Page 75 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Foundation of Library and Information Science

Notes Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
11. Cooperation on …………………….. level is accomplish with collaboration with
departmental libraries working within university library-information system.

12. The main purpose at local level of library cooperation is to improve …………………. to
the academic and general public.
13. …………………. programs to improve the professional skills of the staff.

14. The …………………. are regular participants as lecturers and audience in the sessions of
the Librarianship Section of the Educational Society.
15. Traditional fields of cooperation between ……………. includes interlibrary loans.

Case Study Cooperation among Caribbean Theological Libraries

he Caribbean’s theological libraries rarely appear in this case. Hivale (1991)
highlights a joint training exercise for theological libraries – a mini-seminar in
TKingston, Jamaica, in 1991 sponsored by the Caribbean Evangelical Theological
Association, and with participants from Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and Jamaica. McKoy’s
(1994) study on theological libraries in Jamaica, which barely touched cooperation, found
that cooperation was generally limited to reciprocal use of library facilities by students.
This mutual access was done more “in the spirit of friendly cooperation than through
formal agreement” (McKoy 1994, 72). She also noted that automation was rare among the
island’s theological libraries.
Cooperation exists at a national level, namely among the four libraries in Jamaica. These
libraries engage in cooperation largely on a one-to one basis in four areas: shared access
to library resources, rationalisation of journal subscriptions, and exchange of databases
and of library materials. This cooperation is both formal and informal. Some of the libraries
allow mutual access to their information resources. In some cases, students and faculty
even have borrowing privileges at other libraries. Rationalisation of journal subscriptions
is the second area of cooperation, though this only involves two libraries, UTCWI and St.
Michael’s. Exchange of databases is the third area of cooperation. UTCWI and St. Michael’s
have an informal agreement to exchange their automated library catalogues. The fourth
area of cooperation is in the exchange (albeit it one-way so far) of library material. The
UTCWI librarian has occasionally sent over to St. Michael’s material more suited to the
latter’s curriculum, especially material on Catholicism. On a regional level, cooperation
does not exist. The Jamaican libraries do not cooperate with either of the two libraries in
Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The latter do not cooperate with each other.
In general, administrators and librarians alike were in favour of cooperation. However,
in the few instances where reservations were expressed, these reservations came from
administrators rather than librarians. At St. John Vianney, the Dean of Studies stated that
cooperation “isn’t a felt need” (Johnston 2003). The limited evidence therefore suggests
that librarians are more attuned to the need for and possibilities for cooperation than
administrators. Amalgamation of libraries can be considered an extreme form of
cooperation. UTCWI was itself the product of a merger of three distinct theological colleges
each with their own library in 1966. Asked whether they would consider the idea of a joint
Contd....

70 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY