A BELT around the World: A World Building on Education, Lifelong Learning, and Technology
A Festschrift Honoring Nasser Sharify
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Research results, laboratory experimentation, history of accomplishments, and artistic achievements have created the core of recorded knowledge in all formats maintained by the lifelong learning centers, the libraries. Thus libraries have become the knowledge centers, not the universities. The universities instructional functions, built around these knowledge centers, are to inspire and guide the seekers of knowledge, the students, in their roads leading to their own personal destination and to their discovery of the truth. Technologies as agencies for information and knowledge transfer provide the appropriate tools for instant access to organized, relevant, and personalized information serving the knowledge centers, the educational institutions and individuals.
The centers of lifelong learning, educational institutions, and technologies are intimately tied together as a ‘BELT’ around the globe that may hold together all contrasting segments of the world otherwise separated by race, by religion, and by culture, and may make a peaceful global coexistence a possible reality, not just a dream.
Democracy only works when it is built on choices. If democracy is indeed a universal ideal and is for every nation in this predominantly illiterate world, it can only arrive after universal education that enables people to choose. It is education not democracy that gives choices to people. Democracy simply allows for choices to become possible. And for literacy to work as a tool for learning there must be ample unbiased literature appropriate to the learning capacities of people of all cultures.
This book speaking to these premises is authored by outstanding educators, librarians, and information scientists. It is a humble attempt to honor a man whose life; writing and teaching, has been dedicated to the metaphoric concept of this ‘BELT’. While the book speaks of current issues, it reveals many untold stories about notable events in education, lifelong learning and technology during the last half a century.
Thus this book is international in its scope, diverse in thoughts and beliefs, multi-color in description, and each author maintains his or her own style. It may also serve as a modest prototype for other books to follow, considering knowledge and information from their origination to their transfer as one voyage, in one road, and in one field.
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About the Book
Dr. Nasser Sharify, an educator, writer, philosopher, and poet, has made great contributions to the world of international library development and library science. He believes in the importance of libraries as a bridge to education and knowledge, and he has worked tirelessly on the metaphoric concept of BELT, a world building on education, lifelong learning, and technology.
In A BELT around the World, educators, librarians, and information scientists pay tribute to Sharify through this collection of writings. Providing an international and global perspective on education and technology, the articles not only focus on current issues but also provide a look back at the notable events of the last half century. The compilation reflects Sharify’s dedication to the globalization of knowledge and information as an attempt to unite peoples and cultures across the world and in order to bring down the barriers between different societies and cultures.
Compiled by Dr. John Southard and Dr. W. David Penniman, A BELT around the World provides a look at Sharify—the man, his work, and its impact on libraries, international learning, and technology.
About the Author
Dr. John Southard is a graduate of the University of Scranton and Adelphi University and is a technology planner and academic administrator. Southard is currently the managing editor of the Nasser Sharify Festschrift.
W. David Penniman, PhD, serves as a consultant to senior management involved in the design, implementation, and operation of information systems, resources, and services. He has published more than sixty-five articles and book chapters and presented workshops and conference talks throughout the United States and abroad.