Session Number
17
Description
The division between rich and poor countries manifests itself in a variety of ways. With regard to libraries and information services, it is usually illustrated by the paucity of funds to acquire current monographs and periodicals. The Third World Academy of Sciences has initiated the latest effort to reduce the literature shortage in the libraries of universities and colleges. It is not yet known how successful this initiative has been. The theme of this paper is the extent to which the development of the new information technologies has affected this division between well-resourced and poorly-resourced libraries. The data presented here are taken mainly from the author's own experience over a five year period 1986-90, with the addition of some observations drawn from two joint IATUL/IFLA programs.
In 1986, when we started the new format for our journal (IATUL Quarterly), contributors were invited to submit their papers in machine readable text on diskette. However, in spite of the fact that many contributions have been composed on a word-processor, the majority of submissions still come in hard-copy and rarely have we received an accompanying diskette containing the text file.
Our Secretary [1] has said on more than one occasion that we, as directors of technological university libraries, should play a leading role in adapting to these tools. They are often called "new tools" but we can hardly claim that now. The first word-processor package for a micro-computer was released in 1978 [2] and the first electronic mail messages were being transmitted between universities in North America in 1983 and in Europe soon after.[3,4]
Does Information Technology Increase the Division Between Rich and Poor?
The division between rich and poor countries manifests itself in a variety of ways. With regard to libraries and information services, it is usually illustrated by the paucity of funds to acquire current monographs and periodicals. The Third World Academy of Sciences has initiated the latest effort to reduce the literature shortage in the libraries of universities and colleges. It is not yet known how successful this initiative has been. The theme of this paper is the extent to which the development of the new information technologies has affected this division between well-resourced and poorly-resourced libraries. The data presented here are taken mainly from the author's own experience over a five year period 1986-90, with the addition of some observations drawn from two joint IATUL/IFLA programs.
In 1986, when we started the new format for our journal (IATUL Quarterly), contributors were invited to submit their papers in machine readable text on diskette. However, in spite of the fact that many contributions have been composed on a word-processor, the majority of submissions still come in hard-copy and rarely have we received an accompanying diskette containing the text file.
Our Secretary [1] has said on more than one occasion that we, as directors of technological university libraries, should play a leading role in adapting to these tools. They are often called "new tools" but we can hardly claim that now. The first word-processor package for a micro-computer was released in 1978 [2] and the first electronic mail messages were being transmitted between universities in North America in 1983 and in Europe soon after.[3,4]