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Institutional discovery environments now serve as central resource databases for researchers in the academic environment. Over the last several decades, there have been numerous discovery layer research inquiries centering primarily on user satisfaction measures of discovery system effectiveness. This study focuses on the creation of a largely automated method for evaluating discovery layer quality, utilizing the bibliographic sources from student research projects. Building on past research, the current study replaces a semiautomated Excel Fuzzy Lookup Add-In process with a fully scripted R-based approach, which employs the stringdist R package and applies the Jaro-Winkler distance metric as the matching evaluator. The researchers consider the error rate incurred by relying solely on an automated matching metric. They also use Open Refine for normalization processes and package the tools together on an OSF site for other institutions to use. Since the R-based approach does not require special processing or time and can be reproduced with minimal effort, it will allow future studies and users of our method to capture larger sample sizes, boosting validity. While the assessment process has been streamlined and shows promise, there remain issues in establishing solid connections between research paper bibliographies and discovery layer use. Subsequent research will focus on creating alternatives to paper titles as search proxies that better resemble genuine information-seeking behavior and comparing undergraduate and graduate student interactions within discovery environments., INTRODUCTION There is no denying the ubiquitous nature and importance of discovery environments (DEs) to academic libraries. And further, 'effective optimization of these search platforms should be one of the [...]

Digital heritage portal interfaces are generally similar to digital library and search engine interfaces in displaying search results as a list of brief metadata records. The knowledge organization and search result display of these systems are item-centric, with little support for identifying relationships between items. This paper proposes a knowledge graph system and visualization interface as a promising solution for digital heritage systems to support users in browsing related items, understanding the relationships between items, and synthesizing a narrative on an issue. The paper discusses design issues for the knowledge graph, graph database, and graph visualization, and offers recommendations based on the authors' experience in developing three knowledge graph systems for archive and digital humanities resources: the Zubir Said personal archive collection at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore; Singapore Pioneers social network; and Polyglot Medicine knowledge graph of Asian traditional and herbal medicine. Lessons learned from a small user study are incorporated in the discussion., INTRODUCTION Digital heritage portal interfaces are generally similar to digital library, bibliographic retrieval system and search engine interfaces in displaying search results as a list of brief metadata items, with [...]

This paper summarizes librarian research on information visualization as well as general trends in the broader field, highlighting the most recent trends, important journals, and which subject disciplines are most involved with information visualization. By comparing librarian research to the broader field, the paper identifies opportunities for libraries to improve their information visualization support services., INTRODUCTION The technique of creating images to communicate facts is thousands of years old. Early examples include Ptolemy's second-century work Geographia, as well as Charles Minard's mid-nineteenthcentury flow map, Carte [...]

This paper discusses how the William G. Squires Library conducted a usability study on their LibGuides to identify student design preferences. The results of the study support previous research concerning best practices for LibGuide creation. This paper offers insight into how librarian-centric design hinders student success and provides suggestions for how to best develop a student-centric template design that offers consistency and increased user proficiency across all guides., INTRODUCTION Librarians are gatekeepers of information; ensuring that others can identify, locate, and access the information they need is at the heart of librarianship. One way that librarians assist patrons [...]

This study discusses the importance of the DSpace open-source software that supports numerous digital libraries and repositories around the world. With the release of DSpace version 7, a natural question that arises is whether the new version offers enough new functionalities to motivate system administrators to upgrade. This paper briefly describes the most important changes, including new features and bug fixes, included in DSpace 7.4 and prior minor versions. The next parts of this paper explore our estimate that there are several thousand DSpace-based systems globally that will likely have to be upgraded in the near future. The main reason for this need is that older versions of DSpace (including 5.x) have reached the end of their developer support period or are reaching it in mid-2023. Based on our own upgrade experience, we propose suggestions and recommendations on migrating from the previous DSpace 6.3-based environment to the new one in a case study that concludes this article., INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES AND DSPACE Countless new research papers are being produced around the world daily thanks to the hard work of scientists and research teams. The significance of their research [...]

This paper explores the potential of language models such as ChatGPT to transform library cataloging. Through experiments with ChatGPT, the author demonstrates its ability to generate accurate MARC records using RDA and other standards such as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. These results demonstrate the potential of ChatGPT as a tool for streamlining the record creation process and improving efficiency in library settings. The use of AI-generated records, however, also raises important questions related to intellectual property rights and bias. The paper reviews recent studies on AI in libraries and concludes that further research and development of this innovative technology is necessary to ensure its responsible implementation in the field of library cataloging., INTRODUCTION As librarianship continues to evolve in the digital age, the importance of cataloging as a tool for accessing vast amounts of information cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, this crucial process [...]

Inspired by pandemic-transformed instruction, this paper examines the digital accessibility of five tech tools used in information literacy sessions, specifically for students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. The tools are Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere. First, we provide an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and digital accessibility definitions, descriptions of screen reading assistive technology, and the current use of tech tools in information literacy instruction for student engagement. Second, we examine accessibility testing assessments of the five tech tools selected for this paper. Our data show that the tools had severe, significant, and minor levels of digital accessibility problems, and while there were some shared issues, most problems were unique to the individual tools. We explore the implications of tech tools' unique environments as well as the importance of best practices and shared vocabularies. We also argue that digital accessibility benefits all users. Finally, we provide recommendations for teaching librarians to collaborate with campus offices to assess and advance the use of accessible tech tools in information literacy instruction, thereby enhancing an equitable learning environment for all students., INTRODUCTION The last fifteen years have seen the rise of collaborative and interactive web platforms and whiteboards, game-based learning technologies, audience polls, and other tools that contribute to student engagement [...]

The Miami University Libraries (MUL) developed an open-source Software Checkout system to allow patrons to make use of software licenses owned by the library. The system takes advantage of user-based licensing under the Software as a Service (SaaS) license model and vendor-created APIs to easily and legally assign access to users. The service currently supports Adobe Creative Cloud, Final Cut Pro, and Logic Pro software. MUL has successfully used this software for three years. This article describes the expansion of offerings and the increasing use of the service over that time. Built on a model developed by Pixar for managing employee software licenses, the Software Checkout system is believed to be the first of its kind for circulating licenses to library patrons. Both this lending model and the open-source software developed by MUL are available to other libraries. This paper is intended to prompt libraries to take advantage of the legal and technical environment to expand software license sharing to other libraries., INTRODUCTION Libraries have been in the 'checking things out' business for a long time. With the rise of personal computing in the 1980s, libraries not only added computers for public [...]

Interoperability between research management systems, especially digital libraries or repositories, has been a central theme in the community for the pas% t years, with the discussion focused on means of enriching, Unking, and disseminating outputs. This paper considers a frequently overlooked aspect, namely the migration of records across systems, by introducing the Stateful Library Analysis and Migration system (SLAM) and presenting practical experiences with migrating records from DSpace and Digital Commons repositories to Figshare., INTRODUCTION Bibliographic record repositories are a central part of the research venture, playing a key role in both the dissemination and preservation of outcomes such as journal articles, conference papers, [...]

This paper investigates the potential of the Gamified Metaverse as a platform for promoting library services. The study compares the effectiveness of a traditional library program with a Metaversebased library program in terms of knowledge acquisition and library anxiety. The research also examines students' perceptions of implementing gamification within the context of the Gamified Metaverse platform. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, including pre- and post-test analysis, statistical analysis, and qualitative data collection. The results indicate that both the traditional and Metaverse-based library programs effectively increased the participants' knowledge, with no significant difference between the two approaches. However, the Metaverse-based program was found to be less effective in facilitating interaction with librarians and reducing library anxiety. Additionally, students expressed positive perceptions of implementing gamification in the Gamified Metaverse platform, finding it engaging and motivating. These findings contribute to the understanding of the effect of the Metaverse as a tool for promoting library services and enhancing knowledge acquisition. However, it is not as effective in reducing library anxiety, particularly in terms of interaction with librarians and staff. It should be noted that the platform may have limitations such as high costs and potential side effects of virtual reality, making it more suitable as an additional tool for promoting library services, taking into account its feasibility and potential benefits for specific student populations and larger libraries., INTRODUCTION Chiang Mai University, established in 1964, is the first higher education college and the first provincial college located in Thailand, covering a vast area of over 3,500 acres. The [...]

To promote an academic library makerspace, the University of Mississippi Libraries hosted a '3D selfie' booth which used body scanning technology. This booth, advertised on campus and set up outside the library during the first weeks of class, was designed to attract attention and perform outreach through the use of body scans to be printed in the makerspace at a later date. Although the hoped-for printing of'selfies' did not materialize, the project resulted in data about interested patrons and ideas for similar projects going forward. This paper serves as a case study for other academic library makerspaces interested in similar outreach., INTRODUCTION The IDEALab, a makerspace in the J. D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi, opened in 2017. As a part of outreach efforts designed to increase awareness of [...]

This paper discusses the digitization of cultural heritage in Russian libraries, archives, and museums. In order to achieve the research goals, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted to analyze the current status of legislative principles related to digitization through the literature review and the circumstance of the latest projects related to digitization through the literature and website review. The results showed that these institutions seem quite successful where they provide a wide range of services for the users to access the digital collections. However, the main constraints on digitization within libraries, archives, and museums in Russia are connected with the scale of the work, dispersal of rare books throughout the country, and low level of document usage., INTRODUCTION Culture is one of the most important aspects of human activity. Libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) in the Russian Federation store some of the richest cultural and historical heritage [...]

Library and information science has been at an infant stage in Pakistan, primarily in resource management, description, discovery, and access. The reasons are many, including the lack of interest and use of modern tools, techniques, and best practices by librarians in Pakistan. Finding a solution to these challenges requires a comprehensive study that identifies the current state of libraries in Pakistan. This paper fills this gap in the literature by reviewing the relevant literature published between 2015 and 2021 and selected through a rigorous search and selection methodology. It also analyzes the websites of 82 libraries in Pakistan through a theoretical framework based on various aspects. The findings of this study include: Libraries in Pakistan need a transition from traditional and limited solutions to more advanced information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, user-friendly, and state-of-the-art systems to produce dynamic, consumable, and sharable knowledge space. They must adopt social semantic cataloging to bring all the stakeholders on a single platform. A libraries consortium should be developed to link users to local, multilingual, and multicultural collections for improved knowledge production, recording, sharing, acquisition, and dissemination. These findings benefit Pakistani libraries, librarians, information science professionals, and researchers in other developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind providing insights into the current state of libraries in Pakistan through the study of their websites using a rigorous theoretical framework and in the light of the latest relevant literature., INTRODUCTION With the inception of the Web, library and information science (LIS) professionals and researchers have solved several major challenges and issues regarding resource description, discovery, and access. Yet, many [...]

In this paper, we present findings from a three-year research project funded by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services that examined how advanced broadband measurement capabilities can support the infrastructure and services needed to respond to the digital demands of public library users across the US. Previous studies have identified the ongoing broadband challenges of public libraries while also highlighting the increasing digital expectations of their patrons. However, few large-scale research efforts have collected automated, longitudinal measurement data on library broadband speeds and quality of service at a local, granular level inside public libraries over time, including when buildings are closed. This research seeks to address this gap in the literature through the following research question: How can public libraries utilize broadband measurement tools to develop a better understanding of the broadband speeds and quality of service that public libraries receive? In response, quantitative measurement data were gathered from an open-source broadband measurement system that was both developed for the research and deployed at 30 public libraries across the US. Findings from our analysis of the data revealed that Ookla measurements over time can confirm when the library's internet connection matches expected service levels and when they do not. When measurements are not consistent with expected service levels, libraries can observe the differences and correlate this with additional local information about the causes. Ongoing measurements conducted by the library enable local control and monitoring of this vital service and support critique and interrogation of the differences between internet measurement platforms. In addition, we learned that speed tests are useful for examining these trends but are only a small part of assessing an internet connection and how well it can be used for specific purposes. These findings have implications for state library agencies and federal policymakers interested in having access to data on observed versus advertised speeds and quality of service of public library broadband connections nationwide., INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the severity of the digital divide in the United States. During this time, lack of access to computers and the internet has been highlighted among [...]

We hope to contribute to the field of research in information technology and digital libraries by analyzing the connections between Thematic Digital Universities and digital user-learner profiles. Thematic Digital Universities are similar to digital libraries, and focus on creating and indexing open educational resources, as well as improving learning in the information age. The digital user profile relates to the digital representation of a person's identity and characteristics. In this paper we present the design of an ontology for the digital User-Learner Profile (OntoULP) and its application program. OntoULP is used to structure a user-learner's digital profile. The application provides each user-learner with tailor-made analyses based on informational behaviors, needs, and preferences. We rely on an exploratory research approach and on methods of ontologies, user modeling, and semantic matching to design the OntoULP and its application program. Any user-learner could use the OntoULP and its application program., INTRODUCTION More online learning environments are supporting the creation and dissemination of quality Open Educational Resources (OER) to facilitate change in the education sector, improve education, ensure longlife learning, reduce [...]

This paper examines the decision points over the course often years of development of an institutional repository. Specifically, the focus is on the impact and influence from the open-source community, the needs of the local institution, the role that team dynamics plays, and the chosen platform. Frequently, the discussion revolves around the technology stack and its limitations and capabilities. Inherently, any technology will have several features and limitations, and these are important in determining a solution that will work for your institution. However, the people running the system and developing the software, and their enthusiasm to continue work within the existing software environment in order to provide features for your campus and the larger open-source community, will play a bigger role than the technical platform. These lenses are analyzed through three points in time: the initial roll out of our institutional repository, our long-term running and maintenance, and eventual new development and why we made the decisions we made at each of those points in time., THE INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY (IR) A university institutional repository (IR) provides long-term access to the scholarship and research outputs of an institution. (1) The outputs can be in the form of [...]

The year of COVID-19, 2020, brought unique experiences to everyone in their daily as well as their professional life. Facing many challenges of division in all aspects (social distancing, political and social divisions, remote work environments), University of South Florida Libraries took the lead in exploring how to overcome these various separations by providing access to its high-quality information sources to its local community and beyond. This paper shares the insights of using Linked Data technology to provide easy access to digital cultural heritage collections not only for the scholarly communities but also for those underrepresented user groups. The authors present the challenges at this special time of the history, discuss the possible solutions, and propose future work to further the effort., INTRODUCTION We are living in a time of division. Many of us are adjusting to a new reality of working separated from our colleagues and the institutions that formerly brought [...]

The popularity and relevance of the library makerspace has been well-established and documented in the previous decade of researcher and practitioner work, including numerous hands-on guides from a variety of dimensions relevant to starting and operating a makerspace. Less studied, however, and the focus of this work are the applications of maker technologies within wider library work. Prior qualitative research conducted by the author included interviews with librarians to understand and document their use of maker technologies, such as the Raspberry Pi single-board computer, to support broader library work outside of the makerspace. The findings indicated that common use cases included running library display screens and collecting patron traffic numbers and environmental data. The objective of this subsequent case study is to examine the potential for wider use of such projects by librarians in an academic library setting, by introducing these projects into a new library setting and assessing the related code and educational materials developed by the researcher. This work reports on the findings of the case study, in which the projects were successfully operated in several usage contexts, as well as the challenges and broader implications for adoption within libraries of all types., INTRODUCTION Library makerspaces have become a well-established community offering over the past decade, driving libraries to tackle space, supplies, programming, staff education, and other issues in support of such relatively [...]

To study library guides, as published on Springshare's LibGuides platform, new approaches are needed to expand the scope of the research, ensure comprehensiveness of data collection, and reduce bias for content analysis. Computational methods can be utilized to conduct a nuanced and thorough evaluation that critically assesses the resources promoted in library guides. Web-based library guides are curated by librarians to provide easy access to high-quality information and resources in a variety of formats to support the research needs of their users. Recent scholarship considers library guides as valuable resources and as de facto publications, highlighting the need for critical study. In this article, the authors present a novel model for comprehensively gathering data about a specific genre of books from individual LibGuide pages and applying computational methods to explore the resultant data. Beginning with a pre-selected list of 159 books, we programmatically queried the titles using the LibGuides Community search engine. After cleaning and filtering the resultant data, we compiled a list of 20,484 book references (of which 6,212 are unique) on 1,529 LibGuide pages. By testing against inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure relevancy, we identified a total of 281 titles relevant to our topic. To gain insights for future study, citation analysis metrics are presented to reveal patterns of frequency, co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling of books promoted in LibGuides. This proof-of-concept could be adopted for a variety of applications, including assessment of collections, public services, critical librarianship, and other complex questions to enable a richer and more thorough understanding of the information landscape of LibGuides., INTRODUCTION To advance the depth and breadth of research regarding LibGuides, the dominant platform for creating and hosting library guides, researchers Cody Hennesy and Annis Lee Adams, in their article [...]

Welcome to the first issue of 2024. A summary of the issue's contents is below, but we wanted to provide several updates about work being completed by the Editorial Board [...]

Technology in libraries has played an essential role in serving today's communities. This study provides an overview of the integrated library systems/software (ILSs) used in libraries in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It aims to highlight the strengths and possibilities of ILSs and briefly explain their advantages and disadvantages along with the cost of implementation. The data was gathered from questionnaires sent via an online survey and from direct interviews with certain academic libraries over the period of 2019 to 2020. Fifty-three of 67 libraries that fulfilled the study have implemented an ILS. To deeply understand the application, a direct interview with some libraries was conducted to learn the advantages and disadvantages. The result of the study showed that the most used ILSs are SLiMS and INLISlite and other programs like Apollo, Athenium Light, Simpus, Spektra, Jibas, KOHA, and Openlibrary. The budget spent is an average of 300 USD. While the ILSs have helped these libraries improve services, IT expertise and adequate resources are needed, especially when the systems present problems. An easy-to-use system that costs less will potentially be used in this area of research. This study will be particularly helpful for any library in Indonesia. These findings may also be generalized to libraries in other countries facing economic and technological similarities., INTRODUCTION Historically, the daily operations carried out by any library across the world have focused on organizing knowledge, known as knowledge management. Such processes include acquisitions, preservation, processing library resources, [...]

Dear Editorial Board, I read Richard Brzustowicz's recent article in Information Technology and Libraries, 'From ChatGPT to CatGPT,' and while it excites me to see the conversation about AI and [...]

In terms of utility and technical quality, open-source software solutions have become a common option for many libraries. As barriers to adoption have been reduced and systems such as FOLIO appear poised to change the landscape of LIS technology, it is worth examining how the use of open source can support the normative core values of librarianship and to outline a strategy for critical engagement with the technology that is beneficial to patrons and libraries. Such a strategy will require further codification, institutionalization, and investigation of open source at many levels., INTRODUCTION Open-source software has continued to gain popularity among libraries in the past decade. It has moved from the periphery to become a major competitor with some of the most [...]

Chatbots are 'computer agents that can interact with the user' in a way that feels like human-to-human conversation. (1) While the use of chatbots for reference service in academic libraries is a topic of interest for both library professionals and researchers, little is known about how they are used in library reference service, especially in academic libraries in Canada. This article aims to fill this gap by conducting a web-based survey of 106 academic library websites in Canada and analyzing the prevalence and characteristics of chatbot and live chat services offered by these libraries. The authors found that only two libraries were using chatbots for reference service. For live chat services, the authors found that 78 libraries provided this service. The article discusses possible reasons for the low adoption of chatbots in academic libraries, such as accessibility, privacy, cost, and professional identity issues. The article also provides a case study of the authors' institution, the University of Calgary, which integrated a chatbot service in 2021. The article concludes with suggestions for future research on chatbot use in libraries., INTRODUCTION With the recent launch of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT and Bing-Chat), and Springshare's introduction of a library-focused chatbot product, it seems probable that more libraries will adopt [...]

In 2021, the assessment-data management librarian at Lehman College Library decided to conduct a privacy audit of the Library's public computers and networks. This audit comprised one of the Library's two annual formal assessments of resources and services. The American Library Association's (ALA) Library Privacy Checklist for Public Access Computers and Networks was selected to review 17 key items related to protecting user privacy and confidentiality. Faculty and staff from Circulation, Library Technology, and Online Learning identified 10 indicators needing work. Suggestions are provided for collaboratively resolving these issues and future steps are described to continuously maximize the online security of the campus community., INTRODUCTION Lehman College Library has a longstanding deep commitment to safeguarding the personal information of the College's students, faculty, and s taff. The Library maintains an extensive collection of research [...]

At the University of Memphis, a team of librarians and library staff formed the Research Guides Redesign Team (RGRT) to redesign, organize, and evaluate the University Libraries' (UL) research guides. The purpose of the project was to ensure that the new design of the research guides homepage was intuitive to use. While it is impossible to ensure absolute usability for every user, this usability study attempts to eradicate the most common interface issues in community experiences at the University of Memphis. The RGRT conducted usability testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the new standardized format, grouped headings, and the appearance of the interface. The RGRT worked within the limitations of Springshare's software to create the design and then chose five users to complete various task scenarios. Upon analysis of the users' ability to complete the tasks, the RGRT discovered that overall, the design was effective, but they did make a few minor changes. This study describes the process and includes the original design, the new design, edits made after usability testing was conducted, and plans for future testing., INTRODUCTION In the spring of 2021, the Research Guides Redesign Team (RGRT) assembled to establish a new workflow for maintaining and designing research guides at the University of Memphis. Previously, [...]

Technology use is widespread in the lives of children and families, and parents and caregivers express concern about children's safety and development in relation to technology use. Children's librarians have a unique role to play in guiding the technology use of children and families, yet little is known about how public library programs facilitate children's digital literacy. This study sought to uncover librarians' purposes for using technology in programs with young children as well as the supporting factors and barriers they encountered in attempting to do so. Findings reveal 10 purposes for integrating technology into public library storytime programs and 15 factors across four dimensions that facilitate and/or inhibit its inclusion. If librarians are to embrace the media mentor role with confidence and the necessary knowledge and skills required of the task, much greater attention should be devoted to the responsibility and more support in the way of professional development and resources is necessary., INTRODUCTION Technology use is widespread in the lives of children and families. From a very early age, children in highly developed countries across the world regularly interact with technology and [...]

In 2021, alongside seven colleges at the University of Idaho campus, the University of Idaho Library received an eGlass system (https://eglass. io) with funding from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Grant to expand faculty's capacity to create instructional videos. The eGlass is a transparent glass whiteboard that allows instructors to write, draw, and annotate. It comes with a built-in camera that can capture instructors'facial expressions and gestures while facing their remote students and allow better engagement. The eGlass is suitable for creating asynchronous instructional videos for flipped classrooms and integrating Zoom for synchronous online classes. This article details the eGlass equipment setup, studio space optimization, outreach efforts and initiatives, usage examples of early adopters, lessons learned during the first year of the eGlass deployment, and future considerations., INTRODUCTION In 2021, the University of Idaho Library (Library) received a transparent glass whiteboard called the eGlass for faculty to record video-based lectures. The eGlass was based on a similar [...]

Materials related to Japanese military 'comfort women' in Korea are managed by several institutions. Each digital archive has their own metadata schema and management policies. So far, a standard or a common guideline for describing digital records is not formalized. We propose a Japanese military 'comfort women' knowledge graph to semantically interlink the digital records from distributed digital archives. To build a Japanese military 'comfort women' knowledge graph, digital records and descriptive metadata were collected from existing digital archives. A list of metadata was defined by analyzing commonly used properties and a knowledge model designed by reusing standard vocabularies. Knowledge was constructed by interlinking the collected records, external data sources, and enriching data. The knowledge graph was evaluated using the FAIR data maturity model., INTRODUCTION In December 1991, Kim Hak-Sun (a Korean) became the first woman to disclose and identify as a former 'comfort woman.' (1) In February 1992, Ms. Itoh Hideko discovered three [...]

This article focuses on the problematic democratization of small museum collections online in Cyprus. While the web has enabled cultural heritage organizations to democratize information to diverse audiences, numerous small museums do not enjoy the fruits of this digital revolution; many of them cannot democratize their collections online. The current literature provides insight into small and large museums' challenges worldwide. However, we do not have any knowledge concerning small Cypriot museums. This article aims to fulfill this gap by raising the following research question: What is the current state of small museum collections online in Cyprus, and what challenges do they face in democratizing their collections online? We present our empirical results from the interview summaries gathered from six small museums., INTRODUCTION Cultural heritage digitization and online accessibility offer an unprecedented opportunity to democratize museum collections. Online collections, typically presented on institutional websites, represent the world's culture, an increasing trend toward [...]

The National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) taxonomy is a nuclear competence field organized into six categories. The Polytechnic Institute of Nuclear Technology, as an institution of nuclear education, faces a challenge in organizing student publications according to the fields in the BATAN taxonomy, especially in the library. The goal of this research is to determine the most efficient automatic document classification model using text mining to categorize student final project documents in Indonesian and monitor the development of the nuclear field in each category. The kNN algorithm is used to classify documents and identify the best model by comparing Cosine Similarity, Correlation Similarity, and Dice Similarity, along with vector creation binary term occurrence and TF-IDF. A total of 99 documents labeled as reference data were obtained from the BATAN repository, and 536 unlabeled final project documents were prepared for prediction. In this study, several text mining approaches such as stem, stop words filter, n-grams, and filter by length were utilized. The number of k is 4, with Cosine-binary being the best model with an accuracy value of 97 percent, and kNN works optimally when working with binary term occurrence in Indonesian language documents when compared to TF-IDF. Engineering of Nuclear Devices and Facilities is the most popular field among students, while Management is the least preferred. However, Isotopes and Radiation are the most prominent fields in Nuclear Technochemistry. Text mining can assist librarians in grouping documents based on specific criteria. There is also the possibility of observing the evolution of each existing category based on the increase of documents and the application of similar methods in various circumstances. Because of the curriculum and courses given, the growth of each discipline of nuclear science in the study program is different and varied., INTRODUCTION The National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN), now known as the Research Organization for Nuclear Energy (ORTN)--National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), in 2018 issued a decision regarding [...]

Our small community college library developed a learning object repository to support a cross-institutional, land-based, multidisciplinary academic initiative using the open-source platform Omeka S. Drawing on critical, feminist, and open practices, we document the relational labor, dialogue, and tensions involved with this open education project. This case study shares our experience with tools and processes that may be helpful for other small-scale open education initiatives, including user-centered iterative design, copyright education, metadata design, and user-interface development in Omeka S., INTRODUCTION Whatcom Community College (WCC) is a rural, public institution, located on the lands of Coast Salish peoples, including Lummi, Nooksack, Semiahmoo, and Samish, in the northwest region of Washington [...]

In 2019, the University of Houston Libraries formed a Theses and Dissertations Digitization Task Force charged with digitizing and making more widely accessible the University's collection of over 19,800 legacy theses and dissertations. Supported by funding from the John P. McGovern Foundation, this initiative has proven complex and multifaceted, and one that has engaged the task force in a broad range of activities, from purchasing digitization equipment and software to designing a phased, multiyear plan to execute its charge. This plan is structured around digitization preparation (phase one), development of procedures and workflows (phase two), and promotion and communication to the project's targeted audiences (phase three). The plan contains step-by-step actions to conduct an environmental scan, inventory the theses and dissertations collections, purchase equipment, craft policies, establish procedures and workflows, and develop digital preservation and communication strategies, allowing the task force to achieve effective planning, workflow automation, progress tracking, and procedures documentation. The innovative and creative approaches undertaken by the Theses and Dissertations Digitization Task Force demonstrated collective intelligence resulting in scaled access and dissemination of the University's research and scholarship that helps to enhance the University's impact and reputation., INTRODUCTION To answer the call of implementing University of Houston (UH) Libraries strategic plan to position the Libraries as a campus leader in research and transform library space to reflect [...]

Academic libraries are experiencing significant changes and making efforts to deliver their service in the digital environment. Libraries are transforming from being places for reading to extensions of the classroom and learning spaces. Due to the globalized digital environment and intense competition, libraries are trying to improve their service quality through various evaluations. As reference service is crucial to users, this study explores user satisfaction towards the reference service through WhatsApp, a social media instant messenger, at a major university in Hong Kong and discusses the correlation between the satisfaction rating and three variables. Suggestions and recommendations are raised for future improvements. The study also sheds light on the usage of reference services through instant messaging in other academic libraries., INTRODUCTION Due to the advancement of new technologies and mobile devices, library resources and services are more accessible. (1) Apart from independent searching strategies, the interactions between librarians and users [...]

The field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) advances techniques, processes, and strategies that provide explanations for the predictions, recommendations, and decisions of opaque and complex machine learning systems. Increasingly academic libraries are providing library users with systems, services, and collections created and delivered by machine learning. Academic libraries should adopt XAI as a tool set to verify and validate these resources, and advocate for public policy regarding XAI that serves libraries, the academy, and the public interest., INTRODUCTION Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides explanations for the predictions, recommendations, and decisions of intelligent systems. (1) Machine learning is rapidly becoming [...]

Contactless services have become a common way for public libraries to provide services. As a result, the strategy used by public libraries in China will effectively stop the spread of epidemics caused by human touch and will serve as a model for other libraries throughout the world. The primary goal of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the contactless service measures provided by large Chinese public libraries for users in the pandemic era, as well as the challenges and countermeasures for providing such services. The data for this study was obtained using a combination of website investigation, content analysis, and telephone interviews for an analytical survey study of 128 large public libraries in China. The study finds that touch-free information dissemination, remote resources use, no-touch interaction self-services, network services, online reference, and smart services without personal interactions are among the contactless services available in Chinese public libraries. Exploring the current state of contactless services in large public libraries in China will help to fill a need for empirical attention to contactless services in libraries and the public sector. Up-to-date information to assist libraries all over the world in improving their contactless services implementation and practices is provided., INTRODUCTION The spread of COVID-19 began in 2020, and people all over the world are still fighting the severity of its spread, the breadth of its impact, and the extent [...]

Metadata has been analyzed and summarized. Based on Dublin Core metadata, combined with the characteristics and forms of intangible cultural heritage, this article explores the metadata for intangible cultural heritage in knowledge organizations based on relevant resource description standards. The Wuhan woodcarving ship model is presented as an example of national intangible cultural heritage to control the application of metadata in intangible cultural heritage knowledge organizations. New ideas are provided for the digital development of intangible cultural heritage., INTRODUCTION Intangible cultural heritage includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. Digital storage and presentation of intangible cultural heritage resources is an [...]

Creation of descriptive metadata for digital objects tends to be a laborious process. Specifically, subject analysis that seeks to classify the intellectual content of digitized documents typically requires considerable time and effort to determine subject headings that best represent the substance of these documents. This project examines the use of topic modeling to streamline the workflow for assigning subject headings to the digital collection of New Mexico State University news releases issued between 1958 and 2020. The optimization of the workflow enables timely scholarly access to unique primary source documentation., INTRODUCTION Digital scholarship relies on digital collections and data. In the influential book Digital_Humanities, Anna Burdick and her associates affirm that humanistic knowledge production depends on collection building and curation. [...]

The relationship between physical and digitized rare books can be complex and, at times, nebulous. When building a digital library, should showcasing a representative slice of the physical collection be the goal? Should stakeholders focus on preservation, high-use items, or other concerns? To explore these conundrums, a special collections librarian and a digital services librarian performed a comparative analysis of their library's physical and digital rare books collections. After exporting MARC metadata for the rare books from their ILS, the librarians examined the place of publication, publication date, and broad subject range of the collection. They used this data to create a variety of visualizations with the open-source digital humanities tool Tableau Public. Next, the authors downloaded the rare books metadata from the digital library and created illuminating data visualizations. Were the geographic, temporal, and subject scopes of the digital library similar to those of the physical rare books collection? If not, what accounted for the differences? The implications of these and other findings will be explored., INTRODUCTION As of August 2019, the Special Collections Division of the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library held over 256,000 printed works and archival collections. Approximately 22% of the [...]

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities around the world were forced to close or move to online instruction. Many institutions host yearly student research symposiums. This article describes how two universities used their institutional repositories to adapt their student research symposiums to virtual events in a matter of weeks. Both universities use the bepress Digital Commons platform for their institutional repositories. Even though the two universities' symposium strategies differed, some commonalities emerged, particularly with regard to learning the best practices to highlight student work and support their universities' efforts to host research symposiums virtually., INTRODUCTION Many colleges and universities host student research symposiums as a way to celebrate students' intellectual experiences and support the high-impact practice of presenting original student research. Students contribute research [...]

Objective: Social networking sites are appropriate tools for sharing and exposing scientific works to increase citations. The objectives of the present study are to investigate the activity of Iranian scholars in the medical sciences in ResearchGate and to explore the effect of each of the four ResearchGate metrics on the RG score. Moreover, the citation metrics of the faculty members in Scopus and the relationship between these metrics and the RG score were explored. Methods: The study population included all SBMU faculty members who have profiles in ResearchGate (N=950). The data were collected through ResearchGate and Scopus in January 2021. The Spearman correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between ResearchGate metrics and Scopus indicators as well as to determine the effect of each ResearchGate metric on the RG score. Results: The findings revealed that the publication sharing metric had the highest correlation (0.918) with the RG score and had the greatest impact on it (p-value Conclusion: Researchers' participation in the ResearchGate social network is effective in increasing citation indicators. Therefore, more activity in the ResearchGate social network may have favorable results in improving universities' ranking., INTRODUCTION Conducting any scientific activity first requires gaining knowledge of previous relevant research and citing those sources. There is often a content link between these activities and the sources cited. [...]

Libraries foster a thriving campus culture and function as 'third space,' not directly tied to a discipline. (1) Libraries support both formal and informal learning, have multipurpose spaces, and serve as a connection point for their communities. For these reasons, they are an ideal location for events, such as hackathons, that align with library priorities of outreach, data and information literacy, and engagement focused on social good. Hackathon planners could find likely partners in either academic or public libraries as their physical spaces accommodate public outreach events and many are already providing similar services, such as makerspaces. Libraries can act solely as a host for events or they can embed in the planning process by building community partnerships, developing themes for the event, or harnessing the expertise already present in the library staff. This article, focusing on years from 2014 to 2020, will highlight the history and evolution of hackathons in libraries as outreach events and as a focus for using library materials, data, workflows, and content., INTRODUCTION As a means of introduction to hackathons for those unfamiliar with these events, the following definition was developed after reviewing the literature. Hackathons are time-bound events where participants gather [...]

Digital preservation systems and practices are rooted in research and development efforts from the late 1990s and early 2000s when the cultural heritage sector started to tackle these challenges in isolation. Since then, the commercial sector has sought to solve similar challenges, using different technical strategies such as software defined storage and function-as-a-service. While commercial sector solutions are not necessarily created with long-term preservation in mind, they are well aligned with the digital preservation use case. The cultural heritage sector can benefit from adapting these modern approaches to increase sustainability and leverage technological advancements widely in use across Fortune 500 companies., INTRODUCTION Most digital preservation systems and practices are rooted in research and development efforts from the late 1990s and early 2000s when the cultural heritage sector started to tackle these [...]

In June 2020, ITAL published my account of how the Worcester Public Library (MA) came to offer a class in Python programming and how that class was organized. Although readers [...]

The University of Florida (UF) George A. Smothers Libraries have been involved in a wide range of partnered digital collection projects throughout the years with a focus on collaborating with institutions across the Caribbean region. One of the countries that we have a number of digitization projects within is Cuba. One of these partnerships is with the library of the Temple Beth Shalom (Gran Sinagoga Bet Shalom) in Havana, Cuba. As part of this partnership, we have sent personnel over to Cuba to do onsite scanning and digitization of selected materials found within the institution. The digitized content from this project was brought back to UF and loaded into our University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) system. Because internet availability and low bandwidth are issues in Cuba, the Synagogue's ability to access the full-text digitized content residing on UFDC was an issue. The Synagogue also did not have a local digital library system to load the newly digitized content. To respond to this need we focused on providing a minimalist technology solution that was highly portable to meet their desire to conduct full-text searches within their library on their digitized content. This article will explore the solution that was developed using a USB flash drive loaded with a PortableApps version of Zotero loaded with multilingual OCR's documents., ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP The University of Florida (UF), George A. Smathers Libraries have been involved in a wide range of partnered digital collection projects throughout the years with a focus [...]

This study seeks to extend wicked problems analysis within the context of a library's support for virtual reality (VR) and the related extended reality (XR) emerging technologies. The researchers conducted 11 interviews with 13 librarians, embedded IT staff and/or faculty members who were involved in administering, managing, or planning a virtual reality lab or classroom in a library (or similar unit) in a higher education setting. The qualitative analysis of the interviews identified clusters of challenges, which are categorized as either emergent (but solvable) such as portability and training; complicated (but possible) such as licensing and ethics: and/or wicked (but tameable). The respondents framed their role in supporting the wickedness of VR/XR in three basic ways: library as gateway, library as learning partner, and library as maker. Five taming strategies were suggested from this research to help librarians wrestle with these challenges of advocating for a vision of VR/XR on their respective campuses. This research also hints at a larger role for librarians in the research of technology diffusion and what that might mean to their role in higher education in the future., INTRODUCTION Political scientists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber coined the term 'wicked problems' in the early 1970s to refer to problems that were sufficiently complex that they defied conventional problem-solving [...]