Libraries Without Walls II
Libraries without Walls II
The Delivery of Library Services to Distant Users
Second Conference
17th - 20th September 1997
Mytilene, Greece
The delivery of library services to users based at a distance from the physical library is a topic of growing interest around the world. Many students are undertaking distance education, and the library support they need may not be available locally. At the same time the IT-based “virtual library” is becoming a reality, opening up new possibilities for delivering services.
The ‘Libraries without Walls: II’ conference provided opportunities for researchers, practitioners and others with an interest in this area to discuss the latest developments in the field, and to examine future strategies.
The conference built on the outcomes of the Libraries without Walls (BIBDEL) project, which ran from March 1994-October 1995, and was part funded by the Commission of the European Communities in three Universities:
- University of Central Lancashire (UK)
- Dublin City University (IRL)
- University of the Aegean (GR)
The BIBDEL project work was inspired by the need to provide higher education to remote communities throughout Europe. Advanced study requires access to library materials and services which are not locally available, and the consortium partners developed demonstration experiments to investigate ways in which libraries could provide equivalent access to the resources and services which are traditionally available to local students and academic staff.
At the University of Central Lancashire the demonstration experiment was retained as an operational service for the University’s eight Associate Colleges. The Virtual Academic Library of the North West (VALNOW) service, a package of library and information services combining electronic and traditional delivery methods, was launched on 24 March 1997, and is now operating successfully.
The management issues addressed by the BIBDEL project included library staff training, user needs identification and education, the scope for co-operation between libraries, cost-effectiveness if IT used in these situations, and any resulting cost benefits.
Papers given at the conference:
Paul Blackmore (Internet Librarian, Wirral Metropolitan College, UK) "The Web learning environment"
Jenny Craven (Researcher, CERLIM, UK) and Shelagh Fisher (Principal Lecturer, CERLIM, UK)
" The provision of library services for lifelong learners and distance educators"José Frijns (Head of Document Delivery, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
" Document delivery: all articles on your desk: the realisation is near"Lorraine Hall (Site Librarian, University of Sunderland, UK) and Andrew MacDonald (Director of Information Services,University of Sunderland, UK) "Supporting distance learning: the Sunderland experience and initiatives"
Joe Hendry, President of the UK Library Association (County Heritage Services Officer, Cumbria Heritage Services, UK) "The Genesis project"
Ian Pettman (UNIverse Project, Freshwater Biological Association, UK) "UNIverse - global distributed library services"
Maurice Owen (Head of ART RESEARCH, Southampton Institute, UK) "Hyperlinks to reality"[the dangers of a tautological Internet, and the growing need for WWW conceptual indices integrated into library networks]
Beatrice Rumpler and Sylvie Calabretto (Départment Informatique, LISI-INSA de Lyon, France) "Virtual library for ancient manuscripts"
Dieter Schmauss (Bibliotheksdirektor, FernUniversitaet, University Library, Hagen, Germany) "The ‘FernUniversitaet’ (Distance Teaching University) and the Central University Library Julien Van Borm (Library Director, Universitaire Instelling Antwerp, Belgium) "Antelope, Bronco, Impala and Zebra: all animals running for regional library provision in the Antwerp library network"
Alan Watkin (Chief Leisure, Libraries and Culture Officer, Wrexham Borough Council, UK) “The public library - the local support centre for open and distance learning”
Peter Wynne (Senior Researcher, CERLIM, UK) "Fools rush in: key human factors in operationalising service to remote users"
Conference Proceedings have been published by Facet Publishing, Email: info@facetpublishing.co.uk