No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This work was carried out to investigate the roles of national libraries generally in developing countries and the consequent building requirements. Since the work involves studies of current trends and problems in planning or designing national libraries and their services in the developing regions (South Asia, South-east Asia, South-west Asia, Africa, Latin America and. Oceania), background information on some of the countries in these regions, as well as information on the library services in general and the national libraries in particular, are given. For the purpose of this work, eleven functions which seemed to be important in influencing the design of national libraries were chosen for the questionnaire sent to the national libraries of the various regions: and these are tabled in this work. Concern for library architecture is a new phenomenon in developing countries. There is a lack of trained and skilled building technicians, a lack of experienced librarians and architects in the field, and a lack of research on building materials. Apart from these, there are various other socio-economic, climatic (e.g. monsoons, prevailing winds such as tornadoes and harmattan) and nonclimatic (e.g. earthquakes) problems which have been studied. In order to overcome these problems more efficiently, and bearing in mind the functions of national libraries, principles of building requirements for national libraries are proposed. These principles are intended as a guide to architects without imposing any restrictions to individuality of design.

As society becomes more and more information dependent, it is imperative that each nation develops its own systems for the storage, retrieval, and dissemination of that information. Furthermore, since so much now depends on science and technology, the development of scientific and technological information systems is of immense importance to any nation that needs technological progress. Effective transfer of this information requires a well developed system for that purpose. This is the central theme, and therefore the raison d'etre, for the present study. One of the problems of the developing countries is the poor state of their information systems and services. Minimal amount of scientific and technological information is generated, and the infrastructure necessary to avail themselves of that located elsewhere in the world is either lacking or ill-developed. Ultimately, their economy, educational systems, managerial skills, etc., suffer because of insufficient, or lack of information. These issues are examined in the study in the light of situations in both the developed and developing countries in order to establish contrasting features. An attempt is made to identify what constitute the infrastructure of information. Particular emphasis is laid on Nigeria as a developing country and data are based on the scientific and technological information resources collected from it.

No description available.

The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive examination of university libraries in Greece seen in the European context. To this end, the thesis: i. discusses the context in which Greek university libraries have developed and the challenges they face; ii. examines the factors that affect their operation and development; iii. assesses their role in university education in supporting the informational, educational and research needs of the academic community; iv. compares their position with similar libraries in other member states of the European Union and in Scandinavia; v. suggests actions needed in order that university libraries in Greece should develop further and play their role better. In this study a standard model for university libraries is developed and performance indicators and methodologies which are proper for this model are used. University libraries are examined as open, dynamic, multi-goal seeking and purposeful systems. They consist of resources which are transformed into outputs for the benefit of their users. Inputs, outputs and outcomes can be measured in a greater or less accuracy but measurement itself is meaningful only if it is placed in some kind of context. University libraries operate within a given environment. They receive their inputs from this environment, and their outputs are used by people or other systems in the environment. They are also constrained by factors in this environment such as the social, economic, educational, technological, etc. In this study not only the performance indicators themselves but also the relationships between them that are indicative of performance were analysed. The main findings of the study are related to the environment within which Greek University Libraries operate, the organisational structures, and administrative practices applied, issues concerning staff and the way they affect library development, the provision of library material, the organisation of technical services, and the reader services that are provided. Library performance is assessed in a number of ways. The indicators produced and comparisons with the state of development of university libraries in other European countries show that Greek University libraries fall behind them in terms of almost all indicators used. It appears that Greek University libraries are weak in meeting the needs of their users in both education and research.

Computer-based tools for communication are a recent technological development. They promise to provide new routes by which to communicate with others and to transform some communications that have hitherto been dependent on media such as paper. One example is the possibility of supporting scholarly communication by the use of electronic systems, which also promises a method by which the information explosion might be handled. The research is an examinat4on of whether or not the support of scholarly communication in this way is feasible. To investigate communication systems requires a large scale study over a long period. Accordingly the research rests on a study programme on 'electronic journals', BLEND, which ran from 1980 to 1984, funded by the British Library Research and Development Department. The feasibility of ielectronic journals is investigated by exploring the usability, utility, likeability and cost-effectiveness of the communications system. An analysis of the frequency and distribution of the use of the computer-based communications system showed that many things seemed to get in the way of accessing it. Several techniques were used to examine this: transaction recording, interviews, telephone surveys, questionnaires and analysis of requests for help. Once the system was accessed, a comparison of users' aims with actual use shows that different forms of the journal should be explored in the future. Two reasons for the access rate and type of use made of the system was the degree to which researchers were able to accommodate the use of a new communications system into existing patterns of work and the level of usability of the system. One area in usability that is explored in detail is the way that text can be read easily on a screen. The cost-effectiveness of the system is examined by projecting from actual costs and patterns of use. The final chapters bring together the studies in a 'Barrier' framework for understanding the use of a communications system and look forward to the future of electronic journals.

The study investigates the provision of legal information to the legal community in three areas of Kenya, namely, Eldoret, Kisumu and Nairobi. It endeavours to ascertain whether the provision of information in the areas studied is adequate to meet the growing and varying needs of members of the legal community. Data was collected by use of semi-structured interviews and structured observation. Information was collected from members of the legal community in their capacity as users of information, and librarians in their official capacity as providers of information. The study examines the performance of legal information services in the context of user needs and current library and information service provision. It investigates the information needs and information seeking habits of the legal profession, and examines the problems experienced by users and providers of information. The research concludes that the provision of legal information is inadequate to meet the needs of the legal profession. The major causes of this situation are inadequate funding from government, and the negative attitude of decision makers in government ministries and organisations towards libraries. It is observed that if this situation is not addressed, it is likely to have a negative effect on legal development.