vol272.indd


4      IASSIST Quarterly Summer 2003     

Editorʼs Notes

Welcome to the second issue of the IASSIST Quarterly 
vol. 27. Again we present three articles in an IQ issue. The 
articles are elaborations from a conference, from a local 
presentation, and a librarianʼs thoughts on information 
products management.

At the IASSIST Ottawa conference in May 2003 the 
session on “The Roots of Historical Censuses: the 
archivistʼs perspective” held several perspectives. Cara 
Downey from the Library and Archives of Canada presents 
in her paper on “The Census of Canada” an “Archival 
Perspective”. According to Cara Downey it all started in 
1666 when Intendant Jean Talon enumerated the 3.215 
inhabitants of New France. It is said that “the census has 
been a wonderful source of information about Canadians”. 
The paper includes a chronological description of the 
development of the Canadian Census, and the paper also 
discusses the aspects of archival value. 

Newpaper clippings form the foundation of much research. 
Juan Linz is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political and 
Social Science at Yale. The newspaper clippings of Juan 
Linz form the foundation of the archive of the Spanish 
transition to democracy for the period 1975-1983. Martha 
Peach has in Spain presented the archive, but here in the IQ 
the collection and the process of digitalization are described 
in English. Martha Peach is director of the Library, Centre 
for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Juan March 
Institute, Madrid, Spain. The title of the presentation is 
subtitled “A project of analysis, digitalization and event 
history database”. 

The IASSIST Quarterly mostly uses presentations and 
longer statements from the IASSIST conferences and 
IASSIST members. The IASSIST community is not that 
common, and we can use and welcome some input from 
outside. So it is with pleasure I announce the article from 
the librarian Rajashekhar D. Kumbar (Jansons School of 
Business, Karumathampatti in India). From Rajashekhar 
D. Kumbar we have received an article with the title 
“Information Products Management in the Internet Age”. 
The article takes its base in the electronic market place 
of today, with digital goods. The abstract states that 
“information or knowledge goods are a peculiar kind of 
commodity. Management of these information products 
requires librarians to deal with information not just as a 
set of objects or artifacts such as data or files, but also 
as a process that extends from information identification 
(sensing), collection and organization through its 
processing, maintenance and use.”. This is a promising 
point of departure for a discussion and development within 
IASSIST.

Remember to visit the IASSIST website on www.
IASSISTdata.org. 

Papers for the IASSIST Quarterly are most welcome. 
Papers can be from IASSIST conferences, from other 
conferences, from local presentation, etc. So please contact 
the editor (kbr@sam.sdu.dk). 

Karsten Boye Rasmussen,   March 2004. 

http://www.iassistdata.org/
http://www.iassistdata.org/
mailto:kbr@sam.sdu.dk