LibriVOLUME 49, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 1999
Table of Contents
International Journal of Libraries and Information Services
Vol 49 (1999), No 3, pages 125-179
ISSN 0024-2667Winner of LIBRI Best Student Paper Award 1999
The First Monday Metadata Project
ROBIN HENSHAWAbstract. Publicly available web pages number over 100 million and this number will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. This fact serves to aggravate the increasing difficulty of finding information on the Internet. The application of metatags in the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) header of a web page is one method employed by web site developers and authors to help users locate information on the site. Through the use of a search engine, the user can then locate more relevant matches because metatags relating to the sites contents are used to index and describe the site. A metadata policy for First Monday, a peer-reviewed journal on the Internet, was developed and implemented, with the goal of increasing the ranking of a selected group of articles in some search engines. In the article, metadata and metatags are defined, and an introduction to the Dublin Core Initiative is given. The philosophy and structure of First Mondays metadata is discussed, including syntax-specific examples. The practical application viewpoint taken in this project also necessitated an examination of Internet search engines currently indexing on metatags. The paper concludes with preliminary research conclusions on the utility of the tags to articles in First Monday.
The Evolution of User Studies
RANIA SIATRIAbstract. User studies are one of the most researched areas in library and information science. These studies form a large body of literature in the discipline. Since user studies first appeared in the late 1940s their number has constantly increased. Menzel in the first Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (1966) refers to two comprehensive bibliographies of user studies in 1964 and 1965, each containing 438 and 676 studies respectively. This was just a first indication of the explosion that would take place a couple of decades later. This article recounts the evolution of user studies by exploring related key concepts of the field. It also discusses how research methods in other areas have influenced the work in this field. Finally, a literature review shows the diversity and plethora of topics explored by various studies.
"Point. Click. Matriculate:" Corporate Influence in the University and the Academic Library
JOYCE WEAVERAbstract. Corporations are playing a growing role in U.S. universities as they increasingly turn to the corporate sector to supplement the budget of the institution. This coming together of the academy and the business world is having an impact on the universities themselves. To the extent that academic libraries mirror their parent bodies, academic librarians must be concerned about the effect that external corporate values will have on their libraries. Intelligent choices for the library of tomorrow will result from a careful understanding of these issues.
Comparing University Libraries of Different University Size
CHIANG KAO AND YA-CHI LINAbstract. The primary objective of comparing libraries is to make the top management of the libraries aware that the libraries are not functioning as expected and hence their request for funds and resources to improve performance should be supported. Since larger universities require larger libraries to satisfy higher demand, we concentrate on the comparison of university libraries of different university size in terms of the number of faculty and students. While it is different from the conventional constant ratio method, this approach allows for non-proportionality between the library size and the university size. In other words, the library size need not increase at the same pace as the university. To compare the twenty-four university libraries in Taiwan, we developed a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model based on the concept of Pareto optimality to calculate a score for each library as the basis for comparison. Thus this study by taking into account the size of the university and nonproportionality yields a more informative and meaningful result than previous studies because very small or very large libraries do not have a disproportionate impact.
Interrupting the Festivities: Digitising HAL's Memory
TARA BRABAZONAbstract. The potentials and problems of the digital and analogue environments need to be oriented into critical theories of information, knowledge, entertainment, pleasure and education. David Lowenthal (1985), just fifteen years ago, argued that the past is a foreign country. Increasingly though, it is the present that is becoming a tourist destination. The most significant analytical task for contemporary critics is to disrupt the dual ideologies punctuating the now: inevitable technological change and progress (1). Only then, may theorists ponder the future of a digitised past. This paper investigates how digitisation challenges not only knowledge workers such as archivists and librarians, but raises the dilemma of obsolescence and the role of nostalgia in policy decisions. Disempowered groups, denied a voice and role in the analogue history of the twentieth century, will have inequalities reified through the digital archiving of contemporary life. Notions of preservation, cataloguing and the structure of knowledge will be considered in the new/old intellectual environment. The final part of the paper investigates the formation of a virtual middle class, arguing that digitisation is actually and actively reinforcing the social exclusions of the analogue world.
The Nobel Library of the Swedish Academy
KE ERLANDSSONAbstract. The Nobel Library was founded in 1901 to assist the Swedish Academy in its task of selecting the Nobel laureate in Literature. It is a modern research library with a private, autonomous status, established primarily for the Swedish Academy and its Nobel Committee, although its collections are also open to the public. It is housed in one of Stockholms most beautiful 18th century buildings. Within its field it is the largest in Scandinavia, containing collections of more than 200,000 volumes, with works of literary criticism and modern literature as its speciality. Since its foundation the history of the library has been intimately linked with the Nobel Prize. Its sphere of literary interests has, however, expanded considerably with the years. In this article an account will be given of the special criteria on which the Academy bases its work on the Nobel Prize and which apply to the librarys acquisitions. It describes the storm of protest that greeted the first award for literature in 1901, when Tolstoy was rejected in favour of Sully Prudhomme, the interpretation of the wording the most outstanding work in an ideal direction in Nobels will, Sartres famous refusal in 1964 and the impossible task of covering the literature of the whole world. It concludes with some comments on Alfred Nobels own philosophical and literary interests.
Employers Perceptions of the Graduates and Curriculum of a Library School in Botswana
L. O. AINA AND K. MOAHIAbstract. Twenty-four employers of the graduates of the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Botswana were surveyed to find out if these graduates met the expectations of their employers and to seek their opinions on the curriculum of the programmes in the department. The employers were themselves involved in traditional library tasks and were satisfied with the graduates, although they emphasised the need for strengthening of the IT component of the curriculum. It is recommended that the curriculum of the various programmes in the department be strengthened to enable graduates of the department to function more effectively in the emerging information market.