Library Hi Tech News

Publisher:: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:: 2021-02-01

ISBN:: 0741-9058

Issue Number

Latest documents

Incorporating online privacy skills into one-shot sessions
Books online: e-books, e-paper, and e-readers
Review of digital record management needs for academic libraries
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the present practicing situation of digital record management (DRM) in the university libraries of Bangladesh. The more particular objectives are to identify the present preservation scenario of DRM, to find out the problems of DRM which are faced by archivists for long-term preservation, to identify the necessary tools and technologies for DRM and to explore the ways to overcome the existing problems. Design/methodology/approach: Survey methods were used for gathering data using a well-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to the respondents of some selected public and private universities of Bangladesh. Findings: The findings revealed that there are some hindrances to practise DRM, such as lack of stable preservation software, shortage of skilled IT personnel, allocation of insufficient budget, shortage of digital records, lack of proper training of library professionals, and these also provided some suitable suggestions, such as allocation of adequate fund, infrastructure development, recruitment of knowledgeable IT professionals, the simplicity of the intellectual property act, the willingness of authority regarding the implementation of DRM and frequently training arrangements for library professionals for the advancement of DH in the university libraries of Bangladesh. Originality/value: The insights and views of the respondents regarding DRM tools and technologies obtained from this study are original and unique.
Getting acquainted with social networks and apps: capturing and archiving social media content
Big data adoption in academic libraries: a literature review
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the publication of big data in the library from Scopus database by looking at the writing time period of the papers, author's country, the most frequently occurring keywords, the article theme, the journal publisher and the group of keywords in the big data article. The methodology used in this study is a quantitative approach by extracting data from Scopus database publications with the keywords “big data” and “library” in May 2019. The collected data was analysed using Voxviewer software to show the keywords or terms. The results of the study stated that articles on big data have appeared since 2012 and are increasing in number every year. The big data authors are mostly from China and America. Keywords that often appear are based on the results of terminology visualization are including, “big data”, “libraries”, “library”, “data handling”, “data mining”, “university libraries”, “digital libraries”, “academic libraries”, “big data applications” and “data management”. It can be concluded that the number of publications related to big data in the library is still small; there are still many gaps that need to be researched on the topic. The results of the research can be used by libraries in using big data for the development of library innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The Scopus database was accessed on 24 May 2019 by using the keyword “big data” and “library” in the search box. The authors only include papers, which title contain of big data in library. There were 74 papers, however, 1 article was dropped because of it not meeting the criteria (affiliation and abstract were not available). The papers consist of journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, editorial and review. Then the data were extracted into excel and analysed as follows (by the year, by the author/s’s country, by the theme and by the publisher). Following that the collected data were analysed using VOX viewer software to see the relationship between big data terminology and library, terminology clustering, keywords that often appear, countries that publish big data, number of big data authors, year of publication and name of journals that publish big data and library articles (Alagu and Thanuskodi, 2019). Findings: It can be concluded that the implementation of big data in libraries is still in an early stage, it is shown from the limited number of practical implementation of big data analytics in library. Not many libraries that use big data to support innovation and services since there were lack of librarian skills of big data analytics. The library manager’s view of big data is still not necessary to do. It is suggested for academic libraries to start their adoption of big data analytics to support library services especially research data. To do so, librarians can enhance their skills and knowledge by following some training in big data analytics or research data management. The information technology infrastructure also needs to be upgraded since big data need big IT capacity. Finally, the big data management policy should be made to ensure the implementation goes well. Originality/value: This paper discovers the adoption and implementation of big data in library, many papers talk big data in business and technology context. This is offering new idea for many libraries especially academic library about the adoption of big data to support their services. They can adopt the big data analytics technology and technique that suitable for their library.
A new full-text finder tool for linking to scientific articles
Digital inclusion for visually impaired students through assistive technologies in academic libraries
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the state-of-the-art assistive technologies (ATs) developed for people living with visual disability and those that are used in academic libraries around the world as a way of proffering solution to the challenges faced by visually impaired students in accessing information. Design/methodology/approach: The data used for this paper were derived from website of companies that specialize in ATs for people living with disability and the library website of the top 14 universities in the world based on the 2020 QS world ranking of universities. Findings: This study found that foremost academic libraries in the UK and the USA have integrated various ATs into library services as information access mechanism for students living with visual impairment. The study found that the most commonly used screen reader software is the Job Access With Speech (JAWS). The study also found that one of the institutions has a mission statement on their website, clearly stating support for people living with disability. Research limitations/implications: This study was conducted using only the 2020 QS world ranking of universities. It would be interesting to see results of academic libraries from Africa based on their ranking. Practical implications: The paper provides highlights on trends that may inform academic libraries in the quest to providing ATs for students living with visual impairments. This paper may assist academics libraries who are at the brink of decision-making on use of ATs as information access mechanism to the visually impaired students. Originality/value: This paper is the first to provide librarians with ideas and innovations on specific ATs used by leading academic libraries in the world.
Marketing intangibles: the case of library services in higher education institutions
Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the adoption of marketing techniques in academic libraries in Ghana, and how they are applied in the promotion of their services to patrons. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting the qualitative research approach, a total of 21 professional and para-professional library staff from three private universities participated in the study. The main data collection instrument was the use of semi-structured interviews. Data gathered was analysed, discussed and presented thematically. Findings: The findings revealed that the study's participants are fully aware of the benefits of inculcating marketing activities into their daily routines and were making efforts at making their users aware of their products and services with the use of various strategies including the deployment of social media tools. Some of the challenges that were discovered to hinder the success of marketing in the libraries were lack of funds, lack of knowledge of marketing techniques by staff and a lack of marketing policy to guide marketing in the libraries. Research limitations/implications: The findings of this study imply that, even though carried on a few academic libraries, the same can apply to most academic libraries as the characteristics are generally the same. Practical implications: To boost marketing initiatives in the selected university libraries, the following recommendations informed by the findings of the study are made: creation of marketing policies, increase use of social networking sites for marketing, organization of seminars and workshops on marketing, diversifying sources of funding for libraries and conducting user surveys. Social implications: The implementation of the recommendations has the potential to increase the level of interactions between academic libraries and their patrons as well as impact positively on the information-seeking behaviour of library patrons. Originality/value: Apart from the application of works of other scholars, which have been duly cited and acknowledged, the entirety of this study or research output is the result of the handiworks of the researchers. Again, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work has not been a production of existing research nor is earlier published in any journal.
Automation, the 4th industrial revolution and libraries
To frame or not to frame: creating a metaliteracy course for online Ed.D. students
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create a course in a learning management system (LMS), Canvas, for online Ed.D. students and determine if the course can improve scores measuring metaliteracy concepts from pretest to posttest. The course assessed knowledge of metaliteracy goals and objectives instead of using the ACRL Framework. This paper reports on the creation of the course, results of the pretest-posttest, a mapping of metaliteracy goals and objectives with the ACRL Framework and recommendations for including metacognitive practices in library instruction. Design/methodology/approach: The researcher used a quantitative, quasi-experimental, exploratory design and developed a metaliteracy course in the Canvas LMS using a pretest-posttest design, creating video tutorials as the treatment for each module (five total) using Adobe Spark. Findings: According to a t-test run in SPSS, there was a significant difference between the metaliteracy pretest and metaliteracy posttest. Using metaliteracy goals and objectives as a method for assessing information literacy knowledge can be useful. Using the ACRL Framework along with metaliteracy goals and objectives can be effective for presenting and assessing information literacy knowledge and skills. Research limitations/implications: One limitation of this study was the use of one population of online Ed.D. students at one institution. One implication of this study is the need for metaliteracy goals and objectives to be used in connection with the ACRL Framework. Originality/value: This research adds to the limited knowledge of how metaliteracy goals and objectives can be used to assess information literacy and other literacies using a pretest-posttest format in an online format.