IFLA Journal current issue

Reading, Information Literacy and Professional Development

Parker, S. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

Nunavut and the Inuit Peoples

Salaff, S. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

The President's Page

Lux, C. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

Reading Sources and Reading Spaces in Honduras

Adkins, D. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

Though literacy is often presented as a universal and monolithic achievement, it is in fact context-dependent, and largely dependent upon the kinds of texts available in a particular community. This paper presents an observer’s study of reading in Honduras, focusing particularly on the availability of reading materials and spaces dedicated to reading and literacy practices. Environments studied included bookstores, libraries, schools, and Internet cafés, as well as streets and shops. Reading books was observed to be relatively uncommon and primarily done in an educational context. Other reading materials, including newspapers, magazines, and text messages, were far more commonly used and far better integrated into the Honduran society. My observations suggest that libraries could play an important supporting role in Honduras’ efforts to establish universal literacy.

Information Literacy and Scholarly Investigation: a British perspective

Shenton, A. K. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

The phrase, ‘information literacy’, is now well established in library and information science but it is much less familiar to practitioners in other disciplines, even those upon which information literacy impinges. It has yet to gain any significant coverage in education, for example, despite the fact that teaching the basic principles associated with the concept can help learners when undertaking various forms of scholarly work. This paper considers the often overlooked links between information literacy, scientific inquiry and the generic research process, and concludes by advocating that education in schools would benefit from concentrating on the axioms that underpin all three areas. Nonetheless, the author recognizes problems inherent in such a stance. In particular, he notes that activities which may be believed to lead to the acquisition of information literacy are frequently undermined in schools by detrimental attitudes and practices, some of which give priority to other concerns.

Our Space: professional development for new graduates and professionals in Australia

Bradley, F., Dalby, A., Spencer, A. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

This paper explores the changing work environment in libraries and information management and the impact on new professionals and new graduates. New graduates need to have their own support networks and targeted professional development to successfully navigate job and sector changes and to gain transferable skills. The development and structure of a targeted professional development event, the New Librarians’ Symposium, is discussed. This successful event, held in Australia biennially, could be considered a model of targeted professional development for other professional associations and groups.

Open Access Repositories in Computer Science and Information Technology: an evaluation

Bhat, M. H. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

The study reports evaluation of nine Open Access Repositories in the field of Computer Science and IT. The repositories were identified from the OpenDOAR; directory of Open Access repositories (http://www.open doar.org/). Questionnaires were sent via e-mail to repository administrators to ascertain the background, resources, content management policies, preservation policies, rights management, promotion, advertisement, services, feedback and access statistics of the repositories. The findings revealed that most of the repositories are maintained by 1—2 faculty members on a part-time basis. The most popular software platform is Eprints, on account of its excellent support, ease of installation, transparency of interfaces, configurability, OAI compliance and active development. Most of the repositories follow policies for selection of content and submission of documents, have provision for withdrawal of content by the authors and voluntary faculty deposit policies. Although backups are taken for short term preservation of the content, no strategies have been adopted for long term preservation. Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright compliance of their articles in most of the repositories. Links are provided from library or departmental websites to most of the repositories for promotion and advertisement. Most of the repositories have provision for feedback from users. A few repositories provide access statistics. The paper provides recommendations for the establishment and management of OA repositories.

The Library Services to People with Special Needs Section of IFLA: an historical overview

Panella, N. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

The Library Services to People with Special Needs Section of IFLA was founded in 1931 as the Sub-committee on Hospital Libraries. It was the first sub-committee IFLA formed for a special user group, that is, hospitalized people who could not use external libraries. The young sub-committee soon saw, however, that due to a range of disabilities often secondary to the cause of hospitalization, some patients required special reading aids, for example, sensory or mobility aids. Those needs also became evident among community members, confined or not. Wanting to address them, the sub-committee expanded its focus overtime to include people who, for whatever reason, could not use conventional libraries, materials and services. This paper traces the sub-committee’s evolution from sub-committee, to committee, to sub-section, and finally section that today promotes library resources and services for a broad range of special needs people. Its growth in part reflects the expansion of the Federation itself.

Indian Library Association International Conference 2008: a report

Swain, N.K., Kumar, S. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

News

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

International Calendar

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT

Sommaires

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:33:52 PDT