[Overview]
The job of librarians, that had already changed a lot with computers,
went on to change even more with the internet. Computers made catalogs
much easier to handle. Instead of all these cards to be patiently
classified into wood or metal drawers, librarians could type in
bibliographic records in a program that was sorting out books by
alphabetical, chronological and systematic order. Librarians also began
using computer programs to lend books and buy new ones. By networking
computers, the internet gave a boost to union catalogs for a state, a
country or a region, and furthered interlibrary loan. Electronic mail
became commonplace for internal and external communications. Librarians
could subscribe to newsletters and participate in newsgroups and
discussion forums. A number of librarians became webmasters to run
library websites, online catalogs and digital libraries.
[In Depth (published in 1999)]
I interviewed Peter Raggett, a digital librarian at OECD (Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development), and Bruno Didier, a digital
librarian at Institute Pasteur. Here are some excerpts.
= At the OECD Library
What is OECD? "The OECD is a club of like-minded countries. It is rich,
in that OECD countries produce two thirds of the world's goods and
services, but it is not an exclusive club. Essentially, membership is
limited only by a country's commitment to a market economy and a
pluralistic democracy. The core of original members has expanded from
Europe and North America to include Japan, Australia, New Zealand,
Finland, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Korea. And
there are many more contacts with the rest of the world through
programmes with countries in the former Soviet bloc, Asia, Latin
America - contacts which, in some cases, may lead to membership."
(excerpt from the 1998 website)
The Center for Documentation and Information (CDI) of OECD provides
information to OECD agents in support of their research work. In 1998,
there were 60,000 monographs and 2,500 periodicals. The CDI also
provides information in electronic format from databases, CD-ROMs and
the internet.
Peter Raggett, head of CDI, has been a professional librarian for
nearly twenty years, first working in UK government libraries and then
at the OECD since 1994. He has used the internet since 1996. He built
up the CDI Intranet pages, which became a main tool for the staff.
Peter wrote in June 1998: "At the OECD Library we have collected
together several hundred World Wide Web sites and have put links to
them on the OECD Intranet. They are sorted by subject and each site has
a short annotation giving some information about it. The researcher can
then see if it is possible that the site contains the desired
information. This is adding value to the site references and in this
way the Central Library has built up a virtual reference desk on the
OECD network. As well as the annotated links, this virtual reference
desk contains pages of references to articles, monographs and websites
relevant to several projects currently being researched at the OECD,
network access to CD-ROMs, and a monthly list of new acquisitions. The
Library catalogue will soon be available for searching on the Intranet.
The reference staff at the OECD Library uses the Internet for a good
deal of their work. Often an academic working paper will be on the web
and will be available for full-text downloading. We are currently
investigating supplementing our subscriptions to certain of our
periodicals with access to the electronic versions on the internet."
Peter added: "The internet has provided researchers with a vast
database of information. The problem for them is to find what they are
seeking. Never has the information overload been so obvious as when one
tries to find information on a topic by searching the internet. When
one uses a search engine like Lycos or AltaVista or a directory like
Yahoo!, it soon becomes clear that it can be very difficult to find
valuable sites on a given topic. These search mechanisms work well if
one is searching for something very precise, such as information on a
person who has an unusual name, but they produce a confusing number of
references if one is searching for a topic which can be quite broad.
Try and search the web for Russia AND transport to find statistics on
the use of trains, planes and buses in Russia. The first references you
will find are freight-forwarding firms who have business connections
with Russia."
What about the future? "The internet is impinging on many peoples'
lives, and information managers are the best people to help researchers
around the labyrinth. The internet is just in its infancy and we are
all going to be witnesses to its growth and refinement. (...)
Information managers have a large role to play in searching and
arranging the information on the internet. I expect that there will be
an expansion in internet use for education and research. This means
that libraries will have to create virtual libraries where students can
follow a course offered by an institution at the other side of the
world. Personally, I see myself becoming more and more a virtual
librarian. My clients may not meet me face-to-face but instead will
contact me by e-mail, telephone or fax, and I will do the research and
send them the results electronically."
= At the Institute Pasteur Library
In 1999, Bruno Didier was the webmaster of the Institute Pasteur
Library. "The Pasteur Institutes are exceptional observatories for
studying infectious and parasite-borne diseases. They are wedded to the
solving of practical public health problems, and hence carry out
research programmes which are highly original because of the
complementary nature of the investigations carried out: clinical
research, epidemiological surveys and basic research work. Just a few
examples from the long list of major topics of the Institutes are:
malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, yellow fever, dengue and poliomyelitis."
(excerpt from the 1999 website)
In August 1999, Bruno wrote about his work as a webmaster: "The main
aim of the Pasteur Institute Library website is to serve the Institute
itself and its associated bodies. It supports applications that have
become essential in such a big organization: bibliographic databases,
cataloguing, ordering of documents and of course access to online
periodicals (presently more than 100). It is also a window for our
different departments, at the Institute but also elsewhere in France
and abroad. It plays a big part in documentation exchanges with the
institutes in the worldwide Pasteur network. I am trying to make it an
interlink adapted to our needs for exploration and use of the internet.
The website has existed in its present form since 1996 and its audience
is steadily increasing. I build and maintain the web pages and monitor
them regularly. I am also responsible for training users, which you can
see from my pages. The web is an excellent place for training and is
included in most ongoing discussions about training."
What about the future of librarians? "Our relationship with both the
information and the users is what changes. We are increasingly becoming
mediators, and perhaps to a lesser extent 'curators'. My present
activity is typical of this new situation: I am working to provide
quick access to information and to create effective means of
communication, but I also train people to use these new tools. I think
the future of our job is tied to cooperation and use of common
resources. It is certainly an old project, but it is really the first
time we have had the means to set it up."