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Digital libraries are considered a type of library that operates within the digital realm and uses digital technologies to serve users in the digital age. They serve diverse user communities and offer access to a wide range of scholarly and educational resources. Digital libraries can be viewed as extensions of traditional libraries, prioritize user-centered and personalized services, aim to provide equitable access to information, and function as a global knowledge network. They also embrace open access and open knowledge principles. This article explores various definitions and visions of digital libraries and highlights their role in facilitating access to information, promoting knowledge creation, and advancing research, education, and cultural enrichment in the digital age. The article also includes examples of the digital transformation taking place in digital libraries, such as improving accessibility for users with disabilities, integrating multimedia books into airline services, and adopting immersive technologies. It also discusses the adoption of big data analytics, the management of libraries in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the use of social media platforms like Twitter by libraries. The article concludes with an interview on cyber security for digital libraries. [Extracted from the article]

The Shared Library Management System (LMS) model is not a new concept. Lately, many libraries consortia have migrated to a shared LMS to reduce their services' total costs. The Hellenic Academic Libraries consortium has implemented a shared LMS service, hosted in a private owned cloud infrastructure for its members during the past years (known as the MITOS project). Recognizing the complexity and significance that joining a shared LMS represents, it is important for librarians and other decision makers to have access to the MITOS experience for operational, technical and financial aspects, during and after the transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing interest in applying user experience (UX) methods to improve library interfaces, spaces, and services, it is critical to gain a deeper understanding of the organizational factors influencing libraries' adoption and incorporation of UX expertise. This article reports the results of semi-structured interviews with 16 UX librarians and focuses on how the positions were created, the benefits they have brought to their library, their biggest challenges, and the extent that their work is understood throughout the library. The article concludes with a preliminary model of library UX maturity and six critical directions for the future of UX librarianship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multilingual retrival systems are very important for countries like India, where we have multiple scripts and many languages for verbal and written communication. The creation of a multilingual interface for the retrival, management, and processing of information and knowledge needs systematic efforts and requires related features in the Library Management Software and the availability of bibliographic records in catalogues. This paper is an effort to study various related aspects of multilingual record creation and retrival provisions in Union Datanases. The development of a multilingual environment for accessing and retrieving library resources among the users as well as library professionals is essential. The article is divided into five sections. The first section deals with the introduction. It covers the multilingual system, with reference to multiscript bibliographic control, the objective, and methodology of the study. The second section examines the contours of multilingual bibliographic control, in particular in the Indian context. The third section deals with the multilingual cataloguing procedure and The fourth section deals with the "Situation in India in Terms of Multilingual Bibliographic Database and Issues." issues, challenges, and solutions. The fifth and final section of the article is concerned with the conclusion. The objective of this paper is to analyse the issues and challenges in the Indian multi-lingual and multi-script bibliographic retrieval systems. Through the analysis of available bibliographic data and database interfaces, the authors evaluate the adoption of multilingual and multiscript processes and procedures for bibliographic data creation. The study's findings will aid in understanding the current status of multilingual bibliographic record creation and the need for policy-level intervention to maintain and develop multilingual records for the creation of qualitative bibliographic databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principal component of this paper is to ascertain the prominent variables of technological, organizational, environmental, and financial constructs that influence library cloud computing (LCC) among the library users and professionals in the selected universities of India. This paper discusses the advantages, opportunities, challenges, and Models of Smart Library in the ICT age library management system. The study also commissioned tools viz. EFA, CFA, and structural equation assess the degree to which selected factors were associated with LCC adoption. Empirical research proposed four hypotheses by selecting the technological, organizational, environmental, and financial constructs and 16 manifests in the specified model. The model was then tested on a sample of 510 respondents of 26 major states, central and private universities of India using SEM-ANN. First, SEM was employed to find out which variables had a meaningful influence on LCC. Secondly, the output of ANN outlined the rank of influencing predictors obtained from SEM. It is evident that technological factors, greater scalability (TF_1), tech-readiness (TF_2), and easier back-up (TF_3), are the most robust antecedents of LCC. Whereas in organizational factors- recognized usefulness (OF_1), are the robust manifest, but in environmental factors-geographical reach (EF_1), administrative support (EF_2), conducive application interface (EF_4), are the significant predictors. Eventually, financial factors- costsaving (FF_1) and better return on investment (FF_2) are the considerable predictors obtained from ANN. The findings further indicate that behavioural intention to adopt the library cloud yielded novel insights that significantly benefit users and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The problem of information loss inherent in the romanisation of Chinese, Japanese and Korean names is examined together with the problems it poses both to librarians who record book information and to library users who search for resources written in East Asian languages in a catalogue containing only romanised transcriptions. Methodology/approach: Firstly, we describe the writing systems used to write Chinese, Korean and Japanese, the romanisation standards for these languages, and the institutions providing authority data in Latin script. We then analyse the procedures for romanising East Asian proper names and then retrieving their original written form, and identify cases of information loss and irreversible transformations. As a case study, we present the difficulties encountered by librarians and users in the Library of the Department of Asian Studies of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana (part of the Central Humanities Library and as such using the COBISS system) when using only romanised data to organise and search for library holdings in East Asian languages. Results: Information loss occurs in all methods of romanisation of Chinese, Korean and Japanese proper names presented in the previous sections. In the case of the Library of the Department of Asian Studies, this is a burden to both librarians and library users. Research limitations: We analysed the problem of the irreversibility of East Asian script romanisation in theory and in a case study involving one library; a more detailed analysis of other cases of Latin script catalogues hindering the management and use of library holdings in non-Latin scripts could be the object of future research. Originality/practical implications: This is the first analysis of the problem of information loss in romanised catalogues of East Asian library holdings in Slovenia, with a proposal for a possible solution using the Unicode standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Librarians, as the scientific community's purchasing agent, seem to be in a no-win situation: they do not entirely trust their providers. and their customers want more for less; they are caught between the cultures of commerce and science. The historical traditions of these cultures are explored at length. The differing opinions on the ‘Big Deal’ demonstrate the problem but we are now seeing signs of cultural emergence. There are also signs of a rapprochement, and this can be furthered by taking a fresh look at concepts of ‘value’ and ‘cost.’ Librarians and publishers can work together for a common cause using new technology and new commercial models to help advance science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic e-mail discussion lists have been used by librarians and vendors for twenty years. These lists have proliferated, especially in the last ten years, to the point where there are more than 250 library-related lists in use today. This paper describes the various types of lists, looks at the demographics of several library lists, and discusses how these lists can impact libraries and librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief historical overview of the library instruction scene in the United States and Canada, an analysis of library instruction conference themes, and the identification of perceptions of librarians attending the LOEX, WILU, and LOEX of the West conferences in 2000 and 2001 reveal that the border may be responsible for significant differences between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While end users feel increasingly comfortable with discovery services, librarians and content providers struggle with the inherent ambiguities. Librarians find it difficult to promote tools that they do not fully understand, while content providers are concerned that they cannot accurately measure the return on their investments. Based on a UKSG webinar, this article aims to propose ways in which librarians and content providers can overcome some of these challenges through analysis and dialogue. The NISO Open Discovery Initiative is working with the community of discovery service vendors, librarians and content providers to make discovery services more transparent and to 'streamline the process by which information providers, discovery service providers, and librarians work together to better serve libraries and their users'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the real world of library service, librarians have to keep up with change by answering specific questions. They need training because technology, the character of populations, and local economics all are changing. Recognizing that technology is a catalyst of change, the author shows how librarians can and do work to help libraries harness the power of technology to navigate the changing reading and information needs of their communities. This article examines useful behaviors as librarians approach their work tasks, relying on new technology to help meet customers’ reading and information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the discussion on librarians promoting the use of the library through other means such as marketing of library services to the users. Topics include visiting private information providers, cybercafé, and no longer solely relying on the library; and library services such as decline in library budget, change in user's mode of satisfaction, rising cost of books, and serials and electronic resources.

The article offers the author's insights on library management services and enhancement of internet access to library resources. The author emphasizes the importance of maintaining the connection between the librarians and library users. He says that librarians are facing challenges in maintaining the students' interest in library, in critical thinking and in enhancing information-gathering skills. He adds that broader engagement of the library staff and delivery of virtual services as well as electronic resources can lead to the student's deeper appreciation of the library. Moreover, he mentions ways to enhance the next-generation interfaces including image integration into the interactive design and choosing the photographs that convey real message.

The service institutions always look for improvement of services to their clientele, They get technical support from the industry in the shape of hardware for the improvement of services. Libraries are not an exception towards accepting and implementing such technologies. The introduction of bar codes in the libraries improved services by saving librarians and users time on the one hand while on the other hand it brought accuracy towards charging different activities in libraries. The developed world has already accepted this technology and enjoying its fruits. In Pakistan, few libraries applied bar code technology as remedy to the problems of manual work. There is a need to make the librarians aware of the importance and benefits of such technologies for improvement of working conditions in the libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few realize the difficult job most hospital librarians have. They work in pressure-cooker atmospheres of short or impossible deadlines, multiple conflicting missions, shrinking budgets, ever-changing technology, masses of regulations and, most of all, difficult patrons. This paper will attempt to explore the difficult hospital library patron and how best to deal with him or her. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Web 2.0 provides an exciting set of tools for librarians to help their students become more information-literate. Design/methodology/approach - Recently, information overload and Web 2.0 have led librarians to adopt practices labelled as Library 2.0. Information literacy can be the key to affecting the learning attitudes and characteristics adopted by the users, caricatured as the "Web generation". Web 2.0 tools provide new, interactive ways to engage them. The literature is reviewed to provide examples of librarians using Web 2.0 tools to improve the information literacy of their users. Findings - Librarians are embracing Web 2.0 as it becomes more mainstream and experimenting with the tools to supplement their information literacy interventions. Many of these are being well received but their quantity and measures of their impact on learning have yet to be assessed. Originality/value - The link between information literacy and Web 2.0 is novel, encourages constructive learning and enables respected educational methods (e.g. reflection) to be used in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author contends that the Internet is not a library, nor must it be mistaken for one, despite its proven utility and versatility. He argues that a library is a place where knowledge is organized based on established principles so that it becomes serviceable to its users, and the Internet is a tool that supports the library in providing such organization. The author also discusses the impact of the Internet on students, the drawbacks of using the Internet as an information resource and the role of librarians in providing information.