The Australian Library Journal
Volume 53 Nš2 May 2004
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John Levett
The end of history: censorship and libraries
Alex Byrne
Libraries have vital roles in protecting heritage, offering individuals and societies opportunities to improve the quality of their lives, and contributing to civil society. They play an important role in the free exchange of ideas within societies and across time and space. Libraries can be damaged through war, looting and neglect. But more pervasive is the great variety of methods of information control by censorship which are given many justifications including decency, community well-being, privacy and national security. However, such views are contingent, not absolute as changing attitudes to pornography illustrate. Librarians face personal dilemmas which contend with professional responsibilities to meet the needs of users and to promote the widest possible access to information. Any librarians who might wish to uphold principles of unrestricted access to information must either accept the boundaries or struggle against them.
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Collaboration plus! The development of an information literacy and communication program
Virginia Dickson
This paper is a discussion of the processes involved in the evolution of an information literacy and communication unit (CO115 Health Communications) for College of Health students at the University of Notre Dame Australia, a collaboration between academic staff and the liaison librarian.
Manuscript received August 2003
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Graduate information literacy skills: the 2003 ANU skills audit
Valerie Perrett
This article looks at the information literacy (ILS) skills of graduate students and is based on an audit at the ANU in 2003 which included database searching, web searching, information management and word processing skills - vital to all graduate students. Each student who completed the audit received a 'training needs profile'. Staff also benefited as they had a better understanding of the skills of the students that they were providing training for.
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Web usability testing in a polytechnic library
Debby R Wegener, May Goh-Ong Ai Moi, and Mae Lim Mei Li
The Temasek Polytechnic Library in Singapore launched its new digital library portal in December 2002. Circumstances precluded usability testing prior to this so it was with some concern that the library web team monitored its use. A few months later it became clear the users were having problems, so a new website was designed. This article deals with the library web team's approach to web usability testing and their belief that such testing is definitely worth every effort.
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Research in school librarianship 1991-2000: Australia in an international setting
Laurel A Clyde
One aspect of a wider ongoing longitudinal study of 'Research and researchers in school librarianship' is discussed here. Research articles and conference papers published in English over the ten-year period 1991 to 2000 in the field of school librarianship were analysed to identify the country of the research, the type of publication in which the research was reported, the research methods used, and the aspects of school librarianship that were investigated. Changes and trends in the research at the international level through the decade are described, and compared to the research related to school librarianship in Australia. The methodology draws on studies that looked at aspects of research in the broader field of library and information science generally, in an international context.
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