The decade of the seventies witnessed important changes in education, mainly concerning methodologies applied to the teaching-learning process. Jean Piaget presented the concept of "creating men capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; creators, inventors, discoverers. Shaping minds that will be critical, that will soon learn to inves-tigate for themselves." In the same way, Rogers recommends a form of teaching that will lead to in-depth education, directed not so much at knowing, or knowing how, but at being and becom-ing. These concepts have become of vital importance in education in the last decades of this cen-tury in Latin America.

New technologies have also affected education and have been responsible for significant changes and development. Educational establishments have begun to change, and thus a more integrated and creative style of education has surfaced.

The experience presented here is taking place at a private educational establishment, the Andrée School in Santiago, Chile, where all the complementary facilities (laboratories, library, workshop, etc.) have been adapted in order to achieve an integrated style of education.

In order to develop these new technologies, the School equipped the different departments in stages. In the area of information, the first action was to transform the traditional library into a Learning Resource Centre (LRC) adapted to the new information requirements of the different subjects. Later, as services became more diversified, classroom and home loans were automated, and a database was created for storing and retrieving information in order to supply the information needs of the users.
 
 

2. EDUCATION, LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE AND AUTOMATION

2.1. General Concepts

Current education, at the turn of the century, presents challenges for educators and profes-sionals. This has meant reformulating all the educational activities and integrating various elements that speed up the teaching-learning contents and processes. In Chile, the incorporation of new technologies in state schools has taken place gradually in the more populated urban areas (Val-paraíso, Concepción and Santiago) since 1986, with programs aimed at computer workshops.

Computer science is an important educational activity in all private schools. At the Andrée School, a private educational establishment, various computer projects have been designed and implemented in the development of information, from 1982. Programs have been designed for handling administrative information (salaries, banking, checking fees, etc.); pro-grams for programmed instruction; programs to support the teaching of English (PACEI); a project of computer support for the teaching of geometry (PACEGEO) (software created by the Computer Department); application software known as "Music Shop" and others.

The school library has been heavily affected by the increasingly diversified demands for in-formation, and has had to reformulate its objectives and its dynamic insertion in the educational process. Basically the library has gone through a conceptual and functional transformation, from a mere observer of the process to a dynamic educational agent.

Consequently, the school library has been transformed to a Learning Resource Centre, which has meant organizing an information unit containing all the bibliographical, multimedia, concrete materials that complement classroom teaching, as well as serving the educational community as a whole.

2.2 Definition and Action of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

The Learning Resource Centre of the Andrée School is an integral part of the educational system, sharing aims and objectives. It is an instrument of curriculum development, encouraging reading, promoting the information of a scientific attitude, becoming a factor that forms the indivi-dual in a process of constant learning, so that knowledge is perpetuated beyond the classroom.

This new dynamic concept of the Learning Resource Centre, offering a variety of services to the school community, where the student understands, learns and handles the contents of the sylla-buses and different materials such as books, serial publications, videos, cassettes, wall charts, etc. has made the users feel that their information requirements are being satisfied. This can be seen through the increase in number of consultations and requests for other services offered by the Re-source Centre.

The answers to these requirements must be such that the information unit is efficient. For this reason it was decided that the storing of information should be automatic, for rapid access and retrieval.

2.3 Automation of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

Automation should fulfill the following objectives:

• Definition of data bases containing the data required,

• Generation of data bases for storing bibliographical information,

• Efficient access and retrieval of information.

In order to satisfy user requirements, it was decided that the system should:

• Provide up-to-date information on specific topics used for research,

• Provide teachers with complete information for their different areas,

• Provide immediate answers for "rapid consultation,

• Provide support to people writing articles, research work or projects,

• Act as a support system for extra reading.

An analysis of the computer requirements for the implementation of these objectives revealed the need for microcomputers with hardware capable of containing a storage and retrieval system for bibliographical information. An NCR PC-916 was selected, featuring the following:

• 80386-16 processor of 32 bits, with speeds of 4.77/6/8/16 mhz

• Ram memory of 2 MB

• Diskette unit of 5 1/4 inches, of 1.2 MB capacity.

• Winchester Disc of 4 MB

• Three ADDS 1010 terminals.

Basic software included:

• DOS

• XENIX

Software programs selected for storage and retrieval of information included the micro sys-tem programs CDS/ISIS 2.3 version of UNESCO, because of their capacity defined as "a general-ized storage and retrieval system, specifically; designed to handle structural, non-numerical data bases." Figure 1 is the global diagram of the MicroIsis system. The system functions on an IBM or compatible personal computer. The computer must be equipped with a DOS operating system, and a hard disc with sufficient capacity for the information to be handled (a minimum capacity of 10 MB).

The AES Bibliographical System has defined a structure of 63 data fields, one for each element described in the reference manual. The table for defining fields and their characteristics, field number, maximum length and repeatability.

The field selection table contains the following information: field number, name, indexing forms, indexing technique to obtain forms, indexing form and technique used in the CDS/ISIS micro system.

The work sheets are used for entering data contain information on the bibliographical description and the indexing. This 6-page sheets present information on all the fields in the field definition table. Several formats were defined, both for entering information and for interactive searches and for preparing different products for the data base.

Four basic formats have been defined for display on the screen and the printing of biblio-graphical information. These formats are used to display the results of searches on the contents of register groups.

The AES Bibliographical System allows the preparation of different printed products in the form of catalogues or indexes. The catalogues and indexes are designed to be printed on letter size sheets in a normal size print.

Catalogues - Catalogues are obtained from pre-defined work sheets. They include general cata-logues and search catalogues.

Indexes - Previously defined indexes include the following: personal and institutional authors, topics, geographical projects, serial publications, titles, institutions and conferences.

How to use the system - In order to enter, the operational system shows c:> on the left hand mar-gin of the screen. Enter the instruction ISIS 23 c:> appears again. Enter instruction ISIS, key Enter and the principal SXISIS menu (Figure 2) will appear on the screen.

The user may then choose the option, either for entering data, for searches of other outputs of the system.

Manuals and norms used for processing techniques

For bibliographical description, the AES Bibliographical System adopted the Anglo American cataloguing rules, second edition. For indexing various thesauruses used (see bibliography), for registering the geographical contents of documents the ISO country code was used; the ISO lan-guage code was used to indicate the language of documents, and personal and institutional author lists were created.

Products

The following products have been obtained from the data base:

• Author lists for use in standard processes,

• Lists of available periodical publications,

• Inventory lists,

• Publication of a News Bulletin containing information on material recently entered into the system, organized into fields,

• Specialized bibliographies for each department of the school,

• General lists by author, title and subject.

The user can also use the data base for interactive search in different fields defined on the worksheet. These include author, description, titles, year of publication, publisher, academic level, language and country.
 
 

3. IMPACT OF THE APPLICATION OF THE AUTOMATED SYSTEM ON THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY

3.1. The Impact of New Technology on the Information Unit and the Educational Unit

Due to the information requirements of teachers and students in the areas of teacher develop-ment, research and reading programs, the Learning Resource Centre has had to reformulate, adapt and incorporate new features in order to achieve maximum efficiency in the processing of biblio-graphical material and rationalization of human and physical resources. Staff training is a key issue. The impact caused by the adoption of new technology on the part of the Learning Resource Centre can be seen throughout the different stages of development and implementation and has meant a greater influence on the educational establishment. It has produced a growing awareness of the importance of information, which is now made accessible to the different users. It has affected decision taking at the management level, planning and teaching staff level, and develop-ment of research at the level of students.

3.2. Users and the "Impact Project"

Ever since the creation of the AES system, there has been special emphasis on actions that promote the use of the services offered, in an attempt to cause and impact on the development of the teaching-learning process.

In order to test achieve this, the first stage included a training course for management and teachers, to familiarize them with the use of the data base. A training workshop was carried out as part of the 1988 in-service training program. This was well responded, since 78% of the staff use the service constantly, and also use the data base as an integral part of their activities.

The second stage was an attempt to find out whether the information provided by the data base really satisfied the needs of the different users. The groups used in this test were from fourth form primary school and third form, humanistic stream, senior school. They were selected from these two different levels in order to find out what impact was being produced on the school com-munity.

The training had to have certain characteristics; it had to use an appropriate language, it had to be direct and practical so as to give a clear overview of the system, and it had to be efficient in solving the users' problems. The groups who participated carried out "rapid searches", whereas third form, humanistic stream, carried out bibliographical research on a certain topic, searching for specific information which later had to be written up in easy form.

After being trained in the use of the data base, 97% of the fourth form primary school said that the service had been useful in their search for leisure-time reading, and only 3% said "under-stood absolutely nothing."

The response from third year senior school was the following: 83% said the system was fundamental for their bibliographical research; 12% found it interesting, but simply complemented their research, while 4.8% preferred to use the traditional manual systems of bibliographical research.

After this experiment the data base was opened to the general use of school community. The response of the users was nearly 100%, since the service was unknown to them and the Learning Resource Centre was at their disposal without any strict rules.

As time passed the students got used to the idea of the information data base for developing research and reading.

The system has now been in use for two years and qualitative changes are now observable at the level of research, teaching and reading habits. Requests for reading material have increased by 300% in specific subjects and non-compulsory reading. Requests for material are carried out throughout the whole open period (10 hours).
 
 

4. CONCLUSIONS

Automation of the Learning Resource Centre has made it possible to face a challenge made by the entire educational establishment, as a complement to the teaching-learning process. It is now possible to have access to a data base containing 9,800 entries which will be increased at the rate of 15% a year. The computer support provided by microcomputers and appropriate software has provided better information access to the end-users. Students have been able to use search results to develop individual and collective research projects. This has also meant an aid for teachers.

The AES Learning Resource Centre has been a pioneer in Chile in the automation of biblio-graphical loans and providing computerized data base searching. The experiment has encouraged the establishment of other similar systems in Chile. Our experience convinces us that this automation process is applicable to other educational establishments both in the private and state sectors, since installation costs are relatively low and the MicroISIS software can be easy obtained at no cost. But most importantly, we believe that this automation has improved significantly the quality of education.

Apart from the more general educational advantages, automation of the Learning Resource Centre has opened up new possibilities to professional librarians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Balmaceda Hobbins, Eugenio. Nuevas tecnicas para el manejo, almacenamiento y acceso de la información; documento no convencional. Diciembre 1987.

Comision Economica para America Latina y el Caribe. Sistema de información bibliografica: Manual para uso de micro CDS/ISIS. Santiago, Naciones Unidad, 1989.

Comision Economica para America Latina y el Caribe. Sistema de informacion bibliografica: uso de hojas de trabajo (HDB/HAC) y tarjetas de registro bibliografico (TRB). Santiago, Naciones Unidas, 1984.

Dierick, Harold. A proposed common format for existing and projected computerized bibliogra-phic information systems in the Caribbean. London, UNIBID, February 1982.

Gathright, Wreatham. Data bases: The new electronic libraries. Information U.S.A., October 1987.

Gleaves, Edwin S., "Los microcomputadores y sus aplicaciones informaticas," Revista Inter-americana de Bibliotecologia, 8 (1), enerojunio 1985.

Harris, C. G. S. Training in the use of information and documentation in primary and secondary schools. Paris, UNESCO, 1986.

International Standards Organization, Technical Committee 97. Sub-Commmittee 1. ISO vocabu-lary of data processing.

Isaza de Pedraza, Mary Luz and Jorge A. Gresales Salazar. Como hacer de la biblioteca escolar un centro de recursos para el aprendizaje. Bogota, Ministerio de Educacion Nacional. Programa Nacional de Bibliotecas Escolares, Centro Regional para el Fomento del Libro en America Latina y el Caribe, 1989.

Jornadas Bibliotecareas Nacionales (5a: 1989, Santiago, Chile). Las nuevas tecnologias: su impacto en las bibliotecas y los bibliotecarios. Santiago, Chile: Colegio de Bibliotecarios de Chile A.G., 1989.

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Van Patten de Ocampo, Elia. El planeamiento de los centros de recursos para el aprendizaje dentro del contexto intregal de la educacion. Caracas, PGR/UNISIT, UNESCO, 1987.

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Van Patten de Ocampo, Elia. Concepciones pedagogicas, experiencias educativas actuales y los centros de recursos para el aprendizaje. Version preliminar. Caracas, PGI/UNISIT, UNESCO, 1987.