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Book Review: A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK 2003-04

Open University. Again what comes out of the papers in this sub-theme is reinforcement that the virtual library concept, rather than hindering the role of the librarian is actually providing new and vital responsibilities for student learning in the 21st century. Sub-theme three focuses on the usability and accessibility of digital library services. Kolawole discusses the barriers in place for information professionals in Nigeria in terms of digital library use. Predictably a major issue is the digital divide and lack of ICTs, but crucially Kolawole argues that the lack of ICTs also exacerbates the low level of information literacy in customers, as many are unwilling to learn how to handle information in an environment where they expect instant access to the information they require. Another paper on the African experience by Botha discusses one potential solution to the digital divide in the continent through the creation of the African Digital Library (ADL). Botha concludes by asking if it is possible to bridge the digital divide in Africa by use of the ADL, and the realization is that it will be a long process. The fourth sub-theme discusses some national and institutional experiences in designing the information environment. Proenca and Nunes discuss the problems inherent within public library websites in Portugal, finding that more focus needs to be put on web design and content management if the web services are to be better utilized by customers. Ohrstrom’s paper discusses the success of the electronic research library in Denmark, initially a four-year project that has now become a permanent fixture on the Danish virtual landscape. The project has led to much wider utilization of the resources held by the Danish research libraries. The final paper in this section discusses a survey of researchers in the UK identifying their use of research resources. Findings suggested that while researchers were increasingly expecting material to be in electronic format, the hybrid library continued to be the model of choice, as so much material was still in its original paper-based format. The final sub-theme focuses on the creation of digital resources by user communities. Kelly and Butter discuss a European Commission project aimed at making cultural material available via a single gateway. The COINE project aims to create, test and evaluate a digital cultural domain for Europe. While still at an early stage when the paper was written, COINE hoped to ‘allow museums, libraries and archives to reach a wider audience and strengthen their role as information providers within the community’. In another paper in this sub-theme, Ashworth and Nixon describe the DAEDALUS project, which aimed to create an open archive of research material. They discuss the challenges of making open archives attractive to researchers given the nature of research assessment and the pressures to publish in key journals for your discipline. Given these pressures, it is questionable whether open archives of research material will ever become the norm and the ‘vision of the world’s research material being open and available to anyone’ coming to pass. Overall LWW5 continues the excellent standard of the previous editions. The range of the papers included presents a book that will be useful to readers from various points of interest. As a snapshot for where the virtual library concept is at this point in time, the book is hard to fault.