National Library Associations Research Articles

Interview with Ms Victoria Okojie, President of the Nigerian Library Association

PurposeTo interview Ms Victoria Okojie, incoming president of the Nigerian Library Association. This introduction of her is timely as this issue also contains a conference report of the Nigerian Library Association Annual Meeting. Concern about library education, the public sector, information technology and nearly every other aspect of concern to professional librarians is touched on in this interview.Design/methodology/approachThe work and career ladder of such highly visible people is captured via questions and leading statements.FindingsThe position of president of a national library association is a major role model for people entering the profession and those already deeply involved. Contemporary lay and professional leaders in the transformative library and information science environment are inspiring leaders and share priorities and goals about lobbying government for increased resources and commitments, and to foster partnerships and collaborations among many different sectors.Originality/valueProfessional development work is a very high priority and demonstrates to readers different styles and challenges leaders around the world face.

Information literacy and the role of national library and information associations

PurposeTo investigate the role of national library associations both in promoting information literacy and in advancing the interests of the practitioner library and information worker.Design/methodology/approachAn opinion piece based on information literacy practice world‐wide and recent debate on the role of national association and professional organisations in the UK.FindingsThe dynamic role of associations for the library and information profession in a variety of countries world‐wide gives an indication of how the profession should use its own national association.Research limitations/implicationsThis is purely an expression of opinion about the value of the relationship between national associations for the library and information profession and the promotion of information literacy.Practical implicationsGives some insight into how a national professional association is uniquely positioned to support professional status and encourage job opportunities by forward‐looking policy formulation and cross‐sectoral leadership, in particular in the area of information literacy.Originality/valueAn attempt to validate at practitioner level the impact and importance of a national association by reference to real practice‐based examples and demonstrably successful international models.

Guangdong Tushuguan Xuehui Sishi Nian (The Guangdong Library Association: 40 Years) (review)

Reviewed by: Guangdong Tushuguan Xuehui Sishi Nian (The Guangdong Library Association: 40 Years) Priscilla C. Yu Guangdong Tushuguan Xuehui Sishi Nian (The Guangdong Library Association: 40 Years). Edited by Cheng Huanwen (chief editor). Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Press, 2003. 825 pp. 80 yuan. ISBN 7-306-02188-5. China's rapid economic development and progress have masked the tortuous developmental road experienced before the introduction of the "opening and reform" policies in the early 1980s. Earlier institution building and reforms at all levels and sectors encountered many false starts or were abandoned; this was especially evident during the Cultural Revolution. Institution rebuilding has thus become a major task in China's march toward modernity. The history of China's library development since 1949 and the rebuilding of the system since the 1980s constitute a case study of the arduous task of institution building. Edited by Cheng Huanwen, university librarian at Zhongshan University, and associates, The Guangdong Library Association: 40 Years is a microstudy at the provincial level of one such endeavor for the period 1963–2003, with special attention to developments since the 1980s. The Guangdong Library Association was the first Chinese library association founded after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Association traces its origins to the Guangzhou City Library Staff Association, founded in 1957. The Guangdong Library Association was established in 1963; fifty plus members and over three hundred library employees from the city of Guangdong attended the Association's inaugural meeting. Though numerous national and regional library-related meetings were conducted during the intervening years, it was not until the end of 1977, following the downfall of the infamous "Gang of Four" in 1976, that the Association was renewed. (Between 1978 and 1980 the library associations of China's other provinces and municipalities were similarly revived, culminating in the founding of the national Chinese Library Association in 1979.) In 2002 the membership of the Guangdong Library Association had grown to 1,644, and through the endeavors of the Association a new era of library institution building and activities was initiated. Organized into fifteen chapters, the volume is a formal record of library development in one Chinese administrative unit, Guangdong Province (adjacent to Hong Kong), seen through the organization, activities, policies, and programs of the leadership of the provincial library association. Eight of the fifteen chapters consist of records (e.g., names of attendees, minutes, reports, and other documentation) of eight councils (1963–2002) of the Guangdong Library Association. Other chapters showcasing the Association include biographical accounts of leaders (chapter 2), a listing of group and individual awards (chapter 11), publications (chapter 12), membership lists (chapter 14), and other assembled data. A rich treasure of data is available for scholars. [End Page 572] As with similar volumes of compiled data, we are indebted to the editorial team for their dedication but are left wanting a critical analytical study, based in part upon the rich available documentation, that would provide greater insight into core basic issues of institution building in China during the past forty years. Such a study would illuminate the trials and tribulations of the Guangdong Library Association, such as the degree of centralization versus central-regional differences, the debate over foreign models of institution building, the discussion of "information science," and the extent and role of overseas Chinese financial and other contributions and international linkages (e.g., IFLA) in institution building in post–"open and reform" China. In sum, the aim of the work is to demonstrate the success of Guangdong Library Association's historical role in China's library development. Priscilla C. Yu University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Copyright © 2005 University of Texas Press

EBLIDA's action in Europe

EBLIDA is the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations. EBLIDA is an independent umbrella association of national library, information, documentation and archive associations and institutions in Europe. EBLIDA was founded in 1992. The initiative to start a new organisation for libraries in Europe came from Germany, UK, Denmark and The Netherlands. Members of EBLIDA are national associations for librarians and archivists. EBLIDA do also have libraries and archives as institutional members.

The National Library Association as an Instrument for Library Co-operation

The National Library Association as an Instrument for Library Co-operation

Fostering Librarian Leadership Through Mentoring

The aim of effective mentorship is to promote the development of the learner (Daloz, 2004). This article highlights my own leadership journey, sharing how mentoring has given my professional life direction, taught me passion, and how mentoring has fostered the development of my leadership skills. I emphasize several of my mentoring experiences and conclude by sharing deductions I have drawn as a direct result of these experiences. Finding a Professional Direction I began my library career in 1981 as a paraprofessional at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. I chose this job hot as a career path, but because the position provided free tuition benefits that would help me accomplish the most important life goal I had at that time, obtaining a bachelor's degree. I realized within the first 3 months of the job that a career as a professional librarian was not only highly desirable, but also a perfect match for my quest to work in an educational setting, my aspiration to serve others, and my requirement of working in a profession that actively supported lifelong learning. Without realizing what was happening, I was being mentored! My supervisors, coworkers, and other librarians in my organization all encouraged me to consider librarianship as a profession. I now realize that I was provided, through their informal mentoring, additional opportunities that would eventually spark my interest in becoming a librarian and eventually, in becoming a library leader. Learning That Mentoring Is a Passionate Cycle of Support Upon the acceptance of my first professional position, I once again was provided significant learning and leadership opportunities through informal mentoring. These experiences included encouragement to professionally publish, opportunities to continue my formal education, advice on how to become involved with local and national library associations, and administrative support to attend leadership training seminars. These positive experiences helped me realize that the only limitations to my career, and to the development of my leadership skills, were those that I choose to accept. I knew from their actions that my informal mentors were passionate about out profession and passionate about ensuring that the leadership for our profession prosper. I experienced how mentoring can make a difference in another person's life, and experienced how an informal mentoring network creates a passionate cycle of support. My informal mentors freely shared stories from their own mentoring experiences, and instilled in me the desire to continue the cycle of support when I was ready to take the next very important step. As I developed from a neophyte librarian to a middle-management librarian, I made the effort to continue the cycle of informal mentoring by encouraging my library student workers to consider a professional career in librarianship. As my skills developed and my reputation grew as a leader in local and national library associations, I continued the cycle of informal mentoring by encouraging and providing opportunities for the newly hired librarians at the institutions where I was employed. In addition to learning that effective mentoring is about creating a passionate and continuous circle of networking support, I also began learning informally about effective leadership skills by watching my mentors. I observed that good leaders constantly challenge themselves and found opportunities for self-improvement and was impressed that they acknowledged their leadership weaknesses and took time to participate in training that would help them improve these weaknesses. I noticed that leaders are good listeners and that no matter how poorly my mentors were treated, they always treated others with professionalism and respect. More importantly, I saw how my mentors were great leaders because they took the time to make personal and professional connections with people. …

A national library association for Vietnam

Vietnam has a fairly large body of dedicated library professionals working in a well structured library system. It is an anomaly that Vietnam does not have a national library association. This article advocates the creation of such a national organization for Vietnam. The first part of the article attempts to answer the question: what is a national library association for? Examples from both developed and developing countries are given to demonstrate the values of national library associations. The second part of the article is aimed at answering the second question: why do we need a national library association for Vietnam now? The author’s main arguments are the pressing needs imposed on the Vietnamese library community by the national standardization programme and the overhaul of the national library science curriculum.

Digital Library and Information Services in Southern Africa

Considers Southern African Development Community (SADC) digital library and information service (LIS) developments and observes an uneven regional pattern, the highlights of which are: though a number of libraries, mostly academic, have Web Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs), these facilities are generally underdeveloped across the region; South African and Namibian public libraries metadata is accessible on the Internet; regionally, there are a few Internet links to SADC based resources; digital information access policies are restrictive; leadership from National Library Associations is limited; and, regionally, a number of digital library projects are under way. The critical issues affecting digital LIS developments are: insufficient finance; lack of focused management strategies; underdeveloped information technology and communications infrastructure; predominance of English and low information and computer literacy rates. It is concluded that information technology advances require libraries to restructure, establish cooperative networks and empower selective target user groups with digital skills to give shape to the nucleus of a regional information society.

The problems of tertiary publishing in Africa and implications for the training and education of library and information professionals

Trainees in the library and information profession in Africa depend on textbooks emanating from outside Africa because of the dearth of local books. Even supposedly local books are generally patterned along Western lines and they are either descriptive or historical, so none of them can really be used as a basic textbook for any of the courses offered in library/ information science schools. This has greatly affected the training of library and information professionals in Africa as trainees are exposed to literature that is largely suited to situations outside their immediate environments. Several factors have been identified as being responsible for inadequate tertiary publications in the information profession in Africa. In order to improve tertiary publishing, the paper recommends that authors should embark on team authorship, international funding agencies and national governments should commission textbooks that are appropriate for the African setting, and also national library and information associations should be innovative by vigorously looking for sponsors who will publish manuscripts they have adjudged to have met international standards and at the same time relevant to the African setting.

Professional Communication Amongst Library and Information Professionals in Thailand

ABSTRACT Professional communication amongst library and information professionals in Thailand occurs through various channels and institutions. The most effective is membership in the Thai Library Association (TLA), the only national library association in Thailand, and its affiliated librarians groups. In this way, professionals can transfer and distribute information whilst exchanging knowledge, ideas, and experiences amongst themselves. This happens through the TLA Bulletin, TLA Newsletter, annual library conference, and seminars dealing with all aspects of library and information science that are relevant to the current situation and needs of people in the field. Other institutions, especially library schools and university libraries, also issue professional journals as well as organizing conferences and seminars. Through the Internet, computers are now widely used.

Les associations de bibliothèques de théologie. Un service pour la recherche

The recent publication of a guide to theological libraries in the Netherlands and in Dutch-speaking Belgium and the recent foundation of an association of theological libraries in French-speaking Belgium and in the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg provide the setting for a panoramic view of the various national and international theological library associations (especially in North America and Europe) and presents their objectives and concrete realisations in the service of theological research.

National Library Associations and Their Impact on Library Legislation: An International Survey

National Library Associations and Their Impact on Library Legislation: An International Survey

A Short History of The Library Association

As it approaches its Centenary in 1977, the Association can look back on a history of eventual triumph over persistent penury and apathy during its first fifty years, and over the country's worst economic depression, the Second World War and its aftermath in the period since 1928. The story of its successes and failures leading to its present dominant role as the controlling body for the profession in the United Kingdom is told in outline. It is the second oldest national library association in the world and, like Britain's postage stamps, it carries no country of origin in its title.

An Investigation of Female Leadership in Regional, State, and Local Library Associations, 1876-1923

This study was undertaken to extend the thesis of Sharon B. Wells on "The Feminization of the American Library Profession, 1876-1923," which concluded that women never dominated the top positions in the profession nationally. This study tested the hypothesis that female librarians did provide leadership in state organizations, local associations, and state positions during the years 1876-1923. The method employed was simply to list all persons who held the executive positions in particular national associations, and to compare the sex distribution with that of the persons who held executive positions in state library associations, library commissions, and local library associations. The data are derived from a sample of such listings for every third year during the period. The data indicate that women made up 31 percent of the officers in national library associations for the years 1890-1923; they also show that women tended to be better represented when the office was not a governmental position; only 20 percent of the state librarians were women. However, during the same period, 56 percent of the officers in library commissions, 60 percent of those in state associations, and 68 percent in local associations were women. Thus, the hypothesis--that women were more active in leadership roles on the local and state scene than at the national level--is supported by the data. While the proportion of women in such leadership roles never equaled their proportion in the profession overall, they were probably more active than might have been predicted considering the cultural climate of the period covered by the study.

The Law Libraries of Nigeria: A Reflection

Librarianship is comparatively one of the latest professions in Nigeria. The relative scarcity of libraries can therefore be fully appreciated. Librarians anywhere in the world have never earned recognition for the mere asking: recognition has to be fought for through all channels of communication, by inundating the State House with tons and tons of petitions and memoranda and occasionally by triggering off a small storm of public discussion on the subject. Nigerian librarians have fought successfully to gain recognition in the universities and other institutions of higher learning, by pressuring the Federal Government for a national library of repute. This struggle was brought to a glorious end by the magnanimous National Library Decree of 1970. In the sphere of public and school librarianship, obvious evidence exists proving state neglect and indifference. The main preoccupation of the Nigerian Library Association at the moment is to convince the Nigerian Federal and State Governments of the value and usefulness of library services so that library development may attract a substantial vote for their annual budget. Librarians thus still expend their energy on writing petitions and memoranda and on sending deputations to the authorities. This period of consolidation demands that all efforts should be harnessed and directed into building up a dynamic and formidable National Library Association so as to put librarianship generally on a proper footing. Professional associations for specialized libraries, other than an all-embracing Association, do not exist in Nigeria. An Association for Law Librarians, as desirable as it is, will have to wait till a more sophisticated library system is organized in Nigeria.

Ifla and Fid: History and Programs

T HE International Federation of Library Associations (abbreviated in the English form as IFLA; in the French form as FIAB, from Federation Internationale des Associations de Bibliothecaires) and the International Federation for Documentation (most commonly abbreviated as FID from the French form, Federation Internationale de Documentation) have shared in the difficulties common to international organizations generally. Of these, war is, of course, the most disastrous; and both have suffered-the FID from two world wars. Communications disrupted by war are re-established only slowly, and the aftermaths of war, both political and economic, accentuate the problems inherent in international organization. International co-operative efforts flounder among differing cultural backgrounds and values; differing philosophies and patterns of national organization; varying levels of development, both economic and educational; instability of financial support due in part to lack of economic resources and in part to indifference; and, inevitably, the language barrier in a world where even the previously accepted trilingual (French, English and German) communication is no longer adequate. Foremost among the difficulties at the present time, and facing both IFLA and FID, is the challenge to become truly international in representation and participation rather than predominantly western European as formerly. The original impetus for the organization of the two federations could scarcely be more in contrast. IFLA originated in a suggestion from the French Association of Librarians at an international congress in Czechoslovakia, was brought into being with the assistance of one of the strongest national library associations, the American Library Association, at the request of an international committee of prominent librarians. It had its first meeting in Rome under a Swedish chairman who was one of a group of international experts called in to advise on the cataloging of the library of an international organization, that of the Vatican. The FID was founded by two men, not librarians but lawyers, passionately international in outlook, who attracted as members individual scholars who shared with them the vision of one world of scholarship. The original goals of the two organizations are equally in contrast. That of IFLA was, and is, broad and diffuse: to promote international library cooperation. FID's goal was highly spe-

Some impressions concerning recent developments in music libraries in colleges and universities

The organization of music librarians as a professional group dates back 1931 when the Music Library Association was founded. It now has a membership of more than 1000 individual institutional members. The purposes of the Music Library Association are to promote the establishment, growth and use of music libraries and collections of music and musical literature in the United States and Canada; initiate and encourage studies aiming improve the organization, administration and contents of such libraries and in pursuance of these aims co-operate with other organizations in related fields. The Music Library Association is affiliated with the American Library Association and the American Musicological Society. It is a member of the National Music Council and the Council of the National Library Association and publishes an extremely useful and scholarly journal under the title Notes. Various studies reveal that the trend of establishing Music Libraries in the departments of our universities and colleges has been largely an activity of the last decade. This trend partially fills a need for making available an adequate collection of research and reference materials for the graduate student. The brief study described in the following paragraphs was undertaken during September, 1948, in an effort make a comparison of more recently established music libraries in certain representative colleges and universities. It was conducted for the purpose of contributing the comprehensive planning for the development of the Music Library of George Peabody College for Teachers. The method of investigation for this study involved a four-week tour of the libraries mentioned in Table I given with this report, followed by questionnaires verify and supplement information obtained on the visit.

The Council of National Library Associations

The Council of National Library Associations