Editorial
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-02-2023-138 |
| Published date | 23 January 2023 |
| Date | 23 January 2023 |
| Pages | 1-2 |
| Author | Anna Maria Tammaro,Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo |
Editorial
In just over twoyears, the COVID-19 pandemichas radically changed the role andperception
of digitization in our societies and economies, accelerating their digital transformation.
Digital technologies are now indispensable for working, learning, entertaining, socializing,
shopping and accessing information, everything from health services to culture. However,
the pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of our digital space, the gap of capacities
and skills, the lack of infrastructure and the impact of disinformation on our democratic
societies.
The experience of the pandemic has also demonstrated the decisive role that innovation
can play for libraries that can extend the traditional role and are expected to offer services
such as contrasting the digital divide and the information manipulation, giving support to
scholars for research datamanagement and facilitating students engaged in e-learning.
In light of these opportunities and challenges,our stated aim and scope is more relevant
than ever:
Papers published in Digital Library Perspectives promote the digital transformation and the
development of digital libraries constructed, collected and organized –by and for –a community
of users, and their functional capabilities for supporting the information needs and uses of that
community.
Our objectiveis to engage interdisciplinarycommunities aroundDigital Library Perspectives
to share knowledge and research experiences toward digital transformation and a more
prosperousdigital future for our societies.
This issue opens with a study on information seeking behavior for health information.
Eric Boamah (New Zealand) and Andrews Adjei Druye (Ghana) in “Understanding the
information culture for self-management support of people living with diabetes in Ghana”
explore the informationbehavior of people living with diabetes mellitus and how this affects
their self-management practices in Ghana. The article describes information behavior and
cultural patterns of information and highlights the need for patients to effectively manage
information for sustainable self-management. This is the first study in Ghana examining
how people define their need for health information, how they identify the source of
information and how they accessand use information, including their information behavior
patterns that influencethese information experiences.
For academic libraries, digital transformation is driven by the changing behavior of
scholars sharing data in the openscience framework. The academic community needs new
support services.
Plato Smith (USA) in “Exploring electroniclab notebooks (ELN) at a R1 institution in the
Southeast United States of America”aims to build a better understanding of researchers’
needs for research data management using ELN, also known as an electronic research
notebook. The findings reveal that there is no single institutional ELN licensing solution
that meets the needs of all scientific disciplines. The survey was the firstexploration of the
ELN on campus, resulting in a final report forsenior stakeholders and the case study may be
of interest to other academiclibraries.
For academic libraries, one might wonder what personalization of services includes.
Samaneh Rezaei Khavidaki, Saeed Sharifabadi and Amir Ghaebi (Iran) in “Services
personalization in digital academic libraries: a Delphi study”have carried out literature
reviews to obtain relevant indicators of different types of service personalization in the
context of libraries and subsequently used a Delphi method. The Delphi panel consisted of
Editorial
1
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.39 No. 1, 2023
pp. 1-2
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-02-2023-138
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