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61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Section on Library Theory and Research


Annual Report 1994

Maxine Rochester
School of Information Studies
Charles Sturt University
Locked Bag 675
Wagga Wagga
NSW 2678
Australia
Fax: (61-69) 222733
e-mail: mrochester@csu.edu.au
is Chair of the Section on Library Theory and Research.

Beverly P. Lynch

Graduate School of Library and Information Science UCLA 101 GSLIS Building
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90024
USA
Fax: (1-310) 2064460
e-mail: 1yh7bpl@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
is Secretary.

Standing Committee and Section Membership

The Standing Committee has a total of 19 members from 12 countries, three corresponding members, and four observers.

Projects

Production of Guidelines in Research Related Activities

A Section project is an analysis of the research content of papers presented at IFLA Conferences. This was decided in 1992 as a means to fulfill part of the Section's Medium-Term Programme. An exampl e of the results was published in the first issue of the Section newsletter. The Section produced a list of points to be examined in determining research content: a clear statement on the research pr oblem, research design parameters; how data was collected; dependence on previous research, e.g., discussions, and references; theoretical assumptions and current best practice.

International Thematic Reviews of Research

The Section decided in 1992 to present each year a bibliometric study on the library and information research in a member country. In Barcelona Virginia Cano presented a paper on 10 years of Spanish research, later published in the 1994 International Journal of Information and Library Research. Ms Cano used the methodology developed by K. Jarvelin and Pertti Vakkari of the University of Tampere in Finland, the latter a SC member of the Section. There is interest in carrying out similar work in Romania, Turkey and the UK.

Publications

Newsletter

The Section distributed one newsletter annually. The editor, Jens Thorhauge (Denmark) sent out the issue at the end of July to Section members, financed by the Royal School of Librarianship in Copenh agen.

Future Conferences

Istanbul 1995

A joint workshop with the Section on Education and Training is planned. During the Havana Conference contact was made with the liaison officer for Istanbul, Aysel Yontar, who is helping to plan the m eetings in Istanbul.

Beijing 1996

The Section is planning a joint open session with the Round Table on Continuing Professional Education.

Havana Meetings

Open Session

The Section's open meeting had three papers concerned with library research for social development, and one on work to establish a database of funding organizations. They were:



Library Research for Social Development in Cuba
by EMILIO SETIEN QUESADA and SARAH ESCOBAR CARBALLAL

Abstract
The development of library research in Cuba during the last 15 years is presented. The results of a research programme assumed by the National Library, as the most outstanding centre of the country f or research on library science, is explained. The relationship of the results with professional, cultural, scientific and social achievements are recognized as examples of the role of library researc h in social development.



Which Institutions Are Supporting Librarianship in Developing Countries?
by BIRGITTA MOSSADEK

Abstract
The project to create a database/guide of institutions supporting librarianship in developing countries has been undertaken in order to meet the demand for information about funding organizations wit hin this specific area. The guide will contain information about institutions and agencies which support librarianship in a wider scope in developing countries, their geographical and action areas, t heir principles and criteria for granting funds. This study concentrates on the agencies in the Nordic countries, other countries with major cooperation programmes in the cultural and information fie lds (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, and the USA) and intergovernmental and international organizations. A spin-off of this project is a valuable document collection a nd new contacts for IFLA and the production of a publication on the sources of information.



Información desarrollo y democracia en América Latina: el trabajo de documentación, de Información y de comunicación de las Org. No Gubern. de desarrollo de Am&e acute;rica Latina
by LAURA HURTADO GALVAN



Diffusion des résultats de la recherche en sciences de l'information dans trois revue québécoises
by PAULETTE BERNHARD

Abstract
This study presents a content analysis of three information science journals published in Quebec: Archives (1960-1990/91), Argus (1971/72-1990) and Documentation et bibliothè ques (1973-1990) in order to find out the number and proportion of research texts that have been published during the periods considered, i.e., articles of three pages or more, and abstracts of Ph.D. dissertations and MA theses. In this study the accepted indicator of a research text is the mention of research method(s) used. The other categories of texts considered are literature reviews a nd other types of texts (information, opinion). The proportion of research texts has been found to be the following, in number of texts and in number of pages: Documentation et bibliothèque s: 18% and 12.28%; Argus: 15.4% and 10.43%; Archives: 7.4% and 7.67%. Other points considered for research articles are research topics; mean number of pages of references and o f notes; number of authors per text; authorship for each journal and for the three together; and research methods employed. The results obtained are compared to those of similar studies.