Volume 13, Issue 1

Copyright law is once again at the forefront of education in cyberspace. Although the information super highway offers a variety of useful information, much of it is copyrighted material. Some recent copyright legislation such as the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and TEACH Act concern web-based education. This work provides an overview of U.S. copyright law including the new legislation and related issues.

This study explores the provision of public library services to the Tamil Community through the National Library Board of Singapore’s system of public libraries. Results of the study are analyzed and implications for services deduced through focus group interactions and researcher observations. The study concludes that improvement is needed in collections, facilities, programming, and services, particularly in the area of provision to young people. Focus group participants also propose an Internet portal in Tamil. Many indicate that the library could, through facilitating the reading and use of the Tamil language, help in promoting the usage of the Tamil language in Singapore. The recognition of Tamil as a national language of Singapore has given the Tamils intrinsic satisfaction because the language provides them with a living link to their ethnic culture. They believe the library can help them regain their cultural identity and also assist them in repositioning themselves positively in Singaporean society. The contribution of this study to the professional literature is the idea of cultural identity being central in public library services to special user groups.

The traditional mission of the public library—supporting the self-education of the citizenry in order that they may become fully participating members in a democratic society—has been devalued of late in favour of popularizing the library to attract more users. This shift has led to an emphasis on entertainment and marketing, and an abandonment of what many feel is the true purpose of a library. Loss of democratic tradition has simultaneously occurred on another front: civic space which allows for public assembly and discourse has disappeared or been downgraded into places for leisure and recreation rather than politics, with a concomitant decline in the quality of public discourse as citizens increasingly depend on profit-driven mass media for their “opinions.” This paper contends that the public library is an ideal physical and psychological space for public discourse. By supporting public discourse, the public library can begin to reinvigorate both the quality of public discourse and its traditional commitment to democratic ideals.

This paper puts into historical perspective the changing trends in the training of information professionals in Kenya since 1970. Issues and trends are discussed on the basis of a literature review representative of popular publications and research reports from 1970 to the current time. This paper is adapted from a chapter on such research completed by the authors. The information reflected herein will be helpful for comparative studies on Library and Information Studies (LIS) education in Africa. The paper concludes that core knowledge and skills for information providers ought to be reviewed regularly and that support from LIS education dispensation stakeholders, such as a national library associations and national experts, should be enlisted in determining such requisite skills.