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Short title: B.D.C.(U) Ltd. Discussion Paper on Inquiry Model

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.
-- Walter Cronkite

Is it not a noble time for Buddhist persons to strengthen their goodwill and help each other develop a further increase in English language translations, commentaries, journals, newsletters, radio broadcasts, television and Buddha Dhamma information for the super highway?

This discussion paper suggests valid generalisations and principles have been found to give patronage to a general model of librarianship suitable for such a project.

1.0 How did our first librarian and first library affect our minds?

As a preamble leading to an introduction to the effects of comparative librarianship, we have Members recall if they came from a home with books available. The prime librarians of these books were their mother, their father, their relatives or their guardians.

These authority figures chose from some catalogue or other and determined the first books we were to read.

Not only did they specify we read, but they also specified our library opening hours.

They had great control in giving us our vocabulary and grammar - affecting what we understood.

As our first teachers, rightly or wrongly, they had the power to constantly make judgements about how much reading they thought we could cope with.

May they be well and happy.

Vygotsky (1978) has called this phase of dependency the "zone of proximal development" which refers to the period during which the child cannot complete the task concerned without help.

The interaction means the very basis of thought is social; the interaction between the parent and child leads to the child tending to think like his or her first teachers.

For some, reading under the blankets with a torch, after lights out, may have been one of their secondary library sites.

By the time we arrive at formal libraries or work stations having written text, like it or not like it, they are likely to be compared with echoes of our prime libraries.

One piece of research by Lindsay et al. (1985) compared a "paired reading" program with a "relaxed reading" program in which parents were taught simply to hear their children read with strong emphasis on the benefits of being positive and supportive.

This appeared to work well.

Questioning why such an outcome is likely may help structure conditions leading to other's sense of satisfaction in a library space.

2.0 Freeing library of ghosts and the dethroning of a need to seek maternal approval

We have spent many years experimenting with tactics that sought to enrich our library working operations for our Members and end-users.

In this paper, we are comfortable to talk about obstacles from many viewpoints.

As followers of Buddha Dhamma, we understand that it is conceivable obstacles can be caused by different types of ghosts, sentient beings such as preta, asura or deva or devata.

Within our Centre's library, at times, we overcome some obstacles caused by the ghosts from the childish primary and secondary libraries who were more or less unconsciously summoned by Members' minds.

One Member felt the presence of his childhood authority figure - his English Christian grandmother who taught him to read.

It was unlikely she would favour the development of a Buddhist Library,. Some of our ancient books and calligraphy appear to induce ghosts of their Buddhist owners.

Such beings favour our library efforts.

In simple terms, some ghosts have strong views about religious practice and may not approve of Buddha Dhamma and may wish to thwart some cataloguing process of ancient texts.

At another echo level, some of our Australian Members were not born into Buddhist families this life.

Echoes of the religions they followed earlier this life still colour their views on what to incorporate into a Buddha Dhamma library.

From time to time pujas are done and the merit shared with these ghosts to make them well and happy and to have them cease their potential for obstructive influence.

If framing is preferred in Western psychological expressions, we coach persons to operate our library systems without the need of some surrogate authority figure who represents maternal approval.

So from this viewpoint, we appraise the ineffectiveness of some early Members who attempted to create some sort of order and wishes "to administer our library" may be drive by an unconscious need to seek the comfort of their first librarian, their mother or other authority figure.

We had the help of a part-time professional librarian for a few years before he retired. By nature, he was an unassertive person who would not join in any controversy about procedures.

Those Members who had served with the military inclined to set up a library management system where all power and decision making was at the top - an "S1" system.

When devising the cataloguing systems to order the library, they assumed other Members could operate the three card system of Dewey Decimal Classification card, Author card and Title card.

Since few Members were willing to undertake what they regarded as "difficult" clerical work, very few books were added to the heritage systems. At one stage, the author reviewed progress and found it would take a century to catalogue the existing library books held at that time.

The author realised that the ultimate direction needed must be a team unit of S5 culture - what we have today.

He reviewed attempts made from as early as 1980 onwards by unpaid volunteers. Between 1985 to 1990, our library paper cataloguing project had processed about 1000 books.

Our addition of new books was such that it seemed unlikely the system could "catch up". It was obvious that a fresh approach was needed.

Around 1989, we took positive steps to overcome the negative force of Mara that was operating in the library environment.

Accordingly, a new start was made by concentrating our many resources onto the library space to improve the chi.

By opening part of a dividing wall, we increased the available filing space. We installed a fanlight in the ceiling to increase daylight available.

We doubled the available shelf space by removing all old substandard book shelves.

We provided new shelves and supplied materials to one of our carpenter Members to build wooden shelving running from floor to ceiling.

New carpets were provided. The whole area was freshly painted.

The collection was purged. Books having spurious writing about Buddha Dhamma were removed. Non-Buddhist books were stored elsewhere.

Flowers were offered and requests were made to the local Deva of Libraries and the local Deva of Learning to help us.

About that time, it was obvious that Mara had left the library.

One good sign was that a few of the "old guard" Members who had filibustered meetings about the library response to being displaced by a new Library Sub Committee did not renew their membership and left the organisation.

They did not think it important to share their merit with others and wish for proficiency in their library skills.

3.0 Forming a "Library Sub Committee"

To help change the culture and raise both awareness and perceived value of the library collection, the author chaired a "Library Sub-Committee" whose meetings were held for about 3 hours every Sunday morning for about three years.

During these sessions, a history of many libraries was explored and their social importance at that time. The Buddhist history of notable collections was explored to inspire listeners.

Difference in culture between approaches for the use of sila when caring for Buddhist books was explained in minute detail.

Staff would enter the library holding the traditional five morality precepts. This meant there would be no killing of insects, such as silverfish. They ought be placed outside the site.

At that time, we wrote down what we wanted as our information architecture.

To do this, we did not intend to constrain ourselves with the software that was being designed or the current technology actualised to date.

This was like a mandala.

Also, we wrote cornerstone statements to cover "all-time" basics and then explored what karmic result would be likely.

In time, we were confident enough to write a manifesto of what we desired to happen to the good information we had in the library.

Quite a simple manifesto was drafted - to preserve the Buddha Dhamma so it lasts in useable form for at least 500 years.

Later, we came up with the idea for the Dhamma to stay at our Upwey site.

We do not plan for our books be put in a sealed vaults as terma.

4.0 Methods of drafting our new Performance Indicators.

We drafted a intelligible set of performance indicators (PI).

Our assumption was that "star wars" response times would be rapid by a factor of at least 1000 on what present software could deliver. We felt sure that one day in the future, this "super" software being written would trickle down for business use.

Accordingly, we put our Class 1 definition at a high level.

We supposed the eye could probably recognise data or an icon in context in 0.1 of a second. So we set up a definition of a first class library such that it could respond to 95% of queries in 1 second;

* a second class library responds to 90% of queries in 10 seconds;
* a third rate library responds to 85% of queries in 100 seconds;
* a fourth rate library responds to 80% of queries in 1000 seconds;
* a fifth rate library responds to 75% of queries in 10,000 seconds ( 2.8 hours); and
* a sixth rate library responds to 70% in 100,000 (28 hours), and so on.

At that time we rated ourselves as a seventh rate library on our P.I. scale.

It had the major advantage that we did not have to compare ourselves with others to know where we were.

We like specified self-rating models for ease of practical use.

Because of our long term plans for our library script, we could not find a local equivalent to what we said we would do.

Since we found no other group in Australia were competing in rivalry with this function of our Buddhist group, we could not find bench mark comparison figures.

Rating models which are extensions of the simple logistic model to items with more than two ordered categories provides important relationships to the Guttman scale.

For example, if there are three ordered categories reflecting the degrees of difficulty of some task, the format may be depicted as:

EASIER EQUAL HARDER

where the respondent is asked to check one category.

Rasch, (1961) listed requirements of the comparison between two stimuli should be independent of which particular individuals were instrumental for the comparison and it should also be independent of which other stimuli within the considered class were or might also have been compared.

Rasch's specifications were expressed in terms of the most elementary example of quantification, that of a comparison.

Such sets of comparisons he termed specifically objective - objective because of their independence of any other parameters, specifically objective because these relationships had to be established within some specified frame of reference.

This frame of reference included a definition of the class of persons, the class of items, and any other relevant conditions that would ensure that the objective relationships were maintained.

No distributional assumptions were made for either persons or items, however. Indeed they were deliberately excluded. (Andrich D., 1985)

5.0 Determination to form an andragogy culture.

In 1994, we decided to the library organisation must be up-to-date.

We have the will to do the "harder" parts (best practice) of Library culture for Buddhists.

In 1994, we decided we wanted an androgogy culture.

Andragogy, as a professional perspective of adult educators, must be defined as an organised and sustained effort to assist adults to learn in a way that enhances their capability to function as self-directed learners having a path to scholarship.

It is almost universally recognised, at least in theory, that central to the adult educator's function is a goal and method of self-directed learning. ( J. Mezirow 1981)

At that time, we targeted library users to align with and track S2 culture (a culture which writes things down).

Then, the organisation had the written data of what was being done and could track a move to S3 culture or better.

6.0 The concept that users pay.

Our Library fee of $20.00 p.a. was introduced in about 1991.

In 1999, it is now $30.00 p.a.

Our promotional rationale to sell "user pays" for Buddhists was:

If spending somewhere between AUD$100 to $500 per year buying Buddhist books for their personal libraries is normal for Buddhists and these books are read by their owners about once per year, an online LAN information abstracting service base provides better value for money.

More and more of our Members now accept a Library user pays culture.

By June 1995, 22 Members had become financial Members of our Centre's Library at a fee of $20 p.a.

Prior to this time, borrowing books had been free of fees. To raise awareness of value, an annual library fee was levied.

After two years, this $10 annual charge was raised to $30 per year.

About this time, one Member who had retired decided to devote three days a week to cataloguing.

She attended to the library with good will and we arranged for her to be trained in computer cataloguing of books.

We paid her petrol money. This was agreed and accepted as fair by a vote of Members.

Advocates of the extension of the use of information frequently argue that the problems of the world relate to lack of information.

7.0 Our interest in comparable librarianship.

In our present library, the level of our interests in this topic may be judged by our holdings of about 600 reference books and about 200 journals on libraries in different countries.

Interest in comparative librarianship did not arise until after World War 2.

Louis Shores (1966) claimed that comparative librarianship can uncover "neglected approaches to important technical problems" and, furthermore, that: "it can suggest a new critical role for librarianship".

Comparative librarianship lead us to our general model for inquiry used at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

Dutton (1987) posits that information technology is further confusing decision making by the use of computer models in policy analysis, forecasting and planning decisions.

However, Postman (1994) argues that current technologies are adequate for communication and information needs, and that the preoccupation with improving the technology diverts thinking away from the causes of problems.

Bhikku P. A. Payutto, who was awarded the 1994 UNESCO Peace Prize For Peace Education noted that as the world has been made smaller through the development of information technology, it facilitates the spread of terrorism.

The Venerable explained that "high technology" means greed and hatred have acquired much more effective tools.

Active greed can drive a trader to track a particular currency or set of stocks which show small variation and enter up to 20 buy and sell instructions a day to make profits by influencing, creating and exploiting economic discontinuities.

For that period, the world of the person becomes the trading screen. Greed and hatred would be much easier to control if it were not for the influence of a third condition which in Buddha Dhamma Pali we call "ditthi", meaning views and beliefs.

Whenever greed, anger and hatred are reinforced with beliefs and social values, they acquire a cleaner direction, an impetus which channels them into much more destructive activities.

Adherence to different technologies is similar to adherence to different ideologies and social values, be it conscious or otherwise, becomes kamma (karma) on a social scale, which is of far-reaching effect, extending over long periods of time.

8.0 Returning to the opening question.

If the answer to the question is yes, the nature of our action research conducted over many years may be of help to other organisations who will find the linking mechanism to end-users remains problematical.

We try to simplify the jargon of technical debates so that more Members and Friends can understand and participate.

Information about the Delphi method was declassified in the 1960s, and it does not have a sound theoretical base.

Nonetheless, by Delphi use ten years ago, our Committee refined their judgemental data and delivered a forecast that a tenfold increase of curiosity about Buddha Dhamma could be expected in Australia in the near future.

How could we plan to answer queries from these new persons?

We had to automate, because we saw the other option to upgrade service delivery to a sixth rate library or better would be to find ten to a hundred times more volunteer library staff and train them.

We could not see this other option as our path.

To appreciate the conviction with which our organisation holds its existing culture; we must remember never to fall back to the poor culture of the three untimely attempts made at to operate the cataloguing of our collection.

8.0 Are our plans believed by most Members?

Yes. The four task units can follow them.

The organisation does see a third rate library.

Lately, Members do believe that our time frame for success being tracked for the year 2000 A.D. will happen.

10.0 The search model (pre-eminent for end-users) that will be used in our library enterprise.

After considerable effort, we selected a search model suitable for our purposes and within the scope of our current technology.

The general non linear search model we recommend includes a consequent series of reiterative reviews.

Our general model for the scientific method of inquiry was developed by Charles H. Busha and Stephan P. Harter in 1980. Details of our model is found in their text Research Methods in Librarianship Techniques and Interpretation, published by Academic Press Inc. ISBN 0-12-147550- 6.

Inspection of a flowchart of our general model reveals considerable demands are placed on the end-user of this model because it requires eight essential work skills or aptitudes.

However, by next year, we will have a help desk with a team of eight persons available 30 hours per week to be called on.

The flow chart of our general model shows 8 cell elements.

1. State General Problem
2. Conduct Literature Search
3. State Specific Problem
4. Design Methodology
5. Gather Data
6. Analyse Data
7. Report Results
8. Polish and Ramify Hypothesis

Note: (If it is desired to rerun the search process using the polished hypothesis go back to cell 2 to conduct a second literature search.)

 Many sources of problems may originate as a practical problem or siltation that is perplexing, as a result of intuition, or a an inference from previously derived theory.

Whatever its origin, the problem has a context that needs to be understood before the research can be properly proceed.

Some problems are trivial; others are beyond the scope or talents or the investigator; still others are not amenable to this system of research at all.

Our seasoned investigators can often be helpful to new end-users in this initial stage of problem identification.

It is up to our Members to help end-users to do two things concurrently - make an effort to improve their own literacy to read Dhamma Texts and provide a more efficient library system for end-users.

To preserve the texts yet make them accessible and measurable we had to break our complacency, making it possible to begin to think seriously about the library of the future.

Since the mind is chief, it becomes important for managers to get Members to empathise with their Leader's notion and believe that the Library Without Walls is worth funding as one appropriate project.

Our retrieval measurements show we can circumvent the classic ways of the worker-operated retrieval whose time to recover text seemed to have remained static for at least 600 years.

10.0 Costs of providing email

In the past, w held off from setting up wide use of email for Members because some years ago Forrester Research estimates that while most email systems cost a couple of hundred dollars or less to buy, it costs as much as $1032 annually to support each email user.

Competition in Australia looks like it will lower costs for email so we obtained a multi-screen system and have proceeded to build and cable WAN email in our own LAN equipment.

Last year, this experimental Local Area Network (LAN) could be connected to service on-site email for 30 key Members. After a short induction session, Members could use the LAN system with ease.

Over a 23 month trial, it turned out our technical support time given by one of our Members needed to keep this LAN operable was about one hour per week.

Using these results, it was decided our organisation can afford to provide email on LAN for all Members in 1999.

An innovative version of the file server LAN system was built from December 1998 to January 1999 and includes library access and has provision for reading our data warehouse.

11.0 Preparing a diplomatic path to allow entry to end-users

It is not fashionable to say so in Australia but it may be the public has too much access to air trifles in the media and yet not enough space to deal in lengthy discourses on some area of interest to a few elite groups.

At present, the author estimates there are about 50 mature Buddha Dhamma researchers writing to produce papers of high accomplishment.

Yet there are potentially another 500 young researchers who, given the resources, could mature.

We have been working for many years to try and avoid some sort of collision with other social structures which are designed to stifle public debate on creating political issues.

According to Pilger (1992), State power in the democracies is enforce not with tanks but with illusions, notably that of free expression: in which the voice of the people is hear but what it says is subject to a rich variety of controls.

Although individuals now have access to a vast array of disorganised information, in the author's view the potential to use the information for the research of translations of classic texts is weak or missing.

To enhance educational aspects of Buddha Dhamma for Buddha Dhamma followers who are not opposed to scholars is difficult, because there seems to be a lack of a clear model of how to make use of what is provided.

Although the modus operanti of our task units may appear perplexing to outsiders; they have a context that needs to be understood by end-users if they wish to optimise solutions to their queries.

We thought it may be helpful for end-users to introduce them to some of what may appear to outsiders as idiosyncrasy in our culture - "how we do things around here".

Members of the task units know our John D. Hughes collection and user our Dewey System records in what is essentially classic linear form of literature searching.

May all beings be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes and Leanne Eames.

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