PANEL ON INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE - INTERNATIONAL SCENE

THE EXTENT OF IT APPLICATIONS IN SINGAPORE*

Lim Hong Too, Foo Kok Pheow and Amanda Lo

Library
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore, Singapore

OBSERVATIONS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS SINCE 1989

We make the following five observations:

1. SILAS

The national cataloguing cooperative, SILAS (Singapore Integrated Library Automation Service), has been further strengthened with more member libraries participating (now 47 full members and 5 dial-up members) and with better local systems being adopted by member libraries, e.g. the National University of Singapore Library has changed from a non-MARC-based system, MINISIS, to a MARC-based one, URICA; the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library has implemented a self-check loan system and has introduced the Chinese script to its OPAC.

2. CD-ROM AND ONLINE DATABASES

Intensive use of CD-ROM databases (including the full-image ones) and online databases, both international and local. Most major libraries have carried out some work on CD-ROM networking.

3. MULTIMEDIA

Obviously with interest aroused by the 2nd NIT '89, most of the libraries in Singapore, especially the larger ones have invested and implemented in imaging and multimedia based systems to facilitate storage and dissemination of informa-tion to library users. There is also a tremendous increase in libraries' audio visual collection of multimedia based materials. These materials include digital and optical media such as CD-ROM databases and videodiscs, CD-I etc. Learning and training has been made more interesting and effective with interactive multi-media. Besides multimedia based materials, libraries have started to intall multi-media kiosks as automated information service counters. Therefore, libraries have moved from one media to multiple media. Information is now available in multiple formats - books, audio, video, image, graphics, online, etc.

4. LIBRARY 2000

Following an IT 2000 study, Singapore went on to do a LIBRARY 2000 study, which proposes essentially the implementation, in the year 2000 and beyond, of the concept of borderless libraries, based on intensive networking of databases locally and internationally.

As a start, the National Library has been re-organized as a statutory board, instead of a government department. Attempts are being made to set up a science and information network (SATIN), with access to all the local databases to begin with, to serve the needs of researchers, scientists and engineers.

Under the leadership of the National Computer Board (NCB) and the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB), a Conference on the concept of digital library is being organized to be held in 1995, which will further enhance the interest in IT applications.

5. INTERNET APPLICATIONS

The two academic libraries have joined the global community via the Internet. The availability and access of overseas electronic databases and library catalogs through the Internet have created a global information marketplace. Electronic mail allows almost instantaneous transmission of messages over a network. With the electronic mail, librarians and publishers can communicate more effectively. Libraries now plug on to the Internet to shift from being a local library to a global library.

REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ASSISTANCE

In view of what has been mentioned above, Singapore has in fact attained a rather high level of IT applications, though not so high as leaders in the West. Singa-pore would be in a position to play a leadership role in the Southeast Asian region. In actual fact, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library now receives a steady stream of visitors from our neighboring countries, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and even China, who are mainly librarians and database managers, who come to see,

and to discuss how to set up, an automated library system with ours as a model. With this experience, our library will certainly be able to offer services to other countries in the form of visits and attachments for short periods for one to three months, for example.

FUTURE NIT CONFERENCES

We feel that the application of IT is still not universal. The NIT Conferences still have a role to play to bring the latest knowledge to the developing countries. We commend the tireless efforts of Dr Chen who has brought about this phenomenal success, and we wish further success for future conferences.
 
 

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PANEL ON INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE - INTERNATIONAL SCENE
 
 

Q & A FOR THE PANEL

Chaired by: W. David Penniman

President [at the time of NIT '94]
Council on Library Resources
Washington, DC 20036, USA
dpenn@cni.org

[David Penniman]

I would like to open up for questions to all panelists. I want to start by having a question for Don Riggs. Don put together an excellent presentation on planning and how important it was. Then we heard from Yakov, Marinus, and Helena, who are all operating in highly volatile and demanddriven environments. So, I would like to challenge Don on how you can use strategic planning when you are in this kind of environment.

[Don Riggs]

Well, one thing between just tactical and traditional planning in creating strategies is that one who sees the long range as well as the short range. So, I think that is why we sold strategic planning in corporations, higher education, and libraries really well. So, I think that the most important role in my job is to plan.

[David Penniman]

Thanks.

[Marinus Swanepoel]

I would like to add to that. We are at the end of our first fouryear strategic plan and are getting into the second fouryear one. I think that in our situation, which is quite volatile, one of the things which has been introduced is to have a strategic plan in which we must be clear on how to seize the opportunity.

[Richard Hsieh]

I am going to ask Don a question. If you plan to develop a global library con-cept, have you made any interaction with international agencies such as Interna-tional Council for Science and Technical Information (ICSTI), UNESCO, and so forth? If so, can you share with us some information?

[Don Riggs]

Well, I mentioned that I am involved in strategic planning. A strategic plan-ning on resource sharing between U.S. and Canada is being created for the American Association of Universities and the Association for Research Libraries. You remember I said that if we were going to form this planning committee, which organizations would we go to? This is where UNESCO and others will become involved.

[Neal Kaske]

I have a question for all the speakers. Given that we live in a time of constant change and all of us are trying to manage in crazy times, to use Tom Peters' new book title, what do each of you see as your core business within the library, and which are your most important customer groups?

[Yakov Shraiberg]

First of all, about our users, 25% of the users are experts and specialists from research institutes. Next, 25% are members of the staff of academic institutions. The rest include students and businessmen. Last year, we have expanded our services to businesses with a library business department. We moved all the publications, literature related to business, and electronic publications, and data-bases to the special business department. On the other hand, due to our commer-cial agreements, and so on, we provide charged services, which help us to streng-then other services.

[Helena Slezáková]

Primarily our users are from research institutes and academic institutions. The interest in economics and commercial information is growing fast, but we have no such expertise.

[Don Riggs]

Our core customers are our students, faculty, and staff. But, in my global library context, we have to share the best collections in many subject areas. We are already scanning and digitizing the collections and share them with other world users. Our core business, however, is to support the curriculum of the university.

[Marinus Swanepoel]

Our purpose is to provide intellectual and physical access to information to all our users whose primary responsibilities are in teaching, research, and communi-ty services. Of course, our faculty and students are our primary clientele. Being oriented to our community, we are accessible to anyone who is interested in com-ing into our library. We are also developing our information services to industry for fee-based services. We expect to make money in this area.

[Mariano Maura]

This question is for Swanepoel. Since you recognize that information is seen as a vital factor for development, have you developed some strategies in order to change the situation in your country regarding how to make people aware of the value of information? Because we have the same situation.

[Marinus Swanepoel]

I am sorry that I have to disappoint you. The problem is as yet unresolved. About a month ago, we had a strategic planning session for our association. One of the main problems was the political clout which I talked about. As a profes-sion, we find that the libraries do not have this clout. So, the traditional kind of librarians' services to people are very good, but the profession as such has no strategy in place to play an active role in the development of our country.

[Hwa-wei Lee]

I do have a question for Mr. Shraiberg. We met three weeks ago at an interna-tional seminar in Shanghai; I was quite impressed with his report. I think that the situation for scientific and technical information services in China is quite similar to the situation in Russia. There are many institutes for scientific and technical information at the local, provincial, and national levels. With the reduction of funding and resources in Russia, is there any plan to consolidate or merge some national centers in order to have fewer centers but with better support?

[Yakov Shraiberg]

We have in our country several proposals on developing our national scientific information activities. Some may touch on this aspect.

[M. Wali]

I just want to come back to the developing countries' lack of awareness of infor-mation as resource. My judgment is that decision makers do not know of this either. The problem is that many government high-level decision makers are not convinced of the essential role of information in their decision-making process. So, it is up to us to repackage this information and make it essential for their work.

[David Penniman]

Thank you. This has been a very enlightened session.

[Ching-chih Chen]

As usual, our time is running out, so I shall be very quick. I think that this after-noon, in this particular session on international scenes, we are obviously limited to only a few papers presented by four speakers. This is not in any way to sug-gest that these papers will cover comprehensively all the problems and issues related to the global information infrastructure. The questions and discussions are very important so that many important issues will surface. They may seem to be in contrast to each other, but this is the kind of world in which we are living. There are a lot of political factors coming into play as well, and we cannot avoid those. For instance, the haves' and have-nots' situation often has political implications.

I would like to ask all of you to specifically pay attention to the supplemen-tary document in which problems, issues, and concerns related to GII were identified and contributed to by many of us via e-mail communications with me prior to this meeting. Bob and I have tried to pull them together and sort them into manageable categories. The documents should be useful to us in our deli-beration during these three days.

I would like to take this chance to thank Dave for doing a wonderful job in moderating the panel, and also all the speakers for their great presentations. Let's continue all the great questions and discussions in the next session after break.