LibriVOLUME 49, NUMBER 1, MARCH 1999
Table of Contents
International Journal of Libraries and Information Services
Vol 49 (1999), No 1, pages 1-58
ISSN 0024-2667Original Articles
The Future for Library Science Education
G. E. GORMANAbstract. This article analyses characteristics of the information profession with suggestions as to which characteristics are likely to remain significant in the future. It focuses on professional values, professional parameters and the impact of information technology. The author concludes with a discussion of possible changes to the education of librarians based upon this analysis. He also suggests how educators need to view the future of the profession in order to introduce the necessary changes to educational programmes gradually but consistently.
The Role of Libraries and Librarians in Organising Digital Information
PETER INGWERSENAbstract. This article analyses the role of libraries and information professionals in a digital library environment. The major focus for discussion is the availability of improved intellectual access to knowledge sources in a digitised world. The author argues that purposeful knowledge organisation, information filtering, and management skills are mandatory a priori elements that support accessibility and constitute the future roles of information specialists and services. It is argued that the complexity of the digital library infrastructure determines the degree of human involvement. A three-level digital library infrastructure scenario of increasing complexity serves as the framework for the discussion: the stand-alone, the distributed, and the integrated digital library.
Indexing and Classification of Images in Large Organisations
JULIO ENCINAS, JUAN LLORÉNS, ANTONIO AMESCUAAbstract. These days, applications dealing with information extracted from images are becoming more common. The growth of multimedia information has made it necessary that applications be able to store information, such as images, video and audio, and to retrieve it. Information extracted from images is complex and highly dimensional. The extraction of specific low-level indexing features from images is now a research area given the costs of storing and retrieving the huge amount of information needed for the representation of some features. A new way to deal with features extracted from images for retrieval purposes is proposed, and a system for dealing with the described ideas is presented.
Germany in the Holy Land: Its Involvement and Impact on Library Development in Palestine and Israel
DOV SCHIDORSKYAbstract. For more than a hundred years - from the 1840s until the 1950s - the German library tradition exerted an influence on the development of libraries and librarianship in Palestine and in the State of Israel. The cornerstone of this German involvement was the establishment of the Royal Library in Jerusalem in 1847. This library, the first scholarly library in Palestine, was planned and established according to the best German scholarly library tradition. Features of the eighteenth- century Göttingen University Library served as its model. The plans and activities connected with the establishment of a Jewish national library and a system of public libraries in Palestine in the twentieth century drew upon contemporary ideas of the Althoff reforms in scholarly libraries and upon ideas of the reform movement in popular libraries. As a result, concepts and procedures typical of the German library tradition were introduced into the leading libraries, such as the Jewish National and University Library, in Jerusalem, and the Municipal Library in Tel Aviv. The majority of the academic staff of institutions of higher learning in Palestine, until the fifties, was graduates of universities belonging to the German cultural ambience. They had brought with them the teaching and research methods utilised in the institutions where they had formerly studied taught or conducted research. This had an accelerating effect on the development of seminar and departmental libraries in the country's libraries, and thus strengthened the trend of decentralisation in the university libraries. German library tradition is perceived as a part of the German national cultural heritage. The immigrants, who came to Palestine after the Nazi's rise to power, had been imbued with this cultural heritage, and they continued to preserve it in their new homeland. Consequently, most of them were consumers of German culture and had a decisive impact on the widespread distribution of German books in private collections, public and scholarly libraries and in commercial lending libraries from the 1930s to the end of the 1960s.
Reports
Health Information Networks for Telehealth in Africa - Challenges and Prospects: a Review of the Literature
KGOMOTSO H. MOAHIAbstract. This article reviews the literature on the state of electronic networks for the delivery of health information to health workers in Africa. It identifies the need for health networks and the challenges and prospects for providing them. It describes some examples of existing networks and projects providing health information including some more general initiatives that could be utilised for sharing health information.
The Technological Education Institutes (TEI) in Greece and Their Libraries
ANESTIS SITAS, ANASTASIA ELISSAIOU, AND KALLIOPI SIOKIAbstract. The legal framework for the foundation of the Technological Education Institutes (TEI) in Greece is presented. A short history of the education of the librarians in Greece and some general information about all the Institutes and their libraries is given. Data for the organisation, automation and personnel of the libraries are presented.