successive issues. Article should be accompanied by an English-language abstract of not more than 150 words, fi ve or six keywords, a brief statement of the professional qualifi cations and experience of the author(s), including current offi cial designation and full address and contact details, and a recent photograph (not a passport photo) of each of the authors suitable for publication.

Authors are expected to check their work carefully before submitting it, particularly with regard to factual accuracy, completeness and consistency. They should provide suffi cient background information to enable readers unfamiliar with the activity or country being described to understand it easily. Acronyms and abbreviations should be spelled out in full the fi rst time they are used. Other contributions The primary language of publication for contributions other than articles and features is English, but such contributions may be published in the other working languages of IFLA - French, German, Russian or Spanish – if appropriate. Illustrative material Contributors are encouraged to submit photographs and other illustrations to accompany their contributions. They should be submitted either in TIF format (300 dpi minimum) or in hard copy as positive prints or transparencies and be clearly captioned and credited to the originator. Other illustrations should be suitable for publication without further treatment. Statistical data should, if possible, be presented in the form of charts or diagrams, rather than tables. Bibliographical references References should follow the full form stipulated in ISO 690-1987, Documentation – Bibliographic references – Content, form and structure, using either the numeric or the Harvard method of citation in the text. Lists of references should appear at the end of a contribution, not as footnotes. Copyright All contributors are required to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement’ granting to IFLA the exclusive licence to publish. Copyright remains with the author(s). Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright clearance for the publication of any copyrighted material (including illustrative material) which may be included in their contribution. Format All contributions should, whenever possible, be submitted in standard electronic formats, as e-mail attachments. The preferred format for textual matter is MS Word. Contributors who are unable to submit their work in electronic format should supply textual matter in clearly typewritten manuscript. Publication All unsolicited articles are refereed anonymously by members of the Editorial Committee, whose decision with regard to the publication of any article or feature is fi nal. Other contributions are published at the discretion of the Editor, if necessary after consultation with the Editorial Committee. Authors of articles, features and reviews will receive one complimentary copy of the issue in which their work appears and are given controlled online access to a pdf fi le of their article, in addition to one year’s free personal subscription to the print edition of IFLA Journal.

Submission All contributions (except advertisements), in whatever format, should be addressed to: The Editor, IFLA Journal, Apt. 1C, Ediﬁ cio Rosa dos Ventos, Rua Rosa Parracho no. 27, Bairro do Rosario, 2750-778 Cascais, Portugal. E-mail. [email protected]