As a public library, a public good, provides many external benefits for the community it belongs to, its public value needs to be carefully assessed. More specifically, the Korean Government demands information on the public value that ensues from the establishment of the Gwangju branch of the National Library. This paper therefore attempts to…

Collaboration in the digital domain offers an opportunity to provide enhanced digital services and extended reach to the community. This article adopts a service-oriented perspective through which it considers environmental drivers for digital library collaboration; discusses emergent collaborative partnerships across UK educational institutions,…

There have been substantial changes in the labour market over the past few years and survey results indicate 60% of staff will leave public library service over the next decade. While this creates opportunities for library staff, limited training budgets and a focus on compliance and specific library skills training have led to a gap in the formal…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate library web sites in Pakistan, to analyse their content and navigational strengths and weaknesses and to give recommendations for developing better web sites and quality assessment studies. Design/methodology/approach: Survey of web sites of 52 academic, special, public and national libraries in…

The author describes the aptly-named "Better Beginnings" early childhood literacy project. Conducted by the State Library of Western Australia, sponsored by the WA State Government and Rio Tinto Limited, and closely monitored by Edith Cowan University, "Better Beginnings" has been successful from the outset, with proven…

Examines the activities of major library institutions in China including the Society of Chinese Libraries, the National Library, provincial and public libraries, and university libraries. (LLS)

Drawing on recent experience and observation in New South Wales, this paper describes issues facing authorities, planners and librarians who are working on public library building projects. The author emphasises the need for all involved to focus not just on traditional good design principles, but also on user needs, consulting the community,…

This paper reports a research project funded by the State Library of NSW and the National Library of Australia which focuses on the training needs of public librarians for using electronic databases, and the subsequent development of training modules to address them. The paper discusses literature relevant to training issues in database use for…

Discusses the responsibility of local libraries to provide information services to local government and act as a contact point between the government and its community. The distinction between internal and external information sources is examined, and problems of information delivery resulting from a lack of inter-council cooperation are…

In response to significant changes in the Indigenous information landscape, the State Library of New South Wales and Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney, hosted a Colloquium, "Libraries and Indigenous Knowledge," in December 2004. The two-day Colloquium brought together professionals, practitioners and…

Bibliotek.dk is a development project, resulting in a World Wide Web site, that gives the Danish citizen access via the Internet to search and order material in the collections of Danish public and research libraries. The citizen decides himself or herself which library he or she wants to collect the material from. Bibliotek.dk is developed in…

The 17 papers in this booklet were presented at meetings of 7 sections within the Division of Serving the General Public: (1) "Overcoming Illiteracy and Public Library Social Functions Development" (Slava Matlina, USSR); (2) "Impact of Economic and Political Change upon Public Library Services" (E. S. Ponomaryova, USSR); (3)…

Reports the results of a study that surveyed online vendors of both large and microcomputer based library management systems to examine patterns of system installation in public, university, college, special, and government libraries in Canada. A directory of online vendors is provided. (CLB)

Discusses the recent development of libraries in Cambodia. Topics include rebuilding the infrastructure; restoring old libraries and opening new ones; government libraries; public libraries; academic libraries; cultural considerations; collections; staffing; support from the United Nations and other international organizations; and the lack of…

Presents results of intensive biographical interviews with male and female directors of academic, government, and large public library systems across Canada to examine differences in career paths. Topics discussed include publication record; professional associations; mobility; preprofessional library work experience; administrative preparation;…