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1 – 10 of 22The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the…
Abstract
The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.
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Melanie T. Benson and Peter Willett
The purpose of this paper is to describe the historical development of library and information science (LIS) teaching and research in the University of Sheffield's Information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the historical development of library and information science (LIS) teaching and research in the University of Sheffield's Information School since its founding in 1963.
Design/methodology/approach
The history is based on published materials, unpublished school records, and semi-structured interviews with 19 current or ex-members of staff.
Findings
The School has grown steadily over its first half-century, extending the range of its teaching from conventional programmes in librarianship and information science to include cognate programmes in areas such as health informatics, information systems and multi-lingual information management.
Originality/value
There are very few published accounts of the history of LIS departments.
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The background leading up to the estblishment of a library and information (LIS) school by a consortium of university libraries in the Bristol area is described. Course…
Abstract
The background leading up to the estblishment of a library and information (LIS) school by a consortium of university libraries in the Bristol area is described. Course development and structure are examined. Practical consequences of the course and issues arising from the school’s establishment and operation are discussed within a broader professional context. These include the use of practitioners as lecturers and implications for research; and developments in the professional curriculum including the place of generic skills and specialisms.
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Purpose — This chapter provides an historical overview of assessments of research quality conducted by the UK funding councils in the period 1986–2008, with special reference to…
Abstract
Purpose — This chapter provides an historical overview of assessments of research quality conducted by the UK funding councils in the period 1986–2008, with special reference to the assessments that have been carried out of departments in the library and information management (LIM) sector.
Methodology/approach — A literature review covering both LIM-specific material and more general sources discussing the assessment of research quality in UK universities.
Findings — There is clear evidence of an increase in the general quality of the research carried out by the LIM sector over the review period. This has been accompanied by a decrease in the number of traditional LIM departments submitting themselves for assessment, with these being replaced in the assessment process largely by information systems departments. The rankings over the review period have been dominated by a small number of departments with long-established research traditions.
Originality/value of the paper — While there is an extensive literature describing research assessment in general, and a few articles describing individual assessments in the LIM sector, there is no overview of the involvement of the LIM departments over the whole series of assessment exercises that has been carried out.
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This brief survey looks at library school fieldwork placements and the current problems and constraints. It does not approach the subject from a theoretical viewpoint, but looks…
Abstract
This brief survey looks at library school fieldwork placements and the current problems and constraints. It does not approach the subject from a theoretical viewpoint, but looks at the practicalities of the situation, as they are experienced by placement tutors/liaison officers, host librarians and students. No attempt is made to review the considerable literature originating on both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere. The emphasis is on current views and all material was collected between October 1985 and February 1986. Comments on library school practices have deliberately been kept brief, as their point is not to inform academics, who are well aware of the position, but to promote understanding. All too often there is a communication gap, and many librarians, and indeed many students, may not realise the parameters within which a school is operating. Similarly tutors and students may not fully understand the constraints affecting librarians/information officers in a vast range of institutions. Tutors and librarians may lose sight of the students' needs and the heavy demands that placement can make on them.
There was a time — some might say a blessed time — when our professional curricula were assumed to be resting securely on the bedrock of a European culture. It was further assumed…
Abstract
There was a time — some might say a blessed time — when our professional curricula were assumed to be resting securely on the bedrock of a European culture. It was further assumed that this Eurocentric culture was eternally self‐subsistent, and not contingent upon, or indebted to, any source outside itself. For a considerable time our professional curricula were a pale derivative of this humanistic culture; many readers may remember the Library Association's Registration Examination in English literature. This paper consisted of a hefty gallop from Chaucer to the present day — a gallop that usually left quite a few riderless horses wandering aimlessly round the course. The curriculum was ill‐conceived, and it was badly taught; nonetheless in its own limited way it helped to make students aware of aesthetic values and imparted, however vaguely, a sense of the history of ideas. Book selection was considered to be an important activity and it was fashionable to agonise whether the ideal librarian should be an administrator or a bookman (sic). Then came the impact of technology. Librarians became information managers, the organization of knowledge became information management and we witnessed the re‐emergence and ascendancy of Benthamite man. Indeed, old Jeremy would have been proud of us as we enthusiastically adapted his famous “felicific calculus” to the measurement of user satisfaction. By this time the “user” as a concept had mutated from being a “borrower”, or even a “reader” and the information‐gathering behaviour of human beings had become a special study of its own. If this potentially valuable study is ever to be enlightening and productive it must include all kinds and conditions of people in varying contexts of cultural change and linguistic settings. It is tempting to limit the analysis to a ruler and stopwatch approach to specialized groups in readily definable roles; the approach has a tidy look about it and is more susceptible to the methodologies of the sciences and social sciences. Such an approach encircles reality as a doughnut does its hole; it is an approach that is doubly deceptive because it has the appearance of being scientific.
Barrie Kempthorne, Norman Roberts, Stephen Curtis and Ruth Kerns
From delightful Aberystwyth word trickles through the Libraryland grapevine that Frank Hogg, Principal of College of Librarianship Wales, will retire shortly. Prompts a thought or…
In this session I want to take the conference theme — ‘Information for decision‐making’ and attempt to examine how the development of community information provision in public…
Abstract
In this session I want to take the conference theme — ‘Information for decision‐making’ and attempt to examine how the development of community information provision in public libraries in Great Britain can and does assist improved decision‐making both by the general public, including certain groups of people in particular, and library staff. I am conscious, in talking to an audience which I suspect is, in the main, comprised of colleagues from special and academic libraries, that there is a view amongst some of you at least, that ‘community information’ is one of those ‘harebrained schemes’ which are nothing to do with ‘real’ librarianship and are contributing to the decline in standards of public library services. I hope to convince those people, and indeed all of you, that community information is one of the most significant developments that public libraries have ever undertaken.
28 August this year is the 20th anniversary (I think!) of the date on which I published the first titles under my newly‐created librarianship imprint of Clive Bingley Ltd. I say…
Abstract
28 August this year is the 20th anniversary (I think!) of the date on which I published the first titles under my newly‐created librarianship imprint of Clive Bingley Ltd. I say ‘I think’ because, although I have a nostalgic taste for anniversaries — they are so happily meaningless in themselves — I recently discovered quite by chance that the date in January on which for many years my wife and I have celebrated with good wine the anniversary of the evening on which we first went out together is wrong by a fortnight! But I am pretty sure my first independent publishing date was at the end of August 1965.
A country no stronger than its information As a result of the new Gramm‐Rudman‐Hollings law which mandates a balanced federal budget by 1991 (a cut of $9.9m), and an $8.4 in…
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A country no stronger than its information As a result of the new Gramm‐Rudman‐Hollings law which mandates a balanced federal budget by 1991 (a cut of $9.9m), and an $8.4 in budget reduction by Congress, the Library of Congress is suffering a total cutback of 7.6% from last year. This means a loss of $1 in every $13. The total number of hours open will be reduced by 30% per week; evening and weekend hours by 59%. The Library will be unable to purchase some 80 000 new books.