IFLA Journal

This paper aims to explain how the concept of diversity has been covered in the professional literature and discusses how diversity has been understood and implemented in the context of tribal community libraries, public libraries, academic libraries and school libraries and the diversity statistics of library professionals. The paper highlights some prominent issues of diversity in libraries, such as: staffing; recruitment and retention; recruitment of students and faculty of color to library schools; library services and organization climate. The paper concludes by mentioning some challenges the library profession is facing, such as lack of representation of minorities among students and faculty, and makes recommendations to overcome these challenges.

Traditional knowledge is a valuable asset for any country as it plays a vital role in making the nation more progressive and transforming its society. This paper discusses the need for preserving traditional knowledge. The paper describes the role of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library and its activities in preserving traditional medicinal knowledge in India.

The aim of this study is to assess the information literacy competency of Information Science and Library Management (ISLM) graduate students at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and to determine their strengths and weaknesses. In general it was found that students had limited skills in the area of information literacy, as it is not discussed extensively in their academic course curriculum. This study urges the incorporation of an information literacy programme in the course curriculum, and more writing, discussion and other relevant issues that will make the students more information literate.

This study is a bibliometric analysis of the research output of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, in the field of natural sciences. A total of 1313 records in the form of journal articles (984), conference papers (273) and books (56) were analysed. Bradford’s Law and Lotka’s Law were tested and found applicable to the data.

Presents the results of a questionnaire survey of non-users of the digital library services at the Università degli Studi di Milano. The target audience for the survey comprised students, teaching staff and technical-administrative staff of the university. The research focused on ‘factual non-users’, who used the service once and then decided to not use it any more. The results showed that factual non-users, despite of limited use of the digital library’s facilities, believed that they were familiar with the service and considered it to be satisfactory. They did not use it any more for various reasons, mainly because they did not need it any longer, or were currently using another service. Some weaknesses in the service were highlighted, in particular its lack of user-friendliness and the limited availability of material in some disciplines. The research also showed that the service was accessed for different reasons, including thesis preparation, research and keeping abreast, but also for personal interests. The results confirm how little is known about the non-users and raise many new and controversial questions which should compel the scientific community to investigate non-users more deeply. The paper was the winner of the IFLA LIS Student Paper Award, 2010.

An introduction to the Building Strong Library Associations programme of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The programme is rolled out through country projects which include workshops, specialist mentoring, online blended activities and specially developed cross-programme activities. Three country projects per year will be implemented from 2010 until 2012, one each in Africa, Asia and Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The programme will be evaluated on three levels with a view towards ensuring sustainability of the programme and each country project.