Tuesday, December 06, 2005

ASAIB Newsletter October 2005

OCTOBER 2005





CONTENT

Newsflashes:
AGM November 2005
Awards for best index and bibliography
New ASAIB Blog
ASAIB Conference alert 2006
Feedback
IGBIS/ASAIB Pre-conference workshop
LIASA workshops
SI Conference (UK)
Cruden's window on the Bible
The Bodleian/Google library project in Oxford
Article: Should universities be taken to book?
Annual report 2005
Book reviews
NEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEW

ASAIB AGM November 2005

The ASAIB AGM was held at the Wits Club on 24 November in the form of a breakfast. Joan Rankin, a well known writer and illustrator of children’s books, was a delightful speaker and brought many books along for us to handle and discover the world of the illustrator. After Marlene Burger discussed highlights from the 2005 annual report (see the full report in this newsletter), she presented the awards for the best index and bibliography (2004-2005) to Abdul Bemath (bibliography) and Marina Pearson (index), as well as a special award to Beth Strachan for her outstanding work on South African bibliographies over a number of years. This AGM was a wonderful event and members had the chance to chat and exchange information.

A full write-up of the books discussed by Joan Rankin, will later be available on the ASAIB website www.asaib.org.za

NEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEW

Awards for best index and bibliography 2005

Congratulations to Abdul Bemath and Marina Pearson. You are worthy winners of the awards. Thank you to all others who submitted their indexes and bibliographies for evaluation. In 2006 we will also add a category for electronic indexes and bibliographies.

To Abdul Bemath for his book:
Bemath, Abdul Samed (comp). 2005. The Mazruiana collection revisited: Ali A Mazrui debating the African condition: an annotated and select thematic bibliography 1962-2003. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa & New Dawn Press.

To Marina Pearson for her index to:
Coetzer, JAW & Tustun, RC (eds). 2004. Infectious diseases of livestock. Cape Town: Oxford Southern Africa. 3 volumes.

NEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEW

New ASAIB Blog
ASAIB strives to keep up to date with the latest technologies. For that reason, the ASAIB committee created and published an ASAIB Blog.

For those who are not aware of what a blog is, it is in essence an online diary. This makes for the ideal place to post messages and reports of ASAIB events and even the ASAIB newsletter. The Blog can never replace the ASAIB website. It is merely supplementary to it. You will still find all the important ASAIB information on the
ASAIB website, whereas the Blog will often be the place where you will find it first.

Please visit the ASAIB Blog at http://www.saindexers.blogspot.com and
let us have your comments. You could also send your postings to Karin McGuirk (mcguik@unisa.ac.za ), Marlene Burger (burgem@unisa.ac.za ) or Madely du Preez (preezm@unisa.ac.za ) for publication on the Blog. [Madely du Preez]


ASAIB CONFERENCE ALERT 2006


AFRICANA
FROM PAPYRUS TO METADATA


International Conference, 11 and 12 May 2006
At the Military Museum, Johannesburg

11 May will be devoted to the presentation of papers
12 May we will visit two libraries with outstanding Africana collections

For details regarding costs, venue particulars, programme, and call for papers, consult the ASAIB website www.asaib.org.za early in 2006


Contact: Marlene Burger at burgem@unisa.ac.za (012 4296585)
Madely du Preez at preezm@unisa.ac.za (012 4296792)



FEEDBACK

[Asaib] IGBIS Pre‑Conference Workshop on Indexing Basics ‑ Marlene Burger (Presented at the LIASA Conference 2005 held at the Tshwane University of Technology, Nelspruit, 26 September).

The invitation to the workshop said: “If you are in need of elementary indexing skills to cope with small indexing projects, this workshop is for you”. Due to the interest in this workshop, the presenter first had to find out what kind of indexing is needed in actual practice, especially in smaller institutions. The programme was compiled accordingly.

The Workshop was presented by Marlene Burger on behalf of IGBIS (Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards). The programme included lectures and plenty of exercises covering books, articles, photographs, community information, objects, CD’s, etc. The workshop was well-represented by novice indexers (including one or two experienced indexers!) who worked very hard with great enthusiasm. Thank you all for an enjoyable experience.

LIASA 2005: e‑books in libraries – Prof Peter Underwood

The Centre for Information Literacy, University of Cape Town, presented two workshops about e‑books at the LIASA 2005 Conference, in Nelspruit.

Pre‑Conference Workshop: Evaluating e‑books (Monday 26 September)
1. Exploration of types of e‑book publishing and a publishing chronology
2. Advantages and disadvantages of e‑books in the library
3. Implications for Information Literacy
4. Developing and testing evaluation criteria for the range of e‑books currently being made available to libraries, resource centres and information services.

Participants were introduced to an understanding of the meaning of the term 'e‑book', the advantages (and disadvantages) of the medium, the nature and content of e‑books, and learned to evaluate the range of e‑books available: for example, reference, monograph, fiction, textbook. Participants became familiar with a range of e‑book publishers and aggregators, as well as the range of readers and reader software commonly used.

Post‑Conference Workshop: Managing e‑book collections (Friday 30
September)
1. Exploration of types of e‑book publishing and a publishing chronology
2. Collection management principles for e‑books
3. Collection Development Policies (CDP) for e‑books

Participants were introduced to the nature and content of e‑books. The workshop provided opportunities to understand bibliographical control of the medium, and found out how to locate and access e‑books. Participants appreciated the collection management issues surrounding selection, acquisition and provision of e‑books (including licensing, archiving, hardware and infrastructure issues, evaluation of use, and access), and the value and content of a CDP. Finally, the workshop offered an opportunity to explore the different methods of the promoting e‑book collections.

Working in the Present – Learning from the Past

The Society of Indexers’ conference in 2005 was held at Exeter University, a beautiful campus in the southwest of England. We were accommodated in halls at the very top of a hill, and the dining room had magnificent panoramic views over the countryside and down into the ancient cathedral city.

To reach the lecture halls, we walked, in brilliant summer weather, through an arboretum – a fascinating collection of trees, interspersed with sculptures which made up a sculpture trail comprised of works by many well-known artists including Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.

The scene is set – what of the conference? As ever, the content was varied to suit all tastes. Topics ranged from gardening, the Dictionary of National Biography, indexing of images, the myth of reusable indexes (reprinted in The Indexer) to seminars on a huge variety of subjects: science, social sciences, military indexes, educational texts and much more. The mix of conference papers with more informal seminars and workshops means that there was always something going on for all tastes.

In many ways, the major advantage of conferences is the opportunity to network, and the noise levels at coffee times and meal times reflected that. SI always tries to involve publishers and editors in the conference presentation, and this gives an opportunity for people to talk directly to them during the breaks. Many good contacts have been made this way.

The Wheatley Medal, the SI award for an outstanding index, was presented during the conference by Professor John Sutherland, the new President of SI, to Hazel Bell for her index to Seven pillars of wisdom: the complete 1922 Oxford text, by TE Lawrence (published in 2004 by J and N Wilson).

SI always welcomes members of other societies to its conference, so any ASAIB members travelling in the UK during the summer months (usually July) should think about taking in the conference. The 2006 conference will be held in Durham, another ancient cathedral city, in the northeast of England. The conference in 2007 will be a major event, to be held in London. It will be the 50th anniversary of the founding of SI, and the Society is planning a celebratory event and guests from the other indexing societies will be particularly welcome.

Jill Halliday
International Representative for SI


Cruden's window on the Bible

Of the many types of index encountered and used by scholars and librarians, the concordance must surely be one of the most complex. The dictionary defines it as: 'An alphabetical arrangement of the words contained in a book with citations of the passages in which they occur', which somehow makes it sound simpler than it really is. The concept of the concordance goes back to medieval times for use by religious bodies, Christian as well as Jewish, when parts of the scriptures were thus analysed. There were a surprising number of them in use. But it was not until the eighteenth century that the whole Bible was indexed in this manner. 'Cruden's Concordance' was a familiar title in one's list of reference books in student days, but little was known about the man behind its compilation. The title, Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, to which is added a concordance to the books called Apocrypha, leaves one in no doubt as to the formidable nature of the undertaking.

Alexander Cruden (1701-1770) was an Aberdonian scholar, proof-reader and eventually a bookseller in London. In the midst of a turbulent and sometimes violent life, he managed to produce his monumental concordance in 1737. It seems that he was not another Dr Samuel Johnson in wanting to increase the sum of human knowledge. Cruden was a fanatical Calvininst who called himself 'Alexander the Corrector' with a direct line to God and who attacked, verbally and physically, those whom he suspected of violating the Sabbath and using blasphemous language. His activities caused him to be incarcerated in asylums at various times, and from which he escaped once or twice in an ingenious manner. He was also litigious by nature and so trouble and notoriety were his constant companions. Under these trying circumstances he nonetheless saw the concordance through three editions before his death; many more were to follow. His analysis of the texts was comprehensive, the references were accurate, and although he was ridiculed by students when he visited Oxford and Cambridge, the academic community recognised the scholarly quality of his work. Another remarkable intellectual feat was to provide, verbally, an index for Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol, to accompany his edition of Milton's works in 1669. Cruden died in the next year.

Cruden's concordance superseded all earlier indexes of the scriptures. Only many years later, in the nineteenth century, was his volume superseded by an expansion which combined the English with a Greek and Hebrew concordance. Subsequently, many revisions and variations have appeared, often with a special emphasis according to the needs of the user. The obvious value of biblical concordances stimulated the application of the method to the literary field, where we have comprehensive concordances to Dante, Shakespeare, Browning and many others.

Yvonne Garson

The Bodleian/Google library project in Oxford

Ronald Milne (Acting Director, Oxford University Library Services and Bodley's Librarian, UK) was one of the main speakers during the plenary sessions at The Third International Conference on the Book: Access, Diversity and Democracy, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, 11-13 September 2005.

His presentation, entitled 'Upholding Bodley's vision: the Google Library Project in Oxford', was very informative. The project is seen as an extension of Sir Thomas Bodley's dream, since 1602 when he founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford, for the then new library to "serve not just the University of Oxford, but [to] be open to all who had need." The project extends this ethos by means appropriate to the so-called Digital Age.

A certain amount of digitisation of early printed material has already been undertaken, but the Oxford Google Project specifically plans to undertake the digitisation of nineteenth-century public domain material. Most of this material is held in the Bodleian Library, but will also include related material held in the other libraries within the University of Oxford. An expected 1 to 1.5 million out-of-copyright books will be digitised! The digitised books will be navigable, including a link from the Oxford catalogue to the digital copy. A complete copy of a digitised, individual work within the Oxford programme, can be made available over the Internet subject to certain constraints protecting Google's investment.

Even though the process of digitisation will be on an industrial scale, that is, digitising everything within Oxford's nineteenth-century printed collections, Oxford retains the right to exclude material that are too fragile even for the non-intrusive scanning technology provided by Google. The nineteenth-century material collection is immense in scope and covers an extremely wide range of interests. All related material in every subject field will be digitised (academic books and journals), as well as initial non-academic material such as travel guides, trade and post office directories, recreational magazines, and railway timetables.

The expectation is that the outcome of the project will be of great value not only to scholars, but also to the intellectually curious worldwide. This project is a step in the direction of 'access for all' through the facilitation of access to information resources. There are still hiccups to sort out, and we will watch the progress of the project with interest.

Karin McGuirk

ARTICLE

Should universities be taken to book?
Courtesy Jackie Kalley

The New York Times


May 14, 2005

College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

HOUSTON, May 13 ‑ Students attending the University of Texas at Austin
will find something missing from the undergraduate library this fall.

Books.

By mid‑July, the university says, almost all of the library's 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other university collections to clear space for a 24‑hour electronic information commons, a fast‑spreading phenomenon that is transforming research and study on campuses around the country.

"In this information‑seeking America, I can't think of anyone who would elect to build a books‑only library," said Fred Heath, vice provost of the University of Texas Libraries in Austin.

Their new version is to include "software suites" ‑ modules with computers where students can work collaboratively at all hours ‑ an expanded center for writing instruction, and a center for computer training, technical assistance and repair.

Such digital learning laboratories, staffed with Internet‑expert librarians, teachers and technicians, have been advancing on traditional college libraries since appearing at the University of Southern California in 1994. As more texts become accessible online, libraries have been moving lesser‑used materials to storage. But experts said it was symbolic for a top educational institution like Texas to empty a library of books.

The trend is being driven, academicians and librarians say, by the dwindling need for undergraduate libraries, many of which were built when leading research libraries were reserved for graduate students and faculty. But those distinctions have largely crumbled, with research libraries throwing open their stacks, leaving undergraduate libraries as increasingly puny adjuncts with duplicate collections and shelves of light reading.

Mr Heath said removal of the books had raised some eyebrows among the faculty and anxiety among the library staff. But he said the concerns were needless. "Books are the fundamental icon of intellectual efforts," he said, "the scholarly communication of our time."

So, Mr Heath said, speaking of the library, "if you move it, there's a pang, a sense of loss." He added that the books were merely being moved within the university's library system, one of the nation's largest, home to some 8 million volumes and growing by 100,000 a year. Basic reference books like dictionaries and encyclopedias will remain.

The move, Mr Heath said, would free about 6,000 square feet in the four‑story Flawn Academic Center, which opened in 1963.

Students at Texas, interviewed as they studied or lounged at the library tables, said that they would welcome extra computer space and that they got most of their books anyway at the far larger Perry‑Castañeda Library. But some said they liked the popular selection at the undergraduate library and feared the loss of a familiar and congenial space.

"Well, this is a library ‑ it's supposed to have books in it," said Jessica Zaharias, a senior in business management. "You can't really replace books. There's plenty of libraries where they have study rooms. This is a nice place for students to come to. It's central in campus."

Library staff members said they were taken by surprise when told last month of the conversion, which is how the news first emerged. At a retreat just weeks earlier they had brainstormed about ways to improve service and save money. They said they had been promised reassignment after the conversion and feared speaking out publicly at the risk of jeopardizing their jobs.

Many specialists said Texas was going along with an accelerating trend.

"The library is not so much a space where books are held as where ideas are shared," said Geneva Henry, executive director of the digital library initiative at Rice University in Houston, where anyone can access and augment course materials in a program called Connexions. "It's having a conversation rather than homing in on the book."

"We're teaching students how to do research," Ms Henry said. "Their first reaction is to Google. But they need to validate their information and dig deeper."

Carole Wedge, president of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott, an architecture firm in Boston that has redesigned dozens of college libraries for the computer age, said most were built "as boxes to house print collections." The challenge, Ms Wedge said, is to adapt them to what she called "the Barnes & Noble culture, making reading and learning a blurred experience."

Rarely do today's students hunt for a book in the stacks, she said. Now they go online and may end up with a book, but also a DVD or other medium. But, she said, "it's unlikely there will be libraries without books for a long time."

Significantly, librarians are big supporters of the trend.

"There's a real transition going on," said Sarah Thomas, past president of the Association of Research Libraries and the librarian at the Cornell University Library in Ithaca, N.Y. "This is not to say you don't have paper or books. Of course, they're sacred. But more and more we're delivering material to the user as opposed to the user coming into the library to get it."

Southern California, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of its electronic center, called Gateway, last October, keeps about 80,000 books at Gateway, although millions more are available at the university's 15 other libraries, said Lynn O'Leary‑Archer, director of the university libraries.

Similar digital library centers have been built at Emory University in Atlanta, the University of Georgia, the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan. The University of Houston, which is doubling its library space, specializes in the publishing of scholarly material online.

"This is a new generation, born with a chip," said Frances Maloy, president of the Association of College and Research Libraries and leader of access services at Emory. "A student sends an e‑mail at 2 a.m. and wonders by 8 a.m. why the professor hasn't responded."

Ms Maloy praised the initiative at the University of Texas as signifying "that a great university with a fabulous library collection recognizes it's in the digital age."

Nathan Levy contributed reporting from Austin, Tex., for this article.

ANNUAL REPORT 2005

Report 2005 by the Chairperson, Marlene Burger

The year 2005 was a good year for ASAIB. For this, I must thank the members of the Executive Committee for their input, participation and hard work regarding all activities. The main events of the period were the following:

1 PUBLICATIONS
1.1 ASAIB has published two newsletters in electronic format, containing interesting reports, articles and book reviews. They were also published on the ASAIB website. Hard copies were sent to members without electronic contact details.
1.2 The proceedings of our annual conference, Beyond Book Indexing, have been compiled and were published.
1.3 An updated Directory of Available Indexers is available and can be
consulted on the ASAIB website. It can also be accessed by
subject. Thank you, Madely du Preez for this time-consuming task.
1.4 ASAIB has completed the manual, Indexing for Southern Africa. Dr Jacqueline Kalley, Elna Schoeman and Marlene Burger are the editors. It is now at the setters.
1.5 The executive committee has compiled all the conference proceedings for 1994-2004 in a single volume. It has been retyped and will be published in 2006. We still have some of the booklets containing the proceedings of each year available and can be ordered from Madely du Preez at preezm@unisa.ac.za

2 CONFERENCE
2.1 The annual conference has been postponed and will take place on 11 and 12 May 2006 in Johannesburg. The title is Africana: from Papyrus to Metadata and will be an international conference.

3 TRAINING
3.1 A book indexing workshop was presented in Cape Town on 15
and 16 February 2005.
3.2 A pre-conference workshop on basic indexing skills was presented in Nelspruit, as part of the Liasa Annual Conference 2005 programme.

4 WEB PAGE
4.1 The web page can be accessed at www.asaib.org.za
For contributions, comments, suggestions, etc, Marlene Burger at
burgem@unisa.ac.za can be contacted.

5 MEMBERSHIP
5.1 We are still a small professional society, but membership has
grown and we now have 152 members. A warm welcome to all
new members.

6 OVERSEAS CONTACTS
6.1 ASAIB was not represented at the annual SI conference in the UK.
However, the executive committee had constant contact with the SI, as well as with the ASI.

7 ASAIB BRANCHES
7.1 The Western Cape Branch, with Mary Lennox as chairperson,
organised a book indexing workshop early in 2005. The workshop
was presented by Marlene Burger. No report for 2005 was
received from this branch.
7.2 The KwaZulu-Natal Branch stopped functioning as a branch since
the chairperson, Umashanie Reddy, emigrated to Canada. A
renewed effort will be made in 2006 to revive this branch.

8 ASAIB AWARDS
8.1 Abdul Bemath received the award for the best bibliography
published in 2005, and Marina Pearson for the best index published
in 2004.
8.2 Beth Strachan received a special award for her outstanding work
on bibliographies in South Africa over a number of years.
8.3 In 2006 a new category for electronic indexes and bibliographies
will be added.

9 PLANNING AHEAD
9.1 ASAIB will continue with indexing workshops. For 2006, workshops in Pretoria, KwaZulu-Natal and Namibia, are planned. We will consider all suggestions regarding training.
9.2 We will investigate
better marketing strategies for ASAIB
Web indexing
more international participation
9.3 The 2006 conference will be in Johannesburg on 11 and 12 May. Details will be published on the ASAIB website.

One of our members, Christie Theron, passed away on 2 January 2005.
He was a valued member of the Executive Committee and will be remembered for his enthusiasm and friendliness.

ASAIB is well-established in the indexing environment in the Southern African region, and we hope to continue to make a worthwhile contribution.


BOOK REVIEWS

Weblogs and libraries. By Laurel A. Clyde. Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2004. 181 pp. 39.00 pounds soft ISBN 1843340852

One of Anne Clyde’s interests is research on the use of the Internet and online information services. Some of the projects she is working on are related to the development of school library websites. Weblogs and libraries is one of her many publications in this field. In it she discusses weblogs and libraries from two main perspectives: weblogs as sources of information, and weblogs as tools that could be used to promote library services or to provide a means of communication withlibrary clients (p.xx). The book begins with an overview of the weblog and blogging phenomenon and traces its development over the past few years.

Chapter 2 discusses weblogs as sources of current information, showing why the format of weblogs is perfect for current awareness services and advising on the evaluation of weblogs as information sources. Weblogs in the field of library and information science are the focus of Chapter 4 where they are considered from a number of different perspectives. These perspectives are based on who the weblog creator is and what the purpose of the weblog is. Chapter 5 attempts to provide a picture of the ‘state of the art’ of library weblogs (that is weblogs created and maintained by libraries). The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of libraries that have weblogs, to investigate the way library weblogs are being maintained, the purposes for which they were created, the intended audience, the content of the weblogs and some indicators of commitment to the library’s weblog project.

Although weblogs could be valuable sources of information, they are just as difficult to find. Chapter 3 is dedicated to a discussion on directories of weblogs and search engines for weblogs as well as some other useful strategies such as the use of weblog software sites, lists provided on weblogs and meta sites about weblogs. It thus attempts to assist readers in finding valuable information that could suit their specific needs.

Chapter 6 provides basic information about weblog software, weblog hosting and special features of weblogs while Chapter 7 provides information about the ongoing maintenance and management of a library weblog.

Weblogs and libraries reads easily, includes valuable references, bibliographies at the end of each chapter and a useful index. It concludes with selective lists where further information about weblogs and blogging can be found in printed sources, in web-based sources and in a number of specialist weblogs. This useful book can, be highly recommended to all interested in weblogs and the blogging phenomenon.
Reviewed by: Madely du Preez

Previously published in Online Information Review, vol. 29, no. 4, 2005 (p 432-433)



Bemath, Abdul Samed (comp). 2005. The Mazruiana collection revisited: Ali A Mazrui debating the African condition: an annotated and select thematic bibliography 1962-2003. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa & New Dawn Press. ISBN 1 932705 37 6 426 p.

This book is a revised and expanded edition of the Mazuiriana collection (published in 1998) compiled by Abdul Bemath, covering the writings and speeches of Ali Mazrui. Ali A Mazrui is one of Africa’s great thinkers and writers and many of the writings in this collection deal with issues pertaining to the co-mingling of the traditions that have influenced Africa’s heritage, such as endogenous African, Western culture, and Islam. Other subjects covered range from terrorism, globalisation, and dialogue of civilisations to technology transfer in the computer age. This new edition consists of 650 annotated entries covering Mazrui’s books, dissertations, edited works about him, major essays in books, academic journals and conference papers. Pamphlets, magazine and newspaper articles, and audiovisual recordings are also included.

From the extracts of reviews appearing in the preliminary pages to the book, the following have been selected to highlight the international value placed on this work. According to Terry Barringer (African Studies Centre, Cambridge University) the annotations are informative, providing summaries of content, without attempting evaluation; competent author and subject indexes enable the user to navigate with ease. Charles Armour (in The Journal of Modern African Studies) states that ‘… future Africanist historiographers will find this collection most valuable, not least in following up the cited reviews of Ali Mazrui’s publications and exploring the controversies they provoked.’ Abdul Bemath’s bibliography is not only an essential guide to Professor Mazrui’s works: It is a monumental work of diligence and scholarship by Abdul Bemath, a tribute not only to its subject but an outstanding example of the bibliographer’s art – as stated by Michael Holman, Former Africa Editor, Financial Times Newspaper, London.

Apart from preliminaries such as acknowledgements, an introduction to the bibliography, and an essay by Bemath on his interest in Mazrui, the bibliography itself is divided into five sections comprising Mazrui publications (Books, edited works and dissertations; Pamphlets and monographs; Major academic articles in books, periodicals, and select conference papers; Magazine and newspaper articles; and Radio, television and video recordings). The next part consists of a select thematic bibliography, major works on Mazrui, essays on and by Mazrui, Africanist scholarship, the triple heritage and global governance, Mazrui and gender, and petro-militarism and globalisation. The final part contains various lists, namely journals cited, acronyms used, subject index, author index, and finally a biographical sketch of Bemath and Mazrui.

The annotated entries are arranged chronologically from 2003 to 1962 according to a numbered sequence (the index refers to these numbers rather than page numbers). The majority of Mazrui’s articles are in English with some in French, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish, and the annotations have been translated into English. Each annotation has author and subject keywords. Since Mazrui is the principal author of most of the publications of the five sections of the main bibliography, they are entered under title (however, co-authors, editors, and so on, are indicated). Full bibliographic details are provided for each entry, followed by an annotation – annotations vary in length from brief to quite long (the latter are often in the instance of books where Bemath felt it useful to point out certain chapters).

In the select thematic bibliography of AA Mazrui’s writings, six major themes are focussed on: Oil, the Nuclear debate, Globalisation, the Gender debate, Language and literature and its impact on Africa, and the Clash of civilisations debate. These entries are arranged and presented as in the foregoing sections, but there are no annotations since the numbers of the entries refer to the entry number of the article in the main bibliography. Each of the six themes is preceded by a brief introduction to the relevant theme. This is the last of the bibliographic annotated sections. The final part of the work consists of various essays regarding Mazrui, that is Africanist scholarship, triple heritage and global governance, gender, petro-militarism and globalisation. Even though without annotations, these essays contain many source references with footnotes, end notes and bibliographies.

The list of journals cited is arranged alphabetically according to journal title. Place and/or country names are added to most titles, firstly to reflect the wide geographic area where publications by/on Mazrui can be found, and secondly to differentiate between similar titles. The list of acronyms is useful, since they are often used in the annotations and/or text. The author index refers to bibliographic entry numbers and includes personal names as well as corporate names (e.g. associations, conferences, meetings). Some of the entries in the author index are subdivided by subject so as not to have a large block of numbers, but perhaps entries for Amin, Kenyatta, Nkrumah, Nyerere, and Obote are in need of subdivisions since the many entry numbers under these names can result in frustrating searches for specific information.

The subject index is one of the best features of the book. It is arranged alphabetically with references to bibliographic entry numbers, and is a two-level index (i.e. only one subdivision (indent) per subject entry is used). This makes the display of the index easy on the eye and location of specific subjects without problems – the subdivisions are, in their turn, arranged alphabetically. As with the author index with a large block of numbers, a long list of subdivisions can be just as tiresome, but in the subject index it cannot be helped that subjects such as ‘Africa’ and ‘Islam’ have almost two pages of subdivisions. Bemath is not only an excellent bibliographer, but also an outstanding indexer.

In conclusion, ‘The Mazruiana Collection is the best reference work on Africa’ – Africana Librarians Council, USA & Library of Congress (India).

Reviewed by: Marlene Burger

Friday, September 02, 2005

ASAIB Newsletter no. 20, 2005

ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN INDEXERS AND BIBLIOGRAPHERS

Report 2004 by the Chairperson, Marlene Burger
The year 2004 was a good year for ASAIB. For this, I must thank the members of the Executive Committee for their input, participation and hard work regarding all activities. The highlights of the period were the following:

1 PUBLICATIONS
1.1 ASAIB has published two newsletters in electronic format, containing interesting reports, articles and book reviews. They were also published on the ASAIB web site. Hard copies were sent to members without electronic contact details.
1.2 The proceedings of our annual conference, Beyond Book Indexing, have been compiled and will be published in 2005.
1.3 An updated Directory of Available Indexers is now available and can be consulted on the ASAIB website. The Directory can be accessed via personal name of indexer, or subject field. Thank you, Madely du Preez for this time-consuming task.
1.4 ASAIB has completed the manual, Indexing for Southern Africa. Dr Jacqueline Kalley and Maryna Fraser are the editors. The first pre-publication editing has been done.
2 CONFERENCE
2.1 The annual conference, entitled Beyond Book Indexing was held on 16-17 September 2004 in Johannesburg. This was ASAIB’s first international conference and two speakers, one from the UK (Janet McKerron) and one from the USA (Lori Lathrop) presented papers. Part of the programme was electronic indexing demonstrations and a visit to the Brenthurst Library. On the evening of 16 September, the indexing manual was launched at the Johannesburg Country Club. The conference was reasonably well attended and superb papers were presented. Our sincere thanks to everyone who has helped with the conference arrangements, and also to the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the American Embassy for providing venues and facilities.
3 TRAINING
3.1 The Executive Committee of ASAIB presented a pre-conference workshop on reference techniques and bibliography in Polokwane, as part of the Liasa Annual Conference programme. The workshop was attended by 36 participants.
4 WEB PAGE
4.1 The web page can be accessed at www.asaib.org.za For contributions comments, suggestions, etc, Marlene Burger at burgem@unisa.ac.za can be contacted.
5 MEMBERSHIP
5.1 We are still a small professional society, but membership has grown and we now have 142 members. A warm welcome to all new members.
6 OVERSEAS CONTACTS
6.1 ASAIB was, as usual, invited to the SI's 2004 conference. Marlene Burger attended the conference on 2-4 April in Chester, UK. She presented a report on ASAIB at the conference, and also had the honour of attending an editorial committee meeting of the periodical, The Indexer.
6.2 Christie Theron is still responsible for the Around the World section in The Indexer.
7 ASAIB BRANCHES
7.1 The Western Cape Branch, with Mary Lennox as chairperson, plans a book indexing workshop early in 2005. Unfortunately, no report for 2004 was received from this branch.
7.2 The KwaZulu-Natal Branch, with Umashanie Reddy as chairperson, plans to organise the 2005 conference in Durban. This branch has regular meetings and publishes a newsletter.
8 ASAIB AWARD
8.1 Yvonne Garson received the award for the best index/bibliography published in 2004, and Shelagh Willet of Botswana was the runner-up.
9 PLANNING AHEAD
9.1 ASAIB will continue with indexing workshops. We will consider all suggestions regarding training.
9.2 We will investigate
marketing strategies for ASAIB
Web indexing
more international participation
9.3 The 2005 conference will be in Durban. The KwaZulu-Natal Branch will be the organisers.

We also took leave of one of our founder members, Elna Schoeman. She was a valued member of the Executive Committee and responsible for the publication of the Newsletter and the Conference proceedings. Thank you, Elna, for your loyalty and hard work.
ASAIB is well established in the indexing environment in the Southern African region, and we hope to continue to make a worthwhile contribution.

Please note: The ASAIB List is for use by all members of ASAIB. You are welcome to send news, information, communications, etc.

2 Report back on indexing workshop, Cape Town

On 15 and 16 February 2005, a workshop on book indexing was presented in Cape Town to 30 participants. We started off with problems such as the air conditioning not working and the text with group indexing exercises for manual indexing not reaching the Cape Town computer. However, the air conditioning system was fixed before lunchtime and the text for the electronic indexing exercise turned up – the manual indexing exercises are still lost somewhere in cyberspace! We managed to work from the handouts that contained some of the manual indexing exercises, as well as with periodical articles, but circumstances were not ideal. The participants were very supportive and coped with all the technical problems. For this I thank them all. Such a large group from diverse professional backgrounds and various degrees of indexing experience was a real challenge. A very special thanks to Mary Lennox for organising the workshop as well as to Professor Peter Underwood of UCT for providing the venue. Welcome to all the new members in Cape Town, who joined ASAIB after the workshop. [Marlene Burger].

3 Newsflashes

NEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASH
Hon Treasurer of ASAIB, Peter Duncan, was one of the recipients of the Long Service Award at a ceremony held in November 2004, in recognition of 25 years of service to the University of the Witwatersrand.

NEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASHNEWSFLASH

Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers
GPO Box 2069, Canberra ACT 2601
email: aussi@aussi.org or president@aussi.org
home page: http://www.aussi.org
phone: 0500 525 005
AusSI is now ANZSI

On 17 November 2004, the Australian Society of Indexers (AusSI) adopted a revised constitution that, inter alia, changed the name of the Society to Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI). This name change reflects our increased membership from both sides of the Tasman, evident in the recent formation of a New Zealand Branch of the Society. The Society now has formal branches in the ACT Region, New South Wales, New Zealand and Victoria, as well as interest groups or members in all other states of Australia.

From 2005, the Newsletter of the Australian Society of Indexers will be renamed ANZSI Newsletter. In the short term, the website address will remain at http://www.aussi.org/
Please note these name changes for your records.

Lynn Farkas
ANZSI President

4 Correspondence

ASAIB member eligibility to join ASI Special Interest Group
Heather Hedden, the coordinator of the America Society of Indexer's Web Indexing Special Interest Group has requested that we bring the following information to the attention of ASAIB members who are interested in joining this Interest Group:
According to the international agreement between the Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers (ASAIB) and the American Society of Indexers (ASI), ASAIB members may join ASI Special Interest Groups.
The Web Indexing Special Interest Group has been reactivated. It has a new website: http://www.web‑indexing.org , and has a new online discussion group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/webindexing/
ASAIB members are most welcome to visit this site and participate in the discussion group.
For any enquiries you may contact:
Heather Hedden
Coordinator Web‑Indexing SIG,ASI
President: Hedder Information Management
98 East Riding Drive
Carlisle MA 01741‑1602
USA
Tel: 978‑371‑0822
heather@hedden.net
http://www.Hedden‑Information.com

Exchange newsletters from indexing societies
Below are full contact details for Mr Qin Banglian cnindex@fudan.edu.cn , the CSI corresponding member. This is the address to send exchange newsletters to, etc.
The new contact of the CSI is:
China Society of Indexers
Mr.Qin Banglian
Secretariat of the CSI
Fudan University Library
403 Room 220 Handan Road,
Shanghai
200433
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
tel:86‑21‑55664454
website: http://www.cnindex.fudan.edu.cn/

5 Indexing book and commemorative volume

The indexing book manuscript came back from outside evaluators with highly positive comments. The book has been through its first editing and will soon be in the printing process. More details on price and ordering will be available at a later date. Consult the ASAIB web page http://www.asaib.org.za/ for this information.

Another book, a commemorative volume including all the ASAIB publications of its first ten years of existence, is also under way. The idea is to launch it at the ASAIB Conference in October 2005.

6 Bibliography and indexing award

Yvonne Garson received the ASAIB Award prize for the best bibliography/index in Southern Africa for 2004. The work is entitled From myth to reality in the cartography of the Colonial Era: historical maps of Southern Africa and islands off its coast.

The runner-up was Shelagh Willet for her publication, The Khoe and San: an annotated bibliography.


This award is made annually by ASAIB and the deadline for 2004-2005 bibliographies and indexes is 20 September 2005. The winner and the runner-up will be announced at the ASAIB Conference in October this year. Entry forms will be available on the ASAIB web page, or can be requested from Marlene Burger, tel 012-4296585, e-mail: burgem@unisa.ac.za

7 Conference alerts

7.1 ASAIB Annual Conference 2005

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the conference will not take place in Durban as initially planned, but at the Military Museum in Johannesburg. The main theme is “Diverse Interests in Indexing.” The format will be two parallel Round Table discussions and garden sessions. The topics for the two round tables are Access to information in children’s literature, and Metadata & Indexing Digital Resources. It will take place on 6 October 2005. During the conference the Award for Best Bibliography/Index will be awarded, and the commemorative volume will be launched. Tea and lunch will be served.

Conference fees: R200-00 pp for ASAIB members; R220 pp for non-members.
Times: 9:00-13:00, followed by lunch.
Programme: The full programme will be available on the ASAIB web site.
Registration form: See the ASAIB web site at a later date.

The conference will also be announced in the ASAIB List and the IGBIS List.

7.2 SI Annual Conference 2005

CONNECTIONS: WORKING IN THE PRESENT - LEARNING FROM THE PAST
Put it in your diary now! 8 to 10 July, Exeter (index below for your convenience):
Devon cream teas, requirement to eat whilst in Exeter Cathedral, very nice place to visit

transport links
air: flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin
rail: Exeter St Davids Station
road: MS located within few miles of university
Accommodation
University accommodation in students rooms with en-suite showers
buildings, handsome early Victorian to brand new car parking on campus, availability of conference facilities, spacious grounds, lovely and mature
position, north of city centre
venue of SI Conference 2005
AGM Sunday morning
meeting fellow indexers, necessity of
music, Thomas Tallis during reception in chapel
networking, importance of
sessions and workshops
skills updates
speakers, interesting variety of
seafaring
Drake
Raleigh
Trafalgar, 200th Anniversary of Battle of
surfing, availability of good beaches for those so inclines
swimming see surfing

For more information: http://www.indexers.org.uk/

7.3 Canadian Indexers Conference 2005

Mark June 8 and 9, 2005, on your calendars and set your sights on Canada's capital, because this year's IASC/SCAD (Indexing and Abstracting Society of Canada) conference is already shaping up to be a winner, with some terrific speakers and really helpful sessions. Topics include: Indexing in a Multicultural Environment, Thesauri and Controlled Vocabularies, and Helping Editors and Authors to Evaluate Indexes.
We've also lined up two great panels on Parliamentary Indexing and Scholarly Indexing and an information session on the SI Course and Accreditation. Speakers include Michèle Hudon, Christine Jacobs, Kate Mertes, Gay Lepkey, Ruth Pincoe, Patricia Buchanan, Noeline Bridge, and Joan McGilvray of McGill‑Queen's University Press.
If you want to make a week of it, come for one of the two days of pre‑conference software workshops: CINDEX ‑ 1‑day workshop, June 7; MACREX ‑ 2‑day workshop, June 6 and 7.
Then head to Toronto for the Editors' Association of Canada conference, June 10‑12.
All conference sessions and workshops will be held at the University of Ottawa. This beautiful downtown location is within walking distance of many of Ottawa's finest attractions, including Parliament Hill, the National Gallery of Canada, the ByWard Market, and the Rideau Canal.
For more information, check out the conference URL: http://www.indexingsociety.ca/conferences.html

7.4 2005 Advanced workshop on bibliographic standards: preliminary announcement

The 2005 Workshop will again be hosted by the LIASA National Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards.
Date: 19‑22 July 2005
Venue: CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria (http://www.csiricc.co.za/)
Target audience: Experienced descriptive and subject cataloguers
The Workshop will cover 4 days of practical sessions on AACR2, MARC21, DDC, LCSH and Authority control.

Workshop registration fees:
Full workshop fee: R700,00 pp (IGBIS members) and R900,00 pp (non‑members)
Daily registration fees: R200,00 pp (IGBIS members) and R300,00 pp (non‑members)
Accommodation arrangements:
Contact person ‑ Liza Borstlap: Casa Toscana ( http://www.casatoscana.co.za/ )
Tel.: (012) 348‑8820 or 082‑453‑1859
e‑mail: liza@casatoscana.co.za
More detailed information to be circulated soon, which will also be available on the IGBIS Web page http://www.liasa.org.za/interest_groups/igbis.php
Any inquiries may be addressed to:
Martha de Waal
IGBIS Communications Officer
Tel: (012) 401‑9719
Fax: (012) 325‑5984
e‑mail: martha.dewaal@nlsa.ac.za

7.5 LIASA pre-conference workshop on indexing basics

This workshop will be presented as a LIASA pre-conference workshop on Monday, 26 September 2005 in Nelspruit. It is organised by IGBIS. The details and bookings are on http://www.liasa.org.za/ ; and details will be posted on ASAIB List.


8 Notes on Jeffrey Klass’ “The second hand booktrade and the internet.” Impressions of, and notes on, the AGM 2004 talk, by Madely du Preez.

Jeffrey Klass briefly attended to aspects relating to the Internet, raising some points and making some comments. He noted that the 10 years of ASAIB’s existence roughly spans the existence of book sites on the Internet. Since then there has been some major advances and ABE made more than 1 million books available in 1997. In June 1998 it had 1200 dealers with more than 2 million books. Today there are 13000 dealers.
User and dealer perceptions of what constitutes a book are now changing. The notion of the traditional bookshop has been eroded. One no longer needs to visit a bookshop or own a book to be a dealer. Amazon, for example, does not own any books, but can supply rare books, available books and second hand books – seldom in the past did new and second hand books meet via the same dealer.
People have lost the smell of the book and the dusty piles that constitute a second hand bookshop. They no longer come into contact with the staff. It seems as if there will be fewer real bookshops in future. This is an economic matter as, due to the Internet, stock no longer needs to be visible, less staff is needed, and rent does not have to be paid. It should also make the product cheaper and more accessible. Printed paper catalogues have now become a rather scarce commodity due to cost implications. Cheaper lists will disappear in future, but the feeling is that status or prestige catalogues will continue.
Criticism is aimed at the levelling of prices and price-cutting. Where the dealer pitches a book is an interesting exercise. The competition has changed. It is no longer the bookshop up the street, but the invisible bookshop somewhere in the global space. The notion is to go for scarcity and rarity – one is more aware about the existence of this notion.
An advantage is that bookshops are now open 24 hours a day and the world has become the market place. Dealers are no longer limited to local markets. The range of material that can be offered has been widened. The dealer is able to offer new stock on a daily basis. His stock is changing and instant gratification of the client is a possibility, instead of taking 6 weeks. The client can also immediately be informed if a book has been sold out.
Disadvantages:
· Extension of the fact that there is not much personal expertise. Site managers can do the trade great harm.
· Fraud is the biggest problem – credit cards don’t always belong to the client placing the order, for example a R42000 book was lost this way.
Electronic auctions – people list books on the auction that don’t belong to them and will then buy it once they get a higher bid that what they have to pay the dealer.
Too many members of the trade. There is a need to police bookselling.

The Internet has seen quite a boom. It has a language of its own that has to be interpreted and learnt by all. Jeffrey Klass sees a major future in the bookselling trade. The most rare items, though, will continue to be sold on a personal basis.

10 Preface to “the Mazruiana collection revisited.”
THE MAZRUIANA COLLECTION REVISITED. ALI A. MAZRUI DEBATING THE AFRICAN CONDITION. AN ANNOTATED AND SELECT THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY,1962-2003. Revised and Enlarged Edition. Compiled by Abdul Samed Bemath. Foreword by Chief Emeka Anyaoku with an Introduction by Indiana University based Professors AB and YM Alex-Assensoh. NEW DELHI, INDIA: NEW DAWN PRESS (An imprint of Sterling Publishers, and PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA: AFRICA INSTITUTE OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2005. 426p. 650 Entries. ISBN: 1 932705 376 (Hardcover). PRICE: UK ₤24.99. USA $39.95.

PREFACE
In this revised and updated edition of my bibliography, The Mazruiana Collection, that covered the period 1962-1997, I am continuing my bibliographical discourse with the works of Professor Ali A Mazrui, updating the collection to 2003 with an additional 136 entries. This comprehensive annotated bibliography of the works of Ali A Mazrui spans four decades and is a contribution to the growing interest shown by social scientists, policy makers, scholars and students in the political thought of one of Africa’s most accomplished and prolific writers.
This revised and expanded edition consists of 650 entries: Section I lists 31 books, section II 11 pamphlets, Section III details 386 of his major academic papers, Section IV lists 198 magazine articles and Section V lists 24 video and film recordings. The annotations are detailed, and each section has a keyword index. A separate, detailed authors’ and subjects’ index is included for easy reference.
I have outlined in the section: Major works on Ali A Mazrui an interest reflected by the written works, electronic and seminar debates, and audio-visual recordings about him and his works. The study is also a biographical sketch of him and I have included several essays written by him and scholars familiar with debates on Mazrui’s works.
I have included a Select Thematic Bibliography on major themes of his writings.
The study has a foreword by former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku and an introduction by Professors Akwasi and Yvette Assensoh.
In his tribute the House of Lords function (June 2000) in honour of Professor Mazrui and his works Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, had the following to say: “This moment in history is ours. The international community is showing a growing interest in helping Africa realise its potential. At the same time, Africa is growing increasingly aware that the key to many of its problems can be found only among Africans themselves. African scholars like Professor Mazrui are at the vanguard of this renewal. Their work holds the key to what we all want and need: African answers to African problems.” *
As Mazrui puts it: “Many people disagree with me. My life is one long debate.” May this, The Mazruiana Collection Revisited, contribute to the debate on Mazrui – the man and his works!
*Message read by His Excellency Dr Yakubu Gowon (Q-News, London, July 2000).

OBTAINABLE FROM:
USA: Independent Publishers Group. 600 North Pulaski Road, Chicago, IL 60624. Phone: 312-337 0747
Contact person: David Gebhart. David@ipgbook.com
UK: Sterling Distributors. 2 Tintern Close, Slough, Berkshire, SL1-2TB, United Kingdom. Phone: 01753820091. E-mail: sterlingdis@yahoo.co.uk
INDIA: New Dawn Press. A-59 Okhla Industrial Area Phase II, New Delhi.
Phone: +91 11 26386165. E-mail: ghai@nde.vsnl.net.in
South Africa: Africa Institute of South Africa. P.O.Box 630, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa. Phone: (012) 328 6970. E-mail: beth@ai.org.za

1 Book reviews

Internet and personal computing fads, by Mary Ann Bell, Mary Ann Berry, and James L van Roekel. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press, 2004. 210 pp. ISBN 0789017717

Internet and personal computing fads is intended for all the people finding themselves totally out of their depth with all the computer jargon and internet buzzwords. It is a perfect introduction to the world of computers and the Internet and offers a well-documented overview of events and developments relating to the explosion of computer technology and the Internet.
It takes an encyclopaedic look at Internet buzzwords and provides a one-stop shopping for the hottest terms, both historical and present-day terms. Terms representing variety fields of interest, including general computer use, business and entertainment are briefly explained. The book offers an interesting retrospective view of the development of computer and Internet use, a description of current fads and trends, and predictions on how the technologies will develop in the future. The short bibliographies at the end of each entry provide for more complete information, if needed.
Entries are in layman’s terms, making the book approachable and useful for the novice computer or Internet user. It could be very useful in all types of libraries, or even for general use by readers wanting to become more familiar with computer terminology. A feature of this work is that there are definitions as well as coping strategies. How to deal with all these culture-benders may be the most outstanding facet of the book.
Some of the terms appearing in Internet and personal computing fads include acceptable use policy, geek speak MP3s, viruses and Y2K. It even looks at computer Easter eggs – generally harmless messages or software included inside other computer programs. Did you know that Microsoft Excel 97 had a flight simulator game hidden within it? I didn’t, until I read the entry on Easter Eggs.
Internet and computing fads is a well-researched and written book. A useful index completes the volume. The index has many see and see also references to assist readers in finding the correct term or entry when they find themselves caught in a jungle of computer terminology. It is very concise and written in language most appropriate for the layperson, but also more than adequate for use by technology professionals. I find it a great asset to my personal collection on Internet and computer literature.
[Reviewed by Madely du Preez]


Thirty years of electronic records. Edited by Bruce I Ambacher. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 2003. 190p. Paperback, ISBN 0-8108-4769-8.

The contributors in this collection of essays have all been involved in the development of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It is not only about appraising, accessioning, preserving, describing, and providing access to archival electronic records. It also includes discussions on the application of archival theory and practice, and their evolution. The main focus is on archival electronic records, which makes this collection essential to the current challenges faced by libraries, archives, museums, and similar institutions, regarding the preservation (and related activities) of contemporary and future types of electronic records. Of great value is the inclusion of the history and evolution of the records creation, use, and disposition of electronic records, as well as broader governmental and societal understanding and use of electronic records.
Two sections precede the chapters. The first section ‘Chronology’ offers a useful chronological record of NARA and of electronic records, as well as organisational names. This is followed by a section entitled ‘Recollections’ by Fishbein, which provides an account of the convergence of technology that resulted in the need for an effective electronic records program to be developed. A logical progression from this section is Chapter 1 (Brown) on the history of the NARA program. It reflects the development, setbacks, and progress of the NARA program, and it parallels the evolution of archival processing and services for electronic records and of the archival community’s efforts to address this new form of records. The electronic records program of NARA has undergone changes in addressing the issues related to the identification, acquisition, preservation, and use of archival electronic records. Brown shows that these changes coincide with major phases in the evolution of the information technology field.
The main functional aspects of appraisal, accessioning, preservation, description and reference as they related to electronic records, are developed further in chapters 2 (Henry), chapter 3 (Ambacher), and chapter 4 (Adams) respectively. Chapter 5 by Thibodeau provides insight into the Electronic Records Archives Progam (ERA) of the future. Baron in chapter 6 gives a perspective on the impact of litigation on government electronic record keeping. He analyses two case studies to illustrate his perspective. The chapter on ‘Views of Managers’ (chapter 7) provides insight into the electronic records program of NARA from the standpoint of the officials tasked with managing the program. Chapter 8 is an appropriate conclusion by Conrad. He details the significant contributions of NARA to the development of archival electronic records theory and practice through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission’s electronic records research agenda and its grant program. Even though NARA is specifically a U.S. archival electronic records program, it still attends to universal problems regarding such records. It may prove to be an important source for those involved in archival studies. The only pity about this collection is the absence of an index.
[Reviewed by Karin McGuirk; published by Emerald in 2004, Online Information Review, 28(6):465-466.]

12 Obituary: Mr JC Theron (1948-2005)

Christie Theron passed away on 2 January 2005. ASAIB received this news with great sadness. He was a member of the Executive Committee for the past four years during which he made various contributions such as presenting papers at some of our conferences, helped organising conferences, and above all, supported the Committee in all its tasks. With his happy smile, he was a friend to all of us.

As a member of the editorial board of The Indexer, he was responsible for the section Around the World, published in each issue of the periodical. That way he made valuable contact with overseas indexing societies, which was a benefit to ASAIB.

Christie was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Science at Unisa since 1987. He was responsible for teaching undergraduate subjects like Archival Science, Bibliology, Information Science, Library History, and Applied Record Studies. On honours level he taught Philosophy of Information and Record Studies, Readership, Theory of Library Science, and Information Technology. He was also responsible for a number of Masters students. During this time, he published a range of interesting articles. At the time of his death, he was working on a D Litt et Phil thesis entitled, Separate personal book collections in urban public and university libraries in South Africa. Christie presented many papers at both national and international conferences.

As a long term member of LIASA, he was committed to its vision and willingly served on the Representative Council as Chairperson of the Research, Education and Training Interest Group (RETIG) for the period 2002-2004.

Christie grew up on a sultana farm in the Upington district and matriculated at the Upington High School. Thereafter he studied at the University of the Orange Free State (BA and the Higher Diploma in Librarianship), the University of Stellenbosch (Hons B Bibl) and the University of South Africa (M Bibl). He was a librarian at the UOFS Library and the UWC Library; a lecturer at the UWC Department of Library Science; then joined Unisa in 1986.

Christie’s diverse interests are reflected by the many professional and other societies he joined, such as SHARP, SA Society of Cultural History, SA Museums Association, SA Society of Archivists, SA Online User Group, Society of Bibliophiles (Cape Town), Africana Society (Pretoria), Friend of the National Library of SA (Cape Town), Friends of the War Museum (Bloemfontein). He was also the chairman of the Reading Circle Constantiapark.

His commitment, enthusiasm, sense of humour, and passion for book collecting, information technology and philosophy, will be sorely missed. [Marlene Burger].