Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science Vol. 1 No. 1

Citation

Harvey, R. (1998), "Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science Vol. 1 No. 1", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 60-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.7.2.60.3

Any addition to the small number of anglophone journals from the Southeast Asian region is welcome. Too few of these are available, and those which do appear are often published only sporadically. It is therefore a pleasure to review the first issue, dated July 1996, of the Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science, issued by the Masters of Library and Information Science Programme at the University of Malaya. This journal is intended to be issued twice annually and “publishes original articles based on professional policies, practices, principles and progress” in library and information science, aiming “to provide a forum for communication among library and information professionals, to introduce new concepts, systems and technology.”

With any new journal there are many decisions to be made before a subscription is entered into. These include: Will it maintain a reasonably frequent publication schedule? Will it keep going at all? Are its contents of interest? The first two questions can only be answered by waiting, but the third can be addressed. Seven articles make up the contents of this inaugural issue. Three of them note aspects (information retrieval efficiency, use and coverage) of CD‐ROM and online databases. Two describe software developed locally, presumably in the Masters Programme, one based on CDS/ISIS and the other a standalone expert system general reference adviser. A citation study of an Indian nuclear physicist, and a case study of reading interests and information‐seeking behaviour of children at two schools in India complete the picture.

From a non‐Malaysian point of view this issue only partially meets the journal’s stated aims. While it undoubtedly provides a forum for communication among library and information professionals, it does not “introduce new concepts, systems and technology”. I found little that was new to me. In particular, I found little that informed me about Malaysian information professionals or about their responses to Malaysian issues or problems.

Is the Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science worth subscribing to? A definite “yes” for libraries which are maintaining collections of material from this region ‐ particularly given its subscription cost. For other libraries, I suggest wait and see.