Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Publications
  3. Publishing partners
  4. Facet Publishing
  5. Content Listing

Refine listing

Refine listing

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 144 of 293

  • 4 - Library tour evolution (analogue→digital→mobile)

  • from Part 1 - Best practice for the use of mobile technologies in libraries
  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 35-42

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Evolution is a progressive change from something inadequate in a given circumstance or environment to a new or modified state with the ability to perform better in that new environment or situation. Evolution occurs in organizations, organisms and processes. One aspect of evolution is the ‘survival of the fittest’, which is that the most adept at evolving will continue and propagate. In technology it is much the same: as one technology becomes obsolete (dies), it gives way to the next better able to serve. For examples consider the cassette tape or the LP record and their demise. Often technology changes occur as a result of what the user is using at the time, or in other words from external forces. It is also the case that changes occur because of internal forces or pressures from within the organization. Academic libraries have moved to mobile technologies for both these reasons: handheld devices are the main means of access to information for university students, faculty and parents (external); and mobile technologies are also useful for librarians in their day-to-day management of the library and services (internal).

    Libraries, like other organizations, often make changes to procedures, processes or services in an evolutionary manner. These changes or adaptations are made to organizational schemes, technology and other services. Libraries have changed the tours of the library building, its organization, services and resources in a similar manner.

    Being the main consumers of academic library information, students have the ability to influence the direction of library technology and services. These consumers determine how they want to utilize the information and it is up to librarians to provide the information in a way that it will be best appreciated.

    This paper will describe changes that occurred throughout the history of the library tour in the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) at Brigham Young University (BYU): specifically, how the tour evolved from in-person to analogue to digital to mobile. The benefits and drawbacks of each mode will be mentioned as well as the compelling reasons for following the path to the current implementation of the tour.

  • 1 - Managing digital cultural heritage information

  • Ian Ruthven, G. G. Chowdhury
  • Book:
    Cultural Heritage Information
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 1-12

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations (UNESCO, 2008). Cultural heritage is commonly divided into two categories (Cane and Conagham, 2009):

    • 1 Tangible cultural heritage that are material, and can be (a) movable objects, such as paintings, antiquities or artefacts and (b) immovable objects such as buildings, monuments or archaeological sites; and

    • 2 Intangible cultural heritage that cannot be touched but which can be felt through other sensory organs – for example, can be seen, as in the case of a dance or performance of a play or ritual, or can be heard, as in the case of music, stories, etc.

    A new form of cultural heritage is born when the tangible or intangible heritage objects are digitized; and this is commonly referred to as digital cultural heritage or cultural heritage information resources (Lor and Britz, 2012). Cultural heritage information resources may include a wide variety of content, objects and artefacts. According to the European Commission, Europe's cultural memory includes print (books, journals and newspapers), photographs, museum objects, archival documents, sound and audio visual materials, monuments and archaeological sites (European Commission, 2011).

    Cultural heritage in the parlance of the World Intellectual Property Organization may be either intangible, tangible or, most usually, combinations of the two – an example of such a ‘mixed expression of folklore’ would be a woven rug (a tangible expression) that expresses elements of a traditional story (an intangible expression) (WIPO, n.d.).

    Cultural heritage content may come in many different forms, such as:

    • • verbal expressions, such as folk tales, folk poetry and riddles, signs, words, symbols and indications

    • • musical expressions, such as folk songs and instrumental music

    • • expressions by actions, such as folk dances, plays and artistic forms or rituals, whether or not reduced to a material form

    • • tangible expressions, such as:

    • — productions of folk art, in particular, drawings, paintings, carvings, sculptures, pottery, terracotta, mosaic, woodwork, metalware, jewellery, basket weaving, needlework, textiles, carpets, costumes

    • — crafts

    • — musical instruments

    • — architectural forms.

    WIPO, n.d.

    A number of publications covering different aspects of digital cultural heritage have appeared over the past decade or so (Cameron and Kenderdine, 2007; Cane and Conagham, 2009; Feather, 2006; Lor and Britz, 2012), and they cover a wide range of themes such as:

  • 9 - Working with suppliers and licensing for e-libraries

  • Edited by Katharine Schopflin
  • Book:
    A Handbook for Corporate Information Professionals
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 139-158

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter examines the issues facing corporate information professionals when purchasing and rolling out subscription resources to end-users. The authors have extensive experience in the area, working for law firms based in the UK and USA. While experiences may vary, their advice should be relevant to those managing subscriptions in all sizes of organization. Other variables include the type of licence models offered by the supplier, the size of the organization, the corporate culture and the position of the information service within it, but many issues remain common to all. As a coda to the chapter, a supplier offers her perspective on the relationship between vendor and subscriber, and some advice on how to make it beneficial for all parties.

    Electronic resources in the organization

    The library or information centre in a large corporation was traditionally a single, centralized facility, often a centrally located showplace in the organization's largest office, and it could appear that this research repository was the ‘beating heart’ of operations within the firm. In law firms it was not unusual to see bookcases and aisles of extensive rows of reports, case law, statutes, regulations, and annotated treatises, reflecting the collections used in law school. However, once online legal research providers began gathering and indexing legal knowledge, offering full-text access, these collections began to seem unwieldy. Even before the advent of the web, the library offered an access point to these resources, as an adjunct to the physical space visited by staff needing to carry out research. Today, staff distributed around the offices of global firms have access to the knowledge they need at their fingertips, on their desktop PC and even on their mobile devices. Sophisticated aggregation and distribution of alerts as well as the full-text versions of materials are managed by information professionals, many of whom never see their users.

    In most large US law firms, the information service continues to be recognized as the central point for the organization of the electronic and digital versions of those same print resources, often via the organization’s intranet. In many firms, the information service maintains a separate site or ‘page’ on the network or intranet, which brings together the electronic resources, providing instruction on how to access the resources and who to contact for specialized research.

  • 1 - Design and testing of mobile library websites: best practices in creating mobile library applications

  • from Part 1 - Best practice for the use of mobile technologies in libraries
  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 3-18

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The advancements in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the unprecedented innovations and inventions have brought enormous change in all walks of life around the globe. The growth of the mobile communication medium is one of the important support systems of ICT which has seen a sea change over the years. This growth is ascribed to the desire of users for a number of different communications media to access the internet. From desktop computers, the mode of computing shifted to laptops and further into tablets. The proliferation of mobile technology, especially the 3G hype and the subsequent Wi-Fi innovations, have triggered an unprecedented change in the tools for access to the internet. Song and Lee observe that the users have ‘widely adopted mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and e-readers as their primary tools to access information’ (2012, 574). It is also worth noticing that in this rapidly changing environment, people have become ‘more dependent on wireless communication systems’ (Olatokun and Bodunwa, 2006, 530). The growth of mobile telephony, especially the ever-expanding growth in Asia and Africa in the use of cellular telephony, has seen a number of innovations both in the technology and in the service delivery of mobile communication technology. Academic institutions have benefited greatly from these innovations, as they form the cornerstone of the information society. Over the years the libraries, which act as the focal point of the academic community, have adapted these changing technologies in their service delivery. With the cosmic change of the mobile revolution around the globe, it is no surprise that libraries stand in the forefront of providing information to their users through the new mode of mobile technology.

    Mobile technology and academic institutions

    With the fascinating growth of the mobile communication system, it is worth noting the growth of its user base, especially amongst the academic community. Olatokun and Bodunwa observe that ‘Mobile phones have become an inseparable part of everyday life’ (2006, 530). Smith, Salaway and Borreson Caruso, in their study of undergraduate students and information technology (EDUCAUSE, 2009) shed light on the mindset of undergraduate students with respect to mobile usage. According to their study, 76.7% of undergraduate students have used smartphones not only for communication but also for accessing information.

  • 10 - Creating a social media policy

  • Phil Bradley
  • Book:
    Social Media for Creative Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 147-158

  • Summary

    Introduction

    A question that I often ask delegates on courses is: ‘Does your organization have a social media policy?’ and the answer is usually in the negative. I have long ceased to be surprised by this since it's the norm rather than the exception. Indeed, in a recent FT-ICSA Boardroom Bellwether report (https://www.icsa.org.uk/assets/files/pdfs/Business%20Bellwether/icsa-ftbellwether- 5.pdf) 47% of respondents said that their board had never discussed a social media policy and 39% had only discussed it between one and three times. Only 7% said that their board had discussed social media more often. Furthermore, only 26% of respondents stated that a social media strategy was important, with 65% describing it as neutral or unimportant. I think that there are many reasons for this, some of which I have previously mentioned; they are unfamiliar with social media either in practice or concept, and they find the terminology of likes, followers, tweets and so on something they dislike or feel uncomfortable about. The end result is that employees, who are often far more familiar with social media, don't feel that they are being given support; they’re unsure on what they are allowed to do and what they shouldn't do, leading to a situation where they do nothing, or go off in a whole host of different directions with little help or guidance.

    A good social media policy will protect the staff and the library; it will mean that they are able to work on social media with much more confidence, difficult situations can be handled swiftly and effectively, and the entire organization will benefit rather than suffer. In this chapter I’ll look at some of the things that you can take into account when putting a policy together, and as a humorous aside we can take a look at some organizations who didn't think that far ahead and what happened as a result.

    Why an organization needs a social media policy

    A statement on why an organization needs and wants to have a social media policy should be right at the heart and the start of any document. It will help set the structure and give employees a clear idea of what is expected of them by the organization, how they are to implement it, and for what purpose.

  • 15 - Mobile frontiers: real or perceived? Adopting a service-wide approach

  • from Part 2 - Challenges and strategies involved in embracing mobile innovation for libraries
  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 139-144

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Learning Services at Edge Hill University (EHU), UK, comprises a complex range of academic support services, of which the library is a key component. It was evident in 2012 that progress on the development of mobile technologies within the library was slower than in other areas of the service. In part this was due to external opportunities which were too attractive to delay, in particular the inducement to be an early adopter of Mobile Learn, the mobile version of our virtual learning environment, Blackboard, and the complementary opportunity to work with colleagues in another division to populate the mobile platform for the University, EHU central. However, with limited staff resources to focus on developments, the result was that progress on the adoption of mobile technologies temporarily stalled across the library service.

    To address this, two managers, one from an academic liaison team, the second from the learning technologies division, were given a remit to develop a set of recommendations for the library. They were encouraged to draw on staff from across the service, pooling colleagues with expertise and confidence in the use of mobile technologies with those who were lacking confidence and openly sceptical about the benefits. This was to temper the appeal of the next ‘big thing’ in mobile technology becoming the sole focus and to ensure that what emerged was rooted in an evidence base and informed by the user behaviour and preferences of the staff and students of the University. The advantages of drawing together a multi-professional team are increasingly recognized as being an effective approach to strategic development. The mix of skills and perspectives helps to provide a rich base for decision-making and to an extent mitigates the risk of bias from any single professional group.

    Project aims (Phase 1: 2012–13)

    The project had three key objectives to achieve:

  • Provide a focus for the development of a mobile strategy for library services.

  • Liaise with all stakeholder communities to identify priorities.

  • Produce an evidence-based options appraisal and list of priorities for implementation.

    • Methodology

    A systematic approach was adopted, with the first stage focusing primarily on desk-based research to establish the current trends and innovations in the field of mobile technologies; to benchmark current practice across the higher education community; and to identify key areas for further exploration with stakeholder groups, students, academic staff and other staff from across the University.

  • 9 - Marketing and promotion – the practicalities

  • Phil Bradley
  • Book:
    Social Media for Creative Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 127-146

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Having discussed laying the groundwork for marketing and promoting your library service, event or conference, let's next turn to some of the methods that you can use which should hopefully give you a good social media presence. This chapter is very practically based, using lots of different tools that you may find helpful when planning your marketing and promotion. Most of the tools will be free, though some may have a commercial aspect to them that you might want to explore if you have any extra cash available, but the emphasis here is really doing things on a shoestring budget.

    Images

    As we’ve seen before, using visual imagery is a great way to get people to sit up and take notice of what you’re doing. Unfortunately all too often we use the tools that are readily available to us, such as Microsoft Word clip art, which while it is convenient is not exactly very exciting. I would suggest that an excellent place to start, and to get some inspiration for posters, Facebook pictures, images that you can tweet about and so on is the BigHugeLabs website at http://bighugelabs.com. All that you need to start off with is an image; a photograph that you’ve got, an illustration from a library database, perhaps, a logo, or failing that an image that has a Creative Commons Licence that allows you to modify images that the original copyright owner is making freely available for this exact purpose. BigHugeLabs has drag-and-drop options allowing you to create magazine covers, movie posters, pop art posters, jigsaws or calendars. You can create photographic cubes that can be cut out and folded, create billboard-type images or wallpaper with monthly calendars for your computer.

    To look at just two examples in detail: you can create your own badges, and Figure 9.1 is an example. You could then print these out, laminate them (cheap laminators can be purchased for about £10 these days) and then hand them out to library visitors. Instead of the image saying ‘Press’, you could edit it to become anything that you like; sculpture, artist, musician, writer, and so on, to focus on famous people in history.

  • 10 - Supporting exploration and use of digital cultural heritage materials: the PATHS perspective

  • Ian Ruthven, G. G. Chowdhury
  • Book:
    Cultural Heritage Information
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 197-220

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Cultural heritage involves rich and highly heterogeneous collections that are challenging to archive and convey to the general public.

    Hardman et al., 2009, 23

    This statement describes two aspects that make access to cultural heritage information challenging: the heterogeneous nature of many cultural heritage collections and the growing need to provide non-specialist users with access to cultural heritage content. Cultural heritage institutions (libraries, museums and archives) hold an enormous and rich variety of digital content covering a broad range of subjects, such as natural history, ethnography, archaeology, historic monuments and fine and applied arts, which often cross national and linguistic boundaries. There is strong motivation to bring together content from different cultural institutions into centralized portals, which have typically offered access services based on traditional catalogues used in libraries, museums and archives. For example, Europeana provides online access to over 32 million digitized cultural heritage artefacts provided by a range of European institutions. However, the size and lack of organization of these collections can be overwhelming for many users, who are provided with little or no guidance about how to access, interpret and use the information in them. There is a risk of ‘overload’ when users are presented with vast collections of information (Patterson, Roth and Woods, 2001).

    This chapter discusses techniques to support information access to digital cultural heritage collections and, in particular, helping users explore and use the information they contain. In this chapter ‘use’ relates to assisting users with creating paths or trails with the items they find. To ground the discussion we focus on a particular system called ‘PATHS’ that aims to support multiple user groups with varying degrees of domain knowledge through the provision of state-of-the-art functionalities, such as recommendations and visualizations. A central theme of the system is the integration of ‘paths’ (sets of artefacts from the collection organized around a topic) into the system to assist users with navigating and interpreting the content. These paths may form access points to the collection, and the pathway metaphor is an effective way of guiding users through online digital collections (Shipman et al., 2000), as well as artefacts displayed in physical museums (Van Hage et al., 2010; Grieser et al., 2011).

  • 6 - Practical knowledge management: stories from the front line

  • Edited by Katharine Schopflin
  • Book:
    A Handbook for Corporate Information Professionals
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 77-98

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Knowledge management as a practice has the distinction of being ubiquitous but barely understood. At its best, it is the means by which an organization becomes able to fulfil its capabilities by realizing not just what information it creates and where to find it, itself an achievement, but also how to make the best of the skills of the people who work there, through communication and sharing. But it can simply be a new name given to existing activities in IT, internal communications or information departments, without any real ambition to improve the way these departments interact with the rest of the business. Worse, it can sometimes be brought in as a new initiative without any real appetite to challenge existing ways of working, leaving the newest recruit in the business to try and encourage the company's major income-generators to work differently. The author has worked in a range of knowledge and information management roles over the past 20 years, in-house and as a consultant. He brings his experience to offer, first, an interpretation of the term ‘knowledge management’ and some of the concepts associated with it, and then some key areas of advice for anyone working in the area.

    Background to knowledge management

    Management

    Knowledge management can seem to be the most nebulous and hazy of subjects. A whole spectrum of the organization, from the top table to the rank and file, peer suspiciously at these words, wondering if they are just yet more management gobbledegook. The term has been around long enough now and goes in and out of fashion, something to be pondered when all is well within the organization, but to be discarded when times are hard.

    The knowledge management community does not always help itself with self-promotion, arguing among itself, in a how many angels on the head of a pin way, about what knowledge actually is, and how it can be described.

    So perhaps let us start with the second of the terms, ‘management’. Everyone who has ever had a job understands that. It is about being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it. There is an element of human interaction and emotion in there as well. There are ways and ways of telling and of doing.

  • 12 - Innovative use of SMS for library services: attitude of library professionals in Anambra and Delta public libraries

  • from Part 2 - Challenges and strategies involved in embracing mobile innovation for libraries
  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 107-122

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Innovation

    In today's fast-moving and complex information provision environment, the ability to innovate and deploy change more effectively than competitors is now considered a requisite for survival and success. Innovation is about creating new products, tools, services or processes, bringing forth something which had not been there before, thus allowing people or organizations to scale new heights and accomplish objectives that they were not able to achieve previously. It involves putting into practice new ideas and solutions (Tsai, 2001).

    Innovation aids in the creation of sustainable change. Adopting innovations often requires changes in existing ways of performing tasks and so resistance is a normal response. Acceptance of change is crucial if it is to be effectively deployed. An organization should therefore have employees who are both enthusiastic and open to innovation individually so that the introduced change can take root, survive and be sustained in the long run (Janssen, 2000). The increase in changes and developments in the field of information provision has made innovative work behaviours of primary importance to libraries. The concept of change in libraries is not new and affects different aspects of library work, such as organizational structure, service delivery, employment policies, information dissemination and resource scheduling (Stephens and Russell, 2004).

    SMS

    The mobile phone which took over from landlines has become, over the past ten years, one of the major interfaces used to access and share information. Since their introduction, mobile phone devices have become more versatile, allowing communication between and among individuals via three major services: internet data services, voice calls and SMS (Short Message Service) (International Telecommunications Union, 2012a). The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS or text messaging, sending and receiving messages using mobile phones. Texting or SMS has become so popular as a way of communicating that many have taken to calling today's teens and young adults the ‘generation text’, ‘the texting generation’, or ‘the X and Y generation’ (Lippincott, 2010; Feldman, 2010). The mobile phone SMS service has developed rapidly since its introduction. It is very popular throughout the world, especially amongst the young, as it is cheaper than voice calls, allows for voiceless communication and is very useful when one is in transit and calls are not going through and in noisy environments.

  • 10 - Does position within the library affect mobile technology acceptance?

  • from Part 2 - Challenges and strategies involved in embracing mobile innovation for libraries
  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 87-98

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Successful implementation of technology in the workplace depends on planning, implementation, sustainability and institutionalization. It has been argued that three overlapping areas subject to rapid technological change are hardware, software and staff, and all involve costs (Cunningham, 2010). The pressures to keep up with technological developments are often perceived by staff as relentless and overwhelming, with the expectation: ‘In today's western society, technology systems in education and industry require an employee to be continually up-skilling’ (Bhati et al., 2010, 13).

    Understanding the factors that influence staff response to technology improves the likelihood of desired outcomes and significant empirical investigation has been conducted over the past four decades in an attempt to explain the relationship between user attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and eventual system use (Agarwal and Prasad, 1997; Davis, 1989; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Rogers, 2003; Venkatesh et al., 2003). These investigations have explored a range of attributes such as age, computer proficiency, experience and attitude as indicators enabling prediction of likely technology acceptance in the workplace. The role of professional position, the subject of the research discussed here, has been demonstrated to influence how staff will approach technology implementation (Kripanont, 2007; Schaper and Pervan, 2007).

    The ability of working environments to manage change is affected by the level and suitability of professional development available to staff, including effective use of resources to ensure staff are confident and competent in a changing environment (Weir, 2000). Moreover, to meet the increasing demands for technology and evidence-based competencies (Abram, 2005; Partridge, Lee and Munro, 2010), library managers require awareness of staff skills. It is with this aim that the research reported here examined the impact of professional position on staff attitudes, required skills, and preferred training methods.

    Research approach

    The research sought to determine whether the attribute of position influenced the likelihood of Vocational Education and Training (VET) library staff accepting and using mobile technologies within their workplace. In particular, professional position was examined in relation to four areas crucial to effective engagement with these technologies: attitude towards technology usage, required competencies in the mobile environment, required training to deliver services to mobile devices and preferred methods of training.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp xxxix-xliv

  • Summary

    This is the fifth volume in the M-Libraries series and once again we have the opportunity to reflect on the impact mobile technologies have had on the development of library services across the globe. This year we have 22 chapters from 13 countries, as far apart as India and Germany, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe, Scotland and Bangladesh. The experience and level of development, not surprisingly, varies considerably. Some libraries are at the stage of establishing user needs and preferences while others are experimenting with advanced technologies like augmented reality.

    We open Part 1 of this volume, entitled ‘Best practice for the use of mobile technologies in libraries’, with two complementary chapters from John Paul Anbu K., Sanjay Kataria and Shri Ram describing work carried out at the Jaylee Institute of Information Technology and Jaypee University Institute of Information Technology in India. The first chapter focuses on the evidence base for best practice in designing a mobile library website and incorporates the results of the user survey they conducted to inform the development of their site. In the second chapter the authors explore the use of mobile technology to deliver an information literacy programme, again informed by the results of a user survey.

    The Open University of Catalonia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC) Library is unique in that it has operated solely in a virtual space since its inception in 1995. The chapter by Pep Torn, Anna Zuñiga Ruiz and Carme Fenoll Clarabuch describes an exciting initiative to work collaboratively with the public library service to use the apps developed at UOC to give their students access to their service via the most convenient public library.

    Michael Whitchurch is the Virtual Services Librarian at Brigham Young University in the USA. In his chapter he reflects on the journey his library tour has made through various incarnations, as developing technologies have afforded new opportunities, as he says, from analogue to digital to mobile.

    One of the problems faced by libraries providing mobile services is that the electronic resources they provide to their users may not be mobile friendly. Mark Williams’ chapter describes an initiative led by his UK organization JISC to develop a set of guidelines for publishers to observe in order to address this issue.

  • 3 - Guiding tools

  • Phil Bradley
  • Book:
    Social Media for Creative Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 31-44

  • Summary

    Introduction

    There's nothing new about guiding users; it's something that information professionals do all of the time. We choose the titles to purchase, the databases to subscribe to, the magazines to display. Of course, we’re not telling them what they should do with the information that they find, but we’re acting as a reliable source or beacon to help them on their way.

    In the age of the internet we have simply moved from one way of guiding to another – most library or information sites will have lists of useful websites or web pages that users may find helpful when they are doing their own research. While it is helpful, it's very difficult to make such a list interesting or attractive for people to use. When faced with a long and, let’s face it, boring list of URLs it takes someone with a strong heart or desperation to actually go through the list looking for what they need. These lists are also quickly out of date, content changes, and they need to be refreshed manually. It can also be quite difficult to share these helpful lists with other people, without requiring them to constantly return to your own website.

    With the increase in social media tools however, the ability to provide guiding for library members has exploded. We can set up start or home pages that come up immediately a browser is activated, we can pull in RSS or newsfeeds to keep up to date with what is happening in a particular subject area, or we can make our own search engines for members to use. Alternatively, when we find information ourselves (either by searching directly for it or serendipitously) we can quickly share this with people in a variety of different ways.

    In this chapter I shall look at some of the tools that the library can use; easy to establish, quick and simple to maintain, attractive to look at and costing nothing except some time.

    Home or start pages

    When we open up our browsers, it's usually because we want to do something – check our e-mail, see what current affairs are occurring, run a search, keep up to date with blogs, do a currency conversion and so on.

  • 11 - Learning with smartphones: higher education students' experiences and practices

  • from Part 2 - Challenges and strategies involved in embracing mobile innovation for libraries
  • Edited by Gill Needham, Ally Mohamed
  • Book:
    M-Libraries 5
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 99-106

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The main purpose of this study is to provide an overview of library and information science (LIS) students’ actual experiences in using mobile phones or smartphones for study and learning purposes and their perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of mobile phones for learning in general. The study is focused on LIS undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the University of Tsukuba from Japan (UT).

    Recent studies of mobile learning in higher education generally suggest that mobile phones are increasingly being used for learning purposes (Dahlstrom, Dziuban and Walker, 2012; Dresselhaus and Shrode, 2012; Cheon et al., 2012; Bomhold, 2013; Gikas and Grant, 2013; Park and Jung, 2013; Kim, Ilon and Altmann, 2013). A few studies involving students from Hong Kong and Japan (Kukulska- Hulme et al., 2011; Ang et al., 2012; Bibby, 2011) indicate students’ tendencies to use mobile phones or smartphones for learning as well.

    Objectives

    This study is based on current research findings on learning with mobile phones and the following research questions were identified:

  • How do LIS students use mobile phones or smartphones in their everyday lives?

  • Do LIS students use mobile phones or smartphones for learning purposes?

  • Do LIS students use mobile phones or smartphones to access library services for learning purposes?

  • Do LIS students at HKU and UT differ in their use of mobile phones or smartphones for learning purposes?

    • Research methods

    A qualitative research methodology was applied to this study. The data was collected through an asynchronous online focus group (Williams et al., 2012), while a Facebook page titled ‘LISEXCHANGE’ was used as a platform for online discussions. The Facebook page was established by researchers from HKU and UT: undergraduate and graduate students of LIS programmes from both universities were encouraged to participate in discussions about using smartphones for everyday needs, focusing on learning purposes. The discussions were initiated and moderated by researchers.

    Altogether 13 students from HKU and 5 students from UT actively took part in online discussions. The empirical materials gathered contained 42 postings (34 posts from HKU students and 8 posts from UT students). The study was conducted over a period of three months, from October to December 2013.

  • 2 - Authority checking

  • Phil Bradley
  • Book:
    Social Media for Creative Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp 17-30

  • Summary

    Introduction

    A vital activity that information professionals have always undertaken is checking the validity of the content that they find, and warning or advising their enquirers. The publication date of a book, the bias of the newspaper, the expertise of the author, the respect accorded to the journal and the number of citations for the article are all standard criteria that have been used on a daily basis and, of course, are still used.

    With the increasing importance of the internet it was necessary to come to grips with an entirely new way of assessing the authority and validity of the content that appeared on the screen. The URL of a website with, for example, a .gov.uk domain trumped that of a more casual .co.uk. In the early days of the expansion of the internet there was a real Wild West attitude at large, with people registering any domain names that they could get their hands on, in the hope of selling it back to the ‘rightful owner’. I recall some enterprising soul buying up various .co.uk domains using the names of different universities, then selling them on for a quick profit. However, that particularly lucrative trade didn't last too long before the lawyers and courts got involved. It's still an interesting area, though, as new domain names are constantly being put into circulation, and we now face a plethora of new domain extensions such as .guru, .food, .wales, .finance and so on.

    There are also plenty of fake or spoof websites in existence and in the main these are created simply for the humour of the situation. The Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division, at www.dhmo.org is one such example, warning us about the dangers of a dangerous chemical otherwise known as ‘water’, or the delightful Dog Island, at www.thedogisland.com, which is a site that describes an island where dogs are free to roam and bark and play all day long while on their holidays. However, there are also rather more unsavoury sites, such as the one produced by a racist organization designed to criticize a particular civil rights leader, which constantly gets a high ranking in Google results. We have learned by trial, error and basic common sense not to trust the information that we find on the internet, and part of our job is to pass this wariness onto the people that we work with.

  • Preface

  • June York
  • Book:
    Libraries and Information Services in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland 2015
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    10 June 2015, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    How this book is organized

    Libraries and Information Services in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland is published annually, and is a listing of organizations falling into the five categories below.

    1 Public library authorities

    ∎ All public library authorities in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, arranged under home countries

    • – Public Libraries in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Crown Dependencies

    • – Public Libraries in the Republic of Ireland

    Service managers and officers are listed, as supplied by the individual authorities.

    It is clearly impossible to list here all branch libraries, mobile bases and so on, so each entry includes headquarters/central library details, together with major branches and area/regional/group libraries, as supplied by each individual library. Libraries in this section are arranged by name of authority.

    A listing of the nine Government regions in England, indicating which public library authorities fall in their areas, is given on page 369.

    2 Academic libraries (arranged by name of institution)

    ∎ University libraries in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, together with major department and site/campus libraries

    ∎ College libraries at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London

    Please note: potential users of the Oxford and Cam bridge libraries should be aware that their use is restricted to members of the college, and to bona fide scholars on application to the Librarian; any additional information about their use is given with each entry.

    ∎ The university-equivalent colleges in the Republic of Ireland

    ∎ Other degree-awarding institutions in the UK

    All colleges of higher education funded by HEFCE, SHEFC and HEFCW are included.

    3 Selected government, national and special libraries in the

    UK and the Republic of Ireland

    ∎ Special libraries are included if they are one of the main libraries or organizations in their subject field. For example, the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects is included for architecture, the Institution of Civil Engineers for civil engineering.

    Many of the libraries in this section require a prior appointment to be made before visiting.

    4 Schools and departments of information and library studies

    ∎ Each academic institution offering courses in information and library studies, with full contact details of the departments concerned.

    5 Index

    ∎ Organizations are fully indexed by name and place.

Page 144 of 293