Volume 50, Issue 3

This article traces discussions from 1991 to 1994 about the impact of the World Wide Web on libraries. Librarians and other information professionals commented about the Web's potential as a tool for organizing and using materials on the Internet in print journals devoted to library science, in periodicals about computing trends, and in online media such as discussion lists. Evaluation of the Web took place in the context of interest in Internet Gopher, WAIS and similar applications, and the wish to simplify access to online information. Librarians reading about the Web at that time encountered two schools of thought. Some visionaries hoped that the Internet would free researchers from relying on intermediaries, including librarians. Practical-minded librarians, on the other hand, emphasized organizing the Internet as a service to readers. Both camps saw potential value in the World Wide Web. By 1994, librarians were experimenting with specific Web-based projects to organize digital information, improve online searching, guide users, and publish texts online. Libraries were soon using Web-related software to fulfill traditional missions in the new online environment.

It is time that researchers and practitioners give further thought to the terminology that they employ to study information use and information seeking in the digital environment. Existing (print) terminology is proving an impediment to understanding what happens when people go online to communicate or retrieve information, as they are increasingly doing. It also probably produces false readings. This article is based upon the findings of a number of funded research projects, which examined the behaviour of the digital information ‘user’. The studies were undertaken by City University's Internet Studies Research Group to evaluate the term ‘user’ and some related ones – information seeking, intermediary and end-user, in the light of our knowledge of the new digital information order. A replacement term – the information ‘player’ – is presented for consideration and explained. The new term should enhance our understanding of what goes on in the digital information environment and will bring us closer to the information mainstream, which is ever more represented by the World Wide Web and the use of its information resources.

The context and environment for library technical services may be best described by the examination of influencing factors, which shape and direct these services. Of these factors, the dominant current forces – economic pressures (i.e., budgetary constraints), user expectations, and technology – affect how technical services are changing and converging, thus requiring a new definition and renaming. Knowledge access management is presented for consideration.

For the last decade and a half the business community has seen what appears to be one fad after another. To a surprising (and greatly under-recognized) degree, however, those fads, that these enthusiasms are facets of, constitute one major theme – the importance of information and its skillful use to the success of the modern corporation. Librarianship is about the organization and the use of information. The overlap between librarianship and that skillful use of information by the organization should be obvious, but it isn't, at least, to the business community. This article reviews twenty-one concepts referred to as fads and enthusiasms above, and shows how they do indeed constitute a logical whole. It argues that there has been a classic case of failing to see the forest through the trees. Further, it proposes that not only can this whole be identified, but that specific regions within this whole can be identified. The article concludes that recognizing this provides a major opportunity for the information professional.

The increasing expectations of users for better services have motivated libraries to view quality management as an effective means of incorporating quality improvement into their related services. Effectively implementing quality management in libraries requires an understanding of applying appropriate quality management concepts and techniques. This article reviews the quality management tools and techniques developed over the last five decades and, then, categorises them into three broad approaches. In addition, a framework of quality management approaches and techniques is developed and applied to assess and improve the service quality of libraries and information services.

This article reports on the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard model for facilitating strategic management at the Academic Information Service (academic library) of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Robert Kaplan and David Norton developed the concept of the Balanced Scorecard in the early 1990s for motivating and measuring business performance. This management methodology is seen as an excellent vehicle for implementing organisational transformation measures in the Academic Information Service. The article starts by giving a short theoretical introduction to the concept of the Balanced Scorecard, followed by an outline of the implementation of the Scorecard on both the strategic and operational levels. It concludes by examining the ways in which the Balanced Scorecard is currently being used to facilitate the strategic management process at the Academic Information Service.

This article looks at how bank managers in Nigeria scan the external environment for information to have competitive advantage in the banking industry. Investment analysis, improved services, conflict resolution, market research and business strategy were the areas of environmental scanning. The uncertainty of the environment was found to be associated with the amount of scanning done. The study revealed that the customer and competition sectors were the most strategically uncertain. The study recommends that electronic information services be used in environmental scanning.

The problem of restitution for displaced collections is a difficult one, but an important one for libraries, archives, museums and scholars. The Russian Federation has made considerable efforts in this arena in recent years. The Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow is a leader in implementing the new approach through programmes of publication, exhibition, and workshops/conferences. This is positive proof that only constructive and mutually beneficial co-operation of the states can be the basis in solving the most difficult problems of today.