Volume 59, Issue 3

This article examines the complex changes that have occurred in Polish academic libraries, focusing on University of Warsaw Library (UWL) after the fall of communism in 1989. An accelerated transformation of libraries begun shortly after the initiation of political and economical changes and was sped up by the series of grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation followed by Polish government funds. The library automation was the first major task for libraries. In preparation for automation the first in Poland authority file was created and thus the process of introducing and following international standards of bibliographic description in the climate of interlibrary cooperation had begun. As a part of transformation the open stacks and the Library of Congress classification were introduced for the first time in Poland in a newly constructed UWL building. A crowning achievement of transformation is the first Polish union catalog called, Narodowy Uniwersalny Katalog Centralny (NUKAT) launched in 2002.

The region known as the Middle East today is an important historical, strategic area where many of the very first scientific and cultural creations of mankind flourished. The Middle East came under 400 years of domination by the Ottoman Empire beginning in the sixteenth century. Under Ottoman rule the region developed important foundation institutions. These institutions helped develop cities like Damascus, Aleppo, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Mecca and Medina. Among these foundation institutions were libraries serving as scientific and cultural centres. These libraries were founded within the mosques and madrasas towards the end of the sixteenth century and played an important role for the scientific and cultural development of the region. According to archival documents and foreign sources the sultan and renowned persons of the region established libraries because they believed in their important role. This study is intended to provide information on their foundation, distribution and development through statistical data about libraries in the region and the specialties of their collections. Furthermore it attempts to clarify the general status of the hitherto unknown foundation libraries of the Ottoman Empire in the region.

Among other themes, Philip Noyce's controversial Australian film Rabbit Proof Fence calls attention to the harshness of enforced language policies. While current practices in our own milieus may not echo the severity of policies directed at Australia's Stolen Generations, the film is cause for examining language issues in our own communities. What effect do attitudes and policies toward English languages learners have on children attending public schools in the United States? What roles can both public and university libraries play in supporting linguistic diversity and in fostering a culture of pride versus shame? This paper examines modes of action, through library programming, collection development initiatives, outreach, and education to support both heritage and endangered languages.

The purpose of this paper is to express the differences and similarities of inter-disciplinary scholarly communications through the citation analysis of theses. For this purpose, a total of 29,289 citations from 391 theses between years 1968–2007 were investigated using citation analysis. Samples were chosen according to layer-sampling techniques from 16 disciplines of four basic subject areas (social sciences, pure science, engineering, and arts and humanities). It has been found out that the characteristics of citations of the theses differ among academic disciplines. The study finds that literature obsolescence, language of resources, journal or monograph use, number of citations and authors are related to the disciplines and vary according to the subject areas.

Theses and dissertations as the main products of the process of research at graduate and post-graduate levels are among the most important scientific documents of any country. By themselves, in combination, or in comparison with data from other sources of information, the set of data from such documents can provide a new source of information which is highly valuable from scientific and managerial points of view. However, a review of the related literature indicates that there is no uniform model which can incorporate all the various dimensions of these documents. The present article reports on the results of a study carried out to construct a comprehensive model to describe and analyze the information on theses and dissertations. To this end, the research problem is initially defined, followed by a literature review. The article continues with a description of the research method which involves the Delphi Method and a feasibility test. The study resulted in the identification of a total of 184 describable and analyzable items of information on theses and dissertations and their relevant information. The information items were classified into three categories including information on theses and dissertations, information related to them, and mixed information, all of which are discussed in terms of 12 different aspects.

This paper examines the status and evaluates the progress made towards the establishment of a management information system (MIS) for public administration in Uganda as well as considering the information needs of public administration in the country. The study focuses on the information systems of two central government ministries, the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED), and the local administration of five districts. In addition to a literature review, questionnaires were administered to 530 respondents. Data collected was analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The study reveals that although public administration in Uganda is based on New Public Management (NPM), an approach which exploits IT-based MIS, the information system that is in place is still dependant on printed data. Computer supplies are dismally inadequate, favour central as opposed to local government, and use of basic applications such as word-processing, constitutes the bulk of computer competency. Thus, the application of a management information system within a networked-computer environment barely exists. The study recommends developing ICT policy, strengthening MIS training, developing MIS infrastructure and providing and developing sectoral information analysis centres with relevant rights and obligations.