[Summary]
To help their patrons deal with the internet, to select and organize
information for them, to create and maintain websites, to check
specialized online databases, and to update online catalogs became
daily tasks for librarians. As stated in August 1999 by Bruno Didier,
webmaster of the Pasteur Institute Library in Paris, France: "Our
relationship with both the information and the users has changed. 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."
***
To help their patrons deal with the internet, to select and organize
information for them, to create and maintain websites, to check
specialized databases and to update online catalogs became daily tasks
for librarians.
Here are two examples, with Peter Raggett at the Central Library of
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and Bruno
Didier at the Library of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France.
# At the OECD Central Library
Based at the OECD headquarters in Paris, the Central Library offered
60,000 monographs and 2,500 periodicals in 1998, as well as microfilms,
CD-ROMs, and databases like Dialog, Lexis-Nexis and UnCover. The
library began setting up its own webpages in 1996, on the intranet of
the organization, in order to support the staff’s research work.
Peter Raggett, deputy-head (and then head) of the Central Library,
wrote in August 1999: "At the OECD Library we have collected together
several hundred websites 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."
What about finding information on the internet? "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 that have business connections with Russia."
How 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 email, telephone or fax, and I will do the research and
send them the results electronically."
# At the Pasteur Institute Library
The Pasteur Institutes are observatories for studying infectious and
parasite-borne diseases. After being a “traditional” librarian, Bruno
Didier created in 1996 the website of the Pasteur Institute Library in
Paris, France, and became its webmaster.
He explained in August 1999: "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, cataloging, ordering of
documents and of course access to online periodicals (presently more
than 100). It is 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 webpages and monitor them regularly. I am also
responsible for training our patrons to use the internet."
What has changed in his work? "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."