Volume 52, Issue 2

In South Africa during the 1980s and 1990s socially conscious librarians took steps to transform librarianship. This inevitably led to the democratisation of library and information science (LIS) education. This process was inextricably linked to the social, political and economic events in the country as it prepared for its first democratic elections in 1994. From the traditional approach to library and information work prevalent in the apartheid era emerged an alternative approach. This new approach recognised strong links between libraries and the struggle for democracy and rejected the idea of librarianship as a neutral activity. Various leading librarians in South Africa began to criticise the prevailing model of education for librarianship and to redefine its educational goals and objectives. The need for more appropriate training as well as rapid technological changes necessitated curriculum revision. A newly emerging clientele and the appearance of resource centres and community libraries also called for alternative training for information workers. By 1994, in spite of plans, policy-making and recognition of the need for change in the education for librarians, problems of fragmentation, a lack of articulation of programmes and little differentiation and specialisation persisted in LIS education and training. Although there have been further policy initiatives and gains resulting in legislation in the 1990s, the democratisation process of LIS education in 2001 is far from complete.

The ultimate aim of any library or information service is to meet the needs of its community. The return to basics in library and information services provision in the 1970s and 1980s led to the development of community librarianship which promised to deliver a more egalitarian and appropriately targeted public library. The return to basics also brought a multiplicity of studies on information use in the context of specific communities. The information needs of sex workers as a community are generally unexplored. This article examines the needs of this largely high earning but marginalised group in the context of informationally based social exclusion. Using the qualitative critical incident approach to assessing information seeking behaviour a survey of sex workers' information needs and use of information channels was carried out in Pietermaritzburg-Msunduzi, South Africa and the results are presented here. Potential information channels are identified and the actual information channels used by the sex workers are discussed giving the sex workers' perceptions of their adequacy. Suggestions are made about appropriate library and information provision.

This paper summarises the results of a research project which assessed the economic impact of the public library service in the UK. Emphasis is given to a general descriptive model based on combining the diverse survey results of previous research, a survey to determine user perceptions of the value of a book loan, a model to illustrate the economic value of book buying compared to book lending in terms of the number of “reads” and estimates of the total value of the public library service to the economy. New performance indicators are also proposed.

This study looks at international collaboration in Iranian scientific publications through the ISI Science Citation Index ® (SCI) for the years 1995–1999, inclusive. These results are compared to and contrasted with the earlier findings for the periods covering 1985–1994 (Osareh & Wilson 2000). The results of Iran's increasing productivity over a 15-year period are presented. Iran doubled its output in the first two five-year periods and increased 2.8-fold from the second to the third five-year period. The rise in Iran's scientific publication output is due mainly to factors such as the ending of the war, better economic conditions, recent changes in the Iranian government's policy, basic changes in the political environment brought about by the Reformers, expansion of the Iranian presses for national publications, and the recent return of a large number of students trained overseas through government scholarships. External changes also account for the increased productivity, e.g., the acceptance of three Iranian source journals by the SCI, increased access to international databases through the Internet and better electronic communication facilities for international collaboration. One of the most important and significant factors that caused this dramatic rise seems to be the government's research policies in the last few years. Since 1999, the Iran Science, Research and Technology Ministry, has encouraged researchers to publish their non-Farsi language articles in highly ranked international scientific journals, for example, by giving prizes to researchers who publish their articles in ISI-ranked journals.

The present study is an institutional domain analysis from the perspective of the information requirements of the scientific-technical area of the University of Extremadura in order to optimise access to and availability of scientific publications. The data were the international publications of the University, their authors and the departments to which they belonged and their reference lists obtained from the SCI (ISI Science Citation Index ®). The results are presented and a methodological analysis is made using various statistical techniques (cluster analysis, factorial analysis, and multidimensional scaling) to determine the structure of the departmental relationships in the institution, and the outputs of Kohonen neural networks to display the relationships between journals and departments.

This paper analyses the complex and sometimes competing issues involved in designing library space to facilitate student-centred learning within the UK Higher Education sector. Encompassing a critical review of the subject literature, this paper describes and explains the profound effects that pedagogical and technological change together have for library space design and management. The changing role of academic libraries in student learning is explored, as are the qualities and features of academic libraries that facilitate traditional and digital forms of student learning. The literature review established that academic libraries must cater for an increasing range of learning activities, and provide space conducive for independent and collaborative learning using traditional materials either separately from, or in association with, electronic resources. New modes of learning and changes in student working practices were identified, especially resource-based learning and digital literacy developments. Modern academic libraries must rationalise and respond to pedagogical and technological changes and foster changing and continuing forms of student learning to enable students to achieve their best work and ready them for their post-qualification vocation. To achieve this, librarians must consider remodelling existing library space and, in concert with architects and institution administrators, design new libraries fit for twenty-first century learning, teaching and research.