Bibliotecas y Tecnologías : Una propuesta de integración

This article examines some of the ways in which the Biblioteca Daniel Cosio Villegas of El Colegio de Mexico is responding to meet the goals stated in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico's 1997-2000 Development Plan. The Plan aims to prepare students for life-long learning by teaching them reasoning and questioning skills as well as competencies in selecting, organizing and processing information from diverse systems and sources. It notes the nced to discover the skill library professionals must have in order to assist patrons effectively to become self-sufficient users of information. The environment examined is one where most college and university students are products of a very traditional primary and secondary educational system that emphasizes learning through the use of class lectures and assigned textbooks rather than research and self-discovery. The author points out the need for library professionals in Mexico's institutions of higher education to teach students how to learn to access and process information themselves in order to transform this information into knowledge they can use. Some of the administrative changes made at the Biblioteca Daniel Cosio Villegas to accomplish this are described. These inelude: more participation by library professionals in planning; favoring matrical organization between departments and projects and making decisions in a more collegial fashion; subject specialization by library professionals who select, catalog, classify andgive service in a specific area; and incorporation of the user into the evaluation of existing processes and services and the creation of new ones which favor a more efficacious development of their information skills.