Information Development

Increasing use is made of library consultants to advise the health authorities in the developing countries on improving information support to personnel employed in the national health system. The main problems encountered by consultants are structural as services must be provided to a widely dispersed user population. Intersectoral coordination should be exercised in order to obtain access to health-related information resources operating outside the administrative scope of the ministry of health. Financing is a critical aspect due to the multiplicity of potential funding sources. Technical aspects rank last and only two areas are discussed in some detail: collection development and bibliographic information retrieval. A comparison shows that the consultant working in a system context requires a whole range of specific qualities, skills and experiences in addition to those that compose the basic profile of the single-library consultant.

Presents the findings and recommendations of a Unesco consultancy to prepare a library development plan for Papua New Guinea in 1990. Due to lack of time, the plan focused on public library development. Outlines the need for public library services to be extended to rural, as well as urban, areas. Describes the requirements for developing the public library infrastructure, including clear designation of responsibility for public libraries, adequate financial provision, promotion of coordination and cooperation, development of public library policy and legislation and the education and training of staff. Emphasises the need for close links with literacy programmes and book development.

The use of microfilm as a means of governing huge volumes of documents in offices is familiar to many. However, the planning issue for designing and implementing a microfilm system has not been adequately addressed by practitioners. Presents a protocol for the planning of a computer-based microfilm system that has been designed and implemented in the library of a medium-sized manufacturing firm in Hong Kong. To facilitate the planning process, a number of decision support systems were developed.

Describes the background to the establishment and development of the Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern African Librarians (SCECSAL) and assesses its effectiveness, particularly in terms of the implementation of conference resolutions by member library associations.

Reference services in libraries in developing countries constitute a challenge for library managers and planners, if based on the following framework: (1) identification of information sources within the library to cater for an information need, (2) identification of external information sources to cater for an information need; (3) generation of inhouse information sources to cater for perceived information needs, and (4) pooling of inhouse and external reference resources. This present challenge is an undeniable need as libraries start pooling resources in the future.

Edited version of a paper originally published in a volume to commemorate the opening of the National Library of Sri Lanka in 1990. Describes the structure and problems of the small and medium scale industrial sector in Sri Lanka, the various government agencies which have been set up to guide and support the development of the sector, and the need for better industrial data and information services in these institutions.

The following abstracts of current documents in library and information science are edited versions of entries from Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) reproduced with the permission of the Editor, Nicholas L. Moore. The aim of this listing is to draw the attention of Information Development readers to documents which are international in scope, particularly those dealing with the problems of the developing countries. Items from Information Development itself are excluded, since a list of articles which have appeared in previous issues is published in the journal from time to time when space permits.

The entries have been arranged in a broadly geographical sequence, with the original classification symbols and reference numbers appended to facilitate reference of the entries in LISA, which also provides alphabetical name and subject indexes and an outline of the classification scheme.

Would readers please note that enquiries regarding the documents listed here should be addressed to the publisher concerned, not to the Information Development editorial office or to Mansell Publishing. In case of difficulty, publisher's addresses may be obtained from LISA at the address given below.