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them were consigned to the genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue.In a move that was to make its collection unique in terms of world culture andhistory, the community of Fustat chose to preserve much of the written word thatpassed through its hands, regardless of its religious status. There thus came tobe amassed all manner of ephemera that had more to do with the daily activities ofordinary folk than with the ideology of rabbis and scholars. In an age thatcertainly predated the concern for the preservation of archives, the explanationfor their behavior may be that they saw Hebrew letters, or even any texts written

by or about Jews, as either intrinsically sacred, or bearing a degree of holinessbecause of the frequent occurrence there of references to God, the Hebrew Bible orother religious subjects. The peak of this archival activity, if it mayanachronistically be described as such, was reached between the 10th and 13thcenturies, precisely when the community reached the zenith of its social, economicand cultural achievements.Some texts from what became known as the Cairo Genizah were sold by synagogueofficials to dealers and visitors in the second half of the 19th century. Famouslibraries in St. Petersburg, Paris, London, Oxford, New York and Philadelphiaacquired major collections but it was Solomon Schechter who obtained communalpermission to remove 140,000 items to Cambridge University Library in 1897. TheGenizah texts are written in various languages, especially Hebrew, Arabic andAramaic, mainly on vellum and paper, but also on papyrus and cloth. They represent

the most important discovery of new material for every aspect of scientific Hebrewand Jewish studies in the Middle Ages. As a result of the conservation,decipherment and description done for over a century,but particularly in recent years and at Cambridge, previous ignorance has beendispelled and theoriesdrastically modified. Among the subjects that have benefitted substantially arethe emergence of Hebrew grammatical systems; the development of synagogallectionaries and of translations and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible; and theliterary history of such sectarian works as the Damascus Document and Ben Sira.Major impacts have also been made on the textual and exegetical study of Talmudic,Midrashic, liturgical and poetic literature, and on the evolution of Jewishreligious law. Knowledge and understanding of Karaism, of Fatimid Egypt andCrusader Palestine, of special Jewish languages such as Judaeo-Arabic, and of

daily activities in the Mediterranean area have also expanded greatly.The Early Hebrew CodexIt is important to note that it was a change in how Jewish culture was transmittedin the early medieval period that led to these literary achievements. Although thenumber of complete Hebrew codices that have survived from the ninth and tenthcenturies is still only in single figures and their content predominantlybiblical, the evidence of the Genizah leaves little room for doubt that many ofits fragments originally belonged to codices of various types of literature. TheHebrew codex apparently made its appearance in the eighth century, perhaps underthe influence of Islam, which had borrowed the medium from the Christian andClassical worlds. The contents of scrolls were copied on to bound volumes(codices), to which later generations added their own notes. Such codices began asno more than a few folded leaves but eventually evolved into substantial volumes

with many folios. By being committed to a written form in these codices, oraltraditions acquired a new degree of authority. The centralization of the Jewishcommunity under Islam and the high degree of literacy made possible the widedistribution and acceptance of such texts. Where there are sets of volumes, thereis inevitably a need to store and exchange them. It has indeed recently beendemonstrated that in the Jewish communities of North

Africa in the ninth and tenth centuries texts were being widely copied andcirculated and that extensive libraries, covering various languages, were beingamassed and sold. Such libraries included not only the classical Jewish sourcesStefan C. Rolf


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10 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Early blockprint wood-cut. Egypt, late 14th century. Or. 1080 J50 but also thenewest commentarieson the one hand and more general learning on the other. They were actively builtup by individuals, sometimes businessmen rather than specialized scholars, and bycommunities, through gifts, appeals and purchases, and they were made availablefor academic use by students and for ritual use by congregants. By creating,copying and disseminating the contents of these libraries, the Maghrebi Jews of

means introduced a wide variety of literary works to other communities and therebyexercised a powerful influence on the levels of Jewish cultural achievement. Theimpressive contents of the Cairo Genizah are in no small degree due to the arrivalthere of many Jewish refugees from Tunisia and to the transfer of thebibliographical riches of the North African communities to the Egyptian centre.Book lists are also a common feature of the Genizah discoveries and demonstratethe existence of reference literature for educational activities by the community.Bibles, prayer books, talmudic texts and commentaries, Jewish legal andtheological tracts, as well as scientific, medical and philosophical works, areamong the items that are regularly listed, sometimes in the context of a publicsale. It is remarkable that a bibliophile, who was having a bookcase made,prepared a delightful text in praise of such an item of furniture and itseducational importance, with the apparent intention of having it engraved on the

front. Equally remarkable is the fact that when the Egyptian Jewish communityraised funds in the 12th century for the ransom of Jews who had been captured byCrusaders in the Holy Land, they also made arrangements to pay the conquerors forthe safe return of Jewish books. Muslims, Christians and Jews Given the dominantIslamic environment in which they lived, it is not surprising to find that theArabic language played a major role in Jewish life and that Jews built andfurnished houses, wore fashionable jewellery, and pursued general commercial andcultural interests much in the same way as their Muslim neighbors. They evenvisited each others homes on the occasion of religious festivals. The interchangeof religious ideas sometimes produced parallel developments, as, for instance, inthe matter of the adoption of mystical ideas similar to those of the Sufis, whileat others it created an opposite reaction, as, for example, in the defense ofJewish interpretation of Scripture or Jewish religious philosophy against non-

Jewish challenges. As far as their status in Islamic society was concerned, Jewsand Christians were dhimmi peoples, that is, tolerated monotheistic minoritiesliving under the protection of Islam, and as long as they agreed not to giveoffense to Muslims by any pretence at equality, they could, when the Muslim rulerstended towards tolerance, enjoy a reasonably good lifestyle. The Jews simply paidtheir special poll tax, wore their distinctive Jewish clothes, built no synagogueshigher than mosques, and went about their ordinary business.

There were occasionally times when rulers decided to take a maximalist position. Anational leader might object to the existence of all non-Muslim houses of worship;local leaders might ban Jewish ritual slaughter, demand more taxes, or refuseaccess to water wells. In the reign of the Fatimid caliph, al- Hakim (996-1021),the Jews of Cairo compiled a chronicle (megillat misrayim) in which they praised

him for saving them from the mob and from judicial execution on tax charges but itwas that same ruler who ordered the destruction of all the synagogues andchurches, and whose troops engaged in an orgy of murder, rape and plunder in Cairoand Damascus. Generally, however, a productive blending of various cultures wasthe dominant theme, particularly during the Fatimid period, from the 10th to the12th centuries. It is now clear that Muslims, Christians and Jews in the East didnot live intellectually ghettoized lives. They were aware of each other's textsand traditions, sometimes recording these in their own languages and literatures,and at other times subjecting them to criticism and even derision. In a religiousdebate with Rabbanites and Karaites conducted at the end of the 10th century, theFatimid vizier, Ya`qub ibn Killis, a convert from Judaism to Islam, cited the


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content of the prayer book of Sa`adya ben Joseph in order to heap ridicule on theJewish liturgy. Although there was the occasional romantic tryst between a man andwoman of different religious allegiance, intermarriage was not a phenomenon of thetime. Conversion, however, certainly was. Just as in Christian Europe, there wereJews who were so anxious to climb the social and political ladder that they feltconstrained to convert to the dominant faith. Some of them made life difficult fortheir former co-religionists while others retained a certain sympathy for them,even engaging them in religious dialogues. But the movement was not always in one

direction and there are accounts of Muslim and Christian anger at conversions toJudaism. The records of rabbinical courts make reference to approaches made bynon-Jews wishing to throw in their religious lot with the Jews. As was thetalmudic custom, they were initially rebuffed but there were a number, some ofthem women, who were determined enough to repeat their applications until theywere finally accepted and even married into the Jewish community. One convertmissed only one thing from his former life: the Jews could not make bread like thenon-Jews! Jews in Palestine The Genizah discoveries have illuminated what wereonce the dark expanses of Palestinian Jewish history and revealed how the Jews ofthe homeland conducted their personal, public and intellectual lives in thecenturies immediately before and after the Crusader invasion that began in 1099.It turns out that the Jews were encouraged to resettle11 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1

The Cairo Genizah: a Medieval Mediterranean Deposit and Modern Jerusalem after theArab conquest of the seventh century and that, despite the difficult economicconditions and political upheavals brought about by competing Muslim claims to theterritory, communities grew and flourished. Fragments relate to Ramla as thecapital city and to the havoc wreaked there by the terrible earthquake of 1033, toTyre and Acre as busy sea ports, to Tiberias as a centre of Torah and textiles,and to Ashkelon as a particularly strong fortress. It was perhaps as a result ofthe earthquake that part of the synagogal premises of the Palestinian Jews inRamla was still in a state of ruin in 1039. To obtain funding for repairs andmaintenance, the leaders leased part of the property to a private individual,Sedaqah, son of Yefet, at an annual rental of half a gold piece. There were ofcourse even more miserable times. During the first half of the 11th century, forinstance, letters refer to the battles between Bedouin insurgents and the Fatimid

rulers and provide gruesome details of the robbery, rape and cripplingovertaxation. Later, Jews fought alongside Muslims in a desperate effort to defendthe Holy Land against the Christian attacks and, when they failed, those unable toflee suffered massacres or capture. As some eye-witness accounts relate, majorfund-raising efforts had to be made in other Jewish centres to pay the ransomsdemanded by some Christians for the release of Jewish prisoners. Those who didescape made their way northwards to the cities of the Lebanese coast or southwardsto Egypt and many documents testify to their resilience in maintaining theirtraditions and their identity for two or three centuries. Contrary to what waspreviously thought, there was a significant Jewish presence in Palestine duringthe Crusader kingdom. Although only a few Jews lived in and around Jerusalem,there were active and sometimes even prosperous communities in the other cities.Following the recapture of the Holy City by Saladin in 1187, Jews rebuilt their

community there and, although their situation remained precarious, they werestrengthened by the arrival of immigrants from western Europe. The deterioratingsituation in England and France in the late 12th and early 13th century, coupledwith the spiritual attractions of settlement in the land of Israel, encouraged anumber of eminent rabbis and their flocks to make this ideological emigration, or`aliyah. The 20th Century We may now turn from medieval Egypt to modern Cambridge.Since more than 100 years have passed since Solomon Schechter brought back hisfamous hoard of Hebrew manuscripts, we may now take stock of the achievements ofeach generation of librarians and scholars. The century may be divided into fivefairly self-evident periods. The first, that of Schechter and his contemporaries,was undoubtedly enthusiastic and industrious and the foundations were laid for


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much subsequent research. The University Librarian was highly cooperative and muchinvolved in arranging the conservation and research and a team of scholars andlibrarians set to work on about 30,000 items (the Old Series) in the Collection.There was then a steady move away from institutional interest to individualresearch and while Cambridge University Library concentrated on other work and onsurviving the First World War and the Depression, the centre of Genizah researchmoved elsewhere, in one case taking some 251 borrowed fragments temporarily withit! A binder's assistant was the only one at the University Library with any

significant knowledge of the Genizah material and one of the librarians evensuggested that the remaining 110,000 pieces should have beenburnt years earlier. In the years just before and just after the Second World War,the oriental staff situation improved and this led to more interest in the Genizahmaterial, with individual scholars and consolidated research projects making therunning and attempts even being made by some Library staff to keep an account ofthe growing number of publications about the Genizah manuscripts. These efforts,to a large extent inspired by the expansion of academic Jewish studies in thenewly established State of Israel, culminated in the great expansion of the 1950sinspired by S. D. Goitein, and the sorting of over 40,000 fragments in the NewSeries. The Faculty of Oriental Studies and the University Library formallyrecommended in 1960 that funds be sought for the appointment of a mature scholaras an Under-Librarian who would arrange for the sorting, identification and

cataloguing of the Collection; and would record all published work relating to it.He would also arrange for visiting scholars to contribute their areas of expertiseto the cataloguing programme; and would initiate and manage a plan that wouldbring credit to the University and to its Library and which would signal a serviceto Hebrew scholarship. Insufficient funding was forthcoming for the completeproject but it did prove possible in 1965 to appoint the first full-time librarianwith responsibility for the Cambridge Genizah material who also dealt with queriesand visitors, and began to catalogue the biblical fragments. Additional boxes wereappended to the New Series, the microfilming project made good progress, materialwas added to the Library's record of its publishedGenizah items, and the steady stream of researchers working on the Collectioncontinued unabated. Even more importantly, a project was commenced properly toconserve some of the Collection. The final period, that of the past 27 years, has

seen its own special developments. Since 1973, a fully comprehensive programme ofwork on the Collection has been conducted in the context of a newly createdGenizah Research Unit. The remaining 32 crates of unclassified material weresorted in 1974 and 1975 into the Additional Series under a variety of subjectheadings. With the assistance of external funding, the microfilming andconservation of all 140,000 fragments was completed in 1981. A busy team ofresearchers catalogued12 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Stefan C. Rolfabout 65,000 fragments, and some 50,000 published references to Cambridge Genizahitems were located and published, with the help of a special computer programme.Cambridge University Press joined forces with Cambridge University Library topublish 12 volumes in the newly established Genizah Series. Young researchers,

visiting scholars, international cooperative projects and major exhibitions becamefeatures of the Units work. Over GBP 1.3 million was raised from outside sourcesin support of the Units projects and information about Genizah research wasconveyed to the wider

public through a regular newsletter, Genizah Fragments, the media, and theInternet.The Cairo Genizah: a Medieval Mediterranean Deposit and Modern ...13 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Nurit RoitbergNurit Roitberg is Director of the Technion Central Library (Elyachar Library), at


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Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a positions he has held since 1979. Hermain activities involve introducing uniform working procedures within the 20Technion libraries; computerization of the libraries; and the development of theelectronic library which is accessible via the campus network. Ms Roitberg can becontacted at the Elyachar Central Library, Technion-Israel Institute ofTechnology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel (fax: +(972-4)8233501; e-mail:[email protected]).[Ms Nurit Roitberg's paper was delivered during the 66th IFLA General Conference

and Council, Jerusalem, Israel, 13-18 August 2000.]IntroductionThe reorganization of the library in order to adopt new techniques and toincorporate the electronic library is sometimes called re-engineering. This termexpresses the feeling of a revolutionary era, changes in attitudes, entrance tonew technological areas and building a new library system based on virtualcollections. However, unlike the original definition of re-engineering, whichmeans that the new system replaces the old one, the traditional library is notabandoned or neglected, but continues to develop side by side with the electroniclibrary. The library continues to purchase and catalogue books and to provideservices to readers who personally visit the library.The combination of both the traditional and the electronic services is calledtoday the

Hybrid library.Manpower and the Electronic LibraryThe new tasks are not equally divided according to the old scheme and theadditional workload for developing and maintaining the electronic library does notalways fit into the existing order. Some tasks are related to traditional librarydepartments and some are new. In general, the electronic library is adding manyadditional duties to the present team.Licensing electronic journals is strongly connected to the serials department, butit is a labor-intensive and time-consuming job. Linking the electronic journals tothe library homepage is a new task that nobody did before. Readers services areprovided not only personally, but also by electronic means today.

This includes technical support in addition to bibliographic services. Newdatabases and e-journal collections must be checked constantly by librarians as totheir contents, format and methods of linking. This is a wearisome task. It isfollowed by preparing written explanations and messages to readers about newservices, and giving group instructions on how to use the electronic library. Infact, developing and maintaining the library homepage which becomes the heart ofbibliographic work, requires a lot of effort in planning, writing texts, andtechnical work. Working in a state of continual change means dealing constantlywith new missions, new technologies, new partners to compete with and constantpressure to proceed and not to be left behind. Changing library priorities andstrategic planning is one thing; performing all duties with the same team becomesthe problem.Administratively many libraries are still organized according to the old system,

which is based on traditional departments such as acquisitions, cataloguing,serials, etc. Employees feel secure within this administrative framework sincemany of them have a tenure status and other privileges. Duties and hierarchy areusually well defined in this system.14 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1The Influence of the Electronic Library on Library Management: A TechnologicalUniversity Library ExperienceIt is difficult to change the old hierarchy and duties and it is not desirable todo so unless it is necessary. There is a strong justification for the traditionallibrary organization, but a flexible and dynamic solution is needed for the areasthat are affected by constant change. Here, what is suitable today may not be


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appropriate tomorrow. Libraries do not yet have enough experience to define andmeasure all new tasks related to electronic library duties. Some new duties maydevelop into a new department and some may vanish after a while when a specialtask is completed. Therefore, only a different approach will enable the library tocope with the new duties without dramatically changing the administrative manpowerorganization of the library. The solution should not be a part of the oldhierarchy, but it can be an addition to it. The library can create a parallelscheme in which librarians should be treated on an individual basis rather than

according to their place and duties in the traditional hierarchy. Special taskscan be given as personal assignments to people with qualifications, ability andenthusiasm to do more and to take part in new and advanced developments. Itappears that responsibility for a mission in the area of the electronic library isa reward in itself because of the professional interest, the esteem of thelibrary's management and the personal pride of achievement. The prerequisite tosuch an approach is an appropriate organizationalsurrounding with new values. The creation of the correct culture demands investingefforts in employees' education, learning new techniques and constant updating.Most libraries do not get enough additional manpower, if at all, to compete withnew duties related to the electronic library. When they get additional manpower itis invested first of all in technical duties that require skilled engineers, etc.Most of the work required for the transition into the electronic library areas is

done bythe existing library team. The computer or the PC with its basic software is anessential tool, and librarians should improve their ability to use it constantly.The combination of experienced librarians well trained in modern technology withpersonal responsibility to individual or team missions is the key to success andprogress.The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is a technological university and aresearch institution located in Haifa, Israel. It has a central library and 20departmental libraries, operating as one bibliographic unit. The electroniclibrary is being developed and maintained by the Central Library for the wholecampus.At the Central Library senior librarians voluntarily took personalresponsibilities that were not in their areas of responsibility. The head of the

book cataloguing department is linking e-journals to the library homepage; thehead of the book acquisitions department prepares for licensing e-journals; theheads of reader services, cataloguing and acquisitions serve as the libraryhomepage editorial team; the information specialist classifies e-journals; thereference librarians take part in various tasks in the development of theelectronic library. Even the secretary is involved in updating information relatedto electronic items.It was not planned so, but developed as a result of a continuous process whichbegan with raising problems, discussing them with library senior staff and tryingto find practical solutions with the present manpower. The discussions includedtopics such as problems related to improving the homepage and electronic servicesto the departmental libraries, cataloguing e-journals, the linkage between thelibrary catalogue and the library homepage, technical problems related to the

library integrated system, to local databases and more. Many issues were solved ina creative and efficient way; some are still not solved. Also, some mistakes weremade and corrected as part of this process. The most important outcome was thesense of partnership and shared responsibility of the senior team and the feelingsof shared success and professional pride. Librarians at all levels are encouragedto participate in courses that improve their computer capabilities. Such coursesare organized for librarians, sometimes together with other Technion employees, incooperation with the Technion manpower division. In-house lectures on specialtechnical subjects are given from time to time to the librarians by the technicalstaff of the Central Library.The Library as a Leader


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Libraries' management alreadyknow that they must adjust themselvesto a situation of constantchange. The pace of development isinfluenced strongly by factors outsidethe library: many new databasesand new e-journals are offeredfrequently in the market, sometimes

in more than one interfaceand much research is requiredbefore reaching a decision regardingnew products. There are longperiods of preparation for theimplementation of a new version ora new library integrated system andthen it takes time to absorb it.Library hardware should be updatedas a result of technologyadvancement, new Web-based universityteaching materials shouldbe accessed and combined in the

virtual library, and user educationis required on a larger scale and invarious forms.Library directors are also under alot of pressure to achieve goalsmuch faster in order to competewith others in the informationworld. Electronic information managementhas become prestigious,and in order to lead in this area thelibrary should take initiatives andenter into new projects if they arerelated to its services. The Technion

Central Library became a specialistin networked information, mainlyin giving diverse unified services toall users of the campus network.However, today there is much moreknowledge and professional abilityA Technological University Library Experience15 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1

in the libraries to control the fasterpace of development and to direct itaccording to their needs. Manylibraries have already proved their

competence in dealing with newtechnologies and with the virtual orelectronic library. Libraries can acttoday from a standpoint of powerrather than be dictated to by others.Today, the status of the universitylibrary is higher at the universityand in the eyes of the informationvendors. As a result the library canmuch more influence its developmentpace and directions. Of


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serves as a tool for identifying additionalneeds of students other thantraditional bibliographic requirements.The electronic library cannotbe separated from a wide range ofother aspects related to teaching.The library should always be awareof future developments and be part

of them. By ignoring them thelibrary may lose new developmentsto competitors within the institution.Centralization versusDecentralizationThe old debate between centralizationand decentralization is nowdefinitely weighted in favor of centralization.In the age of virtualinformation there is no meaning tothe physical location of the information,but there are great advantages,financial and bibliographic,

to unifying and incorporating distributedsystems.Libraries need stronger power tosucceed in their negotiations withthe vendors of electronic information.Sometimes the vendors themselvesprefer to sell e-information tolarger bodies. The rebirth of consortiain its modern frame is a directresult of this process.The problem of decentralization isusually an institutional problem.While libraries are ready to cooperate

on a national or regional level,they find it much more difficult todo so on an institutional level.Cooperation in the electronic areameans much more than interlibraryloans and coordination of acquisitions.It sometimes means losingindependence. Progress dependsmuch more on centralization thanon cooperation. However, cooperationis a positive tool to achievecentralization. In a distributed universitylibrary system, electronic

databases and e-journals should bepurchased only once and placed onthe university network with accessfor all readers. In reality efficiencyis not the only motive; prestigecounts too and departmental librarianswould not give it up easily. Amajor issue is who controls thelibrary homepage and other centralizedcomputerized bibliographicsystems in a decentralized university


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services are also based on them.Advanced libraries have createdcomputer clusters for readers' use.Maintaining and upgrading such alarge amount of equipmentdemands constant work. In addition,there are servers and communicationequipment. The servers

located at the library are related tolibrary information systems orsometimes to the integrated librarysystem. At the Technion CentralLibrary there are five servers fordifferent purposes related to localdatabases, the library homepageand for backup. The library's computerwhich is used for the "Aleph"integrated library system is locatedat the computer centre because ofhistorical reasons. In order to operateall the systems efficiently, the

library should have its own technicalstaff: an engineer or a technician.The library staff needs animmediate address when faced withtechnical problems, and libraryproblems are the first priority forthe library engineer.The communication issue is a mostimportant one. Library services arebased on the campus network,which is usually maintained anddeveloped by the university computercentre. The connection

between the university library andthe university computer centre isbased first of all on network definitionsand network activities. At theTechnion the library proxy which isthe gateway to remote databasesand e-journals is maintained by thecomputer centre. Continual coordinationis necessary and should bedone by a professional person fromthe library side.In addition to the equipment andcommunications mentioned above,

the library maintains a large homepage,gives technical help to departmentallibraries, assists networkusers, develops software solutionsfor problems not solved in thelibrary integrated system and more.In large decentralized library systemslike that at the Technion, acontinual dialogue is neededbetween the Central Library technical


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staff and faculty engineers inregard to problems related to thedepartmental library equipment.In the past, the library relied muchmore on the computer center servicesand one or two experiencedlibrarians who served as coordinators.Later when the level of computerization

in libraries progressed,the lack of enough technical knowledgebecame a barrier for furtherdevelopment. The Internet openednew possibilities, staff membersacquired more knowledge and techniques.In order to widen thelibrary networked services andinvest more funding in it, the levelof technical maintenance must beassured.The need for an engineering departmentin the library is a result of the

development of the electroniclibrary. This need is much moredefined than other new tasks resultingfrom the electronic library.Once the library hires its own engineer,a wider range of opportunitiesare opened for improving electronicservices. Librarians can rely upon ahigher level of technical solutions.As the development of library computerizedservices continues thereis a demand to solve more technicalproblems. In larger library systems,

one person is not enough and graduallymore staff will be hired forthe engineering department.Future Possible ChangesThe changes in library managementand manpower organizationare highly affected by the developmentof the electronic library. It isdifficult to predict the character andpace of change of the electronicA Technological University Library Experience17 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1

library, but these factors will determinethe future of library organization.As a result of the present achievementsof the electronic library, theinterlibrary and document deliverydepartment already requires lessmanpower as more material isavailable via the network to theend-user. On the other hand, theserials department maintains twoparallel systems, the print and the


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electronic. When electronic versionswill totally replace the paper editions,a considerable workload willbe reduced in the serials department,but online access to the backvolumes is still a major unsolvedproblem.The vision of a library with very

few librarians does not seem realistic.The library will still need itsprofessional staff, but they shouldbe prepared to move from one fieldto the other, or to incorporate additionalduties frequently. Higherqualifications and constant updatingare essential for efficient workin the future library.Electronic information is not lessexpensive than printed information.On the contrary, larger investmentsare needed. Libraries realize the

benefit of cooperation and the numberof consortia is growing. Theelectronic library is becoming moreand more a part of the virtual campus,and is being integrated withvirtual instruction.Nurit Roitberg18 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1

Shifra Baruchson-ArbibMs Shifra Baruchson-Arbib is anassociate professor in the Departmentof Information Science in Bar-

Ilan University, Israel. She was headof the department between 1990and 1998. During this time, she promotedthe specialties of "InformationStudies" and "Library Administration"and founded a new expertisefor MA students, "Social InformationScience".Ms Baruchson-Arbib holds threedegrees: BA in History, Bible andInformation Science, MA in Historyand PhD in History. She specializesin the history and sociology of reading,

printing and the informationsociety, in social information, aswell as in bibliography and dataretrieval.She has published many articles andtwo books on the above subjects.Her first book, Books and Readers;the Reading Interests of Italian Jewsat the Close of the Renaissance(Bar-Ilan University Press, 1993)was awarded the prestigious Zalman


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Shazar Prize - named after thepresident of Israel. Her secondbook, Social Information Science -Love, Health and the InformationSociety - The Challenge of the 21stCentury (Sussex Academic Press,1996) suggests founding a new specialtyin Information Studies that

will educate new "Social InformationScientists" who in the futurewill enlarge the social role of thelibrary and, in addition, build modernsocial and medical informationbanks.Ms Baruchson-Arbib is a member ofthe editorial board of the Israeli journal"Information and Librarianship".She is also a member of the Ministryof Education committee for promotionof library education in Israel, aswell as a member of IFLA and FID.

Ms Baruchson-Arbib can be contactedat the Department of InformationScience, Bar-Ilan University, RamatGan 52900, Israel ([email protected]).[Prof. Baruchson-Arbib's paper wasdelivered during the 66th IFLA GeneralConference and Council, Jerusalem,Israel, 13-18 August 2000.]Introduction - What is SocialInformation Science?Social Information Science is anew specialization in the framework

of information studies andlibrarianship. It deals with the studyof applications and development ofall the elements connected to theretrieval and processing of socialand medical information, includingthe study of society's informationneeds, the characteristics of dataretrieval sources, data processingmethods, the ethics of providinginformation, the development ofinstitutions such as social and medicalinformation banks, and the creation

of the new professional: theSocial Information Scientist. Thisdiscipline was developed by theauthor as a special expertise for MAstudents in the Department of InformationScience in Bar-Ilan University,Israel. The theoretical and scientificbasis of the subject was coveredat length in her book: SocialInformation Science - Love, Healthand the Information Society - The


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Challenge of the 21st Century (SussexAcademic Press, Brighton,1996). 1)The basic assumption behind theneed to develop this new field isthat in addition to the technological19 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Curriculum for "Social Information Science"

Evaluation and Application

efforts and inventions that characterizethe information society, wealso need to develop the humanitarianand social aspects of the newsociety emerging before us. In apioneer article about electronicpublishing (1978), T.H. Nelsonnoted: "The paper world we lived infor so long may and perhaps shouldbe supplanted by an electroniccounterpart. But in this transformation,

we have a chance to improvethe world - a one time chance." 2)The basic premise of the new fieldis that modern man needs twotypes of social information for hiswell-being: (1) direct information,such as: names of institutions, publicand voluntary aid organizations,support groups, information onmedical treatments and preventivemedicine, etc.; and (2) supportiveknowledge - meaning the knowledgeand information found in literature,

movies and poetry, fromwhich one can draw comfort, support,insight, a new way of lookingat problems, and original solutionsfound and tried by others. Socialand medical information, whentransmitted in a reliable and empatheticmanner along with detailedexplanations, will give modern manemotional and social stability, andreduce stress as much as possible.Just as in the 20th century new academicdisciplines have been established

(e.g., psychology, criminology,educational guidance counselling,business management, computersciences and others), now, at thethreshold of the 21st century, it isimportant and worthwhile to createa new profession appropriate to thespirit of the times and the needs ofsociety. The 20th century put man'ssocial needs on the stage of scientificresearch. The 21st century should


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continue to find solutions for theseneeds by using new technology andnew information channels to giveman an anchor that will enable himto take responsibility for his life, tobe involved in decisions affectinghis life and to choose his bestoptions. During the last 20 years,

we have witnessed a growingawareness of this subject throughthe rise of new issues and projectssuch as: patient education, preventivemedicine, the establishment ofmedical information centers in hospitals,and the development ofreferral services in public libraries,all of which prove that there is aneed for social and medical information.3)The concept of using informationand literature for the benefit of society

is not new, as proven in thefields of bibliotherapy and psychoneuroimmunology.4) In addition,there are a lot of different social,practical activities that are not sufficientlyknown to the general public.5) What then is the innovation inthe new field of Social InformationScience? First, its interdisciplinaryapproach, which combines threeelements: information technology,literature (in printed and electronicform) and the public's need for

social and medical information; second,its application in library scienceas a unique expertise with thepurpose of educating a new generationof qualified, responsible SocialInformation Scientists. As responsibilityand credibility are essential insuch a delicate field such as socialinformation, creating a formal andrecognized profession will preventthe penetration of nonprofessionalsinto this field.The Conception of the

Bar-Ilan UniversityProgrammeThe official purpose of Social InformationScience is to create institutionscalled social and medicalinformation banks, and a new professional- the Social InformationScientist, as the author explains indetail in her book (1996). Theprocess of the entry of a new professioninto society involves slow


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stages of trial and error. This phenomenonwas taken into considerationduring the development of theprogramme. It was also clear thattransforming the librarian into aSocial Information Scientist will notbe an easy task in light of thelibrarian's conservative image and

low library budgets. On the otherhand, it is obvious that public andschool libraries should look for newchallenges in wake of the decline ofreading books and the expansion ofnew information technologies. Takingall these assumptions into consideration,the Bar-Ilan Universityprogramme has three aims: 1) thetraining of new librarians (SocialInformation Scientists) for hospitals,nursing and rehabilitationinstitutions; 2) educating specialists

to develop self-help sections andsocial information banks in publicand school libraries, communitycenters, and local municipalities;and 3) the encouragement of talentedstudents to develop private initiativesin the field of social information.It has been explained fromthe start to all those who registerfor the programme that this is anew field and that there is no SocialInformation Science profession inIsrael yet.

The Information Science Departmentin Bar-Ilan is the largestdepartment of its kind in Israel (550students) and its aim is to promotenew fields in order to help Israelisociety become an advanced informationsociety. Social informationis one of its new projects, in additionto other programmes: InformationManagement, Information Science,and Administration of Publicand School Libraries.Curriculum for Social

Information ScienceThe programme began in 1993 asan MA specialization and includestwo options:1) Programme with a thesis (27credits including 2 seminars); and2) Programme without a thesis (37credits including 3 seminars). Studentswith BA degrees in librarianshipwere exempt from taking theintroductory courses (13 credits).


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The programme lasts 2-4 years.Only outstanding students with BAdegrees in the social sciences wereaccepted.The new specialization is based onan interdisciplinary approach and isbuilt on four components:1. Basic courses in information science

and librarianship (data20 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Shifra Baruchson-Arbib

retrieval, cataloguing, classification,etc.);

2. Basic courses in psychology:"Introduction to Psychology" andan introductory course in groupdynamics;3. Study of the therapeutic aspectsof all kinds of communication

media: books, poetry, movies,Internet sites, etc. (bearing inmind different age groups: children,adolescents, adults andsenior citizens); and4. Studies of the potential applicationsof the new specialization inexisting frameworks such asschools, public libraries, andlibraries in hospitals, nursing

and rehabilitation centres, aswell as in new frameworks such

as management of new socialinformation banks.The following is the programmecurriculum. Please note that eachyear there are some changes madeaccording to lessons learned duringthe course of the previous year.After six years of activity, it is timeto evaluate the success and practicalapplication of the new field.From the point of view of thedepartment, it is a success. Duringall these years, from 20-25% of the

students have chosen this specializationdespite the fact that it hasbeen made clear to them that this isa new programme and there is noguarantee that they will find jobs atthis stage. Most of the students havechosen the programme without athesis since it offers a greater selectionof credits, a fact that allowsthem to obtain widespread knowledgein other areas of information


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as well and will enable them to findjobs in the future in various places.What is the academic profile of thestudents? Ninety-nine percent ofthem are women between the agesof 30 and 50. They all have BAdegrees in the social sciences - education,psychology, social work;

some of them also have teachingcertificates and a BA degree inlibrarianship. From a professionalpoint of view, most of them arealready working: 30% as librariansand the rest as educational counsellorsand teachers. It was natural forstudents with a tendency to aid andsupport to choose this specialization.In the middle of 1999, a survey wasconducted among the students whohad already completed the programmein order to evaluate the

satisfaction from the programmeand its success in the field ofemployment. The survey focused onfour central questions: 1) Whatmotivated the students to registerfor this specialization; 2) Did thestudies influence their awareness tothe social aspect of library scienceand their attitude towards readers;3) Are they working in the field orhave they developed at their placesof work special projects such as:self-help sections in libraries, information

centers for social services,preparation of a bibliotherapeutic21 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Curriculum for "Social Information Science" - Evaluation and ApplicationIntroductory courses: 13 creditsName of course Credits*Introduction to information science 1Introduction to computers 1Research methods and statistics 2Introduction to reference work 1Cataloguing methods 1Classification methods 1Computer services in libraries 1

On-line data retrieval 2Internet resources 1Marketing of information services 1Organizational behaviour 1Specialization: Social Information ScienceRequired introductory courses: 4 creditsIntroduction to psychology 2Group dynamics 2Specialization courses: 8 credits required for thesis programme;17 credits for non-thesis programmeLibrary services for special populations 1


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Medical bibliotherapy in health care institutions 1Literature and movies as means of support and insight 2Bibliotherapy for senior citizens 1Bibliotherapy for children 1Advanced course in bibliotherapy for senior citizens 1Bibliotherapeutic evaluation of children's literature 1Data bases in the social sciences 1Social information in social services 1

Evaluation of reading abilities 1Basic skills of the Digital Information Scientist 1Copyright and ethical issues 1Elective courses on other subjects 4Required seminars: 2 credits for thesis programme;3 credits for non-thesis programmeSocial Information Science 1Scientific research in librarianship 1Information systems in educational institutions 1* 1 credit = 30 hours of learning = 1 semester.Evaluation andApplication - Dataand Methods

catalogue, preparation of a self-helpliterature catalogue or social Internetsite?; and 4) Do they have privateor public plans to apply it inthe future.The main findings of the survey follow.The survey was sent to 150 studentsand 73% of them responded.Most of them (52%) answered thatthey chose the specializationbecause it is a new and interestingfield. Some of them (19%) responded

that their work deals with relatedtopics and their purpose is todevelop social information activitieswithin their libraries. Twenty-ninepercent of them responded thatthey intended to learn a new professionand apply it in Israeli society.Concerning their awareness of thesubject, most of them (75%) saidthat the course expanded theirawareness of the social potential oflibrary science and improved theirattention to readers' requests. Others

(19%) responded that they hadprevious knowledge. The rest didnot respond (6%).Concerning the central questiondealing with the practical aspect,we learned that 17 students (15% ofthe respondents) are involved withactivities related to the new field.Here the answers were very variedand interesting. Four graduateswork as teachers in this field. One,


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who was a member of the firstgraduating class and is a physicianby profession, is now teachingcourses in medical bibliotherapy,bibliotherapy for senior citizens andsocial information in social services,in our department at Bar-Ilan. Thisstudent also has a background in

psychology and is also active inIsrael in aid and welfare frameworks.The second graduate teachesbibliotherapy for children in thedepartment; she is a librarian byprofession with an MA degree ineducation. She also specialized inbibliotherapy within other frameworksas well, and now also teachescourses to kindergarten teacherson the subject. The third is a librarianby profession who teaches anintroductory bibliotherapy course,

as a special extension course forlibrarians. The fourth, who holds asenior position in Israel in the fieldof library science, incorporates thesubject of social information intoher lectures. Two other respondentsdeveloped self-help sections foryouths within the framework ofschool libraries. One of these projects,that took place in the town ofOr Yehuda, was studied carefullyand it clearly showed that this specialself-help section contributed to

an increase in the amount of readingand heightened interest inbooks dealing with teenage familyproblems, drugs, violence, sex, andothers.6) Two students are jointlybuilding an Internet site on the subjectof "breast cancer" for an Israeliassociation for prevention of breastcancer; they received funding forthe project from the Ministry ofEducation. Another respondent,also a leading figure in the field oflibrarianship, prepared a "literature

catalogue" classified according tobibliotherapeutic angles for theCentral Library of Tel Aviv. Anotherrespondent built a site for herlibrary and added information onbibliotherapy. Four graduates arenow developing databases in theframework of their jobs in librariesand government projects on thesubjects of drugs, information servicesfor senior citizens, television


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movies - and social values. Yetanother graduate is involved indeveloping a municipal informationcenter in one of the centrallibraries. Two other graduates areinvolved in bibliotherapy counselling- one with disabled armyveterans, and the other with elderly

stroke victims, both under thesupervision of psychology experts.Concerning their plans for thefuture, 46% responded that theyintend to develop the field withinthe framework of their workingplace or in a private framework.What about academic research onthe subject? Besides articles thatwere published by the author ofthis paper, many seminar workshave been written in addition toseveral excellent MA theses, for

example: "Bibliotherapy and hypermedia","Self-help Literature inIsrael 1967-1997", "Research in bibliotherapy- in Israel and the world- Bibliometric analysis", "SocialInformation in schools for specialeducation", and "Alternative medicinein Israel and the world - Bibliometricanalysis". 7)In addition to the direct results connectedto the students of the department,there has also been increasedinterest in the subject among

Israel's librarian organizations. Theauthor was invited to give severallectures in the framework of TheInstruction Center for PublicLibraries and the Organization ofSpecial Libraries, as well as in theframework of an international conferencefor school librarians held bythe International Association ofSchool Librarianship in 1998.Recently, the leading organizationdealing with adult education andthe development of community centers

has been considering developingsocial information banks in acommunity center in Israel.ConclusionsThere is no doubt that the issue ofsocial information should be developedand promoted as part of thechanges characterizing the informationsociety. But, like any new activityjust beginning, the first stagesare slow and it takes time for


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awareness to grow among scholarsas well as the general public. Fromthe point of view of library andinformation workers, this is a newfield of activity, one of great interestand creative potential that in thefuture will allow the developmentof social information banks and

academic specialists who will serveas certified Social Information Scientists.The very fact that there is somuch interest in the subject amonglibrary students shows that they arelooking for a new and interestingniche to develop in and to contributeto society. However, in thepractical sense, development is slowbecause of lack of budget and lackof awareness of the issue. In thisstate of affairs, the activities carriedout until now are noteworthy, and

with a lot of patience, creativity andthe right connections, we hope thatSocial Information Science willaccelerate and contribute a human-22 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Shifra Baruchson-Arbib

istic angle to the technological innovationsof the information society.References1. See also: Baruchson-Arbib, S. "HilfDurch B cher in Medizinischen undSozialen Einrichtungen in Israel." In:

Int. Gedenkscrift Dr. med EdithMundt-B cher als Magische Medizin,M nchen Deutscher Arztinnenbund,137-144 (1996).2. Nelson T.H. "Electronic publishing andelectronic literature." In: Edward C.Deland (Ed.), Information Technologyin Health Science Education, NewYork, London: Plenum Press, 213(1978).3. Brawley, E.A. Mass media and humanservices: Getting the message across.Beverly Hills: Sage Publications

(1983).4. Gold, J. Read for your life, literature asa life support system. Markham:Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside(1990).5. Such as the Book Buddies project inSan Francisco and "The Happy Children'sWard" in Munich, and a lot ofother small social information projectssuch as Internet sights and health databases. See: Baruchson-Arbib, Social


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Information, Chap. 4.6. Baruchson-Arbib, S. "Social informationscience and the school library,education for all." Proceeds of the27th International Conference of theInternational Association of SchoolLibrarianship, Bar-Ilan University,Israel, 1-7 (July 1998).

7. See above (ibid, notes 1, 6).BibliographyAdeney, C. Bibliotherapie beikleinkindern in krankenhaus (Europ ischeHochschulschriften, Vol. 418). Frankfurtam Main: Peter Lang (1990).Baruchson-Arbib, S. "Information andsupportive literature in aid organizations:The case of Israel." Libri 46: 168-172 (1996).Baruchson-Arbib, S. "Libraries in seniorhousing in Israel: Findings of a survey."Information and Librarianship 22: 13-18

(1996) (Hebrew).Baruchson-Arbib, S. "The self-help sectionin public libraries - The case ofIsrael." Public Library Quarterly 16(3):41-49 (1997).Baruchson-Arbib, S. "The public libraryand the problem of hospital libraries forpatients - The case of Israel." PublicLibrary Quarterly 17(3): 79-88 (1999).Childers, T. Information & referral: Publiclibraries. Norwood, NJ: Ablex PublishingCo. (1983).Gann, R. "Consumer health information."

In: L.T. Morton & S. Godbolt (Eds.),Information sources in medical sciences(4th ed.). London: Bowker-Saur, 545-555(1992).Ellis, A. "The advantages and disadvantagesof self-help therapy material." ProfessionalPsychology - Research andPractice 24: 335-339 (1993).Hunt, S. "The clinical use of self helpmanuals." In: J.M. Clarke & E. Bostle(Eds.), Reading therapy. London: TheLibrary Association, 82-105 (1988).Hynes McCarty, A. & Hynes Berry, M.

Biblio/Poetry therapy - the interactiveprocess: A handbook. Boulder, CO: WestviewPress (1986).Parikh, N. & Schneider, M. "Book buddies,bringing stories to hospitalized children."School Library Journal 35: 35-39(1988).Rees, A.M. Managing consumer healthinformation services. Phoenix, AZ: OryxPress (1992).Rubin, R. Bibliotherapy source book.


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Phoenix, AR: Oryx Press (1978).Rubin, R. Using bibliotherapy: A guide totheory and practice. Phoenix, AR: OryxPress (1978).Schneider, M. Book buddies volunteersbring stories to San Francisco hospitalizedchildren. San Francisco Library(1987).

Tolsma, D. "Patient education objectivesin healthy people 2000 - policy andresearch issues." Patient Education andCounselling 22: 7-14 (1993).Vollhardt, L.T. "Psychoneuroimmunology:A literature review." American Journalof Orthopsychiatry 61: 35-47 (1991).Curriculum for "Social Information Science" - Evaluation and Application23 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1

Judith A. SegalJudith Segal is currently a full professoron the library faculty of Western

Washington University. In addition,she consults on library strategicplanning and team facilitationand is a bibliotherapist. For the pastseven years, Ms Segal served as alibrary director, at Hollins Collegeand WWU. This paper is developedfrom a chapter of her doctoral dissertation.She received her D.L.S.and M.L.S. from Columbia University,an M.A. from Brandeis Universityand a B.A. from Brooklyn College.Ms Segal may be contacted by fax

at +(1-360) 6507996 or e-mail:[email protected].[Ms Segal's paper was delivered duringthe 66th IFLA General Conference andCouncil, Jerusalem, Israel, 13-18 August2000.]Some years ago, I began an historicalinvestigation of therecord of activities, goals andaccomplishments of an academiclibrarians' grassroots association,the Library Association of the CityColleges of New York, called by its

acronym LACCNY. Much held inadmiration for reputedly winningfaculty rank and benefits for itsmembership, I was eager to learnthe way in which they arrived atsuch a glorious nationallyrenowned victory. As the archivalrecord showed LACCNY's seeminglyendless and repeated failedattempts, over 26 years, to attainthe association's primary goals of


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academic recognition and parity forits membership, my documentsearching turned into analyticalprobing. I knew that this evidenceof record, in contrast with legend,replete with questionable practiceby the association needed theoreticalexplanations. Why the failing

tactics, why the unchanging efforts,indeed in light of its insignificance,what was its raison d' tre? I wasurged on by Michael Winter, who,in The Culture and Control ofExpertise, said: "Sequential history,no matter how carefully documented,is not sufficient; chains of eventsmust be placed in patterns of ideas,which come from several sources."1For 26 years, from 1939 to 1965,LACCNY, the Library Association ofthe City Colleges of New York, vigilantly,

consistently and, alas, ineffectively,sought teaching facultysalary and rank parity for its academiclibrarian members. Although,in the end, the librarians weregiven what they wanted, itappeared that it was not because ofLACCNY. Rather it was an accommodationto the needs andresources of the 1960s. In fact, hadLACCNY paid more attention duringthe lost decades to social, politicaland economic external events

and to values and trends that affectedthe fabric of higher education,and planned accordingly, the trulymistreated librarians might havereached their goal in less time.Why study external events whenwhat you want seems to lie withinfour walls in an office building in acity struggling with its own needs?Looking closer, though, we see, inthose 26 years, a succession ofnational traumas and change: theUnited States entered the Second

World War and came out of it toendure hard-hitting waves of inflationand recession; unionizationand collective bargaining roseforcefully as a national movementwhile the Cold War raging at homeand a hot war in Korea threw theAmerican politic into a reactionarysweep of the nation for Communists;for twenty years, political fearenforced political complacency


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until newly growing disenfranchisedgroups discovered theirpower and used public demonstrationsand civil disobedience to drawattention to their unmet needs.LACCNY, it would seem, paid scantattention in the 1940s, its earlyyears, both to the city's dichotomous

commitments that includedstabilizing its huge post-war fiscalburdens while maintaining loyaladherence to free higher education.Neither is there evidence that, as anorganization, it was particularly24 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Collaboration between Theory and Evidence-basedPractice Two Cultures: Librarians and Professors

aware of the impact of the diverseand eccentric profiles of the studentsattending the colleges.2

Through the 1950s, the smallness ofthe association's size along withlibrarians' traditionally recumbentpolitics and, above all, their relianceon reasoned appeals, would bringthem defeat time and time again.They did win some battles, the mostimportant just before they formallybecame an association. In 1938, thefounding members gained recognitionof the college libraries as collegedepartments rather than civilservice operations. From that victory,

and some eight years later, as abenefit of their departmental status,their members gained voting rightsin campus-wide bodies. Their majorand sometimes ally, the LegislativeConference of academic faculty, vigorouslyfighting for the professoriate,did help them raise a salaryceiling or two in 1943 and 1946.But those gains and those facultyprivileges did not largely affectoverall salary ranges, enableadvancement, promote collegial

acceptance or their recognition aspeers of the faculty.The record is as full of the manystated and written protests, briefs,reports of LACCNY's leadersappearing at councils of more powerfulbodies on and off campus andin government as much as it isempty of the benefits of suchefforts. The librarians' varied academicbackgrounds and qualifications


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left room for the city, state and campusadministrations to pay themless and assign them longer workinghours than the rest of the teachingfaculty and justify placing andkeeping them in categories leastexpensive to maintain. Their maingoals, parity in title, work hours

and work year as well as, and mostimportantly, salary were not gainedthrough the careers of a generationor more of hard-working librarians.Then it was 1965 and the goal wasachieved. There came the Consultant,the angel of driven administratorsseeking an elusive prizewhose need must be convincinglyexpressed in the language ofboards. Chancellor Albert Bowkerof the City Colleges, which by 1965had become an amalgamated University,

was keenly aware of onething - the need for more librarians.He was not particularly aware oftheir talents, their values, their education,or their collegial dilemma,but he knew that there were fewerthan could meet the need of theexpanding city campuses of the1960s. To fill positions, in a buyers'market, he also knew he had toraise salaries. To do that he neededthe approval of the Board of HigherEducation. So Bowker hired Robert

Downs, a known advocate of fullfaculty status and rank for librarians,also advantageously an outsiderand an academic Dean. It wasDowns' arguments and Bowker'suse of it and the feared and growingmovement for faculty unionizationand collective bargaining thatconvinced the Board of Higher Education.Simply said, it would be easierto recruit librarians withincreased pay and faculty rank.It was Chancellor Bowker who created

the machinery that enabled theBoard to adopt a resolution craftedby LACCNY seven years earlier,born out of a wistful dream 20years before that.To portray LACCNY as ineffective isnot to dishonor or discredit itsmembership and its dedicated leaders,but to emphasize that theimpact of the larger social context isthe predominant source of individual


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response, not the virtue of associationsor the correctness of theirarguments and beliefs. It is also topoint out that a group bent onchanging response needs to engagepolitically, armed with a strongknowledge base of its culture andcontext, built on self-studies and

mastery of administrative aims,important referral groups, currentpolitical and economic issues andgovernment timetables; its representativesneed to be skilled in theart of negotiation and of compromise.For as Sayre and Kaufman3describe it, political life is a contestinvolving competitors and prizes,core groups and satellites.Repeatedly, LACCNY focused noton winning but on due process andreasoning. It had neither a strategic

plan for achieving its goals nor apolitical action plan for adept use oflobbying, advocacy and public relations.It did not seek to attract orinvolve other groups that couldgain benefits from the larger effort.LACCNY members did not appearengaged in political life, not even ashaving a consciousness of itself inits social context. The city collegelibraries in those years, as WilliamMyrick, Jr. shows, in the only otherin-depth study of them, were unable

even to coordinate their collectionbuilding and borrowing and couldonly barely cooperate with eachother.4"Curiouser and curiouser," as thesaying goes, and as I researched therecord of the association, the historyof the colleges, the era and itsevents and people, I asked myselfnumerous times why did LACCNY'smembership keep growing and itsactivities remain unchanged for solong despite its failures? Theory

comes into play here.There were the studies of occupationalsociologists, Harmon Zeigler5and Robert Zussman.6 Zeigler,observing the associations of teachers,found them guardians of thestatus quo, not agents for change; inthe days before the National EducationAssociation (NEA) and theAmerican Association of UniversityProfessors (AAUP) became more


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active, teacher associations, similarto LACCNY, provided a place for itsmembers to remain together innonpolitical alienation.Zussman's study of engineers likewiserevealed an apolitical groupwhich he attributed to theirentrenchment in mid-level professionalism.

Their goal was securityin an increasingly insecure society.Dramatic or political involvementin the life beyond their communitiesand offices was not advisable.The teachers and the engineers, likethe librarians, appeared to construeactivism as planning local activities,not change. These sociologistscalled them alienated claiming thatCollaborations between Theory and Evidence-based Practice25 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1

alienation begets alliances of thealienated, not for assimilation, butfor maintenance. The alienatedhave a hard time influencing thepowerful as long as they remain intheir alienation.The most instructive theories werethose of Albert Meister7, a Swisssociologist, and student of associations.Meister theorized that intimes or places where people wouldbe anxious about rightfully belonging,their need for security is

heightened. They seek the shelterof an association which then is primarilycompelled by its members'emotional needs. Its importance tothem, and their loyalty to it,depends more on the perceivedsecurity and support it offers thanon the successful accomplishmentof its stated goals.Then, as now, an association formsout of the belief that it can make adifference in matters involvingpower and control. Yet change in

society is complex and resisted byexisting systems of values and operations.LACCNY's 26-year grievancewas fostered in a spirit of increasedpersonal expectations, out of theshadows of the Great Depressionwhich, for some time, continued tobite at the heels of growing prosperity.In theory it should havefought like a union and plannedlike an organization to realize its


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goals of radical change. In practice,it was a small group, afraid of socialactivism, cautious, idealistic, andmired in the complacent values andrhetoric of its time including slow,cautious, persistent efforts to influencelegislation through relentlessbut polite lobbying.

When louder social action andgrander battles for civil rightsbecame more acceptable, even LACCNYmembers talked among themselvesof work actions; head librariansdared to relay to their collegepresidents dire administrativedilemmas with regard to overworkand understaffing. They were, however,consistent in not linking theircause with the causes of others, didnot affiliate or derive any policiesfrom organizations not sanctioned

by city and campus administration.The approved group the librariansdoggedly tagged was the LegislativeConference of the colleges' facultiesbecause it was the one "approved"group. But, to that Congress, alsoslow and cautious, LACCNY's struggleswere a continuous and seeminglyinsolvable dilemma that didnot take precedence over its manylarger concerns.LACCNY might have served as avehicle to promote union of librarians

and teaching faculty. It did not.It did not publicize to the faculty itsshared commitment to scholarship,knowledge building, publishing.Instead it argued for equality on thebasis of its "teaching" activities.And LACCNY did not understandwhat "teaching" meant to academicians.The librarians equated their"teaching" with that of classroominstruction, viewing bibliographicinstruction as equal to a developedtheoretically-based curriculum.

LACCNY held Institutes meant tobe similar to academic conferencesbut their guest speakers were notlibrarians, were in fact, celebritiesand popular idols; conference presentationsand discussions were notofficially recorded nor published inthe academic literature.And, again, why not? Surroundedby academicians and the literatureof scholarship, they did not understand


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how the culture of academiclibrarianship significantly differedfrom the culture of academic inhigher education. Across the nation,when teaching faculty wrested theirpower from boards and presidents,they moved from institutional loyaltyto intensely competitive disciplinary

groups. The professors' ownsocial status, conferred hierarchicallyby rank and discipline, wasguarded jealously with deliberatelyambiguous peer control. The librariansdid not weigh the pressure thatthe highly competitive academicworld places for approval of its constituentsbased on their degrees,grants and publications. Entryalone into the discipline and acceptanceby the group, almost withoutexception, required a doctorate and

other scholarly accoutrements notin the general experience of thelarger base of librarians.According to Wilson Logan, thedegree is important because itimplies "research competency aswell as specialized knowledge andgeneral understanding, in contrastwith technical proficiency"8 andBelle Zeller, the legislative championfor faculty rights in New YorkCity, said "Let us face the fact thatlibrarians are not considered as

equals by their equals, and this iswhere librarians get caught up in avicious cycle".9 Knowingly orunknowingly, librarians were notdeemed the peers of the faculty.Which brings us to the theory of"status anxiety" which historianRobert W. Doherty established asone thread to explore in historicalinterpretation: "[Since] few institutionalsupports for social statusexist in nonaristocratic societiessuch as the United States, shifts in

deference and authority produceanxiety in the minds of personswho belong to displaced sectors ofsociety and also among those whohave risen in position."10During the time of this effort, werethe librarians and or the teachingfaculty evidencing "status anxiety"?Based on a report issued by anAAUP committee, during thedepression years, it appears that the


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nation's economic stresses fosteredcampus community divisivenessbetween administration and facultyand among junior and senior facultyas well.11 In the McCarthy era,Schrecker12 showed a mirroring ofthe nation's fear and anxiety in academiccircles as they accommodated

to political repression.We know that collective organization,historically, has been theresource of those who find themselvespowerless. We now know,from Meister, et al, why LACCNY, asa voluntary association and not aunion, formed to gain power, butremained powerless, survivingnonetheless. It did not become aunion because of its members' generaldistrust of unions. It did notchange its tactics because of its

belief in the triumph of reason andthose professional values thatreveal disinterest in the mechanismsof power struggles and26 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Judith A. Segal

power alliances. Not acting on BelleZeller's recommendation that theAssociation educate the academicsby producing a "profile" of thelibrarian, they made true her prediction"we will never dispel the

myths that now prevail among ourcolleagues".13From left field, we can bring inPaulo Freire,14 expert on politicalconsciousness, for whom groupsevolve politically first from generalconformity, then to na ve reformand then, finally, to refusal of anythingbut that which assures themthe power and recognition theydeserve. LACCNY was stuck in themiddle stage. Each of the association'sdecisions - to directly petition

the Board of Higher Education, toentrust its future with the LegislativeConference, to defer to theirsuperiors, to turn down externallitigious defenders, to disdain theWorkers' Defense League and theUnited Federation of College Teachers(UFCT) - was made absent arealistic analysis of its own place inthe academic environment.The rhetoric of librarianship differs


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from the views of the professoriate.Amitai Etzioni explores this bind."[Librarians] most significant referencegroup is the university professor,who believes his mastery of hisown field is superior...as is hisknowledge of related areas. Nordoes the average professor have the

experience of being saved from aserious difficulty by the scientificknowledge of the librarian".15LACCNY did not have theresources, know-how or sufficientsupport to attain its goals. Itremained an intact associationbecause it satisfied its generallyapathetic membership with a senseof professional identity thatpromised security. Actual success orfailure did not change the association'svalue; it was not organized

for the only change it could make -self-change. It did provide a trainingground in democratic due process, apeek at political workings, and afuture for today's librarians stillstruggling with much of the samestruggles. LACCNY's story is nolonger a puzzle but an antiquatedmodel from which reforming librariansmust learn to enter the fray,recognize their image, get involvedin changes, and wisely assimilatethe larger values of academia.

References1 Winter, Michael E. The Culture andControl of Expertise: Toward a SociologicalUnderstanding of Librarianship.New York: Greenwood, 1988,p.146.2 Aaron, B. as cited in Duryea, Edwinand Robert S. Fisk. Faculty Unionsand Collective Bargaining. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass, 1973, p. 43.3 Sayre, Wallace S. and Herbert Kaufman.Governing New York City: Politicsin the Metropolis. NY: Russell

Sage, 1960.4 Myrick, William J., Jr. Coordination:Concept or Reality? A Study ofLibraries in a University System.Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1975.5 Zeigler, Harmon. The Political Life ofAmerican Teachers. Englewood Cliffs:Prentice-Hall, 1967.6 Zussman, Robert. Mechanics of theMiddle Class: Work and PoliticsAmong American Engineers. Berkeley:


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Univ. of California, 1985.7 Meister, Albert. Participation, Associations,Development and Change.New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction,1984.8 Wilson, Logan. American Academics:Then & Now. NY: Oxford Univ., 1979,p. 43.

9 Zeller, Belle. "The Academic Librarian:Collective Bargaining and FacultyStatus." Conference on the AcademicLibrarian. New York State Departmentof Education. Syracuse, NY, February27, 1975. Mimeographed report,p. 3.10 Doherty, Robert W. "Status Anxietyand American Reform: Some Alternatives."American Quarterly 19 (1967):329 -337.11 American Association of UniversityProfessors. Committee Y. Depression,

Recovery and Higher Education. NY:McGraw-Hill, 1937.12 Schrecker, Ellen W. No Ivory Tower:McCarthyism and the Universities.NY: Oxford, 1986.13 Zeller, p.4.14 As cited in Modra, Helen M. "PoliticalLiteracy; A New Agenda for LibraryEducation?" Libraries After 1984 -Proceedings of the LAA/NZLA Conference.Brisbane, 1984, pp.453 - 464.15 Etzioni, Amitai, ed. The Semi-Professionsand Their Organization: Teachers,

Nurses and Social Workers. NY:Free Press, 1969, p.286.27 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1Collaborations between Theory and Evidence-based Practice

Estela MoralesEstela Morales has been DirectorGeneral of Academic Affairs at theNational Autonomous University ofMexico (UNAM) since 1997. Shehas also held the postitions of AcademicSecretary of the HumanitiesCoordination, Director of University

Centre of Librarianship Research,and Vice-Director of General Directionof Libraries, all at UNAM. She iscurrently involved in a project whichwill study information technologyand social minorities, information inLatin America, and Mexico and itsinformation production about LatinAmerica. She has written on subjectssuch as library education;automation; and planning, new technologies,


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information and infodiversityin Latin America.Ms Morales can be contacted at theUniversidad Nacional Aut noma deM xico, Edificio C y D, 4o. piso, CircuitoCultural Universitario, 04510M xico, D.F. Mexico (fax: +(52-25)56660256; e-mail: moce@servidor.

unam.mx).[Ms Morales' paper was delivered duringthe 66th IFLA General Conference andCouncil, Jerusalem, Israel, 13-18 August2000.]Society and InformationInformation, as the representationof thought and knowledge, hasled us to consider that societyreceives and is exposed to informationfrom the language used by themass media as well as from the languagegenerated by the literary, scientific

and technical texts of specializedliterature. In both casessociety produces the informationresulting in a conscious and unconsciousinterest of transmitting itindividually and collectively. Thisstrategic information may be availableonly to a select group or toeverybody. It may be sought, neededand used by individuals orgroups in power like the State, commercialpartnerships or politicalgroups. The participation of society

is decisive in the process of generatingand using information, andsociety is in charge of assigning itits value and function.It is still thought that since informationis generated so easily, itmust be considered part of our naturalheritage, as much as theforests, rivers, and the sea. Differentecologist groups have reported thatthis natural heritage is endangered,with measures being adopted toprevent its loss. We have thus

become aware of the cost to rescueit and preserve it. Such is the casewith both oral and written information.We always believed that in asmuch as information is a requiredelement in all our actions, no effortis involved in its production, access,organization and dissemination.However, the situation is very different.If we in Latin America fail toact and do not strive to acquire and


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deliver to our people the informationneeded for development, wewill not be actually using it and thisdevelopment will also becomequestionable.Acquiring and organizing informationis not enough. It is also necessarythat it be available when

required. Technologically we haveall the facilities to make informationavailable to all users. Nonetheless,securing information is not sosimple because we cannot ignorepolitical and economic restrictions,standardization deficiencies and thelimitations imposed by groups inpower such as censorship, filtersand influences that have an impacton information in each process.Information can also be enriched orimpoverished by the interpretation

of those who select, analyze or summarizeit, by those who assigndescriptors and search for it in acatalogue or database as a technicalaspect of their work or for the convenienceof political systems, economicgroups or simple marketingelements.The Right to InformationInformation is a response to theneed human beings have ofexpressing themselves and learningwhat others have expressed. It is

the response to a need that at a certainmoment becomes an essentialhuman right because, as free people,we have the right to expressourselves, to inform and beinformed. This natural privilegeshould be guaranteed by the State28 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1The Information Right and the InformationPolicies in Latin America

and defended by society. This rightshould also be considered as a

whole. We must not only think ofthe creation of information and themanifestation of ideas and knowledgebut also of its circulation,availability, use and interpretation.As a result of the agreementsreached in a meeting held inNovember 1995, UNESCO publisheda document in May 1996entitled UNESCO and an InformationSociety for All, containing an


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educational, scientific and culturalproject related to new informationand communication technologies.One of the decrees of the GeneralAssembly itself engages the participationof the UNO to promote thefree flow of ideas by means ofwords and images. It also assumes

the obligation of promoting internationalcooperation in communication,information and informaticsin an effort to decrease the prevailinginequality between developedand developing countries. Regardingmedium-term strategiesplanned for the years 1996-2001,there is special emphasis on the useof communication and informationtechnologies in the service of development,democracy and peace.This is the condition that will allow

the information society to reach itsultimate goal: autonomy for eachand every citizen by means ofaccess to knowledge, and the abilityto use it. The "information societyfor all" is both global and local,comprised of individuals and socialgroups which participate in theinformational whole and contributelocal information and their point ofview to the information surroundingus.Information Policies

To make the right to informationcome true, there must be a closerelationship between society andthe State, with mutual interactionsso that, in the face of the approachingfuture, new behaviours, attitudesand values of global societymay be taken into account, with anawareness of the strategic value ofknowledge, information andexchange in the development anddemocratization of Latin Americansocieties.

The information policies we willestablish will be closely related tothe general policies of each country,with public policies pertaining toeducation and cultures, and the historicaland social realities of thenation itself and the Latin Americanregion.The examples of information policiesin Latin America are not necessarilyall-embracing because it is


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possible to see partial efforts interrelatedto the activities and productsthat enable the inhabitants of acountry to use and read information.We have laws, agreements orState initiatives relevant to the policya certain State has establishedin the public and cultural or information

and literacy domain. Thereare also Acts from which policies onlibraries, books, copyright andinformation resources and systemsmay be inferred.Informatics PoliciesInformation technologies and networkstoday own new ingredientsconverging into information and itsuse. Information networks, equipment,programmes and systemsexist because they transmit informationwhile life in today's world is

surrounded by information and thepossibilities involved in approachingand acquiring knowledge.Although they are an essential partof information policies, countriesand international institutions generallyconsider technological issuesseparately and deal with them asinformatics policies. The followingare some examples of the efforts incertain Latin American countriesregarding information policies.Mexico

Throughout its contemporary history,Mexico offers different examplesof its attempt to consolidate culturalpolicies related to books andlibraries as a means to make worldculture available to its people.Nonetheless, these policies havealways been subjected to personalitieswho play an important part inthe political and cultural life of thecountry, and are seldom translatedinto actions beyond the individuals'political term, their power domain

and their decision-making possibilities.This at times is due to the lackof a legal framework and at othersto the scarce continuity of actions,the joint planning of the educationalprocess and the poor relationshipbetween cultural projects anddevelopment plans in the governmentsector.a) The right to informationThis right originated in the Mexican


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ordinance as a consequence ofthe freedom of speech, consideredone of the fundamental privilegesof human beings and the essence of20th century liberal ideology.The 6th article of Mexico's currentConstitution states that "The manifestationof ideas shall not be subjected

to any judicial or administrativeinquisition. If the attack tomoral and the rights of third partiesprovokes a crime or threatens publicorder, the right to informationshall be warranted by the State."This article deals in fact with twoaspects: firstly, the natural need ofexpression of human beings, andsecondly, the preservation of theprerogative society demands fromthe State, engaging its compromiseto warrant this exercise through the

right to information.b) General Library ActThe actions to guarantee the rightto information should be simultaneouswith the creation of mechanismsto guarantee its complianceand exercise regardless of the economic,social and political costs itmay involve.The General Library Act was passedon 21 January 1988, and isobserved throughout the Republic,sustained on the objectives of the

aforementioned programme. ThisAct declares free attention to anybodywho wishes to consult library29 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 1The Information Right and the Information Policies in Latin America

material, and refers to publiclibraries as institutions that offerdemocratically book consultationservices and other complementarycultural services enabling the populationto acquire, transmit, increaseand freely preserve knowledge

from every domain and in anymeans containing information,while relating library policies to theNational Plan of Development.c) The Copyright Federal ActThe current Mexican CopyrightFederal Act was published in theDiario Oficial on 24 December1986 and is a compilation of editorialconcerns, rather than thoserelated to library users.


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The concern to protect an author'scopyright, the result of his intellectualeffort, is among these that havematerialized more as a policy forthe intellectual and artistic world,propitiating an act and ordinancefor the protection of this right.Nonetheless, just as public opinion

is in favour of defending this right,it is also true that citizens themselvesviolate this law too easily, attimes because of ignorance and atothers by deceit. This situation hasled to dangers which may workagainst the right to information,making the access to informationand the possibilities to have andcreate knowledge considerably difficult.The defense of an author's copyrightis of interest to creatorsthroughout the world and is positively

accepted concerning formalaspects and the acknowledgment ofauthorship and bibliographical references.However, the intention toimpose a restrictive use on informationhas been the object of studyby high-ranking international associationsthat deal with information,such as IFLA and the InternationalFederation of Documentation (FID),which have expressed their viewabout this and invited authors andpublishers to accept the social role

which libraries must play, as institutionsthat offer free informationto different social groups. On theother hand, these associationsrequire libraries and informationcentres to make judicious and carefuluse of the reproduction meansof original works and thosereceived by electronic means.d) The Book ActPublic policies concerning the cultureof many Latin American countries,especially Mexico, acknowledge

technological developmentand the power of electronic media,although books are still one of itsmain decisive

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