New international initiative

Maria Sliwinska, ICIMSS, Torun I have a pleasure to inform all „IAALD News” readers about creation in Torun (Poland) an international school of library and information science.
After many meetings in the last few years the following was decided:
- The school was named as the International Centre for Information Management, Systems and Services (ICIMSS).
- ICIMSS mission has been described as:
a) To be a centre of excellence for the region in providing continuing professional development in the provision of distributed electronic data and information and the management of library services for practitioners, educators, and post-graduate students.
b) To conduct research in the area of library and information science.
c) To organise doctoral studies in the future.
- The school is organised similarly to Soros' European University in Prague and Budapest. It will train staff for East and Central European institutions. Faculty of the school will come from highly respected Western library schools and libraries in addition to assistances recruited from the Region.
- English has been choosen as a language of instruction
- ICIMSS Advisory Boards and Committes have been created and consists with the prestigious academics and practitioners from the best schools in the USA, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland and members from the Region: Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Poland.
- The Board of ICIMSS Directors has been established with:
Professor Tom Wilson (from Sheffield, UK) as ICIMSS Academic Director
Professor Leigh Estabrook (from Urbana-Champaign, USA) as Professional
Development Course Director and Maria Sliwinska as an Executive Director
This gives a good ratio with a strong involvement of American and British academics. When the first programme starts, considerable impact from another countries is expected. It has just been prepared one year post-graduate studies programme. Postgraduate professional diploma studies are planned to update the knowledge of information professionals (practitioners and library school lecturers) working in Central and Eastern Europe. Studies are planned as one year courses delivered through electronic distance learning methods; however three residential sessions (schools) are also planned to give students the opportunity to meet face to face with other students and with their lecturers. The course is organised into three semesters with two modules during each semester: one of it devoted to management, whilst the other focused on modern technology. It is envisaged that each module will have a module leader who will take the major responsibility for the planning, detailed syllabus, assessment mechanisms, literature sourcing and administration of the course. Course leaders will be supported by assistances from the region.
ICIMSS will be supported by foreign libraries: fourteen English libraries signed document with already expressed will of cooperation. Pamela Andre, Director of NAL is also interested in this project together with Maryland College.
The pilot programme of ICIMSS starts on October 19 with two weeks residential courses.
Programme has been prepared as follow.

Semester 1
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION


Module Leader:  Chet Grycz, Berkely (USA)

      Distributed Networks

      Client/Server Technology

      Structure of Documents and Encoding Standards

      Internet Toolsets (TELNET, WWW, Databases, OPACs)

      Various Electronic Output Formats (online, CD-ROM, HTML, PDF)

      Programming Tools (HTML, CGI, JAVA)

      Introduction to Applicable International Intellectual

       Property Law, Copyright, and Fair Use

MANAGING THE PROCESS OF CHANGE

Module Leader:  Simon Francis, Sheffield (UK) 

      Human Resource Management

      Education and Updating of Skills

      Flexibility, Accountability, and Performance

      Feedback and building a "learning organization"

      Hierarchical vs. Responsible Management

Semester 2 DIGITAL LIBRARIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Module leader:  Derek Law, London (UK)

      Range of alternative exemplars visible on the Internet today

      Resource identification, verification, and navigation

      Search engines and information retrieval strategies

      Z39.50 protocols and OPACs

      Cataloging and Exchanging Bibliographic Information across

       the Internet

      Specific Information Resources that are useful

INSTITUTIONAL POLICIES

Module leader: Ian Mowat, Edinburgh (UK)

      The process of negotiating licenses, submitting tenders and

      RFP's, evaluating vendors, comparing value

      Human Resource Management 

      Communications Skills

      Job Descriptions, Expectations, Evaluations, Performance

      Team Building

Semester 3 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Module leader:  Leigh Estabrook, Urbana-Champaign (USA)

      Fundamentals of financial documentation

      Financial analysis

      Elements in the line-items

      Process Control and Responsibility

      Fact gathering and reporting

      Judging and Reacting to changing situations

      Managing resources: technological, financial, human, and knowledge

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

Module Leader: to be decided

      Elements of a Successful www site

      Lack of quality indicators

      Essential components in building a www site

      Financial Models for supporting development

      Types of skills that are needed and useful

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