Edited on behalf of IFLA, Ravindra N. Sharma, Berlin, De Gruyter Saur, 2012, €200.00 (hard cover), ISBN 978-3-11027-056-3, or e-book ISBN 9-783-11027-063-1
Although our profession has long been an international one in many respects, it may be posited that most Australasian library and information workers have little knowledge of trends and operations in other countries – certainly not those outside the anglophone world. Yet since the 1980s, technology has bound us together as never before. Sharma here presents 50 well-researched contributions by 71 authors, whose remit was ‘to write chapters on the history and development of libraries in their countries with an emphasis on the development during the last 30 years’. The result is an invaluable, up-to-date source which is useful not only for students of comparative and international librarianship but also for all practitioners wishing to drag themselves into the twenty-first century.
Each volume opens with papers covering the topic more widely, as a setting for the individual country chapters ranging from Australia to Vietnam. In our own immediate region, Alex Byrne authors a chapter titled ‘Early Adopters Down Under: Technology in Australian Libraries’, whilst Philip Calvert explores ‘New Zealand: Innovation in a Small Country’.
Whilst technological developments in countries such as Germany, China and Russia may be read for comparison with our own, it is the lesser-known ones like Azerbaijan, Croatia and Turkey which offer the reader more challenges in appreciating problems and solutions. After all, the task of the professional as manager (of people, information and knowledge) is problem-solving, and each country, and indeed local community, presents particular problems that are cultural, historical, geographical and technological. What are the administrative and service consequences in France of having some 32,000 towns and villages (out of 36,000) with populations under 2000? How can technology be both a problem and a solution here? In multilingual Morocco, where adult illiteracy is about 44%, almost 20% of the population has Internet access (compared with about 5% elsewhere in Africa), although only 1.3% has broadband, while at the same time 17% does not have an improved water source. What are the problems and opportunities for the information professional in, say, Morocco that can help us in Australasia?
True, this work covers only a quarter of the world's nations, but it is commendably well researched. Volume 1 tends to include better-known countries, though by no means exclusively. Volume 2 is particularly useful for its chapters on Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the United Arab Emirates, although other continents are also represented. Different papers on Russia appear in both volumes, whilst Volume 2 has two on Iran – one dealing with Armenian libraries there. Physically this work is well produced, with clear print and good paper. Editing has been light, and there are relatively few illustrations or tables. Is this publication essential reading for those wanting to be counted as professionals? Perhaps not, but it will certainly help in increasing our global professionalism. This is a monumental work which deserves to be continued.
©2012, Edward Reid-Smith