Volume 58, Issue 1

In June 1960, the Cape Library Association (CLA) was founded with the aim to establish library services and promote librarianship among Coloureds in South Africa, especially in the rural areas of the Cape Province. This article asks why the CLA had felt the need to operate along ethnic lines, and examines its relationships with the South African Library Association (SALA), the Cape Provincial Library Service (CPLS), and rural municipal authorities. It draws on interviews with former office holders, newsletters, tour reports, annual reports, issues of its own bulletin, and secondary sources to shed light on debates about an ethnic focus and social uplift. An analysis of contemporary historical circumstances offers insights into how a small library association dealt with the challenges of inclusion and exclusion, and of belonging to the South African library community. Ultimately, two Coloureds served as presidents of the new unified Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), which was launched in 1997.

Recent years have seen several digital library development initiatives in India. To gain insight, assess and understand the growth, development and current status of digital library initiatives in India as reflected through scholarly journals, 63 published studies on digital libraries in India have been reviewed. The study reveals that most articles focus on developing digital libraries and digital collections except for a few studies on copyright issues and management of digital libraries. No studies have touched upon issues such as digital rights management, security and digital library policies.

There is a growing need to preserve indigenous knowledge, as indigenous communities around the world face ongoing threats to the survival of their traditional languages and cultures. Although libraries have not traditionally focused on this area, libraries and information professionals can play an important role in assisting indigenous communities with the management and preservation of traditional knowledge through providing resources and expertise in collection, organization, storage and retrieval. Indigenous knowledge, however, differs greatly from Western knowledge and so it must be managed in unique and sensitive ways that may challenge conventional knowledge management tools and processes, as well as prevalent assumptions about knowledge and information. Indeed, information professionals should work with indigenous communities to develop unique solutions that meet local needs. Three indigenous knowledge management projects in Australia, Canada and the United States are examined to illustrate the different methods and tools that can be used for managing indigenous knowledge to accommodate oral traditions, holistic belief systems, security and access concerns, and technological limitations.

This study examines the implications of the current wave of erecting large, even monumental, library buildings for the functioning and status of public libraries. It was carried out through interviews with 42 individuals from five relevant professions: futurists, sociologists, architects, urban planners and experts in information and library science. Also, 24 directors of new, large libraries in Israel and the Western world filled in a questionnaire. The study reveals a dramatic increase in the number of people visiting these libraries and a very significant increase in the number of regular clients who come to the library to receive services other than traditional library services. This research shows that the library is becoming a cultural centre and a place for social life, cultural meetings and leisure-time entertainment.

With the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 not only was the Ottoman Empire but also many of its institutions abolished. Many of the classical Ottoman institutions had ceased to operate effectively and had become increasingly irrelevant to the needs of society. In the early Republican period many of these institutions including law, education, the alphabet – both the written and the spoken language, music etc., were replaced wholesale by European models, but in some cases we see that Ottoman attitudes and practices infiltrated into the new order. Particularly in education was it more difficult to change attitudes, so that while a European-styled system of education was established, there was a failure to provide it with a comprehensive library system to support it. Today in Turkey the concept of a general library operating for the general public and for research is yet to be adopted. This article attempts to examine the attitudes and practices that have held fast in the library system today as part of our heritage from the last century of the Ottoman Empire. It concludes that the professional work of the modern Turkish librarian and the development of Turkish schools for training librarians are contributing to a change in perception.

This study investigates catalogue use by science students of the University of Ilorin. A questionnaire was randomly distributed to 500 users in the 2004/2005 session; 415 questionnaires were completed and form the basis of this study. The study reveals that a preponderance of the respondents (90.1%) use the library catalogue to access the library stock; three-quarters (74%) claim to know how to use both the card catalogues and the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). The users of the OPAC represented a small portion with 33 respondents (7.9%). The study also showed that many respondents (192 or 46.3%) prefer the Subject Catalogue, one-fourth (111 or 26.7%) prefers the Author/Title and about a fifth (88 or 21.2%) prefers a combination of Author/Title and Subject Catalogues. The use of library catalogues increases as the respondents' progress in their academic career. This paper concludes that effective library use education based on subject disciplines would be more beneficial to the users.