Editorial

Program: electronic library and information systems

ISSN: 0033-0337

Article publication date: 24 July 2009

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Citation

Tedd, L.A. (2009), "Editorial", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 43 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2009.28043caa.001

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Program: electronic library and information systems, Volume 43, Issue 3

This special issue of Program: electronic library and information systems contains a selection of papers based on presentations made at the Bridging Worlds Conference organised by the National Library of Singapore in October 2008. The Bridging Worlds Conference was aimed at information/knowledge/culture professionals and educators, and according to its web site (www.bridgingworlds.sg/) it focused “on how the information, knowledge and cultural institutions are responding to the social and information future while continuing to connect with their diverse communities in appropriate spaces, engaging with them to build the culture, information and knowledge dividend”. The conference was an international one, with 231 attendees from 21 countries. As the conference covered Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 matters there were several examples of posting on blogs etc. relating to the conference. One of the authors of papers in this selection, Ivan Chew, provided his views on some of the papers attended in his blog “Rambling Librarian: Incidental thoughts of a Singaporean liblogarian” (see http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/search/label/BridgingWorlds).

Penny Carnaby, the National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of New Zealand, provided the keynote presentation at the opening of the conference and we are very grateful that she updated her presentation for the paper on “Libraries as the common denominator” in this issue.

The conference was structured into four “tracks”. In the description for Track 1, the organisers stated:

The term 2.0 in many cultural institutions has come to stand for experimentation with the flexibility of new media. But it is much more than technology, it challenges these institutions to re-appraise, re-present and re-deliver a different experience to patrons. This track looks at libraries as a case study and examines how Library 2.0 is being used on a day-to-day basis, offering practical examples of how it transforms the patron experience. It also asks, if this is the future or just another over-hyped phenomenon?

Two of the papers in this selection are from this track: Peter Godwin, from the University of Bedfordshire, looks at the links between Web 2.0 and information literacy and Ivan Chew, from the National Library of Singapore, provides an overview of how library institutions in the South East Asian (SEA) region have implemented Web 2.0 technologies. The second track covered the physical aspects of library buildings in the changing Web 2.0 world and Track 3 included presentations on the development of specialist search engines, social tagging and folksonomies for information discovery. Cindi Trainor, from Eastern Kentucky University Libraries in the USA, whose paper was presented in Track 3, describes ways in which librarians can combine open source software with user-generated content to create a richer discovery experience for their users. The final track was entitled, Our world, Our community, Our audience and paper contributors were asked to investigate the roles cultural institutions, such as libraries, play in communities and how they can build audience share based on these communities, physically and virtually, as well as what can they do to market and measure themselves to keep their image relevant and the budgets buoyant. Three of the papers selected cover this important area: Stigter, the marketing manager of The European Library provides an overview of the marketing strategies used in this project involving the national libraries of Europe; Brian Kelly, of UKOLN at the University of Bath, UK, with colleagues from Canada, England and Wales describe the risk assessment and risk management approach which are being developed to minimise the dangers while allowing the benefits of Library 2.0 to be realised; and finally Joe Pagano of the Library of Congress in the US provides practical advice on developing a metrics-based online strategy for libraries.

Johnson Paul is the Deputy Director of Information Services at the National Library Board of Singapore – and so was instrumental in the setting up and running of the Bridging Worlds conference. As a long-standing member of our Editorial Board he suggested papers from the conference that might be of relevance for readers of Program: electronic library and information systems. We therefore hope that this selection of papers will enable a wider audience to gain benefit from the experiences of colleagues in bridging worlds – happy reading!

Lucy A. Tedd, Johnson Paul

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