Section on Library Theory and Research

Annual Report 1996-1997

Scope Statement 1992-1997

The Section on Library Theory and Research exists to provide a professional focus for the library and information research community within IFLA, and to address certain central and structural concerns. These include: maintaining the identity and visibility of the research community in the field; developing activities to encourage the cohersion and growth of research and investigation activitis; striving to uphold scientific integrity in research and development activities; recognizing the importance of investigation and research activities in education, training and practice, and taking steps to support an appropriate cadre of researchers with necessary expertise and competence; encouraging inter-disiplinary and plurality of approaches in the research field; strengthening the research area where it is less developed, and particularly in the developing world, in cooperation with ALP; taking a lead in integrating the research and investigative activities within the IFLA network.

Membership

134 members coming from 63 various countries

OFFICERS 1995-97:

Chair:

Beverly Lynch,
Graduate School of Education and Information
Studies, UCLA, Box 951521, Los Angeles, California 90095-1521
Phone: 321 206-4294
Fax: 310 206-6293

e-mail: bplynch@ucla.edu

Secretary:

Lis Byberg,
Oslo College, Faculty of Journalism, Library and Information
Science, Pilestredet 52, 0167 Oslo, Norway
Phone: +47 2245 26 00
Fax: +47 22 45 26 05

e-mail: lis.byberg@jbi.hioslo.no

INFORMATION COORDINATOR:

Lis Byberg

Meetings

The SC meeting took place in Copenhagen, started on Saturday, the 30th of August, 1997, and continued on Friday, the 5th of September, 1997. 18 members altogether attended the meeting. The Medium Term Programme for the years 1998-2001 and Action Plan were approved and Section's program for future conferences was discussed.

Projects

The Section had one small project "International library and information science research: a comparison of national trends". Project leaders were Maxine Rochester and Pertti Vakkari. The project compiled and compared the results of national studies of Library and Information Science (LIS) research earlier sponsored by the section. A paper was presented at the open session of the Section at IFLA Copenhagen conference.

Publications

The section published one Newsletter in spring 1997.

Conference Programmes in Copenhagen

The Section organized Open Session in Copenhagen, where three papers were presented. They were

R.A. Audunson: Change processes in public libraries: the structuring power of professional norms and standards versusexternal-inducing forces,
P. Layzell Ward: The nature of UK research literature: some thoughts arising from a bibliometric study,
M. Rochester and P. Vakkari: international library and information science research. a comparison of national trends.

About 70 persons attended this session. We had to turn people away, due to lack of space. Interpretation was not available.

The Section also organized a full-day workshop on the theme:

"Library development in a European context"

This workshop was organised in co-operation with The Libraries Programme of the European Commission. Ms. Adrianne Iljon, head of the program, gave an introductory presentation:

"Objective and strategies - creating a platform for the library in the Information Society"

The workshop was attended by a large number of people, the exact number is unfortunately not available. Interpretation no available.

Relationships with Other Bodies

Nothing to report.

Other Events

Nothing to report.

Latest Revision: March 3, 1998