Peter Johan Lor

I’m pleased to share the news that the American Library Association (ALA) has honoured me with the John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award for 2020. The award was presented virtually during the ALA’s Annual Conference in June – which unfortunately I missed.

Since 1987 the award, sponsored by OCLC/Forest Press, has been made annually to a “librarian or person who has made significant contributions to international librarianship.” The citation reads in part, “for over forty years, Dr. Lor has demonstrated his passion for international leadership through his teaching contributions and efforts to guide a new generation of globally-minded librarians. He has worked, often simultaneously, at multiple institutions across the globe teaching library science courses including international and comparative library and information studies”. The ALA’s press release and award citation can be read here.

According to the award’s web page, it was created on the occasion of the retirement of John Humphry as Executive Director of Forest Press, publisher of the Dewey Decimal Classification, to recognize Humphry’s far-ranging work to internationalize the English language editions of Dewey and to ensure that translations were adapted to meet the needs of other cultures and countries. I’m honoured to join the ranks of past recipients, such as Henriette Avram (1990), Robert D. Stueart (1994), Robert Wedgeworth (2000), Marianna Tax Choldin (2005), Winston Tabb (2007), Ismael Abdullahi (2018), and Debora Jacobs (2019), all of whom made major contributions to international librarianship.

Covid-19 again

When my previous column was written the news was dominated by Covid-19.[1] It was still mostly called an epidemic; the word ‘pandemic’ was only just coming into use. In South Africa a lock-down loomed. I reported on some of the ways in which libraries were being affected and how they were responding, but it seemed to me hardly worthwhile to continue collecting more literature on library responses to Covid-19, since it would be over by the time the next column appeared. How wrong I was! How wrong we all were. That includes health professionals, scientists, advisory panels, and politicians.[2] We simply did not know. In this column I revisit the impact of Covid-19 on libraries overseas and how they are responding.

The literature on Covid-19 and LIS has grown enormously. The topics addressed include what librarians are doing to serve their users during the pandemic, how libraries can plan to reopen safely, how our environment might change in the longer term as a result of the pandemic, and how to deal with the ‘infodemic’ of fake news and conspiracy theories that has erupted along with the pandemic itself. Continue reading →

In the course of a long career in librarianship, I have held the belief that libraries and information services contribute to peace and justice through the global exchange and sharing of information and knowledge. This site is intended as a resource for all who are interested in international and comparative aspects of librarianship and information work. I focus on matters with a conceptual and historic slant, but I also indulge myself sometimes and blog to air my opinions on other topics as well.