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21 – 30 of 646Examines contemporary French initiatives to harness advances ininformation technology to upgrade document supply services in thenational library system. Interlibrary loan and…
Abstract
Examines contemporary French initiatives to harness advances in information technology to upgrade document supply services in the national library system. Interlibrary loan and document supply had not been organized in France, up to the last few years, and the creation of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and European projects for libraries once again raise the question of a national system for document delivery. At the same time the recent awareness of the importance of getting the right information when it is needed, along with the possibilities offered by new information technologies, have triggered rapid growth of document supply activities in France. In order to respond to the demand, INIST is preparing a profound mutation, setting up new organizational rules and integrating all the more advanced technologies available for document storage and electronic transfer.
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To share the experience of developing processes for managing the internal documents of a national library – the Bibliothèque Nationale de France – in a country where records…
Abstract
Purpose
To share the experience of developing processes for managing the internal documents of a national library – the Bibliothèque Nationale de France – in a country where records management is still not well known and rarely applied.
Design/methodology/approach
The initiative used the Design and Implementation of RecordKeeping Systems methodology. Its main aim was to ensure that best practice, as outlined in the ISO 15489 standard, was applied to the management of electronic documents just as best practice had been applied to managing paper documents for many years in the National Library of France. Particular requirements were to track the information essential to the managing the Library's affairs, to preserve evidence of it intellectual property rights and to promote the documents which could enable its history to be written
Findings
Highlights the importance of communication, training and using the knowledge and skills of a different specialist staff and the implications of new ways of working for Library staff. Considers future work.
Practical implications
Highlights the crucial role played by the Library's new president and chief executive officer in the success of the project.
Originality/value
This paper is a useful case study of implementing records management processes to manage an organisation's own electronic information where the organisation's purpose is the management of information, much of it published information.
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THE first surprise when travelling by air from Fiji to Western Samoa is that one leaves Fiji on Saturday and arrives in Western Samoa on Friday. This is because of crossing the…
Abstract
THE first surprise when travelling by air from Fiji to Western Samoa is that one leaves Fiji on Saturday and arrives in Western Samoa on Friday. This is because of crossing the International Date Line en route and a story is told in Fiji of a man who owned a shop through which the date line ran. Sunday trading is frowned on in Fiji but our friend got round this by opening only half of his shop on Sunday—the half on the Saturday or Monday side of the date line. It is therefore not surprising that the Fiji Times describes itself as “the first newspaper in the world every day”.
Briefly discusses the origins, history and current working of theThe Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Notes the computerisedbibliographic database linked to the computerised…
Abstract
Briefly discusses the origins, history and current working of the The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Notes the computerised bibliographic database linked to the computerised national network. Advises that this database, BN OPALE, is to expand very soon as the progressive retrospective loading of old files is made and French libraries enter their own collections.
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Aims to assess and identify the main trends of shared conservation of library collections in France.
Abstract
Purpose
Aims to assess and identify the main trends of shared conservation of library collections in France.
Design/methodology/approach
Presents two co‐existing approaches to the subject: first, an approach based on the principle of distributed conservation, spread around a certain number of establishments; and second, a centralised approach in which a given network of libraries shares pooled conservation. Compares drawbacks and advantages of these two approaches.
Findings
The drawbacks of the “distributed” system are as follows. Sometimes the participating libraries' lack of experience causes problems for the physical transfer of documents from one library to another. There is the risk of the scheme slowing down or stopping altogether. The advantages of this approach are that it can be launched without major initial investment. The “centralised” shared conservation system also has drawbacks. It requires an initial investment in terms of a building, capital equipment and job creation. However, this system has numerous advantages. The CTLes is seen as a real participant in the inter‐library cooperation network.
Originality/value
A new project in France will probably provide an opportunity to combine the two approaches. This is the shared conservation scheme for medical periodicals among university libraries in the Paris region (Ile de France). If it succeeds, the methodology used could be adopted or adapted to other disciplines and other regions.
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Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).
Purpose — This chapter describes how incoherent government policies implemented in the first two decades (1970–1990) following the official recognition of Information science (IS…
Abstract
Purpose — This chapter describes how incoherent government policies implemented in the first two decades (1970–1990) following the official recognition of Information science (IS) as an academic discipline within the broader interdiscipline of Information and Communication Sciences (ICS), shaped the current landscape of IS in France. This led to a narrow conception of IS often reduced to a technical specialty solving the problem of information explosion by setting up bibliographic databases, document indexing and delivery services.
Design/methodology/approach — The approach is historical and comparative. The author relies on earlier accounts by previous French authors and performs a comparison with the situation of IS in Anglophone countries (United States mostly).
Findings — The historical narrow conception of IS is now outdated. IS neither plays the role of gatekeeper anymore to scientific and technical information nor to information access since the generalisation of Internet search engines. Its scientific community in France lacks identity and is fast dwindling. Also, its problematics are not properly identified.
Research limitations/implications — Field work involving interviews of French figures and archival research could not be carried out in the limited time and means available. This needs to be done in the future.
Practical implications — This chapter should stimulate more comparative approach on the way Library & Information Science (LIS) is structured in other countries. Although the French situation appears unique in that IS is embedded within an interdiscipline (ICS) and does not exist autonomously, other similarities could be found in other countries where IS has had a similar trajectory and lessons could be learned.
Social implications — This chapter may serve as a stepping stone for future research on the historical foundations and epistemology of IS in France and elsewhere. It should also help disseminate to the LIS community at large how the French IS landscape has been evolving, since most French scholars publish in French, language has indeed been a barrier to disseminating their research worldwide.
Originality/value — There has not been a recent and comprehensive study which has looked at the peculiarities of the French IS landscape but also at the commonalities it shares with the situation of IS in other countries with respect to how the field originated and how it has evolved.
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1983 saw the birth of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at La Villette in Paris and with it a multimedia library. The library currently holds some 300,000 documents as well…
Abstract
1983 saw the birth of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at La Villette in Paris and with it a multimedia library. The library currently holds some 300,000 documents as well as thousands of films, slides and computer programs. Entirely automated, the library uses two systems: MEDICIS for its acquisitions and cataloguing and GEAC for the circulation and online public access catalogue (OPAC). This is the first OPAC in France and is also accessible through the French Minitel videotex network. The library is divided into adult, children and research sections and also has an educational software area as well as a specially equipped room for the visually handicapped. This article describes the library and its catalogue, stock and services and notes the reactions and habits of users.