Information Development

A charter cannot transform library and information services without political champions, public pressure, norms and standards, legislation, and a transformed mind-set.

Research findings have reported lack of reliable health data and poor management for district health information systems in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). This paper aims to review the literature on problems with health data quality management and health information evidences and evidences of best practices and use at community and district levels in LMIC, with a view to making recommendations for future research. Research citations, conference proceedings and diseases surveillance reports from 2000–2011 were accessed in PubMed, Medline, LISTA (EBSCO), CINAHL, Cochrane, and Google. Relevant studies were selected, the methodologies critiqued and synthesized. The researchers accessed 1383, and 38 were reviewed by three reviewers. Poor quality health data, low level of health information use, and poor management of health information systems were found. These findings hinder evidence-based decisions based and planning at community and district levels in LMIC. Though poor practices were found, improved health care services delivery with improved health data efficiency was found to be possible.

This paper is located within global debates about intellectual property. International agencies, mindful that third world/developing world resources are being appropriated by global corporate bodies, seek to intervene to protect countries that are unable to fend off the often subtle alienation of their national and natural assets. In this context, the cultural and intellectual resources of countries, peoples, communities and other collectives have become the subject of policy regulation. This paper focuses on policies developed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). WIPO attempts to protect Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs) (folklore) against misappropriation and misuse. In this paper, the question asked is whether it is possible or desirable to protect all types of TK and TCEs that are constituent elements of indigenous knowledge and uses the case of Cameroon to provide examples to assist with answering these questions. It is argued that in some cases, it may be both possible and desirable, but that in other cases, there are constraints, as knowledge is secret or sacred. When such knowledge is not in the public domain it cannot be protected. Seeking to protect these types of expression and knowledge might, indeed, endanger them by removing them from the very context which provides their status as indigenous knowledge.

This paper evolved from a project supported by the European Commission TEMPUS programme that provided technical assistance for developments in Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan. The project (NMPLIS) sought to underpin the modernization of library and information services by assisting the development of new Master’s Degree programmes in Librarianship and Information Studies. The paper addresses a wide range of issues that were encountered during the project, including the dissemination of research information as well as the state of publishing, bookselling, libraries, and information services in those countries. It draws attention to the relatively poor international and bilateral support for library development compared with that formerly received by the ‘developing’ countries, despite their economic similarities. It notes that the activities of international governmental and non-governmental agencies to offset the catastrophic effects of the disintegration of the centralized Soviet system have lacked coordination, and emphasizes the need for national governments to be encouraged to take a comprehensive, strategic approach to ensure more sustainable development of their library and information services, suggesting that this approach could be appropriate for the other post-Soviet Republics.

This article reports on an innovative project which grew out of the desire to facilitate access to information using the Quick Response (QR) Code. Easily read by mobile phones with cameras, the QR Code provides a simple but effective means for library patrons to access library resources. The article explores the need to use the QR Code in the Brand van Zyl Law Library, University of Cape Town (UCT), for accessing academic library services. Although relatively new in South Africa, QR Codes have been used successfully by some local educational institutions. Against this background, the article reports on a needs analysis which was conducted at the Brand Van Zyl Law Library and recommends the accelerating use of QR Codes in the academic environment.

Despite the widespread use of social media by students and their increased use in higher education, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the prevalence of use among academic librarians. The objectives of this study are: a) to identify the prevalence of social media used in Malaysian academic libraries; b) to examine the reasons for creating a social media presence among academic libraries; and c) to understand the obstacles to social media participation among academic librarians. Data were gathered via three focus study groups with 22 librarians from three research-intensive universities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The results indicated that at least four types of social media are deployed in libraries to reach out to the users: blogs, multimedia sharing sites, social bookmarking and social networking sites (SNS). Facebook, Blog, Delicious, YouTube and Twitter are the tools mainly adopted by these libraries. The motives for librarians to use social media were to promote library services, manage organizational knowledge and receiving instant feedback from users. Workflow obstacles, technology obstacles, organizational obstacles and personal obstacles deter librarians from participating in social media. This study provides experiential evidence that Malaysian academic librarians are not very serious in engaging themselves with social media. Library managements need to provide support to mobilize librarians into a more active and participatory role in creating social media presence.

Social networking sites (SNSs) and virtual communities (VCs) are popular online social media having similarities and differences. The paper investigated the difference in motivations and in the relationships from motivations to continuance intention between active users of SNSs and VCs. The results show that while connecting with old friends, meeting new people, seeking information, seeking entertainment, and seeking social support are significant motivations of both communities’ active users, active users of SNSs rate higher motivation to connect with old friends than VCs; seeking information and social support motivations have the same effect on the continuance intention of the both communities’ active users through attitude; connecting with old friends and meeting new people motivations have obvious different effects on continuance intention through attitude between the two communities’ active users.

The paper reports a research study aimed to explore the readiness for digital reference service (DRS) of university libraries of the province of Punjab, Pakistan, in terms of organizational awareness, willingness, planning and strength of resources. This descriptive research employed the survey method. The survey instrument (questionnaire) was reviewed by a panel of LIS experts of national level and was worded to achieve an official organizational response to probe the status. Thirty-eight libraries of Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognized universities participated in the study. The findings reveal that only a few libraries were at a level of DRS readiness while the others were adopting this system at a slow pace.

A growing body of evidence suggests the link between communication inequalities and health disparities. This sets important agendas for researchers and practitioners in the arena of information and communication. Specifically, for those of us engaged in designing and mounting mass media information campaigns to counteract different health problems, this would entail a re-examination of our tacit assumptions that communication interventions based on the use of mass media can be used to address the ‘masses’ across the board.