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Identifies the various careers associated with library and information science. Apart from the existing information careers described, also identifies new related areas. Notes that a re‐training programme is necessary if library and information science graduates are to fit into the new information‐related jobs and that African departments of library and information science should review their training objectives and curricula to cater for information‐related jobs other than the training of librarians. Submits that library jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to come by and points out the need to prepare the library and information science graduate for other equally profitable and exciting areas.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from the research carried out among the directors of Croatian public libraries about cooperation between public libraries and the academic community and about promotion of science in Croatian public libraries. Owing to their number, strategic position in society and the skills and knowledge of librarians, public libraries have an opportunity to cooperate more intensively with the scientific community, expand their holdings with science‐related content and to offer new services. Some already cooperate with the Croatian scientific community by participating in joint research projects and in promoting science. Although cooperation with the scientific community is not among their priorities, Croatian public libraries are enthusiastic to continue with this type of activity.

The first part of the paper offers an introduction followed by a short review of the current position of public libraries in society and possibilities for strengthening their position by cooperating with the scientific community (in the second part of the paper). The third part introduces the research among the directors of Croatian public libraries followed by the presentation of the findings of the same research. An online survey consisting of 19 closed questions was used as a method of research. An e‐mail invitation to participate in the research was sent to all public libraries in Croatia.

The outcome of the research may serve as an orientation to the members of the Croatian academic community when planning new cooperation with public libraries and vice versa. The findings of the research may also serve as an orientation to the directors of Croatian public libraries when considering expansions of their holdings with new material related to science and in the development of new offline and online services.

The strategic position of public libraries in society makes them of interest for promotion of results of developments in many areas of human endeavour, including science, by using their holdings, services and premises. According to the research findings, public libraries participate actively in popularisation of science by using their existing holdings and services. Public libraries in Croatia are promoting science actively and are participating in scientific projects led by scientific institutions. Their holdings contain popular science titles, and they offer services to facilitate access to scientific information. Public libraries included in the survey plan to continue with the promotion of science, as they believe that this activity is important for them.

The paper aims to advance understanding of the role of public libraries in Croatia and their role in promotion of science, and contributes to the growth of library and information science literature on topics related to public libraries.

No scholarly publications have systematically studied the evolution and growth of China's scientific papers of library and information science published in the English language and covered by ISI during the reform era starting in 1979. It is intended that this paper should fill this gap.

This study surveys ISI library and information science papers authored by researchers of China during 1979‐2009 and quantitatively presents the development of scholarly publications authored by researchers from China. A total of 30 years of data of ISI literature are collected and analyzed, and the paper conducts an international comparison of research productivity among leading Asian countries.

The paper establishes the patterns and trends of papers authored by Chinese authors, particularly the top subject areas and top journals in which Chinese papers are highly represented. Besides, the paper makes an international comparison between China and other major Asian countries such as India, Japan, and Korea in terms of library and information science research outputs represented in ISI literature. China has become the leader in terms of research productivity of library and information science.

This study focuses on English‐language journal articles only. Only journals meeting ISI inclusion criteria are reviewed and analyzed. The possible accidentally inaccurate entries in the original ISI data have not been checked for accuracy and consistency for each journal article record.

The paper provided an example of using the powerful ISI databases of citation indexes, particularly ISI SCCI, in a cautious and critical way. It empirically presents the overall upward development of China's scholarship of library and information science. Either the Greater China area as a whole or Mainland China alone has become the leader in the scholarly publications in library and information ahead of India, Korea and Japan.

A statistical analysis is made of the professional literature of librarians and information scientists in an attempt to uncover the patterns of information flow and to evaluate the abstracting services provided for information workers. Citation analysis of some English language information science journals throws light on the principal sources used by British and American information scientists and the linguistic and national biases in the citations given. The growth of the subject matter published in the field of information science is displayed. Five abstracting services are evaluated. Their scope in terms of the language, country of origin, subject matter and format of the material selected and abstracted is determined. Coverage is assessed in comparison with three bibliographies in this subject area. Currency is determined from NRLSI acquisition dates. Key journals are found from productivity analysis of the abstracted journals. Conclusions are drawn as to the adequacy of the present services and suggestions made for possible improvements.

To provide an overview of library and information science education in Rwanda.

Description mainly through personal experience.

The history of library manpower development in Rwanda has been turbulent. Establishing the first ever formal library and information science program has had many challenges. However, graduates from the program are slowly and steadily changing the library landscape in Rwanda.

Library and information science education in Rwanda has not been well documented and particularly challenges in faced in establishing a formal library and information science program.

This chapter reviews significant advances in health sciences librarianship, highlighting developments between 1970 and 2005. During this time Advances in Librarianship published two chapters that dealt with health sciences librarianship. The first appeared in 1971 with volume two. Written by David Bishop (1971), then at the University of Arizona, it focused on developments in the 1960s and provided a review of the MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) system, the beginnings of the regional medical library (RML) program and advances in library services and information resources. The second chapter devoted to health sciences libraries appeared in the ninth volume of Advances in Librarianship. In it Donald Hendricks (1979) from the University of New Orleans highlighted collaborative programs among health sciences libraries, the growing reliance on computer applications, professional development programs, clinical medical librarian services and the accomplishments of the Medical Library Association (MLA).

Using bibliometrics to examine eight core journals in the year 2000 for the disciplines of higher education and library science, characteristics of the authors were determined, including gender or sex; Carnegie Classification or institutional affiliation; and position of the authors. Characteristics of the articles were also examined, including the research methods used such as descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, or qualitative analysis. A content analysis of each article was performed to determine the subjects discussed in each literature. For both disciplines, it was learned that males publish more, the highest Carnegie Classification, extensive research institutions, were represented the most, and authors came from academic departments other than their own disciplines. In higher education, inferential statistics were used frequently; in library and information descriptive statistics were used frequently; both disciplines failed to use research methodologies regularly. From these findings, it appears that both disciplines are still emerging and are in their early stages of development.