文章基本信息

标题：Guest Editorial
本地全文：下载
作者：John Feather
期刊名称：Pakistan Journal of Library and Information Science
印刷版ISSN：1680-4465
出版年度：2009
卷号：10
出版社：University of the Punjab
摘要：These are difficult times. Economic and political circumstances militate against the public sector. Public services are under pressure as country after country sees its tax base decrease in the face of rising unemployment, a growing number of people entitled to social welfare benefits, and the near collapse of important parts of the financial services sector and consequent loss of both private investment income and public revenue. In such a climate, education and all those things associated with it – including libraries and research – are inevitably in the firing line for restraint and perhaps even for cut-backs. No doubt the worst of these economic difficulties are (relatively) temporary, although their effects will be felt for many years to come. It is less easy to see a resolution of some of our political difficulties. Instability – or the threat of instability or even the perception of the threat of instability – lead inevitably to a political discourse which focuses on security rather than on progressive social and educational policies. All of this has an impact on libraries, of which the vast majority throughout the world are dependent on public funds for most of their income.