Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Q.1 What are different nomenclatures of the discipline “Library and Information
Sciences” worldwide? Compare five of such nomenclatures and trace the reason(s)
behind these differences.
Library and information science (LIS) (sometimes given as the plural library and
information sciences)[1][2] is a branch of academic disciplines that deals generally with
organization, access, collection, and protection/regulation of information, whether in physical
(e.g. art, legal proceedings) or digital forms. By the late 1960s, mainly due to the meteoric rise of
human computing power and the new academic disciplines formed therefrom, academic
institutions began to add the term "information science" to their names. The first school to do
this was at the University of Pittsburgh in 1964.[3] More schools followed during the 1970s and
1980s, and by the 1990s almost all library schools in the USA had added information science to
their names. Although there are exceptions, similar developments have taken place in other parts
of the world. In Denmark, for example, the 'Royal School of Librarianship' changed its English
name to The Royal School of Library and Information Science in 1997.
In spite of various trends to merge the two fields, some consider the two original
disciplines, library science and information science, to be separate.[4][5] However, it is common
today is to use the terms as synonyms or to drop the term "library" and to speak
about information departments or I-schools.[6] There have also been attempts to revive the
concept of documentation and to speak of Library, information and documentation studies (or
science).[
"The unique concern of LIS is recognized as: Statement of the core concern of LIS: Humans
becoming informed (constructing meaning) via intermediation between inquirers and
instrumented records. No other field has this as its concern. " (Konrad, 2007, p. 660)
"Note that the promiscuous term information does not appear in the above statement
circumscribing the field's central concerns: The detrimental effects of the ambiguity this term
provokes are discussed above (Part III). Furner [Furner 2004, 427] has shown that discourse in
the field is improved where specific terms are utilized in place of the i-word for specific senses
of that term." (Konrad, 2007, p. 661).
Michael Buckland wrote: "Educational programs in library, information and documentation are
concerned with what people know, are not limited to technology, and require wide-ranging
expertise. They differ fundamentally and importantly from computer science programs and from
the information systems programs found in business schools.".[17]
Bawden and Robinson argue that while Information Science has overlaps with numerous other
disciplines with interest in studying communication, it is unique in that it is concerned with all
aspects of the communication chain.[18]: 6, 8 For example, Computer Science may be interested in
the indexing and retrieval, sociology with user studies, and publishing (business) with
dissemination, whereas information science is interested in the study of all of these individual
areas and the interactions between them.[18]: 6
The organization of information and information resources is one of the fundamental aspects of
LIS.[18]: 106 and is an example of both LIS's uniqueness and its multidisciplinary origins. Some of
the main tools used by LIS toward this end to provide access to the digital resources of modern
times (particularly theory relating to indexing and classification) originated in 19th century to
assist humanity's effort to make its intellectual output accessible by recording, identifying, and
providing bibliographic control of printed knowledge. [18]: 105 The origin for some of these tools
were even earlier. For example, in the 17th century, during the 'golden age of libraries',
publishers and sellers seeking to take advantage of the burgeoning book trade developed
descriptive catalogs of their wares for distribution – a practice was adopted and further
extrapolated by many libraries of the time to cover areas like philosophy, sciences, linguistics,
medicine, etc.[19] : 120 In this way, a business concern of publishers – keeping track of and
advertising inventory – was developed into a system for organizing and preserving information
by the library.
The development of Metadata is another area that exemplifies the aim of LIS to be something
more than an mishmash of several disciplines – that uniqueness Bawden and Robinson describe.
Pre-Internet classification systems and cataloging systems were mainly concerned with two
objectives: 1. to provide rich bibliographic descriptions and relations between information
objects and 2. to facilitate sharing of this bibliographic information across library boundaries. [20] :
14
The development of the Internet and the information explosion that followed found many
communities needing mechanisms for the description, authentication and management of their
information.[20]: 15 These communities developed taxonomies and controlled vocabularies to
describe their knowledge as well as unique information architectures to communicate these
classifications and libraries found themselves as liaison or translator between these metadata
systems.[20]: 15–16 Of course the concerns of cataloging in the Internet era have gone beyond simple
bibliographic descriptions. The need for descriptive information about the ownership and
copyright of a digital product – a publishing concern – and description for the different formats
and accessibility features of a resource – a sociological concern – show the continued
development and cross discipline necessity of resource description.[20]: 15
In the 21st century, the usage of open data, open source and open protocols like OAI-PMH has
allowed thousands of libraries and institutions to collaborate on the production of global
metadata services previously offered only by increasingly expensive commercial proprietary
products. Examples include BASE and Unpaywall, which automates the search of an academic
paper across thousands of repositories by libraries and research institutions.[21]
Owusu-Ansah, Christopher M.argued that, Many African universities have employed distance
education to expand access to education and digital libraries can ensure seamless access to
information for distance learners[22]
Q.2 Define Library, Librarianship, Library Science, Information Science and Library &
information science. How are Library Science and Information Science similar or
different?
Library and Information Science is a profession that is full of people passionate about making a
positive change in the world, and they tend to be wildly happy about what they do.
Librarians bridge the gaps that exist between people, information and technology. In their
professional lives, librarians and information professionals work to:
Q.3 Select five major university libraries of developed countries. Analyze their websites
and compare their contents with five Pakistani counterparts.
Jamshoro Libraries
Institute of Sindhology
Karachi Libraries
Lahore Libraries
Peshawar Libraries
University of Peshawar
Quetta Libraries
Sialkot Libraries
Abstract
This chapter aims to discuss the development of digital libraries in Pakistan. It gives an account
of the digital transformation taking place in the country and reviews a few digital library
initiatives. It discusses a number of issues associated with the development of digital libraries
with specific reference to Pakistan. The major issues appear are as follows: misconception about
digital libraries; lack of technological applications; lack of human resources with needed skills;
copyright and publishing; cultural divide; digital divide, and insufficient financial support. The
authors believe that understanding the underlying issues will not only accelerate the development
of DL in Pakistan, but also in other developing countries with more or less common
environment.
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Q.4 Follow the URL of the Department of Library and Information Sciences, AIOU i.e.
(https://lis.aiou.edu.pk) on internet. Critically compare its contents with three
websites of the Pakistani LIS schools.
While Pakistan has had digital libraries for much of this century (the Higher Education
Commission launched the National Digital Library programme in 2004) ebooks remain
rare in the country, with the Big 5 western ebook retailers indifferent and local players
yet to emerge.
The latest news from the Punjab that twenty e-libraries have been established in the province,
while welcome, isn’t going to change that.
The News reports that the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and Youth Affairs,
Sports, Archaelogy and Tourism Department (YASAT) have established e-libraries in 20
districts of the Punjab comes with some caveats.
One would hope that a governmental department responsible for such a wide-ranging brief as
youth affairs, sports, archaelogy and tourism would see an opportunity there to embrace the
ebook as a form of entertainment as well as a tool for science and education, but what we know
of the project so far suggests the new libraries are not going to be tools to bring reading to the
masses.
While the libraries are supposedly
focused to promote e-reading and e-learning culture,
and will be free for the public to use, and open to the public seven days a week, offering free wi-
fi, they are physical entities requiring personal attendance.
Each library comprises an auditorium with seating facility for 50 people, multimedia
facility, e-Rozgar room with 16 computers, e-learn facility, digital library access room with
10 computers, five tables and beautiful work stations.
Those who cannot physically get tot he libraries will therefore be denied such benefits there are,
which anyway appear to preclude reading for pleasure..
So while this initiative is to be welcomed, it does not bring Pakistan any closer to the free and
easy access to fiction, non-fiction and learning tools we in the First World west take for granted
thanks to digital library suppliers like OverDrive..
With none of the Big 5 western ebook retailers acknowledging Pakistan exists, and Pakistani
publishers reluctant to invest in digitisation because there are no meaningful digital outlets, it
looks like ebo
Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer or a machine that we can see and
touch. It contains circuit board, ICs, or other electronics in a computer system. It is a physical
component that is used in different ways to build a computer or any other machine. The Memory
Devices, Processor, Central Processing Unit, Mouse, and the keyboard all are the examples of
the hardware in the computer system. On the other hand, the screen on which you are viewing
this page is the best example of the hardware, whether you are viewing this page on the tablet,
monitor, or smartphone. A computer system would not be existing without any hardware and not
able to run any software. An example of an external hardware peripheral, a keyboard, is shown
in the picture. It allows users to give input to the computer.
Computer Software
HTTP is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol; this is the most popular protocol in use
today. It is the communication standard used by your web browser in order to communicate with
the server of the website that you are viewing. WWW or the World Wide Web is a prefix to a
certain name in order to identify that it is a web site that you are visiting.
There are many existing protocols in the internet today and in order to differentiate which one
you want to use, they are given specific protocol names that should be present when connecting
to a web site or any other source of data. Some protocols that are accepted by browsers are:
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NEWS, and FILE. Although most sites are purely web servers, some sites
host multiple services in a single domain name and in order to identify which one you are trying
to access you must indicate the protocol that the service uses. You can see what protocol is
currently in use by looking at the first word in the address bar.
Most websites come in a certain format, mostly it is www.anything.com. The word at the end
identifies the site as commercial, the word in the middle is the domain name, and the WWW in
the beginning indicates that it is a website and it uses the HTTP protocol. It is therefore
redundant to have ‘http://www.anything.com’ since the WWW tells the browser to use HTTP
when it is already in use. But because most people are already used to having a URI written this
way, it is left as is by most experts.
Aside from the protocol names that are already reserved for obvious reasons, you can use any
other prefix in order to establish a sub domain on your site. A sub domain can be a totally
different web site that is sharing the domain name. In the case of sub domains, you can no longer
use a prefix in order to identify the protocol in use, that is why you must specify the protocol by
using HTTP://, FTP://, or any other protocol name.
Summary:
1. HTTP is the protocol used to transfer data to and from the website.
2. WWW is the identifier that indicates that it is a web site and it uses the HTTP protocol.
3. HTTP://anything.com, WWW.anything.com, HTTP://WWW.anything.com leads to the same
site.
4. Any prefix that is not reserved to a protocol can be used as a sub domain.
This morning a new thread has been started on blogging vs. listservs and one of the points made
by a long-time member is that listservs "are for all members' interests" because they
automatically push community interest in a conversation to the top. If someone posts to the list
and people are interested in the topic, lively discussion will follow. If they aren't, then the topic
will disappear into oblivion.
Compare this to blogs, says the writer, where the blog owner decides on the topics and while
commenters can join in the conversation, it will generally be on the blog owner's terms based on
what interests him/her.
To some extent I think this is true. If a blogger is blithely blind to questions and ideas of people
who comment and writes with no regard for the conversation going on on the blog, then clearly
the blog is a forum for something other than community conversation. And of course if people
don't ever comment, it's difficult to get a "conversation" going--you're generally talking to
yourself.
At the same time, listservs can create an environment that isn't always open to "conversation."
Over the years we've had many times when lurkers and newbies came out of the woodwork to
report that they weren't participating in the conversation because the list was dominated by a few
very opinionated writers who had no qualms about starting flame wars. Even when moderators
step in, there's still a bad taste left in people's mouths and many leave the list.
I personally think that there's room for and a NEED for both to keep conversations going. Blogs
offer a place for individuals to process information and put ideas out into the world. I can't
imagine posting some of my blog posts to a listserv--they'd be considered "off-topic" or
inappropriate because I'm not asking a question or furthering a discussion. Yet my blog posts
contribute tremendously to my ability to participate more effectively in listserv conversations
because I've been able to process ideas and to play around with different things.
I also believe that many well-run blogs operate as listservs in the sense of the two-way
conversations that occur. Any reader of Kathy Sierra's blog knows that she regularly uses reader
comments as part of the ongoing discussion and readers not only react to Kathy, but also interact
with each other. The comments become threaded discussion as much as comments.
That said, I also agree that listservs are important. They obviously are based on a premise of
having a conversation--you're posting with the expectation that someone will respond and
generally they do. And listservs can be more "democratic" in terms of the topics and
conversation. The stuff people are interested in gets talked about and the stuff they aren't
interested in doesn't.
Like a democracy, though, listserv conversations can sometimes descend to the lowest common
denominator. On many lists I find that some of the most (to me anyway) inane topics will take up
HUGE amounts of time, while other far more interesting and meaty conversations will quickly
sink to the bottom or have to go off-list to continue. On a blog at least the blogger could keep
things going on the topics that interested him or her.
But back to the original question--are listservs better at serving the interests of all members? Do
they do a better job of furthering community conversation? Or can blogs serve the same purpose
or do it even better? What do you think?