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Embedded librarianship is an inevitable outcome of the information era. Since the concept of embedded librarianship emerged in 2004, a flurry of papers have been published. In China, many related research papers have also been published, but few of them focus on the practice of embedded librarianship in libraries of Chinese universities. This article investigates the current progress and practice of embedded librarianship in China. A total of 84 Chinese university libraries were surveyed. This article demonstrates that a few university libraries have achieved promising embedded practices, but most remain in the initial stages. Most librarians do not clearly understand the concept of embedded librarianship. To date, the embedded model is still in the transforming stage, and incentive mechanisms and evaluation systems have not been perfected. Based on these results, some suggestions are proposed to accelerate the development of embedded librarianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an innovative technology with the potential to revolutionize various industries including libraries and information science. Academic libraries are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance services, improve efficiency, and enhance user experience. This study utilizes a bibliometric approach to comprehensively analyze current research on AI in academic libraries (AI in ALs). This study employed bibliometric indicators to identify key trends, patterns, and research gaps in the existing literature. A comprehensive dataset of 373 research papers on AI in ALs published between 2002 and 2022 was collected and analyzed using the Scopus database. Various bibliometric tools, such as Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and BibExcel, have enhanced this analysis. The findings of this study provide important insights. By 2022, there were 64 publications, constituting 17.16% of the total corpus, accompanied by 65 citations. In contrast, 2019 witnessed only 33 publications yet accumulated a substantial number of citations, amounting to 294, representing 8.85% of the overall citations. Conference papers exhibited the highest frequency among different publication types, with 165 publications, whereas journal articles had the highest citation count, accumulating 217 citations. Geographically, China emerged as the leading contributor with 119 publications, and Wuhan University stood out as the most prominent affiliation. Notably, the "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" series emerged as the most prolific source title, publishing 15 articles, of which eight were cited. The authors Wang J., Wang C., and Wang X. from China demonstrated significant contributions, consistently publishing four papers annually from 2010 to 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines through a systematic review, the reference services rendered in academic libraries using artificial intelligence (AI) and by collecting data through environmental scanning. The objective of this systematic literature review is to provide a synthesis of empirical studies exploring the application of artificial intelligence for reference services in academic libraries. Data were collected from Web of Science, Scopus, and LISA databases. Following the rigorous/established selection process, a total of thirty five articles were finally selected, reviewed and analyzed. Thirty five papers were identified, analyzed and summarized on the subject relating to the application of AI and the methods which are most often used. The findings demonstrate that university libraries in Canada and China are leading in the deployment of AI for reference services. The AI techniques used mostly in the scanned university libraries are self-directed learning and natural language processing techniques; while the challenges of using AI for reference services are the problem of quality intelligence, linguistic style, privacy, a threat to intellectual freedom, bias, and cost; inadequate experts, poor network, poor training and lack of innovation, and limited knowledge about the technology. The study indicates university libraries take into account implementing AI for reference services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a library-space information model (LSIM) based on a geographical information system (GIS) was built to visually show the bookshelf location of each book through the display interface of various terminals. Taking Shanghai Jiao Tong University library as an example, both spatial information and attribute information were integrated into the model. In the spatial information, the reading room layout, bookshelves, reference desks, and so on were constructed with different attributes. The bookshelf layer was the key attribute of the bookshelves, and each book was linked to one bookshelf layer. Through the field of bookshelf layer, the book in the query system can be connected with the bookshelf-layer information of the LSIM. With the help of this model, readers can search books visually in the query system and find the books' positions accurately. It can also be used in the inquiry of special-collection resources. Additionally, librarians can use this model to analyze books' circulation status, and books with similar subjects that are frequently circulated can be recommended to readers. The library's permanent assets (chairs, tables, etc.) could be managed visually in the model. This paper used GIS as a tool to solve the problem of accurate positioning, simultaneously providing better services for readers and realizing visual management of books for librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the supply-and-demand dynamics in the library and information science (LIS) academic market in China. This analysis is based on a broad concept of academic market and large-scale labor-market data. The authors find a shift in faculty positions, in which traditional positions in universities and research institutions have been replaced with relatively new, temporary academic positions, such as contract-based positions, research librarians, and army lecturers. In addition, they speculate that institutional prestige contributes to a structural mismatch in the Chinese LIS market. Confronted with a changing academic job market, LIS institutions and associations need to strengthen the training of doctoral students' transferable skills to improve their entry into the academic market. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to investigate the supply and demand of the LIS academic market in China, which can provide a reference for the global LIS academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the rapid growth of international students in China's universities, it is important for university libraries to extend their existing services, which were mainly designed for native Chinese students. This paper reports on a research study aimed at extending library services for international students by identifying and understanding their requirements. An exploratory case study research design was adopted. Specifically, the Wuhan University Library was selected as the case study, at which 23 international students were approached and interviewed using semi-structured questions. The analysis of interview data pointed to 14 library service requirements in four main themes: feeling welcomed, convenient accessibility, comfortable learning environment and diverse learning resources. On this basis, five practical strategies were formulated. This study focused on China's university libraries, however, the research findings provide useful implications and insights that can be shared across international borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to get deeper knowledge from the grey literature and other numerous resources is more and more important. To support the scholars or scientists efficiently, new knowledge service appears in the ranks of library services with a new look, and highlights its increasingly important role. Despite an emerging picture worldwide, a lack of published research or library practices has made it difficult to gain an accurate overview of new knowledge services to support researching on grey literature in China. This paper aims to introduce new knowledge services for grey literature in China, and finally show a comprehensive framework of new knowledge services in China for librarians around the world. This paper introduces the knowledge services for grey literature in Chinese literature and the homepages of Chinese University libraries by using the method of document analysis and homepage research. This paper points out that research data services, knowledge sharing services, academic publishing consulting services, knowledge service librarians, information literacy services are important themes of knowledge services. We find that all of these types of services are provided by the Peking University library. All these prove that the Peking University library can be regarded as an excellent knowledge service provider. Our findings highlight a range of creative library programs that will assist librarians in improving knowledge services for grey literature. This paper will be of interest to public and school libraries around the world. The paper will also provide systematic review that is readily available for professionals and academician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of information culture in Mainland China and apply the information culture framework to an organizational setting. Design/methodology/approach: The foundation for the research is provided by a review of Chinese and English language literature and a case study of a university library was conducted, involving semi-structured interviews. Findings: The information culture framework facilitated identification of factors not recognized in previous information culture research, including uniquely Chinese factors of egocentrism, guanxi (relationships), mianzi (face), hexie (harmony) and renqing (mutual benefit). A further finding highlighted the profound differences between archives and library institutions in China. Originality/value: The paper provides the first step toward further exploring features of Chinese organizational culture which will not only influence information management practices but also highlight the issues relating to collaboration between libraries and archives in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedded librarianship service describes the practice of librarians integrating actively into the user's environment, rather than remaining in the library to await requests for service. This paper examines the concept of embedded service in the recent literature, within the past 5 years. It reports on a survey of embedded service in Chinese academic libraries conducted mainly in the “985 Project” universities. The paper focuses on some incipient embedded librarian programs, as well as the obstacles to achieving embedded practice, and identifies some best practices in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper examines the current literature of RDM implementation status, then follows a three-level model to revisit the implementation status of RDM in Chinese academia by reviewing the governmental documents, funding agencies' policies, and institutional efforts. The findings suggest that the macro-environment of RDM in China is interrupted at the agency level caused by the inactions of strategies and lack of policies. The results also suggest that national universities varied in RDM services and repositories, and the macro-environment of RDM in China is problematic. The paper then identifies the problems, discusses the fundamental issues, and proposes solutions from three principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the main research question of what the critical roles and competencies of data curation are in supporting research data life cycle management, this paper adopts a multi-case study method, with data governance frameworks, to analyze stakeholders and data curators, and their competencies, based on different contexts from cases from enterprises and academic libraries in mainland China. Via the context and business analysis on different cases, critical roles such as data supervisor, data steward, and data custodian in guaranteeing data quality and efficiency of data reuse are put forward. Based on the general factor framework summarized via existing literature, suggestions for empowering data curators' competencies are raised according to the cases. The findings of this paper are as follows: besides digital archiving and preservation, more emphasis should be placed on data governance in the field of data curation. Data curators are closely related but not equivalent to stakeholders of data governance. The different roles of data curators would play their own part in the process of data curation and can be specified as data supervisor, data steward, and data custodian according to given contexts. The roles, competencies, and empowerment strategies presented in this paper might have both theoretical and practical significance for the fields of both data curation and data governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the application of the social media platform WeChat. It explores the use of this emerging mobile app using the official WeChat accounts of the top 39 academic libraries in China. The findings indicate that approximately one third of the libraries use WeChat as a marketing tool to promote collections and services for users. Most of the 39 libraries, however, are still using the most basic functions. Advanced functions urgently need to be adopted. The main uses of WeChat are general social networking services (SNSs) and automatic answering and interaction features, which include seeking and sharing information, user self-service, and keyword-identified reference auto-responders. The study uses six aspects of quality to evaluate the interaction and content delivered by WeChat. These include the volume of information, information content quality, concordance rate, frequency, self-service, and basic features. The experience of Chinese university libraries is used to provide recommendations for other libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this paper investigates the recent advances of information literacy education for international students at academic libraries in China. The author carried out a questionnaire survey through the Questionnaire Star platform from April 2019 to July 2020 among 152 librarians from 117 university libraries in different parts of China, including 35 librarians from the universities which participate in the country's construction plan of world-class universities and world-class disciplines. Moreover, another questionnaire survey on library information literacy education for international students was conducted among 35 international students in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Through analysis and discussion of the survey results, the research studies the overall status and existing problems of information literacy education for international students in Chinese academic libraries, and offers suggestions for the improvement of international students' information literacy education in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of reference and information service has been redefined in some Chinese university libraries. In these libraries the focus of reference and information service has transformed into information analysis. University libraries have been a participant in the management and evaluation in scientific research, technological innovation, and discipline construction. The information analysis service of Zhejiang University Library is a typical case. Zhejiang University library established an information analysis group in 2009 in reference and information service division. To further guarantee the professionalism of service, the information analysis service center was set up in 2018 as a separate division. Over the past decade, information analysis service has played the potential of library in supporting decision-making, scientific research and innovation, discipline construction, research performance evaluation, etc. Information analysis service makes the popularity and status of the university library improve continuously. The evolution of information analysis service of Zhejiang University Library is reviewed in this paper, from the initial stage to the expansion stage, and then to the establishment of professional division. Approaches to promote the progress of information analysis service are summarized. The future goals are also discussed from the perspectives of strengthening the innovation mind-set, librarian development, and information analysis literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the status of library anxiety among university students in China is studied. With interviews, questionnaires and statistical methods, a modified Chinese Library Anxiety Scale (C-LAS) is developed, considerably different from that previously proposed by Bostick [Bostick, S. L. (1992). The development and validation of the Library Anxiety Scale. PhD dissertation, Wayne State University] and suitable for the Chinese cultural sphere, consisting of seven factors including resources, retrieval, regulations, staff, knowledge, comfort and affection, delineated further into 36 statements in total. Two aspects of users including demographic factors and participation in library training courses are also studied. This study proposes a quantitative measure for the levels of library anxiety in China. The findings also suggest that resources, retrieval, and regulations are the main factors impacting library anxiety and that users' library anxiety levels are related to demographic factors and participation in library training courses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With the growth of international student enrollment in Chinese universities, user perception has become an area of developing research in academic libraries. China's policy of opening up has led to the education and economic reforms allowing major universities to enroll international students. These changes have created an increasing need for libraries to be responsive to the information needs of these students. In order to serve these students better, universities will be expected to further understand how academic library services are currently perceived by international students. This is particularly the case at Wuhan University, which has experienced significant growth in international student enrollment. This study aims to discover the met and unmet needs as well as barriers encountered in library use by international students. Based on the information gathered, recommendations and future strategies will be formulated to improve the understanding of the information needs of non-native Chinese speakers in both the provision of services and the building of collections. The findings of this study reveal that Chinese academic libraries are considerably well perceived by international students. It also indicates that they have differing purposes, and differing needs for library services and information resources. This paper acknowledges that the study is limited to Wuhan University; however, there is a need for further studies on non-Chinese speakers, particularly, international students to obtain important information on their perception of library services and information resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Under the background of “The Double First-class University Initiative” and “Double Ten Thousand Plan” implemented in colleges and universities, professional education at all levels of library information and archival studies in mainland China is undergoing a period of rapid change and uncertainty. Based on the changes in the policy direction and assessment system of various regions and universities, which present a common phenomenon of lacking a top-down design policy, an in-depth study on the professional education of the discipline as a whole was conducted, in order to readjust the academic education and adapt to the needs of professional education and career development during the transition period. The research questions in this paper include: what is the current status of the library, information, and archives management education in mainland China? What are the characteristics of academic education of each level? What is the regional distribution of relative educational institutions? What is the status quo of enrollment and cultivation? The data collection methods in this study include literature research, website interviews, content analysis, etc. The research subjects were set as the educational institutions in China's library, information, and archives management field, for analyzing the disciplinary settings and educational development at all levels including junior college, undergraduate, and graduate levels, such as master̓s, doctoral and postdoctoral. The main research findings are addressed below. Firstly, the overall discipline scale of library information and archives management in Mainland China has been stable in the past decade, the number of undergraduate educational institutions has slightly decreased, the master's education represented by MLIS is developing prosperously, the scale of traditional academic master's education has been shrinking, and the doctoral education is growing steadily. Secondly, the distribution of educational institutions among provinces and cities is highly fragmented, and the layout of disciplines has remained stable, with a total of 25 provinces and cities having institutions providing library information and archival education, and East China and North China accounting for 58% of the total, among which more than 60% of the departments were established before Year 2000 and fewer new programs were launched in recent years. Thirdly, “admitting students according to the first level” has become a trendy policy in some departments, and the quality of education training has steadily improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical texts have much to offer young researchers in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Yet, many students feel that such resources are of no value to them. Consequently, academic library usage rates for historical East Asian texts are low, and continue to drop. In Hong Kong and Mainland China, however, there still remains a widespread appreciation of Chinese calligraphy. Through leveraging this interest, academic libraries in East Asia can motivate university students to engage with historical texts and discover what they have to offer. This paper will recount and reflect upon the Calligraphy Connections Project, an initiative aimed at getting students to engage with historical East Asian texts through the creation of calligraphy artworks, which were subsequently exhibited to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed at describing and analyzing WeChat services at the libraries of the top 50 universities in China. It first describes the services offered by WeChat and then provides an analysis of the WeChat services through three pathways – menu service, real-time reference, and message sending – and provides suggestions for improvement, meaning that library services can be better and more conveniently accessed via WeChat. This paper may be helpful to librarians interested in WeChat as a library service tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With great increase of international students coming to study in China, more and more challenges occur for Chinese academic libraries to meet their needs. In case of Beijing Normal University Library (BNUL), we conducted a user survey and a five-point Likert Scale questionnaire focusing on the areas of library services, resources and environment was used to explore international students' library usage preference and their perceptions on importance and performance of these three areas. The analysis started with descriptive analysis followed by gap analysis between importance to the users and library's performance, and key findings from suggestions of international students were listed. The main objective of this paper is to know international students' information needs, analyze their assessment to the library, determine where and how gaps exist and find out aspects that BNUL need to improve. The paper finally drew some conclusions on how to improve BNUL service quality to international students. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose – Chinese gazetteers are one of the most important primary sources for the study of history of Chinese economy, politics, culture, military, and science and technology. Since the very beginning, the Yale East Asia Library has been keen on collecting Chinese gazetteers. However, unlike its peer research libraries in the USA, the Yale East Asia Library had never compiled a catalog or written an article about its gazetteer collection. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review, for the first time, original editions of Chinese gazetteers held in the Yale East Asia Library to reveal the holdings and research value. Design/methodology/approach – The author conducted a survey of original editions of Chinese gazetteers in the Yale East Asia Library by searching the Yale online library catalog and comparing with existing catalogs of Chinese local gazetteers compiled by other research libraries in the USA. The paper focuses on the edition, coverage, rarity and variety of Yale's holdings. Findings – According to the author's findings and preliminary research, Yale holds approximately 337 original Chinese gazetteers. The majority of them is rarely found in other North American research libraries and thus has high research value. They cover almost all provinces and municipalities in China and have a great variety of types. Research limitations/implications – Although the author tried to use various search strategies to look up in the Yale online library catalog to ensure high retrieval, the results here may not be accurate. Also it is likely that a number of Chinese gazetteers are not recorded in the Yale online library catalog because of backlogs. A physical survey of Chinese gazetteer holdings at Yale and more research need to be done in the future. Originality/value – This paper is the first of its kind to provide a systematic review of original editions of Chinese gazetteers held in the Yale East Asia Library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report on users' information behaviour in China, a topic which has not been researched extensively. The aim is to help producers and providers collect and develop more electronic resources. Design/methodology/approach - The study investigates users' information behaviour at seven "211 Project" universities in Wuhan, a city in central China. These universities all have access to the resources of the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL). The questionnaire includes questions about respondents' basic identifying information (educational level, job, etc.) and their information service requirements. Correlations among users' education level, users' jobs, users' retrieval methods, literature use, etc. were analysed. Findings - The results show that most NSTL users are graduate students and young staff members. and the number of male users surpasses female ones slightly. The purpose of the utilisation of electronic resources for customers is scientific research, teaching and the need for self-development. During a year, the demand of users is the highest in March and the lowest in August. The users' knowledge service types include learning the progress of science and technology, citation retrieval and analysis, statistical analysis, intelligent retrieval and knowledge aggregation. Practical implications - The findings suggest that electronic resource producers should offer more foreign literature and providers should improve the quality of services. Originality/value - The paper provides suggestions for the further improvement of NSTL to fulfill the information needs and requirements of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the current situation and the social and economic benefits from the consortia acquisitions of electronic resources by the China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) South China Regional Centre and to recommend improvements for consortia acquisitions. Design/methodology/approach - Analyses of price and usage made within the CALIS South China region of databases from a range of suppliers including EBSCO, LexisNexis and Springer are presented. Findings - The electronic resource acquisitions by the CALIS South China Regional Centre have yielded remarkable social and economic benefits as the range of electronic collections has been expanded and enriched, benefits have accrued,money has been saved and it has proved to be of benefit to users; however, there is room for improvement. During the last three years, the total usage of the South China Consortia has increased but the usage of the member libraries in the consortia is unbalanced and there are big gaps among the member libraries. The single download/search cost of the e-resources has been gradually decreasing but the cost of the e-resources purchased by the South China region consortia is higher than that of the national consortia; hence, there is a need for further reductions. Originality/value - The study is the first of its kind ever conducted in China. The findings of this paper will be helpful in improving electronic resource consortia acquisitions in the South China region. Keywords China, Purchasing groups, Academic libraries, Electronic media, Benefit-cost ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper aims to provide an overview of the e-resources and services in Tsinghua University Library, Beijing, and describe five campus-wide user surveys. It states how these user surveys play an important role in service quality enhancement. Design/methodology/approach - Following a brief history of Tsinghua University Library, a summary of the collections and services developed in recent years is given. The library has made a great effort to learn about users' needs and to improve service delivery through a series of user surveys. The paper describes these surveys, including the conclusions and the improvement measures adopted. Findings - Feedback gathered from user surveys provides vital information for improving library services. Through these user surveys, the library received a large amount of data to be analysed and a lot of valuable information, it promoted communication with our users, and the librarian's service literacy has also improved. Practical implications - An overview of user surveys, including methodology, content, organisation, and implementation process, as well as data analysis, might offer reference and practical experience for other university libraries. Originality/value - User surveys play an important role in the library's service quality enhancement. The paper provides a useful overview and practical experience of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper aims to provide an overall methodology and case study for the innovation and extension of a digital library, especially the service system. Design/methodology/approach - Based on the three-dimensional structure theory of the information service industry, this paper combines a comprehensive analysis with the practical experiences of Peking University Library as a case study. Findings - The paper proposes three-dimensional extensions of a digital library service system. It analyses the respective functions of organisations and librarians, information resources, services and methods and the interactions between them. Originality/value - Innovatively, the theory of three-dimensional structures is applied to the discussion of the development of the digital library service system. It is significant for the integrality of a digital library theoretical system, as well as for the practical developments, innovations and sustainability of the digital library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the developmental strategies, challenges and directions of the institutional repositories of the higher educational institutions in Hong Kong. The study integrates the size, content, full text and public accessibility of these repositories. The paper also compares archived output with research output as registered by the Hong Kong University Grants Committee. Percentages of archived work are low for journal and conference papers, but moderate for graduate theses. These deposit rates reflect the differing institutional policies. In recognizing these challenges, the Hong Kong Open Access Committee has been formed to address regional issues in knowledge sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the epistemological underpinning of SERVQUAL and its limitations; and second, to propose ways to enhance the utility of SERVQUAL as a library assessment tool. Design/methodology/approach - The study first conceptualises quality judgment as a knowing process and locates the epistemological stance of SERVQUAL within the general framework of epistemology demarcation; it then examines related SERVQUAL assumptions and their implications for library assessment in general and for service quality assessment in particular based on two empirical investigations: a questionnaire survey and an interview survey. The questionnaire survey applies the SERVQUAL instrument to three Chinese university libraries, with a view to examining the SERVQUAL score in light of epistemological considerations; the interview survey interviews 50 faculty users in one of the three universities with a view to illuminating the naturalistic process through which users develop their judgement of the library's service quality and through which the SERVQUAL score is formed. Findings - The study shows that the actual SERVQUAL score is distributed in a very scattered manner in all three libraries, and that it is formed through a very complex process rooted primarily in the user's personal experiences with the library, which are in turn shaped by factors from both the library world and the user's life-world. Based on these findings, this research questions a number of SERVQUAL assumptions and proposes three concepts which may help to contextualise the SERVQUAL score and enhance its utility in actual library assessment: library planning based variance of user perception, perception-dependent user expectation and library-sophistication based user differentiation. Originality/value - The research presented in the paper questions a number of SERVQUAL assumptions and proposes three concepts that may help to contextualise the SERVQUAL score and enhance its utility in actual library assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon the subject librarian training practice of CALIS Phase III "Librarian Literacy Training and Qualification Certification" in the charge of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library, this paper elaborates upon a design for a subject librarian training system concerning objectives, methods, courses, tests, organization and management mechanisms. From November 2010 to December 2011, the program has held four phases of liaison librarian training respectively and trained 322 liaisons for 197 universities in China. Additionally, it analyzes major characteristics of the training program and points out what we should note in the training process in order to achieve success in the implementation of subject librarian training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the concepts of "ancient China studies" and "digital humanities" (DH) in the context of China, this paper first gives a brief review on the development and practice of DH cyberinfrastructure. Under a series of reflections and a brief investigation on ancient Chinese literatures and traditional humanistic activities, this paper puts forward a new DH cyberinfrastructure conceptual model for ancient China studies that can bring people, information, and computational tools together and allow humanistic scholars to perform in a new way and with higher efficiency. On the premise of actual practices to turn a conceptual model into reality, this paper discusses DH cyberinfrastructure and the future of academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing digital information availability, semantic web technologies have been employed to construct semantic digital libraries in order to ease information comprehension. The use of semantic web enables users to search or visualize resources in a semantic fashion. Semantic web generation is a key process in semantic digital library construction, which converts metadata of digital resources into semantic web data. Many text mining technologies, such as keyword extraction and clustering, have been proposed to generate semantic web data. However, one important type of metadata in publications, called affiliation, is hard to convert into semantic web data precisely because different authors, who have the same affiliation, often express the affiliation in different ways. To address this issue, this paper proposes a clustering method based on normalized compression distance for the purpose of affiliation disambiguation. The experimental results show that our method is able to identify different affiliations that denote the same institutes. The clustering results outperform the well-known k-means clustering method in terms of average precision, F-measure, entropy, and purity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profusion of data created by modern research has brought about increasing discussion on the practice of data management and the development of such infrastructure. Many universities and libraries are exploring how to address this issue using institutional repositories, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Library being one of them. As part of the exploration, the author conducted a case study of datasets at major institutional repositories. This paper visits the issues relating to data archiving, reports common practices of data treatment at institutional repositories, and presents a list of recommendations for experimenting data archiving at the HKUST Institutional Repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Integrated Library System (ILS) is an automated system, which usually consists of a number of functional modules, such as acquisitions, circulation, cataloging, serials, an OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) and so on. All of the functional modules share a common bibliographic database. In this paper we will investigate the application status of Integrated Library System in Chinese main academic libraries and make a comparative analysis of three sorts of domestic Integrated Library Systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It has been more than 120 years since the first Chinese collection in an academic library was established in the United States. Since then, many more have been founded in the country while the holdings of the already established collections have continued to grow. The mission of these Chinese collections in academic institutions is, without exception, to support the teaching, studies, and research of their core clientele-the faculty members and students in East Asian studies programs. While Chinese collections continue to be an indispensable resource center for the East Asian studies programs at their campuses, their surrounding environment has greatly changed. One change that has occurred is in their user population. As the Chinese and Chinese-American populations substantially increased in and around campuses, most collections found themselves serving more overseas Chinese users than their intended "core clientele.'' This paper examines briefly the scale of Chinese collections in today's US academic Libraries, their growth over time, and the changes that have occurred in their user population. It also identifies the major functions that these collections have served to the Local overseas Chinese population, a topic that has never been really discussed in professional literature. In bringing this often-unstated mission to Light, the author hopes the East Asian library profession will pay more attention to the needs of this user group while continuing to fulfill the collections' primary mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing educational environment in China requires new functions for university libraries, and these functions demand that librarians possess different skills and talents. The quality and skills of university library staff are decisive factors for the development of both librarianship and national education in China's digital and networked environment. On-line distance learning is playing a more and more important role in improving both the theoretical knowledge and practical ability of practitioners in LIS. In China, over 40,000 staff work in more than 1,000 university libraries, but the lack of staff with professional education in some libraries should be recognised and continuing education offerings need to be strengthened. In this paper, the current situation is introduced, some major cases are described, and issues faced by most university libraries in professional education at all levels are analysed. Suggestions are put forward on how to expand the scope of education, and how to utilise the networked environment to supply e-learning to library staff to improve their ability in organising information resources and in providing higher quality information services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the background of the establishment of CALIS, explains its goals, structure, functions, and achievements during the past 3 years, and indicates its future development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There exist many difficulties for the college libraries of western China to develop digital libraries. These difficulties are shortage of funds, restriction of information infrastructure, library leadership, short- age of technical knowledge and user training. After analysis of these problems, this paper sums up some experiences and lessons learned. Based on this, some suggestions on how to solve those problems are put forward, including trying to extend funding sources, improving management knowledge, extending external communication, etc. The conclusion is that in order to provide good information service, the college libraries of western China must male every effort to conform to digital trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entry of the humanities into the digital era characterizes the prominence of the two dimensions of technology and humanity, highlighting the trend of their mutual intersection and integration. The traditional research paradigm of humanists has been transformed. Based on literature research and semistructured interviews, this study adopts a grounded theory approach to identify the digital academic competence of humanists in China and finds it is composed of information acquisition competence, digital technology application competence, and digital sharing competence. On the basis of previous research, the paper uses a questionnaire and statistical method to locate the shortage of digital academic competence of humanists. Proposing the digital academic competence of humanists' framework, the study involved a questionnaire related to the humanists' digital academic competence and developing a competence evaluation indicator system. The findings of this study will help Chinese research institutions, especially university libraries, measure the digital academic competence of humanists and provide targeted guidance in the training of digital humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]