Volume 59, Issue 1

This paper uses a 2004 destructive incident at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune, India as a case study to discuss the intersection of caste politics, ownership, and violence in the archives. After a brief overview of the events leading up to, during, and subsequent to the violent destruction of archival documents by an angry lower caste mob, this paper provides the historical context necessary to analyze issues of ownership, politics, and colonialism within the context of a South Asian library, keeping in mind the complex interplay of religion, region, and caste in India. The paper then explores this incident from an archival studies perspective, looking at archives as both sites of violence and as cultural and political symbols, and explores how issues of ownership, political pressure, and access, if not properly addressed, can boil over into violent destruction of the archival record. Finally, this paper argues that violent incidents such as the one described can occur outside of the Indian context, in almost any archival setting, and concludes with recommendations on how to avoid future destruction in archival repositories.

Mobile library services are still lacking and insufficient to meet the increasing needs of various users. This paper provides an overview of the development and application of mobile technology in South Korean libraries. It presents the service contexts and issues for the future application and access in the mobile library field. This paper categorizes real world examples. It identifies the new mission for building high quality mobile library services and discusses the future of mobile library architecture. It also presents a summary of key aspects of mobile library projects in South Korea and suggests major areas for future planning and development. Finally it envisions the future of mobile library technology.

Drawing on results of a national survey, this article examines adult education in South African public libraries from the perspective of adult learners and librarians. Quantitative data from 589 libraries from the total sample of 1295 libraries was collected. This was supplemented by qualitative data collected during site visits to eleven libraries selected to cover geographical spread. The activities of the 26.7% of the libraries involved in adult education are analysed with a view to understanding the interventions through the experience and perceptions of the participants, and so arriving at an understanding of the contribution of the libraries' role in the fight against illiteracy which is acknowledged by the South African government as a serious impediment to its development efforts. An attempt is made to assess the extent to which the experiences in the libraries can be said to be particular to the local situation, or whether the lessons learned form part of a broader pattern of adult education policy and practice observed in other parts of the world, especially developing countries. It is concluded that, in spite of the modest scale of the interventions, the impact is sufficiently encouraging to recommend intensifying and spreading initiatives in the public library's drive for social inclusion.

The article reports the study conducted in northern Uganda to design a Business Information System (BIS) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A study by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2005, 30) established that the majority of business enterprises depend on “word of mouth”. There is no meaningful mechanism for accessing relevant information on business resources, a considerable amount of which is available in Uganda. Based on this documented fact, there is a need to establish the requirements for a BIS and to propose one. By using descriptive research design this study establishes the business information system requirements and recommends the appropriate BIS for the SMEs in northern Uganda. The study establishes, among other things: the preferred business information processing formats, most appropriate location of the proposed BIS centre in northern Uganda and views on BIS for efficient business information provision. The study recommends that as part of the strategy to facilitate access to the BIS, there should be the adoption of Internet-based services with the integration of an interactive business planner, an online small business workshop, the business start-up assistant; telephone services; fax services and in-person services. There should also be a feedback mechanism coordinated from the Gulu district; the coordinating centre and the system interface should be flexible allowing the acquisition of business information from both the micro and macro levels.

School libraries are indispensable adjuncts to education, a base for generating innovative thinking, a stimulus to culture, and an aid to individual self–development. The IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto, the qualitative standard for universal provision, recommends that for each country there should be work on developing links between the school's objectives and its library's service. The Manifesto strongly endorses the creation of strong and effective school libraries. The national school library systems in Germany, Iran and Turkey have provided information services over the years, yet inadequate study to evaluate these services has limited understanding of the effects of the Manifesto. This study examined the impact of the Manifesto through literature analysis, visiting 425 school libraries in these countries and/or using their websites, interviews with 1107 individuals, and a summative comparative evaluation. The results reveal that the national implementations of the Manifesto, its statements on objectives and duties, are a valuable support to ongoing processes of policy formulation. The study also shows evaluations from the librarians' own perspectives, and uncovers general suggestions for more efficient and effective solutions. The comparisons completed in 2008 reveal important information about the impact of the Manifesto in school library services, and enable recommendations to be made for the future use and development of the Manifesto.

Information technology has brought a tremendous change in the nature, boundaries and structure of information. The ongoing movement towards an electronic information society is pushing libraries towards automation and digitization. The revolution has brought impressive changes in the role of LIS professionals who are now being viewed as information managers/facilitators. These developments have also influenced LIS writings and publishing. This study shows that while the application of IT has gained considerable importance in Indian libraries, IT-based papers have surprisingly found less space in Indian LIS periodicals as compared to the LIS literature in general. The findings of this study also indicate that there is an uneven distribution of various topics within the Indian LIS IT-published literature; while some topics/areas of IT have received considerable attention others have been barely touched. Topics like IT in general, bibliographic databases, library networking, library automation and electronic resources have been found to predominate in the growth of Indian LIS literature as compared to the coverage of other areas of IT. Most papers (60%) have single authors, indicating a low amount of teamwork/collaborative writing. The paper's analysis also reveals that working professionals/librarians have made more contributions (48%) in comparison to teaching professionals (22%).