Internet editorial

Citation

Siswell, A. (1999), "Internet editorial", Librarian Career Development, Vol. 7 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lcd.1999.10207aag.001

Internet editorial

As the new terms/semesters get under way, I thought I would look out sites of interest and assistance to those either undertaking courses to become professional librarians or thinking of doing so. This may help both them and those who are involved in teaching on library and information science courses.

Library schools and their courses

There are several good sites for tracing library schools around the world. Two truly international ones are maintained by Professor Tom Wilson at the University of Sheffield and the Internet Training and Consulting Services, both of which seem to be kept well up-to-date:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~is/publications/worldlist/wlist1.html

(updated in October 1998)

http://www.itcs.com/topten/libschools.html

(updated in September 1998).

Another, less complete source of library and information science education is provided by the Internet Library for Librarians:

http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/schools.htm

The American Library Association provides links to all North American universities running Master's programmes in library and information science, including guidelines to be considered when selecting a course:

http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oa/lisdir.html

The Australian Library and Information Association lists recognised entry level courses at:

http://www.alia.org.au/publications/courses/

The Library Association in the UK also keeps a very useful list of posts specifically for graduates wanting to gain experience in library and information work before attending library school:

http://www.la-hq.org.uk/gto.htm

Sites for library and information science students

There are a number of sites which cater specifically for LIS students. In particular, OWL (Oxford Website for Library Trainees), although a good advertisement for the University, also contains a lot of useful information for LIS students and for those considering a career in the profession. OWL gives a snapshot of what it is like to work in different types of libraries, information on how and when to apply for a course plus useful links to other sites:

http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/owl/home.html

The Katharine Sharp Review is a "peer-reviewed e-journal devoted to student scholarship and research within library and information science". Recent issues contain articles on bibliographic instruction, cataloguing for digital libraries, time management and reference services for remote users. There are two sites at which to access the Review:

http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/review/ at the University of Illinois

http://mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/lis-journals/review/review/5/

mirror site at UKOLN.

It seems a pity that the pages for LISSPS (Library and Information Studies Students and Prospective Students) have not been updated since July 1997 as it looks to have been a promising start. Many of the links are still live, so it is worth a look:

http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/lissps/content/

Looking at the library's Web pages of those institutions running library and information science courses in the UK, there seem to be few which have well-developed links to other resources of interest to LIS students ­ are we letting ourselves down here? Doing all this work for other disciplines and not catering for our own needs? Several good sites with really useful links in the UK include:

Liverpool John Moores University

http://www.livjm.ac.uk/lea/info/lib/libhome.html

Manchester Metropolitan University

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/dic/

(links from the Department of Information and Communications which has a very well developed and attractive site)

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/services/library/

(links from MMU Library).

University of North London

http://www.unl.ac.uk/SICS/

(links from the School of Information and Communications Studies).

And naturally, mentioned several times before in this column, at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the PICK gateway also includes links for LIS students and those considering LIS as a career:

http://www.aber.ac.uk/~tplwww/e/lis.html

To conclude this time, I have discovered a small number of general sites of interest to library and information science people.

Innovative Internet Applications in Public Libraries (part of the Cyber Library Book site) gives links to libraries which are providing Web-based services such as "Virtual Reference Desks" and e-mail newsletters:

http://pages.cthome.net/library/innovate.html

Lund University's Electronic Library has a section devoted to finding Internet resources on library and information science which includes global resource lists, directories, conferences, etc.:

http://www.ub2.lu.se/lisres.html

The Internet Library for Librarians was mentioned above but its home page provides access to a whole range of resources from "ready reference" to library administration:

http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/

There is also a set of pages simply called "Library and Information Science" at

http://www.clark.net/pub/lschank/web/library.html

which form a good jumping off point for all kinds of library-related issues from digital libraries to ethical and legal issues of the Internet. It is maintained by Larry Schankman (about whom you can find more information at his own page) who has been the Electronic Resources/Government Documents Librarian at Mansfield University, Pennsylvania, since 1993 and acts as the library Webmaster. These are very clear pages, well designed and easy to navigate.

Enjoy!

Ann Siswell(a.siswell@bathspa.ac.uk)Bath Spa University CollegeNewton Park, Bath BA2 9BN, UK