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Organizations of all sizes and forms have been immensely challenged by the Covid-19 global crisis and libraries are not exempted. The pandemic is just one of the many faces of disruptions that could either make or break an entity. To help mitigate the potentially destructive impacts and risks associated with various disruptive incidents, a sound business continuity plan (BCP) must be prepared ahead. This research aims to come up with a proposed BCP for the a university library in response to major disruptions such as natural calamity, pandemic, man-made threats, and the like. This paper utilized a descriptive research design in the form of a quantitative method. The authors devised a modified survey questionnaire composed of open and closed-ended questions in order to explore the organization's business impact analysis. This study will be beneficial to the library department and its mother institution to continue in delivering its core services albeit with the uncertainties and threat scenarios. Additionally, this paper will also serve as a guide for library managers who are planning to devise a BCP on their respective libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an overview of the inception of open access journal production and support at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with a focus on the Journal of Learning Spaces. The journal brings together editorial board members and authors from academic departments, university libraries, teaching and learning centers, student affairs offices, information technology units, and related groups at academic and research institutions around the country and across the world, with the common goal of developing, sharing, and enriching the scholarship of learning spaces. The methodology used for this analysis was citation analysis of each article and data gathering of keyword frequency, and number of views or hits on each article. The paper also discusses roles and skills needed for journal success, challenges involved in the creation of open access resources, and benefits to both hosting institutions and the broader communities of participants and readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to show that LibQUAL+ tool can be used to measure how the perceptions of and standards required for library instruction differ across disciplines in the different university libraries from different countries. The paper suggests, firstly, that the quality of library IL instruction does not directly correlate with the resources put into the instruction, secondly, that a high-quality IL instruction raises demands for more IL instruction, and thirdly, that good IL instruction leads to consistent standards of IL education in different disciplines. Furthermore, interesting disciplinary differences in the satisfaction of and demands to IL education are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to show that LibQUAL+ tool can be used to measure how the perceptions of and standards required for library instruction differ across disciplines in the different university libraries from different countries. The paper suggests, firstly, that the quality of library IL instruction does not directly correlate with the resources put into the instruction, secondly, that a high-quality IL instruction raises demands for more IL instruction, and thirdly, that good IL instruction leads to consistent standards of IL education in different disciplines. Furthermore, interesting disciplinary differences in the satisfaction of and demands to IL education are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is based on a master thesis work that was carried out in the Linnaeus University (Sweden) and is an exploratory qualitative study in academic libraries regarding the transition from the integrated library systems to the next generation integrated library systems or library services platforms and the potential implications in their internal workflows. In our study we explored the phenomenon in the globe studying the international literature and by conducting two methods of the qualitative approach that of semi-structured interviews and observation we identified that not only there are important implications on libraries' workflows but also that new ones have been created. The results of our study are presented in the paper along with a comparison between the Greek situation and the international one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literacies in their many forms are essential skills for higher education students both in their academic studies, in their future working life, and as the citizens of a highly digitalized information society in general. Information literacy education for students is an established task of academic libraries. Information literacy is taught above all for undergraduate students, but also for graduate students and even, albeit more rarely, for post doc researchers and faculty. The most significant weakness of information literacy education offered by libraries is probably, in terms of effectivity, that students perceive information literacy education as something separate from their "actual" studies and are not able to transfer the learned information skills to their subject studies. This occurs in spite of the persistent efforts of liaison librarians to adapt their information literacy teaching to the needs of each discipline. Instead, university teachers are in a key position to contribute to students' information skills by including information practices in their teaching and tutoring. Therefore, information literacy training for university teachers is a valuable means to develop also their students' information skills. This paper tells about practices utilized and experiences gained on piloting a digital literacy course for university teachers. Tritonia Academic Library in Vaasa, Finland was responsible for planning and teaching of the course Digital literacy and information resources, 5 ECTS. The course was a part of a 60 ECTS higher pedagogy study module that is developed and piloted in a research based and research supported development project HELLA - Higher Education Learning Lab led by Åbo Akademi University in 2017-2019. The pilot course of Digital literacy and information resources was designed in the academic year 2017-2018 and piloted in the winter 2019. In this paper, the teaching design process, learning objectives, teaching methods, and practical execution of the course are described and self-evaluated. Special attention is paid to the leaning assignments of the course in order to give some practical examples of good practices found and problems met. A special characteristic of the course design examined is its multilingualism: the course was executed in three languages, with Finnish-, Swedish- and English-speaking participants taking part in the same trilingual online course. The main forum for the teaching and learning in the course was the learning environment Moodle. All course materials, assignments, instructions, and discussions were carried out in Moodle. In addition to online studies, the course included lectures and seminar sessions arranged as hybrid teaching. Thus, lectures and seminars could be attended in the classroom or online via a videoconferencing platform. Special attention was paid to online communication, because the whole course could be completed by distance learning. In the course, different digital tools, assignment types, and teaching methods were utilized in order to give participants examples of different opportunities in besides information retrieval, also in digital teaching. To have a digital literacy course included in a higher education pedagogy study module highlighted the relevance of information literacy in teaching and research. Further research based on participants' feedback and also long-term feedback would be worth conducting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports baseline data on the current state of continuing professional development (CPD) in public university libraries in Uganda. The study seeks to determine the types of CPD activities, provision of CPD, reasons for pursuing CPD and challenges. A social survey method of research was adopted and an online questionnaire was used to collect data from librarians working in five public university libraries in Uganda. The survey results show that librarians participate in different CPD activities to develop professionally. Workshops, conferences and seminars are the common types of CPD. Majority of librarians pursue CPD in order to improve their knowledge and skills. However, inadequate funding, lack of awareness of the available CPD opportunities, time constraint and inadequate support from library management participation hinder librarians‟ participation in CPD activities. The results have implications for the future development of information professionals in academic libraries in Uganda. The data reported in this paper are quantitative; yet some findings raise questions that require further qualitative research in a follow-up phase to this report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I will explore how the concept of customer value and its dimensions can be utilized in customer-oriented service design and management in an academic library. Knowing the customers and their needs is one of the most important success factors in good service design. Understanding better the different customers' objectives, wishes, habits and the problems of the everyday life will give tools to the library to develop its services into a correct direction. I propose, that by identifying customer value propositions a library can enhance the customer understanding and provide new angles to evaluate and develop services. A precondition for the successful service and operational development is to understand what generates the value to the customers and what does not. Finally, one can acknowledge that the mere understanding is not always enough if for example the resources or know-how are not sufficient for meeting the needs. The critical examination is therefore necessary also for those matters which can cause harm instead of value to the customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public Libraries that are existed with the basic role of providing access and preserving the recorded knowledge of past and present for future use, these are also responsible for providing required information to the community which help people in daily problem solving or in raising the quality of their lives. Community Information Services (CIS) is one through which a public library provides community information to surrounding community. The paper highlights the present role of public libraries and community information centres on CIS. This paper also discusses ablut community Library cum Information Centres (CLICS) in West Bengal implemented in 1999. This paper also discusses the role of cooperation in facilitating community information services (CIS) through public libraries. It presents in short the theoretical aspect of CIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to report the third phase of a study on the impact of one North American academic library's extending library privileges gratis to community users. The paper reports results of an appeals letter sent to community users at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) USA. The letter was sent to solicit donations and to study the correlation between community users' receiving library privileges and donating. Although community users said that they value the services the Library extended to them and were more likely to donate money (Dole and Hill, 2012), few did donate as a result of the appeals letter. This paper reports on the responses of community users at one North American academic library and may or may not provide guidance for other libraries contemplating approaching community users for donations. The results of this study may or may not be generalizable to all academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile technologies is one of the latest innovation that libraries are using to offer services and resources to users through internet enabled devices such as smart phones, e-book readers, laptops etc. This paper reports on a study which aimed at investigating students' perceptions and attitudes towards the use of mobile phones in Maklib. An interview was conducted among postgraduate and undergraduate students who were conveniently selected. This paper provides an overview of the mobile phones owned by students, discusses the mobile library services and resources preferred by Maklib students, and provides recommendations to make the provision of mobile library services a reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current status of the university libraries in Pakistan. It is focused particularly on HEC recognized public and private sector universities. This paper will describe that at what extent libraries of the universities are relying on the website for communication with the student and for marketing purpose. For analysis in this study university library websites are extensively reviewed to gather the required information in accordance with the described feature. Total of 148 universities sites are reviewed which were further divided on the basis of direct and indirect link of the web sites. Libraries websites were examined by the authors to gather the information regarding there use as a tool of marketing towards the students. This study identified that universities library websites are not fully developed in terms of using them as a marketing tool. This study also reveals that these website have lack of information and also don't have collaborative interface with the users so that they can directly communicate with the end users and get the feedback for further enhancement in the technological development of the library. Finding of this study is limited to the universities that were recognized with the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. It is difficult to generalize the result in other regions. This paper will be a step forward for the libraries to use the website as a marketing tool so that the libraries enhance their image by increasing their promotion and advertisement. This study will be helpful for the libraries in Pakistan. Common libraries also use this research finding to increase their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will describe a study in which we examined service philosophy statements at a diverse group of North American academic libraries. We used qualitative content analysis to examine their form and content to identify common themes, trends, and ideas. Public services librarians spend much of their time wrestling with nebulous topics such as service quality, customer satisfaction, and user experience. Improvements in these areas necessitate strengthening the quality of the service and the culture in which it's delivered. One approach to establish standards for consistent service delivery is for libraries to implement service philosophy statements. A service philosophy statement also communicates directly with users what they can--and should--expect from the library. Before we could develop and implement a service philosophy statement at our respective libraries, we wanted to understand the specific ways that service philosophy statements communicate service expectations to users. We will describe the series of steps we followed to conduct our research, such as creating the coding frame, segmenting the data, pilot coding, evaluating and modifying the coding frame, analyzing the data, and interpreting the findings. Finally, we will review the challenges we encountered during this process, as well as lessons we learned about qualitative content analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

this paper presents the selection of participants in a study related to the role of the library in University life at two Jesuit universities in Latin America. One of the main objectives of this research is to listen to the voices of students from different origins at the two institutions. Our research team proposed diversity markers that represent different characteristics of undergraduates in our communities based on our experience as professors, the knowledge of our community and the existence of institutional offices that support special groups of students. We used a list of markers of diversity as a base to design a survey that facilitated the selection of participants. Posters invited students to participate; these posters included a QR code to link to the survey. Social networks were used to upload the poster in digital format to a Facebook group with a large number of "friends" from the undergraduate community of one institution. More than 40 students answered the survey, 70% of them were from the University who used social networks. The responses of the survey gave us not only information to select the participants, but also preliminary results of the true diversity of our communities in contrast to our proposal of markers of diversity. These data also provide demographic information beyond what institutions commonly count. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries are undergoing massive change. New information resources and technological development as well as new needs among patrons require their active involvement in the development of library services. In order to guarantee a good quality of services a customer perspective is essential. This paper demonstrates how focus group interviews were used to assess patrons' needs and opinions of present and future services at Åbo Akademi University Library. A qualitative method was deemed necessary to get a deeper understanding of patrons' underlying wishes and ideas. This paper also outlines the results gained and the actions taken in response to the results as well as suggests strategies for a continuous development of services based on the needs of customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five Universities and Colleges in the Western part of Norway participated in the international survey of students’ preferences for print vs electronic study literature (Mizrachu et al, 2016). The national results were disseminated (Gastinger, Landøy, Repanovici 2015). In this paper, we describe the follow-up process after the initial survey results: Staff from the participating academic libraries were invited to a “training the trainers”-session in how to develop educational resources on electronic study literature for students. A number of academic librarians participated. We ask what the results in their own institutions have been so far, and how the teaching librarians have coped. The results of the follow-up survey will form the basis for further research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since March 2020, the Corona virus has transformed the way that academic libraries have carried out their functions. The European situation deteriorated especially throughout the Mediterranean region. In contrast, in the initial wave of the virus in spring 2020, some Nordic countries like Finland, seemed to manage the situation in a more structured manner. The second wave, during the fall and winter 2020, was managed with the knowledge gathered during the first wave. We will be describing both the Corona situation and actions at the national levels in Finland and Spain as well as between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Library (Spain) and the University of Eastern Finland Library (Finland). The aims of our paper and presentation will be: 1. to give an overview of the Corona situation and policy measures at the national level in both countries and 2. to identify the best practices in both academic libraries. The results also reveal how the crisis management protocols initiated in these institutions coped with the pandemic. Finally, recommendations are made with respect to the further development for crisis management in academic libraries in a rapidly changing operational environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to provide an overview of how academic libraries helped conduct teaching at the university level during the first wave of the COVID-19 virus epidemic, in the period from mid-March (when a state of emergency was declared in Serbia) to mid-July 2020 (exam deadlines at most faculties). The research included the network of Belgrade University libraries (academic libraries, Central University Library "Svetozar Markovic" and the Library of Students' City Cultural Center) and has been conducted through online questionnaires. The results of the research indicate librarianship as a flexible profession adapting to new challenges. The pandemic has confirmed that libraries are an indispensable carrier of cultural development and distance learning. On the other hand, the study reveals certain shortcomings concerning academic library management and indicate issues that have to be improved in the future. In this way, the work can be a signpost on how academic libraries can further develop their services to more effectively support the teaching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constitutes the beginning of a PhD research in Library and information science at Sapienza University of Rome, aimed at investigating the level of internationalisation, vitality and effectiveness of Italian Library and information studies. The paper describes the methodology of search in international citational database, Web of science and Scopus, and in Google scholar for any scholarly work published by Italian LIS tenured researchers and university professors. The results in WoS and Scopus are illustrated and compared with a first collection of data within Italian similar field of Social sciences and humanities (SSH). The reliability of the data collected in citation database within the areas of Social sciences and humanities and their significance are limited; also the comparison with Italian historical and paleographic fields seems to confirms that a substantial impact of SSH non-Anglophone scientific production within citational database is influenced by a number of factors (number of indexed core journals, language of publication, level of coverage of journals, etc.). On the other hand, Google scholar could be a valuable tool for humanistic fields, but it is necessary to deal with the complexity of the analysis and the problems of homonyms. Therefore, these first research results made it clear that, in order to investigate the presence and impact of Italian LIS studies, a correct use and organization of quantitative data is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a survey that was conducted at Kuwait University to explore postgraduate taught-course students' perceptions of the resources and services provided to support the research components of their degrees and to highlight their use of their particular college library for that research. A questionnaire was developed containing 29 closed and 2 open questions and responses were obtained from 578 students studying in four colleges (arts, engineering, law, and science). Whilst the students provided generally positive responses to the survey, analyses with SPSS and NVivo showed marked differences between the four subject groups, with the limitations that were identified providing vital information for improving library services to meet the graduate students' information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a narrative timeline of the events that occurred during spring semester 2020 as the disruption and uncertainty unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic made it imperative for an academic library at a public college in Jamaica, Queens transition their in-person service model to remote learning while simultaneously navigate being designated as 'essential' personnel. Fortunately, this college is a member of a municipal university system and as such did not face these challenges alone. During this semester, New York City went from zero confirmed cases to being the epicenter of the country with the largest outbreak on the planet. The virus placed this public university in a dilemma; how to continue providing the services and physical spaces their students relied upon while at the same time ensuring a safe environment for the academic community as a whole. The efforts of these librarians, and the requisite leadership from state, municipal, university, and college administration, have to be placed within the prevailing context of insufficient coordination and communication provided by the Federal government and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). The dialogue which took place within the university was necessary, and ultimately, successful in determining a remote-learning model would be consistently applied to classrooms and libraries across CUNY. With this case study we contend membership in a consortium unique to such institutions as the City University of New York (CUNY) was essential for maintaining both relevant services and safety at the level of the individual campus. We present this case study as an opportunity for reflective assessment of what resources were in place, as well as those that were needed, in service of a highly impacted population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benchmarking can be defined as a methodology where business processes, performance metrics and best practices are compared. Usually, the comparison is done between two organizations, but one can also choose different settings for comparison, e.g. when benchmarking is performed statistically, the number of organizations compared can be much larger-- for example, all the libraries in one country or even in the world. The main function of benchmarking is to enhance one's own practices and processes; if one can achieve a win-win situation, this is usually the most motivating kind of approach. We have been practicing benchmarking between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Library (Spain) and the University of Eastern Finland Library (Finland) for about ten years. The aim of our paper and presentation will be 1. To take a critical look at benchmarking as a process in quality enhancement, 2. To summarize the findings emerging from our benchmarking project and 3. To devise a model sheet for the most fruitful approach to benchmarking between academic libraries. The results also reveal the best practices of benchmarking in these institutions; recommendations are given to the further development of the library benchmarking and co-operation between libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an ongoing discussion about the input of the library to the output of their university. The challenge here seems to be that it is difficult to discern a clear correlation without in-depth research and analysis. Nonetheless, the libraries must prove their value to their parent organizations to take part in the continual survival game of academic resource allocation as well as competing with different actors for the dissemination of academic information. In this paper, we analyze how the statistical data is utilized in comparing the success of the universities, their output and in addition, the resources allocated to them and its use by the libraries. The comparison is made between five Finnish universities with similar sizes and academic structures. The main source of the data is interviews conducted with library managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization and digitalization of the service provision in libraries has meant that risk management has become a crucial part of the work and management of the library. At the same time, the libraries are increasingly accessing outsourced services in the digital world with technology that develops so fast to be provided to users that seem to demand more than maybe ever before in human history. These all set high standards for the risk management and prevention. The adoption of a quality management system is a strategic decision for an organization that can help it to improve its overall performance and provide a sound basis for sustainable development initiatives. Our paper compares two different risk analysis approaches, the first implemented in the Universitat Autonoma Barcelona and the other in the University of Eastern Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Henri Lefebvre (1991), spatial triad of interconnected „moments‟ in the production of space and applies it to library spaces. His conceptualization of space portrays it as a „social product‟ and that human experiences are socially produced within the spaces that they occupy. He argues that space consists of three elements i.e. spatial practice (perceived space), representations of space (conceived space) and representational spaces (lived space). Perceived-conceived-lived spaces have a dialectical relationship with one another and therefore call for proper analysis by the library managers who are planning on new spaces or on remodelling the existing spaces. These three elements will be operationalized as representations of space (library space attributes) influences different spatial practices (user perception, preferences and behavior) and representational space (user experience, satisfaction and factors affecting use) within library spaces. They constitute the analytical basis for designing and planning spaces for all types of libraries. This article constitutes the theoretical position regarding the three spatial triad elements and their implications on library spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries want to collect the materials most useful to researchers, yet how can libraries know how successful they are? While Berkeley’s George and Mary Foster Anthropology Library collects data on which books circulate, it is difficult to evaluate how materials are actually being used to further the discipline of anthropology. In this article, we examine sources cited by our a) faculty members, b) dissertation writers, and c) honors thesis students to better understand how anthropologists read when conducting research. This paper compares materials used across subfields and research levels to highlight patterns in citations within this discipline, leading to new insights that will improve collection development among anthropology librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Users' photographs taken in a library building can be symbols illustrating their inner perceptions of the academic library as a place and its services. These photos can also enable the library to elicit users' insights beyond those offered by other mainstream techniques of data collection. By applying visual content analysis, this paper aims to reflect on how the photos, which were originally submitted to a contest as part of the Thai university library's marketing campaign to promote its brand, can be valuable representations of the library that the photographers have actually interact with. This kind of visual method has potential for being used to supplement library managers' efforts to discover real user needs that shape both service design and marketing in the library context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studied many aspects of the RFID application, its budgeting, purchase process and application. It also studied advantages and limitation of RFID Technology, Documentation and Financial Implication, Challenges faced in initial stage and remedies. A structured questionnaire was designed to collect the raw data. This study employs the method of quantitative research to gather an in-depth understanding of the nature of usage of RFID system among users of SRCASW (Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women) library. This study shows many authentic conclusions on data accuracy, speedy circulation, easy book identification, extension of library service, cost effectiveness, security of library materials and other value added services. Orientation program for the RFID enabled is very much important. The NFC technology can be used along with the RFID, as the application radio frequency is same in both the technology, this also incorporated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study investigated information need and seeking behaviour of information behaviour of engineering college students in Madurai. The main objective of study seeking behaviour of engineering college students to the information literacy and study the purpose and motives of the students seeking information. Data was collected through a pre-tested questionnaire, using the snowball sampling technique. So only 300 respondents are used for in data analysis and interpretation. It was found that 55.33% respondents are using the library for Preparing for the examination, 38% respondents are suing the print copy and 81.33% respondents are using the pen drive. Libraries have always welcomed new changes for enhancing their services and satisfactory clientele's needs. It's a high time for traditional libraries that they change their approach as the availability of the digital resources is growing day by day. The paper suggests certain measures for improving information need skills of students to make them more competent information users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ibraries all around the world are more and more adopting marketing techniques and concepts to better understand their users' needs, to create meaningful services, to justify funding and expenses, to raise awareness, to communicate with external audiences, and generally become more visible and appreciated. The last few years, use of marketing has increased as budgets are shrinking and the needs of the users are becoming bigger and bigger. In Greece, though, although marketing is a very popular study field, it doesn't seem to find its place inside the Library community, as it's often considered a far commercial concept for non-profit institutions. Additionally, academic libraries have an already established audience, which is going to seek their services, as they seem to have no other choice. But, as information production and dissemination methods change and evolve and more and more informational products make their appearance, Libraries have to study their users a lot more closely and possibly create new products, make them appealing and useful and offer them to the public. The aim of this paper is to identify marketing techniques that have already been used internationally focusing on the same target groups as Academic Libraries and that have helped to either design products and services that appeal to them as consumers or that have successfully promoted the message of the product and/or the brand to said community. It is widely accepted that a satisfied user is the best marketing tool for promoting library products and services. The question is if academic libraries need or use marketing techniques to improve their functionality creating innovative services. Marketing projects and promotional materials aren't just about convincing users to use a certain service. They also serve to change attitudes and preconceptions. Academic libraries, although they have a clearly defined audience, have a lot to gain by being more open and extrovert. More often than not, academic libraries seem to rely heavily on the fact that their users have limited choices when it comes to their information resources. Of course, this is not as much true as it was a little more than a decade ago. But still, a student or a researcher rely very much on the library services. The goal, however, for academic libraries would be to convince their users that their existence and services are not a "necessary evil" rather than a privilege and an opportunity. In order to gain that, thought, libraries should focus more on message design and branding, public relations, publicity and advertising. What this paper will try to do is identify some of the more successful (or notoriously unsuccessful) marketing campaigns that focus on the same target audiences as academic libraries. Next we will try to pinpoint and analyze the specific characteristics of these products and campaigns, which made them successful and communicated the message across by convincing and engaging the consumers. Finally, we will try to evaluate and determine which of those methods and characteristics can be adopted in the nonprofit environment of the academic libraries, and more specifically, by Greek academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced web-based technologies and the advent of cloud computing have transformed the academic library into the core provider of digital information and learning resources. The "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu has one of the most advanced digital libraries of Romania. In order to enhance the quality of the library services we have designed an exploratory study aimed to asses the impact of the digital library on student learning behaviour. Students, from almost all faculties (medicine and pharmacy, engineering, sciences, history and philology, law etc), have been involved in the study. They have been asked to answer to a questionnaire about how they are using the digital library, what other sources of information they are using, if they are satisfied with the library services, if and how they have obtained the required bibliography. The information obtained from questionnaires was compared with data on students' interaction with the digital library and with their learning outcomes. In our paper we are presenting the results of the study applied to students in medical sciences, pharmacy and nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, most academic libraries have been experimenting with different innovative methods for improving their information services and for reaching out to their users who display new information practices and expectations. The advance of the new technologies and the variety of applications available nowadays offer the necessary context for academic libraries to try new formats for delivering information. One of these new ways is to use social networks, such as Facebook or MySpace, in order to communicate better with the users and to provide them with specialized assistance. This paper analyzes the presence of large Romanian academic libraries on Facebook, how they use this outreach tool and what information they deliver through their Facebook page. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper originates from a project entitled Bibliotek i Endring, or ?Changing Libraries?, funded by the Norwegian National Library, which ran from June 2013 to March 2015. The project studied two academic libraries in Norway undergoing significant organisational changes: a merger of four campuses into one in one location, and a change of director in the other. Over this period of change, a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods were used to create maps of the information landscape (Lloyd 2010) in these two libraries. The methodology provided summary data on the changing information landscapes for the project team, and also =on-the-spot' data for project participants. Group concept mapping sessions using the Ketso tool (www.ketso.com), held at regular intervals over the duration of the project, raised awareness in the librarians of issues like information sources, blockages, priorities, and necessary actions. Through giving the librarians a shared conceptual space in which to exchange information on tasks, values and actions, ?operational proximity? (Tagliaventi and Mattarelli 2006) came into being and boundaries between operational areas of the library could be crossed. The project illustrated how different groups could come together and make collective judgments about the relevance of informational resources in their landscape, a problem with which information science has long struggled (Saracevic 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus in the Moldovan-Norwegian library development project "Development of New Information Services for Moldovan Higher Economic Education", is on developing the academic library of ASEM, Economic Academy of Science of Moldavia, for the benefit of Moldovan students and scholars. This is done in partnership between the Academy of Economic Studies, Moldova, and the University of Bergen, Norway. However, this cannot be achieved without developing the library leadership as well. In this paper, the leaders of Moldovan academic libraries are investigated in order to find their attitudes to challenges, and their conception of the urgency of the challenges will be compared with similar studies of library leaders from Norway and Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of academic libraries is an important management issue of the services and of Library Advocacy. Determining the monetary value of the services may be an interesting element at a time when there are constraints on the budgets of the institutions. The main aim of this paper is to calculate the tangible value in monetary terms of certain services of two libraries of the University of Lisbon. In this task we use six statistical indicators: document loans, accesses to Internet; accesses to computers, accesses to journals, training and interlibrary loans. The method to calculate the monetary value for a specialized quality service is to verify the current market value of the service, ie., the current price of the service that can be bought or sold in the free market (ISO16439:2014). According to this investigation we calculate the monetary values for these indicators. The cost-benefit value is also calculated, that is, the return on investment, the relationship between the total economic benefit of these indicators and the total resources invested in the library according to these indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries have many tasks in common with the universities, among others promoting lifelong learning, interacting with the surrounding society and promoting the social impact of university research findings. In this paper various strategies for how the third task can be implemented into the library activities in Tritonia, a joint academic library for five universities and universities of applied sciences in Vaasa, Finland, are discussed, based on the library's special collections, above all from a collection point of view. The challenges for the academic libraries of the regions are many. Demands are made by outsiders on local preservation of the cultural heritage, prominent persons' private book collections, libraries of learned societies and others. The internal challenges in incorporation of new collections into the library are financing, the physical condition of the collections, lack of space, resources for cataloguing and handling of books. The library faces new demands concerning exhibition spaces and arranging attractive exhibitions. Digitalization and social media give new unforeseen opportunities, but require allocation of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade Special Collections and Archives at academic institutions have received a great deal of attention. Special Collections have become the area where academic libraries can distinguish themselves based on their unique holdings. Leveraging the importance of an archive's holdings can bring about a multitude of benefits ranging from increased student engagement, to better student learning, to donors funding research awards. In this paper, the author will discuss ways in which Special Collections librarians and archivists are uniquely positioned to form collaborations across campus to provide rich and engaging student learning experiences. She will further discuss practical ways in which teaching with primary sources can provide avenues for outcomes-based learning as well as how instruction can be taken beyond the classroom to showcase student learning to campus constituencies and donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world of rapid changes, there is a need for leadership and strategic planning based on statistical evidence - evidence based leadership. In Norway, the National Library has led the way in developing indicators for the public and the academic libraries, and these indicators may be used either longitudinally or for benchmarking within or between libraries. In this paper, the authors will give examples of the use of indicators for the usage of the university library holdings, through the traditional measurements of loans, as well as statistics on down loads of electronic books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus in the Moldovan-Norwegian library development project "Development of New Information Services for Moldovan Higher Economic Education", is on developing the academic library of ASEM, Economic Academy of Science of Moldavia, for the benefit of Moldovan students and scholars. This is done in partnership between the Academy of Economic Studies, Moldova, and the University of Bergen, Norway. However, this cannot be achieved without developing the library leadership as well. In this paper, the leaders of Moldovan academic libraries are investigated in order to find their attitudes to challenges, and their conception of the urgency of the challenges will be compared with similar studies of library leaders from Norway and Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the link between the use of electronic resources and the academic output of researchers in 10 universities of Portugal and Spain in the period 2007 to 2012. As for Portuguese institutions, data are analyzed from Universities of Minho, Porto, Aveiro, Beira Interior and Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. As for Spanish institutions data are taken into account from Universities of Burgos, Leon, Salamanca, Valladolid and Vigo. The analysis of the consumption of contents distributed to the mentioned universities will be undertaken from downloads of four suppliers whose materials are widely used: IEEEXplore, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink and Wiley. In investigating academic output, the databases Web of Science (WoS) from Thomson Reuters and Scopus from Elsevier will be taken into account. From previous studies we know that the consumption of electronic academic contents shows an upward trend since the Big Deals were hired by the consortia B-on in Portugal and BUCLE and Bugalicia in Spain. We want to check if this upward trend is also a reality in the academic output. The paper main aim is to investigate the connection between the access to a wider range of journals and a higher international academic output. The analysis will differentiate disciplines, compare the situation of Portugal and Spain and study the research collaboration between both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper treats about health information quality in health academic libraries in Brazil and Germany. This research analyses the Health Information Management linked to Health Information Quality for educational and research purposes. Through qualitative and quantitative research, data were collected from literature review and empirical surveys applied in health academic libraries. The method known as 'Information System on Quality' was adopted. The objective is to design a model of information quality management for health academic libraries. As a main result it identified that the quality management model adopted by academic libraries offer different information quality perceptions by professionals and library's users. It concludes that quality standards are possible to be adopted by any academic health library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the information needs of researchers is an important role of academic libraries. This paper describes the methodology and results of a research study that explored the use of newspapers by scholars in different disciplines through a content analysis of dissertations and theses. The purpose of the study was to examine which disciplines utilize newspapers, whether U.S. or non-U.S. newspapers are used more frequently, and whether researchers typically consult historical or current newspapers for their research. Results indicate that scholars in a wide range of disciplines utilize newspapers in their research. Analysis of the time periods used by disciplines and the origin of newspapers used in research is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how focus group interviews were used in a project on developing research support services. The object of the interviews was to understand the everyday lives of researchers and the obstacles they experience in their research process. Advantages and challenges of the method are discussed, e.g. the benefits of the interaction and the free form that the method allows for and the challenge not to interfere in the discussions and yet see to it that the discussions keep to the selected themes and keep on going. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars in the digital humanities and other disciplines utilize a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods in their research. One of these methodologies - textual analysis - can be facilitated by the use of text mining digital tools, such as Voyant, ATLAS.ti, JSTOR Data for Research, and Google's Ngram Viewer. Supporting digital scholarship is an important and expanding role for academic libraries, from providing resources for text mining to collaborating with digital scholars. This paper gives a brief overview of text mining, explores some of the available tools, and discusses limitations and challenges. It also shares examples of text mining projects and examines how libraries can offer expertise and services to support this research, including the provision of corpora for text analysis and the integration of digital tools in courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examined the status of reading programs of top Philippine universities cited in the 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, including universities with 'reporter' status. Specifically, the researchers uncovered whether academic libraries still provide programs encouraging reading in their communities. If they are providing such programs, what strategies did they employ, and what are some lessons learned that other academic libraries could learn from them? If reading programs are not apparent, will they still be considered in future library programming? This research will be significant to library managers and programming librarians as they can reflect on and evaluate their current library programs, specifically reading programs, as they navigate the post-pandemic future. The research will remind them of the libraries' critical role in creating a nation of responsible and analytical readers. The findings of the study will also benefit the library and information science professional associations and partner organizations related to reading advocacy for them to develop evidence-based programs and find solutions to issues surrounding reading program initiatives in academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the recent trends at the level of academic libraries has been the development of large electronic collections. Currently in many such institutions they almost reach the size of printed collections and many say that they will soon exceed them. In Romania, academic libraries have also started to give special attention to electronic documents and they provide at present access to a large range of electronic resources. However, research conducted by the author among the users of academic medical libraries in 2007, 2008 and 2011 revealed a low level of interest and usage of electronic information resources. An extended and more detailed investigation of these aspects was considered necessary and this paper presents the results of a 2013 research conducted among the users of two branches of the "Carol I" Central University Library of Bucharest, the Faculty of Political Sciences Library and the Faculty of Letters Library, and analyzes user behaviour in accessing library services and information resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports the findings of a pilot case study in a university library in South-West Nigeria. The study was carried out to investigate the library's quality management approaches and which formed part of a larger project to recommend a common model of quality management for academic libraries in this region. The study involved a semi-structured interview with the university librarian, a focus group involving lower management staff, and documentary analysis. It was found that while the concepts of quality and of quality management were generally understood, there were obvious problems in areas such as customer service and performance measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LibGuides are widely used in academic libraries to organize information and resources to better serve their users, yet the maintenance of LibGuides across many different academic libraries ranges from neglectful to fastidious, making it difficult to determine the accuracy and helpfulness of information on LibGuides (Randtke & Burrell, 2012). A Scrapy-based Python script developed by the SIS Programming Team was used to crawl the LibGuides of each academic library member of the ARL, and a second script was used to test the HTTP status of each link. Maintaining link validity in LibGuides is a proactive and strong first step toward patron satisfaction, and using a combination of scripts and manual processes can be a proactive way to monitor link validity and fight link rot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to survey the impact of gender on emotional intelligence of librarians of the Qom province state university libraries in Iran. Statistical Universe: There are sixty librarians working in the Qom province state university libraries of which forty librarians participated in this study. They were selected by using the random sample method. Data were gathered using a standardized questionnaire on emotional intelligence. Finding and Conclusion: Findings showed that emotional intelligence of the librarians included self-awareness, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills. These were considered at an ideal state. Self-regulation in the librarians was shown at an average level. The Freidman test results showed that emotional intelligence varies and the component to the order of priorities were: Self-awareness, empathy, social skills, self- motivation, and self-regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presentation focuses on the establishment of a new thematic library network in Greece encompassing the majority of organized maritime orientated collections within special and/or University libraries: The Maritime Libraries Network (MarLiNet). The Network originated from the initial cooperation of three libraries with significant maritime collections, namely those of the Eugenides Foundation Library, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Library and the Library of the University of the Aegean about a decade ago. The interest of the three institutions to cooperate on the maritime transport collections resulted in the signing, in 2010, of a first Memorandum of cooperation and in the establishment of the “Triangle of Maritime Libraries” with the written intent for it to become one day a “Polygon”. Today, the network consists of 8 libraries 1. Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation 2. Eugenides Foundation 3. Hellenic Maritime Museum 4. Hellenic Naval Academy 5. National Technical University of Athens 6. University of Piraeus 7. University of the Aegean 8. Naval History Department (Hellenic Navy) These libraries, possessing important maritime collections and sharing the common vision of improving their services to their research and general readers (users), meet regurarly on a monthly basis through their representatives in order to coordinate the actions of the network. The paper provides an overview of the vision, the values and the main purposes underlying the cooperation of the MarLiNet. These are mainly: a. Expanding the availability of titles to their users b. Saving resources through a rationalized strategy of new acquisitions c. Increasing the readability of their shipping collections; and d. maximizing their visibility as important collections on maritime transport subjects, a step already taken through the on-going construction of a joint website. In the above context, we are discussing in this presentation our short-term and long-term planning as well as our strengths, weaknesses and the challenges that this network offers. Finally, there is reference to some best practices and lessons learned by other relevant initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]