Author Archives: Peter Lor

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About Peter Lor

Peter Johan Lor is a Netherlands-born South African librarian and academic. In retirement he continues to pursue scholarly interests as a research fellow in the Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

A Milestone: Danton’s Dimensions of Comparative Librarianship published 50 years ago

Posted on 2023-06-15 by Peter Lor

The 1970s saw the publication of several noteworthy contributions to the theory and methodology of comparative librarianship. The first was Simsova and MacKee’s (1970) Handbook of comparative librarianship, a pioneering but ultimately disappointing work, of which a revised edition followed … Continue reading →

Posted in Comparative Librarianship, Library history | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Global Gleanings # 16: More disruption: chatbots in the news

Posted on 2023-06-10 by Peter Lor

This quarterly column of news, views and snippets from the international literature of books, libraries, and information, appears in LIASA-in-Touch, the newsletter of the Library and Information Association of South Africa. Generative artificial intelligence What is ChatGPT?At time of writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Copyright, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

IFLA Satellite Conference at the Mundaneum

Posted on 2023-05-31 by Peter Lor

I’m delighted to share that the IFLA Library History Special Interest Group has organized a Satellite Conference to be held from 17 to 19 August, in Mons, Belgium. The Satellite Conference will immediately precede IFLA’s 2023 World Library and Information … Continue reading →

Posted in International Librarianship, Library history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

JLIS.it issue on peer review

Posted on 2023-04-29 by Peter Lor

  Most readers of this blog will have published articles in peer-reviewed journals. Many of us will have also spent many unpaid hours participating in the reviewing process. It is, in fact, an expensive process, expensive in terms of both … Continue reading →

Posted in International Librarianship, LIS | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Global Gleanings #15: Disruption, disruption…

Posted on 2023-03-09 by Peter Lor

This quarterly column of news, views and snippets from the international literature of books, libraries, and information, appears in LIASA-in-Touch, the newsletter of the Library and Information Association of South Africa.  Long Covid The worst of the disruptive Covid pandemic … Continue reading →

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Submissions to parliamentary hearings

Posted on 2023-03-07 by Peter Lor

Following up on my previous post, I can report that today (7 March 2023) I participated virtually in a hearing of the Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities, and Tourism, of the Parliament of the Western Cape Province, Cape Town, … Continue reading →

Posted in Copyright, Information justice, South Africa, Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Unlikely allies oppose signing of South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill

Posted on 2023-03-07 by Peter Lor

In a previous post I wrote about South Africa’s seemingly never-ending struggle to enact new legislation to update its 1978 vintage copyright law. The Copyright Amendment Bill, Bill 2023-01-05, which has been in the making for the best part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Information justice, South Africa, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Surveying copyright legislation in the Global South

Posted on 2023-01-14 by Peter Lor

Last year an announcement on IFLA’s e-mail discussion list, IFLA-L alerted me to the appearance of a new copyright guide for Brazilian libraries, Guia para bibliotecas: Direitos autorais  e acesso ao conhecimento, informação e cultura [Guide for libraries: Authors’rights and … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Comparative Librarianship, Copyright, International Librarianship, Latin America, LIS, Research | Leave a comment

Some updates

Posted on 2022-12-26 by Peter Lor

Keeping a site up to date involves chores that can easily be overlooked. Today I was horrified to discover that my narrative list of presentations had not been updated since 2018, and worse: my lists of publications and of conference … Continue reading →

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Global Gleanings #14: South African LIS research in international journals

Posted on 2022-12-08 by Peter Lor

Global Gleanings no. 14 This is a slightly expanded version of my column of news, views and snippets from the international literature of books, libraries, and information, which appears in LIASA-in-Touch, the newsletter of the Library and Information Association of South … Continue reading →

Posted in Research, South Africa, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment