Beyond Language Barriers: A Survey of Current Online Library Systems and LIS Education

This is a juried paper presentation (of 35 slides) in Session 1.4 - LIS Curriculum: Global Perspectives (Juried Papers) on Tuesday, January 11, at the 2005 ALISE Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. A survery on the use of online library systems with different languages is discussed. The fundamental premise of the survey imagines a world where all ideas count the same, no matter what languages are used and no matter what country the person comes from. Research questions, methodological design, and actual investigations, alongside the discussions of survey findings, are presented. The survey found that the trends of globalization have greatly facilitated easier access to information but there are language barriers in information access, especially for multilingual users. The presentation also explores the relationship of these lanaguage access issues to LIS education