Has a "wiki" been suggested/investigated yet? I really know nothing
about the cost nor the start-up of such a thing, but the ALA has been
exploring wiki use on its site. The Sister Libraries committee of ALA's
International Relations Round Table has been playing with it as a means
for libraries to post requests for partners. It has yet to really take
off, which I am guessing is due to a lack of publicizing about the wiki
and/or unfamiliarity with the software. You can see it here:
http://wikis.ala.org/sisterlibraries/index.php/Main_Page
Would something like this work?
Rebecca
>>> Ian Johnson <[log in to unmask]> 7/16/2007 5:51:52 AM >>>
This is, of course, one of several attempts to maintain a 'world list.'
Whilst it offers access to some web sites that others do not, it is not
alone in attempting to link to web sites. The most notable other lists
of web sites are UNESCO's and that hosted by the Danish School, but
those appear to receive only sporadic attention. A more comprehensive
listing, with surface mail addresses and basic course and resource
information, has been attempted by IFLA's Section on Education and
Training, with occasional partial financial support form UNESCO, but
that fails to keep abreast of developments because it is published only
every 10 years or so, and attempts at its revision are as linguistically
challenged as all these lists are, so it remains perpetually incomplete.
And, whether web based or in print, all these lists are also subject to
definitions of what is accepted as appropriate for inclusion, in terms
of both the content and the level of the courses, so they remain
inconsistent.
An alternative, if a suitable host can be found, might be a list which
can be revised by the Schools themselves, with some kind of
authentication mechanism built in to validate the origin, and date of
the addition or revision of data. It would have a start up cost, but
the maintenance cost would be less than that suggested.
-----Original Message-----
From: Information and/or Library Studies in the UK
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin De Saulles
Sent: 16 July 2007 08:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: World list again..
I would be interested in paying (subject to approval from my head of
school who holds the budget for such things). However, I would be
interested in knowing more about the traffic that the site generates -
more useful than hits is the number of unique visitors to the site. My
main concern would be that not all departments would pay this fee and
that the list would then not be so authoritative which would rather
negate the value for those paying users. How about following a Yellow
Pages model where everyone gets a free basic entry similar to the
present situation but those who wish to pay an extra fee would receive a
larger entry - possibly some kind of banner ad in addition to their
normal text entry?
Just a thought.
Martin De Saulles
-----Original Message-----
From: Information and/or Library Studies in the UK
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Prof. Tom Wilson
Sent: 13 July 2007 23:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: World list again..
The World List... has been further expanded by the addition of a number
of Latin American countries, details for which were kindly provided by
Ian Johnson as a result of his 'Revistas' project
(http://www.rgu.ac.uk/files/Latin%20American%20Library%20Schools%20v7.doc)
- I still have to review the information for Argentina, Brazil and
Mexico, where there are larger numbers of departments, but that will
happen. I've also added one or two other countries myself and we now
have a total of 92 countries and
586 institutions and I don't know how many departments and courses -
perhaps someone would like to count them! Xenu reports that there are
2,864 links to check. I try to do that a couple of times a year and each
time, some 30% of the links have changed and need to be removed or
corrected.
Which brings me to the question of maintenance. I regularly receive
comments about the value of the list for curriculum development and/or
research purposes, but maintenance is a key problem.
This can be dealt with by charging universities in developing countries
an annual fee for entry in the directory - perhaps by Department or
School; this would provide a service to everyone and a free service to
the developing world.
Departments pay for entry in printed directories of courses, and
something in the order of $250.00 or *125.00 per entry (i.e., whatever
appears under the name of the department) would correspond favourably
with the rates of printed directories - with the added advantage of a
world-wide readership (28,000 hits on the index page since last
September); naturally, under this regime, if a university didn't wish to
pay, it wouldn't get an entry.
Does the community value the list sufficiently to pay for it?
I'll be interested to hear the answer :-)
Professor T.D. Wilson, PhD, Hon.PhD
Publisher/Editor in Chief
Information Research
InformationR.net
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://InformationR.net/
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