International and Comparative Librarianship

DEDICATED TO PIONEERS   INCLUDING:
S. R. Ranganathan, P. N. Kaula, R. N. Sharma, J. F. Harvey, D. J. Foskett, J. P. Danton, M. M. Jackson, etc.
This Blogosphere has a slant towards India [a.k.a Indica, Indo, South-Asian, Oriental, Bharat, Hindustan, Asian-Indian (not American Indian)].

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

MOOCs offer courses and not degree programs: Facts and Myths revisited

The bottomline is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)'s facilitate access to content in most convenient way. In short they are content for informal education...

NEW BUSINESS MODELFor 1st time, MIT's free online classes can lead to degree

But, then with content, library books, and readings, does this directly and conveniently bring education (with necessary competency and skills) that leads to jobs or merely gives a means to find information that leads to intellectual satisfaction??? It is for the seeker to decide whatever they need... "MOOCs are free non-degree online courses with open unlimited global enrollment to anyone who desires to learn, and regardless of their current educational level." source: Global Directory of MOOC
See also:
From m.chronicle.com - January 19, 5:22 PM
"An annual survey's findings reveal growing skepticism among academic leaders about the long-term prospects for massive open online courses." (source)

Four Facts About MOOCs:

  1. It is About Spending Money Wisely on Education
  2. MOOCs Continue a Diverse Education System
  3. MOOCs Are About Quality Mass Education
  4. MOOCs are built on 100 years of distance education experience

  1. It's All about Money
  2. MOOCs Create a Two-Tier Educational System
  3. MOOCs Are Inherently Inferior
  4. MOOCs Are Mechanistic
  5. We've Seen How This Plays Out
Here is the MOOCs/Final Debate - MindMeister Mind Map (includes Pros and Cons). More discussion: MOOCs: Disrupting the University or Business as Usual? - ArenaIs higher education actually making inequality worse?

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Why students need the right to copy

Shamnad Basheer, The Hindu, April 26, 2013

EXTRACT:
The lawsuit by publishers seeking to stop Delhi University from distributing photocopied course packs goes against the spirit of education for all. continue reading

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Tuesday, March 06, 2012

The emerging role of the library within an information-based global economy



Libraries in a broad sense (whose role is about physical presence, and intellectual content facilitators) are automated and provide access to print and electronic resources, both in the east or the west, are mostly using similar software platforms (irrespective of a function: acquisition, storage, processing), as well similar retrieval solutions (be it standalone pc, integrated computers or web-based solutions), etc..

One may ask, and the answers are not here:
  • how far this globalization (spirit of global village), is effecting the local (spirit of sustaining the local needs), and vice verse???
  • If the global village is meant to universal ubiquitous information access to so many bibliographic references / full-text resources, is only between the haves (developed world), or includes all the have-not's (developing, under-developed and not so developed world)? See also: Ethics of access: Globalization, feminism and information society by Gillian Youngs, Journal of Global Ethics, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2005
  • What standards, if any, are being developed / applied for effective and efficient service delivery
  • how this virtual library is being taken-over, from the perspective of a traditional library (LIS) by other competing stakeholders (IM, KM, CM, IT, etc.)
  • What’s really driving & / or intensifying the competitive pressures on the traditional library?
  • What other long-term options &/or opportunities are available for libraries?
  • What needs to be done today to change course and restore the image-cum-brand of the library-that-has-to-be?

    Reading now:
    Globalisation in academic libraries: A reflective comparison of academic libraries at Cork, Ireland, and Chihuahua, Mexico,
    McCarthy, James P; Javier Tarango Ortiz. Library Management31. 7 (2010): 505-520
    This paper attempts to compare two academic libraries in very different parts of the world. It aims to look at the influences which their local origins have had on them as well as the commonality which the internationalisation of the library profession has brought on them. The paper seeks inferences about the impact of globalisation on the world of academic librarianship. It looks at commonality of experience past, present and future. The process of investigation was to pose a number of questions regarding what academic libraries are, their role in academic landscapes, the impact of globalising technologies and the future of the book. The findings are that there is a commonality of experience and that modern library technologies have changed the nature of professional practice significantly in recent decades; that indigenous traditions of practice at local level are being replaced by an integration of internationally shared experience. The paper should interest those researching the future of academic libraries, comparative developments in academic libraries worldwide, the future of repository storage in the face of digitisation and the future of academic landscapes.

    >>James P. McCarthy can be contacted at: jp.mccarthy@ucc.ie, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
    >>Javier Tarango Ortiz, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico

    On the same shelf:
  • The Development of Virtual Libraries in Commonwealth Libraries in Commonwealth Libraries in Australia, Amanda Magnussen
  • A New Era of Education Reform: Preparing All Students for Success in College, Career and Life, click here or here
  • The Community Library in Our Emerging Knowledge Economy
  • The disappearing virtual library, Christopher Kelty
  • AskERIC and the virtual library: lessons for emerging digital libraries, R. David Lanke
  • Credibility on the internet: shifting from authority to reliability, R. David Lankes
  • Mess, John A. “I Want An Expert, Not A Librarian”: Expert Advisory Services, Library Reference, And Knowledge Economics On The Internet. Internet Reference Services Quarterly 6.1 (2001): 49-67.
  • Steal this book? Don't bother, By Candace Lombardi, CNET News
  • Kaufman, Paula. "It's Not Your Parents' Library Anymore: Challenges And Opportunities In The New Webs Of Complexity." Journal Of Library Administration 46.1 (2007): 5-26.
    The 21st century holds the promise of a modern Renaissance in which traditional research library collections and services collide with the promises and realities of digital information and knowledge management. The most intriguing challenges and opportunities for research libraries center on the juxtaposition between the traditional library and digital information and knowledge management, with resultant webs of complexity. This paper examines these challenges and opportunities and raises questions of values and principles, missions and strategies, content and copyright, and methods and ethics. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
  • Beinhart, Larry. The Librarian. NY: Nation Books, 2004, 72.
  • Silicon, Carbon, Culture: Combining Codes Through the Arts, Humanities, and
    Technology: Final Report of the Silicon, Carbon, Culture Initiative. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.
  • Lougee, Wendy Pradt. Diffuse Libraries: Emergent Roles for the Research Library
    in the Digital Age
    . Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources,
    2002.
  • Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human
    Intelligence. NY: Viking, 1999.
  • Murray, Janet H. “The Exhilaration of Access.” Threshold, Winter 2004.
  • Digital Information and Knowledge Management: New Opportunities for Research Libraries (Journal of Library Administration), Sul H. Lee
  • The impact of Internet on scientific traditional knowledge Ghobrial, R.A.;
    Documentation & Inf. Centre, Khartown, Sudan, Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 International Conference on Issue Date: 19-23 April 2004
  • Visions for Fundamental Change in Libraries and Librarianship for Asia Pacific
  • Googlization of Libraries: Debunking the Internet Godzilla Myth
    The Second Follett Lecture, Graduate School of Library and Information Science,
    Dominican University, 15 February 2006, Edward J. Valauskas -- reproduced in World Libraries Volume 19, Numbers 1 & 2, February 2012
  • Haugen, Betty (2005) "The Impact of Globalization on Law Libraries," International Journal of Legal Information: Vol. 33: Iss. 3, Article 8.
  • "Legal Information Management in a Global and Digital Age: Revolution and Tradition" cited in Impact of Globalization on International and Foreign Law Information
  • The Impact of Globalization on Libraries and the Role of IFLA, Claudia Lux
    SILF 2006, powerpoint
  • The Impact of Globalization on Library Management and Marketing, by Su, R. Yang, Q., IFLA PUBLICATIONS, 2007, VOL 125, pages 293-302
  • Google’s Convergence Re-visited
  • Should librarians be considered professionals?
  • The MLS Project: An Assessment After Sixty Years by Boyd Keith Swigger

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    Thought for the day: We’re in the business of giving away knowledge. For free. Come in, please come in, and take some knowledge for free, no, no limit, keep going, gorge on it if you want, no, it’s not a trick, a come on, a free sample and then we’ll bill you later, or we’ll paper your head with banners and pop-ups. Librarians don’t have a lot of status and we don’t make a lot of money, more than poets, but not so much, say, as your more successful panhandlers, so our ideals are important to us and the love of books and the love of knowledge and the love of truth and free information and letting people discover things for themselves . . . –Larry Beinhart, The Librarian
  • Do We Still Need Libraries? December 28, 2012, The New York Times -- Debaters: a) Failing to Close the ‘Digital Divide’, Susan Crawford; b) More Relevant Than Ever, Luis Herrera; c) It’s Not Just Story Time and Bookmobiles, Buffy J. Hamilton; d) For Gathering and for Solitude, Matthew Battles,
  • Libraries Try to Update the Bookstore Model / Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close, By KAREN ANN CULLOTTA, December 27, 2012 NYTimes.com

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