Based on his extensive experience in international librarianship, Peter Johan Lor, South Africa's first National Librarian and a former Secretary General of the IFLA, has written the first comprehensive and systematic overview of international and comparative librarianship. His book provides a conceptual framework and methodological guidelines for the field and covers the full range of international relations among libraries and information services, with particular attention to the international political economy of information, the international diffusion of innovations and policy in library and information services, LIS development and international aid. It concludes with a discussion of the practical relevance and future of international and comparative studies in LIS. See a short interview with Peter Lor on his work https://www.ifla.org/node/92590

First Published in 1994. This book focuses on the historical development of the library as an institution. Its contents assume no single theoretical foundation or philosophical perspective but instead reflect the richly diverse opinions of its many contributors. This text is intended to serve as a reference tool for undergraduate and graduate students interested in library history, for library school educators whose teaching requires knowledge of the historical development of library institutions, services, and user groups, and for practicing library professionals.

Since publication of the previous (fourth) edition of this handbook by UNESCO in 1978, drastic technological progress and very important changes in the political-economic sphere have taken place, with great impact on library work. The international exchange of publications continues to be an important mode of collection building and is practiced by almost all major libraries. The 5th edition of the Handbook addresses these changes in all three parts: Practices (sources of documents, organization and methods), History and Current Examples (e.g. international book exchange: has it any future in the electronic age?) and the Directory (list of exchange centres, selected bibliography).