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The scientific community has begun using new information and communication technologies to increase the efficiency with which publications are disseminated. The trend is most marked in some areas of physic, where research papers are first circulated in the form of electronic unrefereed preprints through a service known as arXiv. In the first half of this paper, I explain how arXiv works, and describe the conceptual backstage and its growing influence. I will look at the motives behind the developing technologies and focus on the views of promoters and makers of the system. In the second half of the paper, I look at the eventual fate of papers initially circulated with arXiv. While it is argued that preprints are sufficient for the everyday scientific practice, nearly every paper in some specialities finds its way into formally peer-reviewed journals and proceedings. I argue that the continuation of traditional publication practices, in spite of their costs and inefficiencies when compared with arXiv, suggests that formally certified publication still has important roles. Certified publication verifies the relevance of scientific work and establishes professional credentials in the outer rings of the community, whose members are not sufficiently embedded in esoteric networks to make appropriate judgements on the basis of reading papers in isolation, or even through consultation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IFLA Journal is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of IFLA Journal is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

New technologies create great opportunities as well as new challenges when libraries build their virtual collections. As e-book readers and other portable devices grow in popularity, collections can no longer be evaluated purely on the basis of content; their adaptability and ease of use on various platforms has to be taken to account. Collaboration between libraries, users and usability professionals is paramount in building virtual collections of the future. Only users can tell how these platforms are going to be used, as mobile tools for study or as entertainment devices. It is important to learn how usable the e-collections really are and what essential materials are currently incompatible with these devices. Digital rights management and technical compatibility issues should become standard considerations in all acquisition of electronic materials. This paper will present a study conducted in the Helsinki University of Technology Library, currently part of the Aalto University, from autumn of 2009 until summer of 2010. In collaboration with the Strategic Usability Research Group, various e-book readers were tested by both professionals and students. In the study, e-book readers were given to students for one study period with all the course material provided in electronic format. Feedback from the students was collected through discussions, study diaries and questionnaires. In the library, the e-book readers were tested in order to see what demands and restrictions they pose on e-materials and how well the current e-collections of the library are usable on these devices. Results suggest incompatibilities with many licensed e-materials, whereas most open access materials can be easily downloaded and used. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of IFLA Journal is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the journal's history marking its anniversary of completing 40 years. Topics include publication's editorial committee members including Stephen Parker and Steve Witt, famous and prominent articles such as; “As for the Future, Your task Is Not to Foresee It, But to Enable It" by author Derek Law and “Measuring the Impact of Knowledge Management" by author Jong-Ae Kim, and introduction of its presence in 2011 through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The article presents information related to this issue of the periodical. For 30 years, the German publisher K.G. Saur Verlag Co. has been publishing this journal. It has been a productive partnership, extended year by year on not much more than a handshake. Last year, the IFLA Publications Committee decided that the periodical should recognize the new trends in publishing and the advent of electronic delivery and consider how to make the journal more relevant to today's librarians and more competitive in today's journal market. The first item in this issue is the Opening Address by IFLA president Kay Raseroka to the World Library And Information Congress in Buenos Aires, in which she reminds people that the theme of the Congress means that libraries and schools work together for an educated population and pays particular tribute to the innovative approaches being adopted in Latin America to address the information needs of indigenous populations. The fourth and last of the Buenos Aires papers in this issue, by Margarita Vannini, President of the Latin American and the Caribbean Committee for the UNESCO Memory of the World Program, outlines the nature of the Memory of the World Program as a whole.

The aim of this study is to analyze the accessibility, corrosion and half-life of URLs cited in the articles of Indian LIS conference proceedings published during 2001 to 2010. A total of 5,698 URLs cited in the 1,700 articles were examined. The percentage of URLs increased from 39.10 percent in 2001 to 73.47 percent in 2009. The study found that 50.09 percent of URLs were not accessible at the time of testing and the remaining 49.91 percent of URLs were accessible. The HTTP 404 error message – “file not found” was the overwhelming message encountered and represented 53.29 percent of all HTTP messages. The study also noticed that the average half-life of URLs of missing URLs was estimated to be 4.94 years. Even though there are various retrieval tools being used to recover vanished URLs, still there is a need to improve such tools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]