bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The British Library's Vulnerable Collection Items Project
Authors: Kowal Kimberly C. , Rhatigan John
Published: December 2015

The British Library embarked on a project in 2007 to better protect collection materials considered vulnerable. Following thefts of maps contained within books, a methodology was developed to firmly identify the unique copies of rare and valuable British Library holdings, using a range of security photography and copy-specific descriptive metadata. The outcome of the project not only served to improve the security of the selected maps, but by revealing these hidden collections, access to and knowledge of them is enhanced.
Sharing Experiences: Establishing an Expertise Centre on the Protection of Dutch Cultural Heritage
Authors: Vermeulen Theo
Published: December 2015

In the Netherlands an Expertise Centre on the Protection of Dutch Cultural Heritage is being established to bring together scattered knowledge and expertise on collection safety and security issues. A website is being set up based on a broad, integrated security concept. The website will include the DICE database for incident registration. More specialised expertise will be made available on demand. The Centre has been funded for two years, whereupon its viability will be assessed. For the Centre to become a success, the entire cultural heritage field should overcome its reluctance to share sensitive information and commit itself to the Centre.
Security in Libraries: Matching Responses to Risks
Authors: Gill Martin
Published: December 2015

Security in libraries is a major issue. The need to permit public access and at the same time protect what are often valuable resources can sometimes conflict. In this paper it is argued that it is vital to develop a holistic strategy, and one of the best ways of developing effective responses is to understand how offenders behave and target security resources to counteracting specific threats.
From One Library to Another: the New Robert de Sorbon Library of the University of Reims
Authors: Bekri-Dinoird Carine El
Published: December 2015

The new Robert de Sorbon library opened its doors in September 2006. The county of Champagne Ardenne managed the planning of the new building. The project focused on a totally new way of running this library and affirmed its structural role on the campus. The ambition was to make the future library the reference centre of the university and a real support to education and research. This library is also one of the first libraries in France to adopt high environmental quality as a global approach.
The Lanchester Library — Building a Sustainable Library
Authors: Noon Pat
Published: December 2015

The award winning Lanchester Library is the largest deep plan naturally ventilated building in Europe and has consistently delivered significant energy savings compared to air conditioned buildings. The article provides some background to the design and explains the sustainable features of the building as well as describing how flexibility was built into the building to enable the library service to evolve in response to changing user needs.
Refurbishing, Extending, Recreating, and Renewing the Boole Library at University College Cork, Ireland
Authors: McMahon Seamus
Published: December 2015

This paper reports on the new Postgraduate Research Library Project at Cork using it as a case study to consider the building and design issues which arise from a reconfiguration and extension of an existing building. It will also reflect on the experience of working with joint architects from different continents; SBRA of Boston, USA, and Wilson Architecture of Cork, Ireland. It reports on the key objectives and features of the new spaces including the various consultation and decision-making processes with the Design Team, library staff, and other stakeholders during the project. It concludes with a consideration of lessons learnt.
Mapping out Map Libraries
Authors: Ormeling Ferjan
Published: December 2015

Discussing the requirements for map data quality, map users and their library/archives environment, the paper focuses on the metadata the user would need for a correct and efficient interpretation of the map data. For such a correct interpretation, knowledge of the rules and guidelines according to which the topographers/cartographers work (such as the kind of data categories to be collected), and the degree to which these rules and guidelines were indeed followed are essential. This is not only valid for the old maps stored in our libraries and archives, but perhaps even more so for the new digital files as the format in which we now have to access our geospatial data. As this would be too much to ask from map librarians/curators, some sort of web 2.0 environment is sought where comments about data quality, completeness and up-to-dateness from knowledgeable map users regarding the specific maps or map series studied can be collected and tagged to scanned versions of these maps on the web. In order not to be subject to the same disadvantages as Wikipedia, where the ‘communis opinio’ rather than scholarship, seems to be decisive, some checking by map curators of this tagged map use information would still be needed. Cooperation between map curators and the International Cartographic Association ( ICA) map and spatial data use commission to this end is suggested.
A New Website for Cartographic Resources — CartoMundi
Authors: Arnaud Jean-Luc
Published: December 2015

For about two years, the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme — MMSH — in Aix-en-Provence has been developing a new website — CartoMundi — dedicated to cartographic documents. This site is organised around a tool able to identify and select documents according to the geographical zone they really represent. Each series is described by a unique notice and a key map. CartoMundi is a collective project; it consists of an open network of members. It will offer easy access to largely unknown documents and should encourage the use of cartography, both as a resource and as a research subject.
The Temptations of the Dinosaur Theory
Authors: Larsmo Ola
Published: December 2015

Does the book have a future? Ola Larsmo firmly discards the common theory that a new medium makes its predecessor obsolete, terming it ‘the temptations of the dinosaur theory’. This has never happened, he argues. The radio did not replace the newspaper, the television did not replace the radio and the cinema, and so on. There always remains a form of coexistence when the new medium can do something in addition to the previous medium; he terms this ‘x plus 1’. Ola Larsmo concludes that the book in its present form will be with us for many years to come, despite of, and as well as, the tremendous growth of digital information.
Asking the Right Questions: The Role of the Conservator in Digital Projects
Authors: Paris Jan
Published: December 2015

Jan Paris, conservator at the library of the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) explains how she decides whether vulnerable material from the special collections may be digitized and under what conditions. She considers not only the condition of the objects, but also the purpose of the digitization process: education, preservation, creating a facsimile edition or as part of a large-scale preservation project. These can be summarized as the impact of preservation considerations such as the reduction in handling, the reduction in the need for interventive conservation and the impact of access considerations such as enabling value-added research, on-demand digitization and producing aids to teaching.
Improving Access to European E-theses: the DART-Europe Programme
Authors: Moyle Martin
Published: December 2015

DART-Europe (Digital Access to Research Theses - Europe) is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses. The Programme is endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche) as part of the work of the LIBER Access Division, and it is the European Working Group of the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations). DART-Europe serves as a European networking forum on issues relating to electronic theses. The DART-Europe partners share an enthusiasm for open access to research theses, and they have helped to provide researchers with the DART-Europe E-theses Portal, a service which enables the discovery of the open access research-level e-theses offered by institutions and consortia from a growing number of European countries. This article gives an overview of DART-Europe, its progress and its future plans, with particular reference to the DART-Europe E-theses Portal.
A General Outlook on Turkish Librarianship and Libraries
Authors: Çelik Hilmi , Bayır Didar
Published: December 2015

Turkey has a rich book and library tradition going back centuries. This article presents an overview of Turkish libraries and librarianship by providing information specifically on the library tradition in Turkey, public and special libraries, librarianship education, professional associations and publications, and recent developments including some special projects run by the state and NGOs.
LIBER's Involvement in Supporting Digital Preservation in Member Libraries
Authors: Ayris Paul
Published: December 2015

Digital curation and preservation represent new challenges for universities. LIBER has invested considerable effort to engage with the new agendas of digital preservation and digital curation. Through two successful phases of the LIFE project, LIBER is breaking new ground in identifying innovative models for costing digital curation and preservation. Through LIFE’s input into the US-UK Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, LIBER is aligned with major international work in the economics of digital preservation. In its emerging new strategy and structures, LIBER will continue to make substantial contributions in this area, mindful of the needs of European research libraries.
Are Libraries Worth Investing in?: Finnish University Libraries and their Effect on the National Economy
Authors: Kiviniemi Vesa , Laitinen Markku , Saarti Jarmo
Published: December 2015

The paper discusses the correlation between the growth of the gross national product (GNP) of Finland and the library materials costs of the academic libraries during thirty years (1977–2006). Statistical data were used in the analysis and it was found that there is some correlation between the trends of these two. The paper discusses different possibilities for interpretation of this outcome, but the authors draw the conclusion that it is clearly worth investing in libraries as one tool to improve the knowledge economy.
A view on Europeana from the US perspective
Authors: Erway Ricky
Published: December 2015

At the express request of the organisers of the second LIBER/EBLIDA workshop on digitization, Ricky Erway of OCLC provided an outsider’s view on the Europeana project. Erway looks at Europeana from many vantage points: mandate and funding; branding and public relations; learning from others; aggregation; cooperation; content; rights; metadata; technology; access; user feedback; and sustainability – offering valuable advice for the Europeana community in doing so.
Facilitating Searches in Multiple Bibliographical Databases: Metadata Harvesting Service Providers
Authors: Hirwade Mangala Anil , Bherwani Mohini T.
Published: December 2015

A metadata harvester is a software package that reads data from servers, writes it to databases, implements various kinds of searches, and writes HTML files to display the results. In this paper sixty metadata harvesting service providers have been studied. The study reviewed metadata generation, preservation and harvesting, and various technical issues arising at these stages.
9th International Bielefeld Conference 2009: Upgrading the eLibrary: Enhanced Information Services Driven by Technology and Economics
Authors: Gastinger Almuth
Published: December 2015

Thisarticle reports on the 9th International Bielefeld Conference ‘Upgrading the eLibrary: Enhanced Information Services Driven by Technology and Economics’, 3-5 February 2009, in Bielefeld, Germany. The conference focused on future challenges for libraries regarding the development of information services and infrastructures that meet the changing needs of scholarly communication, collaboration (e-science) and publication (open access) as well as new requirements regarding teaching and learning (virtual learning spaces). In addition attention was paid to economic conditions and strategic positioning of libraries as a general framework for information services.
Persistent Identifiers: the ‘URN Granular’ Project of the German National Library and the University and State Library Halle
Authors: Sommer Dorothea
Published: December 2015

This paper describes a project carried out by the German National Library, the University and State Library Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle and Semantics GmbH Aachen to establish routines of persistent identification for individual pages of web publications in order to enable and facilitate reliable and long-term valid citation practices for the academic community. The project originated in a pilot project to digitise approximately 10,000 German imprints from the seventeenth century comprising altogether about 600,000 pages, which had to be completed within two years. The material of the ‘Ponickau Collection’ had been catalogued in the German national bibliography of seventeenth-century imprints (VD 17), which was enriched and turned into a virtual library by adding the digitised texts. This article investigates the means of presentation and indexing of digitised imprints in order to ensure their usability. It also sketches the workflow among the various partners involved in the process. The article highlights the application of Visual Library, which contains various tools for automated creation of metadata, the implementation of persistent identifiers (URN) and the automated enrichment of catalogue entries by the regional cataloguing cooperative Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund (GBV). Special emphasis is given to questions of quality management; the quality is guaranteed by a combination of automated tools and intellectual control at various stages of the digitisation process.
Interactive Open Access Publishing and Peer Review: The Effectiveness and Perspectives of Transparency and Self-Regulation in Scientific Communication and Evaluation
Authors: Poschl Ulrich
Published: December 2015

The traditional forms of scientific publishing and peer review do not live up to the demands of efficient communication and quality assurance in today's highly diverse and rapidly evolving world of science. They need to be advanced by interactive and transparent forms of review, publication and discussion that are open to the scientific community and to the public. The advantages of open access, public peer review and interactive discussion can be efficiently and flexibly combined with the strengths of traditional publishing and peer review. Since 2001 the viability of this approach is demonstrated by the highly successful interactive open access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP) and a growing number of sister journals of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and Copernicus Publications. The achievements and statistics of these journals and their publishers clearly prove both the scientific benefits and the financial sustainability of open access. Future perspectives are outlined with regard to critical rationalism, open societies and the global information commons.
EconBiz — Meeting User Needs with New Technology
Authors: Pianos Tamara
Published: December 2015

Virtual libraries try to combine traditional library services with new document types and services. The first generation of virtual libraries mostly tried to offer services based on a library-centric view of information retrieval systems. New virtual libraries try to concentrate on user's needs, but this is often easier said than done. Restrictions like copyright laws, technical limitations and the like often make it difficult to meet user requirements. A number of studies documented these needs: easy-to-use, comprehensive yet focussed search, and easy access to print and online documents, subject specific, yet not too restricted to specific areas. The new EconBiz-portal, relaunched in August 2010, has a disciplinary focus on business and economics and related subjects. It includes about 6 million records from different databases. Based on search-engine technology Lucene/Solr, combined with a metadata framework developed by the ZBW, it allows fast, convenient and complex searches. The integration of the Standard-Thesaurus-for Economics supports researchers by suggesting key words and related terms. Information on the availability of the documents is also included. Documents can either be accessed online or ways are shown to material that is available in print only. Journals Online & Print, a service developed by the German Electronic Journals Library (EZB) and the German Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB) is included to provide easy access to all forms of journals. In addition, services like an event calendar, a tutorial on how to find information and an online-reference desk help to cater to the user's complex needs. The new EconBiz-portal was developed by the ZBW in close cooperation with the USB Cologne. Major parts of the search engine framework were developed by a company specialized in information technology. This paper elaborates on the extraction of users' requirements from different studies, the deduction of functional requirements, and, finally, the implementation of the portal with all its ups and downs.
Enacting Change: A Study of the Implementation of e-Readers and an Online Library in two Canadian High School Classrooms
Authors: Patterson Serina , Stokes-Bennett Devon , Siemens Ray , Nahachewsky James
Published: December 2015

In this paper the authors discuss their interdisciplinary pilot project entitled ‘Teaching for the 21st Century: A Pilot Project on E-Reading with SD62’ that engaged in the development and implementation of a customized and purpose-specific online library for two selected high school classrooms at a time when such systems did not exist for this purpose. This project combined (1) information literacy issues, (2) pedagogy and e-pedagogy, and (3) computational modeling activities founded on a productive confluence of these perspectives all situated at the intersection of pertinent theories and practices pertaining to each. The result of the research project was a functional online library environment that worked in the classrooms to support born-digital students' engagement with e-readers and findings of the way in which these both worked in the context of multiliteracies classrooms.
Going beyond Citations: SERUM — a new Tool Provided by a Network of Libraries
Authors: Gorraiz Juan , Gumpenberger Christian
Published: December 2015

Citation metrics are a well-established means to assess the impact of scholarly output. With the growing availability of e-journals, usage metrics have become an interesting alternative to citation metrics; they allow for viewing scholarly communication from the user's perspective. Usage metrics offer several advantages that have the potential of enhancing existing evaluation criteria for scholarly journals. This paper suggests an approach to providing global usage metrics which is supported by libraries. The goal is to provide an analytical tool called Standardized Electronic Resource Usage Metrics (SERUM) which is comparable to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), but which makes use of download data instead of citation data. Global download data would be obtained from the publishers, assuming they are willing to contribute in order to benefit from newly established evaluation criteria for periodicals beyond the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and consequential strengthening of their products. An international network of libraries with a sound disciplinary coverage will be established in order to obtain, manage and check the authenticity of the data delivered by the publishers. The network will act as a clearing centre operated by independent information specialists to guarantee data integrity as well as data curation according to a standardised format. Furthermore, the network's internationally distributed members should also track and manage local usage data, reflect local trends, and relate these to the global publishers' data. In addition, a regularly updated version with specific basic usage metrics and journal rankings will be offered.
Challenges for Libraries in Difficult Economic Times: Evidence from the UK
Authors: Jubb Michael
Published: December 2015

The last decade has been a period of unprecedented change for university libraries. The rapid growth in numbers of students and staff across the university sector has been accompanied by the move to a substantially digital environment with some fundamental changes in how libraries and their users operate. During this period, most university libraries have seen continued growth in their budgets in real terms, but libraries now face a period in which they will have to cope with continued rapid, perhaps transformational, change, accompanied by reductions in their budgets. This paper is based on evidence gathered and analysed by the Research Information Network on the financial position of university libraries in the UK, and how they are dealing with the prospect of cuts. It highlights two related challenges for libraries: developing and enhancing relationships with their users, and developing new services to maximise their value to users.
Library Roles in University Research Assessment
Authors: MacColl John
Published: December 2015

This article summarises the findings of two OCLC research reports which recently documented how university research is assessed in five countries and the role research libraries play in the various schemes. Libraries’ administrative role in supplying bibliometrics is the most obvious. However, the author advocates a much more strategic role for libraries: to focus on the scholarly activity all around the library, to curate, advise on and preserve the manifold outputs of research activity.
A Global Approach to Digital Library Evaluation
Authors: Vullo Giuseppina
Published: December 2015

This paper describes the key advances on digital library evaluation research. The paper provides a comparison of the existing models, the current research questions in this area, an integrated LIS-oriented evaluation framework, and a selection of international projects.
How Serious Do We Need to Be? Improving Information Literacy Skills through Gaming and Interactive Elements
Authors: Van Meegen Ana , Limpens Imke
Published: December 2015

Catching the attention of highly technologically and visually oriented students is a challenge for libraries. The number of students entering the universities is increasing and a face-to-face learning setting is an impossible mission for the few available subject librarians. This paper demonstrates how effective the use of serious game or other web-based interactive elements can be for teaching information literacy. By means of quasi-experimental research the impact that the game Saving Asia on students’ learning is analysed and compared to a web-based online tutorial of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam). This research demonstrated that the game needs to be improved if it is to fit into the regular curriculum of the university, but interactive elements definitely improve learning results.
The Political Nature of Digital Cultural Heritage
Authors: McCrary Quincy
Published: December 2015

Collecting organizations such as libraries and museums are vehicles for shifting paradigms of knowledge and power. Digital technologies are also implicated with historical transformations in language, society, and culture. To discuss the digital is to engage simultaneously with an impressive array of simulacra, instantaneous communication, ubiquitous media, and global interconnectedness (Cameron & Kenderdine, 2007). Digital cultural heritage can be viewed as a political concept and practice, the relations between communities and heritage institutions as mediated through technologies, the reshaping of social, cultural, and political power in relation to cultural organizations made possible through communication technologies, and the representation and interpretation of digital cultural heritage. The following paper will address each of these concerns, outlining current scholarship on the topic and critically engaging with the content.
How do Researchers in the Humanities Use Information Resources?
Authors: Collins Ellen , Jubb Michael
Published: December 2015

Information is at the heart of research. Every stage of the research cycle involves discovering, accessing, generating, manipulating, interpreting or presenting information, in order to advance knowledge. Researchers operate within a complex information environment, with needs that they themselves perhaps do not always fully understand, and are dependent upon services which are fast-changing and affected by much wider social trends. This paper examines how researchers in the humanities currently access, use and share information, paying particular attention to the influence of new technologies in changing information — and consequently wider research — practices. It finds that researchers are adopting new technologies where this helps them to work more effectively, but that traditional practices still dominate in some areas. There is mixed evidence of new research questions emerging as a result of engagement with new technologies.
Putting 600,000 Books Online: the Large-Scale Digitisation Partnership between the Austrian National Library and Google
Authors: Kaiser Max
Published: December 2015

In a public-private partnership with Google, the Austrian National Library is digitising its historical book holdings. Some 600,000 volumes from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries will be digitised and made available free of charge. The project demonstrates that public-private partnerships can be successful in enabling our heritage institutions to provide large-scale access to their holdings, provided that such partnerships are not exclusive and free access is ensured. The article outlines the preparatory phase and work flows established in the project.
Staying Relevant in the Google Age: Implementing Vertical Search at the University of Manchester — a Technological and Cultural perspective
Authors: Beard Lorraine , Land Andy
Published: December 2015

John Rylands University Library at the University of Manchester makes a clear commitment to improving resource discovery in its New Directions strategy. In addition an external review of the Library’s systems portfolio identified a clear need to improve the user experience in finding and accessing information. There are also drivers to ensure better utilisation of the Library’s investment in e-resources, as well as the need for the Library to respond to the question of how libraries continue to stay relevant in the Google age. Taking all these factors into account the Library took a strategic decision in 2010 to implement a vertical search solution and it established a formal project to do so in Summer 2010. The project has involved working in close partnership with a number of key stakeholders from the Library, IT Services, multiple vendors and the academic community and is a good example of the changing way in which libraries need to plan and manage their projects in order to improve and deliver services which address the needs of their users. Effective governance, communication, change and project management have been key to the success of this project and highlights the growing importance of these skills in libraries today. The paper will consider the complex technological issues around integrating data from different sources and using different metadata standards. The project has involved vendors working co-operatively together to enable data to move between systems and different metadata formats, which also presents challenges. The cultural issues involved in implementing vertical search will also be discussed, including a shift in the Library’s internal philosophy towards search, the possible impact on the traditional Library catalogue and associated workflows and the changing user perception of the Library in response to vertical search. The project is an excellent case study in new ways of working for libraries, tackling complex technological issues and remaining focussed on improving user experience. The paper will be of interest to other libraries considering or in the process of improving their library’s resource discovery experience.
The e-Reader — an Educational or an Entertainment Tool? e-Readers in an Academic Setting
Authors: Ahlroos Peter , Hahto Jonna
Published: December 2015

In this paper the authors will discuss a pilot project conducted at the Tritonia Academic Library, Vaasa, in Finland, from September 2010 until May 2011. The project was designed to investigate the application of e-readers in academic settings and to learn how teachers and students experience the use of e-readers in academic education. Four groups of students and one group of teachers used Kindle readers for varied periods of time in different courses. The course material and the textbooks were downloaded on the e-readers. The feedback from the participants was collected through questionnaires and teacher interviews. The results suggest that the e-reader is a future tool for learning, though some features need to be improved before e-readers can really enable efficient learning and researching.
How Much is Much?: a Conceptual Study of Web Traffic
Authors: Høivik Tord
Published: December 2015

Valid and relevant statistics are required for library planning and advocacy. As libraries and their users turn to the web, library statistics must follow. In this paper we explore the use of three common traffic indicators to measure the impact of web resources from national libraries. We present and discuss the use of data on on page views, virtual visits and unique users, with examples from national, academic and public libraries. These indicators are in an early stage of development and need some conceptual and much empirical work to become good tools for strategic planning. But we note four findings: (1) the ratios between the three indicators are very unstable, so we must measure and interpret all three; (2) we find substantial differences between countries, with Denmark in a leading position; (3) in academic and national libraries the number of virtual visits is likely to overshadow the number of physical visits; (4) analysis of web traffic must be based on an understanding of J-shaped distributions (‘power laws’) rather than concepts drawn from ordinary well-behaved bell curves (‘normal distributions’).
Increasing Access to Special Collections
Authors: Erway Ricky
Published: December 2015

In an environment where we increasingly have access to a collective collection of digitized books, special collections will become increasingly invisible if they are not accessible online. In an era of increasing expectations and decreasing budgets, finding ways to streamline some of our processes is the best way to enable us to do more with less. This report details a number of investigations into how access to special collections can be increased. It includes guidance running the gamut from digitization and rights management to policies and procedures.
The Role of the National and University Library of Slovenia in a Multinational Research Project (IMPACT): a Case Study
Authors: Vodopivec Ines
Published: December 2015

In this paper, the participation and the role of individual libraries acting as partners in research project consortia, dealing with digitisation issues are analysed, following the example of the National and University Library of Slovenia (NUK) as a partner in the IMPACT project — Improving Access to Text. IMPACT is funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission (FP7) aimed at improving automated text recognition of digitised materials from different European digital collections. To achieve the project’s objectives, a consortium of partners comprised of several European libraries, information technology and software engineering centres, and linguistic institutes was established. The consortium’s work was based on interdisciplinary collaboration in which libraries (like NUK) played an important role firstly as demonstrators of tools and procedures developed within the project, and secondly as representatives of end-users’ needs and demands. Different European digitisation projects in the past have already included national libraries as project partners and the results of collaboration have been so far quite positive. A case study methodology is used for exploring several dimensions of such collaboration. First of all, the study shows that the consortium ensures libraries the economic and expert groundwork needed for the effective realization of the objectives outlined in the framework of the project. Secondly, the study shows positive results when comparing the sum total of knowledge and experience gained over the course of the project and the efforts invested in it by individual libraries. On the basis of such a success, NUK will be able to expand its digitisation plans. Other advantages include more concrete project outcomes, such as the formation of a common multinational digital collection, applicable OCR technology and metadata standardisation. A comparative study with some of NUK’s other on-going projects shows differences and similarities in the library’s collaboration in applicative and research project schemes. Furthermore, the main results of the library as a demonstrator in the project are presented — they are in accordance with the library’s strategic goals and its official role in the information society. Thus, this case study may be considered as an example of a best practice for participation of a national library in interdisciplinary research projects. It also shows, that national libraries can be important and active partners not only in an applicative, but also in scientific research project consortia.
Knotworking in Academic Libraries: Two Case Studies from the University of Helsinki
Authors: Engeström Yrjö , Kaatrakoski Heli , Kaiponen Pälvi , Lahikainen Johanna , Laitinen Anne , Myllys Heli , Rantavuori Juhana , Sinikara Kaisa
Published: December 2015

Librarians in academic libraries are facing major changes in their work due to, e.g., the internet, digitization, and increasing use of new channels for information retrieval by their most important clients, namely researchers. This creates challenges for librarians: both to deepen their own expertise and to develop innovative service models for their clients. In this paper we present a development project entitled ‘Knotworking in the Library’ from the Helsinki University Library. The project made use of the Change Laboratory method, which is an intensive developmental effort which facilitates improvements in the activities of organizations and changes in the organizational culture. The process started in Viikki Campus Library in 2009–2010 and continued in the City Centre Campus Library in 2010–2011. The aim was to create new kinds of partnership between libraries and research groups in the form of knotworking. By knotworking we mean a boundary-crossing, collective problem-solving way of organizing work. The knotworking model presented in this paper generated practical tools to assist selected research groups in dealing with data management related-issues.
Fostering New Roles for Librarians: Skills Set for Repository Managers — Results of a Survey in Italy
Authors: Cassella Maria , Morando Maddalena
Published: December 2015

The open access movement in scholarly communication has grown considerably over the last ten years and it has driven an increase in the number of institutional repositories (IRs). New professional roles and skills had to be developed to secure effective IR management. Collection developmente expertise and metadata curation are regarded as strategic roles for repositories and therefore it is only logical for the library and information community to take on the responsibility for managing these digital archives. However, it has become clear that traditional librarian skills do not suffice anymore to run successful repositories. A richer set of skills is needed, including management and communication skills, technical skills, and expertise with regard to access rights and preservation of digital content. Referring to the work carried out by the SHERPA Project in the UK with regard to the skills set for repository staff, the authors performed a survey among repository managers in Italy to assess the educational and professional background of the repository managers and the skills set required to implement successful institutional repositories. The survey findings show that the professional profile of the repository manager is a multiform and complex one. It requires cross-functional and highly specialised competencies. Italian repository managers are of the opinion that the skills required to promote the repository within the institution and those required to deal with copyright issues as the most essential skills repository managers should acquire and be trained for. Collection development and metadata expertise, familiarity with project management and expertise in repository workflow design are also highly rated. Technical skills are needed to deal with interoperability standards and protocols. In Italy academic curricula do not meet the repository managers’ educational needs. Academic programmes should be developed to include communication, project management and team work skills and pay more attention to copyright issues. Until that time repository managers will have to spend a considerable part of their working lives on professional training and self-directed learning.
EFQM in Academic Libraries
Authors: Stavridis Stefanos , Tsimpoglou Filippos
Published: December 2015

In December 2009 the University of Cyprus Library became the first library in Greece and Cyprus to achieve the EFQM Recognized for Excellence distinction, awarded by the European Foundation for Quality Management. That was the Library’s first engagement in quality management. The program helped the Library both to start processes that will improve its administration and to shape a very concrete perception of the need and methodology of self-assessment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on adopting EFQM in academic libraries by highlighting the main points of this experience and by drawing conclusions regarding the benefits gained and challenges encountered.
Open source technologies for delivering historical maps online - case studies at the National Library of Scotland
Authors: Fleet Christopher , Pridal Petr
Published: December 2015

Over the last four years, the National Library of Scotland has saved money and improved user access to online historical maps through the implementation of new open source technologies. These new tools include a new Viewer for MrSID images using OpenLayers, a collaborative Georeferencer application, new Tile Map Services for delivering georeferenced historical maps online, and a new GeoServer and OpenLayers application for accessing 44,000 series maps as clickable indexes. All of these applications were developed by Petr Pridal / Klokan Technologies, in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, and all of them are easily extendible to other map libraries. These open source tools also provide an excellent basis for collaboration with other map libraries, sharing technology, experience and advice.
Towards an Editable, Versionized LOD Service for Library Data
Authors: Ostrowski Felix , Pohl Adrian
Published: December 2015

The Northrhine-Westphalian Library Service Center (hbz) launched its LOD service lobid.org in August 2010 and has since then continuously been improving the underlying conversion processes, data models and software. The present paper first explains the background and motivation for developing lobid.org . It then describes the underlying software framework Phresnel which is written in PHP and which provides presentation and editing capabilities of RDF data based on the Fresnel Display Vocabulary for RDF. The paper gives an overview of the current state of the Phresnel development and discusses the technical challenges encountered. Finally, possible prospects for further developing Phresnel are outlined.
Scholarship 2.0: analyzing scholars’ use of Web 2.0 tools in research and teaching activity
Authors: Calvi Licia , Cassella Maria
Published: December 2015

Over the past 15 years the Web has transformed the ways in which we search for information and use it. In more recent years, we have seen the emergence of a new array of innovative tools that collectively go under the name of ‘Web 2.0’, in which the information user is also increasingly an information producer (i.e., prosumer), by sharing or creating content.The success of Web 2.0 tools for personal use is only partially replicated in the professional sphere and, particularly, in the academic environment in relation with research and teaching.To date, very few studies have explored the level of adoption of Web 2.0 among academic researchers in their research and teaching activity. It is not known in what way how and how much Web 2.0 is currently used within research communities, and we are not aware of the drivers and the drawbacks of the use of Web 2.0 tools in academia, where the majority of people is focused either on research or on teaching activities.To analyse these issues, i.e. the combined adoption of Web 2.0 tools in teaching and research, the authors carried out a survey among teaching and researching staff of the University of Breda in The Netherlands. This country was chosen mainly because it is on the cutting edge as far as innovation is concerned. An important driver in choosing the Breda University’s academic community was the fact that one of the two authors of this survey works as senior researcher at this university.The purpose of our survey was to explore the level of adoption of Web 2.0 tools among the academic communities. We were interested in investigating how they were using these tools in the creation of scientific knowledge both in their research and teaching activity. We were also interested in analysing differences in the level of adoption of Web 2.0 tools with regard to researchers’ position, age, gender, and research field.Finally, in our study we explored the issue of peer reviewing in the Web 2.0 setting. In particular, we investigated whether social peer review is regarded by researchers as a viable alternative to the current closed peer review system (single-blind or double blind).We approached about 60 staff members, but only 12 faculty members completed the survey fully. This means that our results can only be regarded as exploratory, but we still believe that they represent a complementary perspective with respect to previous studies.
Charaudeau, Patric. Les médias et l'information: l'impossible transparence du discours. 2nd. éd. rev et augm.
Authors: Longo Brunella
Published: December 2015

In this scholarly review of the last edition of "Les médias et l'information" Brunella Longo tracks back the evolution of Patric Charadeau's  theory of media communication and suggests the work should be considered a companion of other fundamental handbooks and essays about media and information literacy. The analysis addresses aspects interesting both media and cultural studies and practitioners practices.
Novel Research Impact Indicators
Authors: Fenner Martin , Lin Jennifer
Published: December 2015

Citation counts and more recently usage statistics provide valuable information about the attention and research impact associated with scholarly publications. The open access publisher Public Library of Science (PLOS) has pioneered the concept of article-level metrics, where these metrics are collected on a per article and not a per journal basis and are complemented by real-time data from the social web or altmetrics: blog posts, social bookmarks, social media and other.
Bringing Digital Science Deep Inside the Scientific Article: the Elsevier Article of the Future Project
Authors: Aalbersberg IJsbrand Jan , Atzeni Sophia , Koers Hylke , Specker Beate , Zudilova-Seinstra Elena
Published: December 2015

The ICT revolution of the last decades impacted scientific communication as it has impacted many other forms of communications, changing the way in which articles are delivered and how they can be discovered. However, the impact of ICT on the research itself has been much more profound, introducing digital tools to the way in which researchers gather data, perform analyses, and exchange results. This brought new, digital forms of research output, and disseminating those calls for changes deeply impact the core format of the scientific article.In 2009, Elsevier introduced the “Article of the Future” project to define an optimal way for the dissemination of science in the digital age, and in this paper we discuss three of its key dimensions. First we discuss interlinking scientific articles and research data stored with domain-specific data repositories — such interlinking is essential to interpret both article and data efficiently and correctly. We then present easy-to-use 3D visualization tools embedded in online articles: a key example of how the digital article format adds value to scientific communication and helps readers to better understand research results. The last topic covered in this paper is automatic enrichment of journal articles through text-mining or other methods. Here we share insights from a recent survey on the question: how can we find a balance between creating valuable contextual links, without sacrificing the high-quality, peer-reviewed status of published articles?
Too early, too fast? The regulation of the eBook market in France and its possible effects on EU libraries
Authors: Respingue-Perrin Sébastien
Published: December 2015

Until now, legislative interventions on ebooks and libraries have been applied to massive digitization. France went further, with global regulations of the ebooks' market. Beyond the French “cultural exception”, the ebook price-fixing law of May 26th, 2011 and the decrease from the ebook VAT rate decided in 2012 will have deep effects on this sector and, perhaps, could prevent the strains between publishers and libraries seen in the USA.Above all, legal rules have an impediment: what is an ebook?The French Parliament laid the foundations for the debate. Now, the answers are depending on the EU authorities, who have to define a clear policy.The ongoing discussions could have a major consequence: is the ebook, becoming a juridical object, subjected to the “digital renting and lending right”, in line with the 2006 Council directive? This may be the first step towards a regulation of the European libraries market.