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5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 253 of 293

  • 23 - Involving users in a technical solution to help assess the accessibility of websites

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 225-234

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The European Commission Communication on e-accessibility aims to move forward recommendations to address accessibility and inclusion and to achieve ‘an “Information Society for All”, promoting an inclusive digital society that provides opportunities for all and minimizes the risk of exclusion’ (European Commission, 2005a). The measures recommended by the Commission include Design For All methods in the design of products and services, including the design and evaluation of websites and drawing on recommendations made by the World Wide Web Consortium/Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C/WAI). As a result of these activities, a range of projects have been funded to address the issues raised (see for example, Klironomos et al., 2006).

    The Design for All approach refers to the way content and structure are applied to web-based resources and services so that they can be developed and delivered in a way that reaches as many people as possible. This is in alignment with various e-inclusion activities under way within Europe, such as the e-Europe accessibility action plan (European Commission, 2005a) to address the i2010 strategy for creating a ‘European society for growth and employment’ (European Commission, 2005b). The i2010 strategy, for example, places a particular emphasis on accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT, accessibility certification, and web accessibility assessment methods and tools.

    A new technological solution to assessing the accessibility of websites over time is being developed by the European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO) project team. EIAO is funded by the European Commission and runs from 2004 to 2007 (with a proposed extension within the existing budget until 2008). It involves partners from six countries across Europe. The aim of the project is to develop an online service, via a user interface, which will provide regular (e.g. monthly) updates of the general accessibility of websites by country, sector (for example, the library sector) and on an individual basis. The ‘Observatory’ is different from other automated checkers (such as LIFT and Cynthia Says), because it aims to aggregate individual tests for large-scale benchmarking and to evaluate the development of the results from one period to the next to indicate where improvements have been made and/or to alert to possible problems which have arisen.

  • 21 - Discrete library services for international students: how can exclusivity lead to inclusivity?

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 205-216

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This paper reports on research being undertaken for the UK Society of College National and University Libraries (SCONUL) to investigate how UK university libraries can best support international students, culminating in guidelines which will be published by SCONUL in December 2007. The research examined the issues surrounding the debate over exclusivity versus inclusivity that affect the provision of library services for international students. Results include what techniques UK university libraries are currently employing; feedback from international students about their priorities for library support and how that matches library staff perceptions; and with whom university libraries need to work to improve service provision. The research identified examples of good practice in providing a truly inclusive library service for international students and explored whether issues faced in UK libraries are reflected by experience in other developed countries.

    Background to the study

    International students make up 13.4% of the total UK higher education institution (HEI) population, and, in addition to enriching cultural diversity and providing essential income, they also bring a wide variety of needs, experience and expectations. In recent years the international student profile has become increasingly diverse, as in other developed countries, with students worldwide having a diverse range of abilities and subject interests and hence a broader scope of teaching and learning experiences. These changes are reflected in the issues faced by all libraries striving to support international students effectively.

    Findings of a major survey of more than 28,000 international students confirmed that the UK is still ‘a close rival to the US as the best study destination in the world’ (Tysome, 2006, 3). However, if UK universities are to maintain their place in the global market, they need to respond to changing needs to attract students from abroad. Academic libraries have an important supporting role in this. Andreas Schleicher, head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at the OECD, warns that ‘the global educational landscape has changed fundamentally’ and UK universities must face challenges from China and India, in particular, as well as from other European countries now offering degrees taught in English. He says, ‘Success will go to those institutions and countries that are swift to adapt, slow to complain and open to change’ (Schleicher, 2007, 3).

  • 16 - The process of assessment of the quality, usability and impact of electronic services and resources: a Quality Attributes approach

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 159-170

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As a profession we are constantly striving to ensure that we provide the best possible services and resources to our users. This concern has resulted in a myriad of approaches and methods being utilized in an attempt to establish the quality of services and resources and lead to improvements in them. Online resources in particular have been the focus of much research in recent years, with work being undertaken in many areas, including, for example, information retrieval, information-seeking behaviour and usability studies, different approaches which share the same ultimate goal of making resources and systems easier to use by endusers.

    As a result of the shift in recent years from the use of performance indicators to measures of outcome and impact within libraries (Brophy, 2004), a Quality Attributes approach is proposed in this paper. This approach allows for a holistic assessment of the quality of services or resources and encompasses usability. The classic definition of quality as ‘fitness for a purpose’ was developed by Garvin (1987) into a model of eight dimensions or ‘attributes’ that can be used as a framework for determining the overall quality of a product or service. This approach has since been adapted for use in libraries and information services by Marchand (1990), Brophy and Coulling (1996), Brophy (1998) and Griffiths and Brophy (2002, 2005). Griffiths and Brophy adapted the Quality Attributes further by changing the emphasis of one attribute, changing the concept of one attribute, and introducing two additional attributes (Currency and Usability), thus producing a set of ten attributes which can be used to assess the quality, usability and impact of services and resources. These attributes are: Performance, Conformance, Features, Reliability, Durability, Currency, Serviceability, Aesthetics, Perceived quality and Usability. Usability, often used as an assessment criterion in its own right, has been defined by ISO 9241-11 as ‘the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use’ and, as Nielsen points out, ‘It is important to realize that usability is not a single, one-dimensional property of a user interface. Usability has multiple components and is traditionally associated with these five usability attributes: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, satisfaction’ (1993, 26).

  • 13 - Improving information retrieval with dialogue mapping and concept mapping tools

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 125-136

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Development of education practices and new education methods are increasingly important in Finnish universities. There is pressure because of internationalization and quality targets with no extra funding are to be expected. This can also be seen in training organized by the library.

    The Library of Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) has almost 40 years’ experience in teaching information retrieval. In these years several course models have been used and thousands of students have participated in the training (Palmgren and Heino, 2002, 197–207). The Bologna process (named after the University of Bologna, where the Bologna declaration was signed in 1999) aims to create a European higher education area by 2010, making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe. This has changed the situation at TKK and new courses have had to be planned. The library now has its own part in the student's seminar programme, where instruction has been planned to ease the writing of the thesis; for example, students undertake an exercise to search for information on the topic of their thesis. Library training reaches all students twice: at the beginning of the studies and then at the thesis writing phase.

    Because the groups are large and the time to be used is limited, learning environments and other methods to ease tuition are being used. There is also less room for face-to-face teaching in the schedule (Heino and Palmgren, 2006).

    In order to reach the goal of information literacy, students have to apply the basic skills they have learned in the library courses to their actual studies. TKK teachers are in a vital position, and so new training for teachers has actively been planned as a part of their pedagogical training. The new course presented in this paper combines different competences and allows for co-operation between different fields of knowledge within the university.

    Mapping methods are being used for structuring the information search. Maps are known to be a good method for outlining things in general; however, piecing together information-searching exercises is difficult. When students receive the topic for their thesis they are often lost; they do not know about the topic, or how to search for information.

  • 19 - Meeting users’ needs online in real-time: a dream of librarians in the developing world

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 185-194

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Since the internet has broadened its scale and dissolved physical boundaries, there is huge competition among professionals to bring their business to cyberspace. There is plenty of evidence in the literature to confirm that librarians have also marched into this new space, particularly in their effort to reach their clients to provide a much-needed online real-time reference service. Coffman (2003) describes this new trend: ‘In a little less than 4 years, thousands of librarians got out from behind the desk, opened up their shops on the internet, and made ready to answer patron questions live and in real time.’ Bakker (2002) states that ‘since the year 2000 there's been an explosion of interest in the library world of adapting chat technology’. However, this explosion has hardly travelled beyond the northern hemisphere and most of these librarians who have shops in cyberspace are from developed countries. Therefore, in spite of the abundance of literature on online real-time reference, very little has been published on such efforts in the developing world.

    The statement by Alemna and Cobblah (2005) that ‘information technology is expanding throughout Africa but at a slower pace, yet with intense efforts directed towards training and implementing more automation’ describes a situation common to most countries that suffer from shrinking library budgets, technological drawbacks, user resistance, etc. E-mail versions of online reference services may have been tried by quite a number of librarians in these countries, but there is hardly any evidence of evaluation studies being undertaken to identify the usability and effectiveness of such a service. The time has arrived for librarians in the developing world to think seriously about how they can actively participate in the investigation of technological alternatives to in-person, face-to-face reference, which is becoming obsolete at a rapid pace.

    Why do librarians have to go online?

    The number of questions coming in to library reference desks is declining and more and more of our patrons are turning to the web to look for their answers (Bakker, 2002). A discussion has already commenced, and is continuing, on whether libraries could be replaced by the internet and its commercial reference service providers such as AskJeeves and WebHelp.

  • 15 - A user-centred approach to the evaluation of digital cultural maps: the case of the VeriaGrid system

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 147-158

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In the European Union the digitization of cultural heritage resources has been promoted though various initiatives, such as the Lund principles, which resulted in a European wide framework for the digitization of cultural heritage (e-Europe 2001), the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme, which funded research on the digitization and access to cultural heritage collections through several projects (IST, 2006), and the European Library initiative, which developed a network of digital cultural heritage resources among the members of the European Union (The European Library, 2006). The digitization of cultural heritage resources (CHRs) has significant implications for the developing economy of digital cultural tourism in Europe. It implies the development of:

  • • the online availability and accessibility of digital CHRs

  • • the development of a network of digital CHRs

  • • the promotion of CHRs to a geographically dispersed audience of educators, learners and tourists

  • • the marketing and promotion of CHRs across the globe.

    • On the other hand, several factors can impede the development of digital cultural tourism in Europe, such as the shortage of technical infrastructure, the absence of a coherent cultural policy and the lack of innovation and knowledge transfer mechanisms, as well as the ignorance of users’ needs and budget constraints (Manzuch and Knoll, 2005; Tanner and Deegan, 2003).

    The Central Public Library of Veria (CPLV), a major provider of online information services to the Greek public, has convinced cultural heritage institutions of the city of Veria:

  • • to rethink their role in the society in the new electronic era

  • • to make their rich collections of CHRs easily accessible to the public via the internet and other technologies, such as laptops and mobile phones

  • • to compile an inventory of digital CHRs and other instruments useful to the public.

    • In particular, the CPLV, through the LIGHT project (www.light-culture.net), developed the ‘VeriaGrid’, an online digital cultural map of the city of Veria to bring to light the cultural resources managed by local museums, libraries and other cultural organizations of Veria. The VeriaGrid system provides users with the opportunity to navigate across the map and visit various cultural sites, such as churches, museums, libraries and archaeological sites (see Figure 15.1).

  • 22 - Are we ethical? A workshop on the ethical challenges of providing library services to distance learners

    • By Gill Needham, Open University Library and Learning Resource Centre, UK, Kay Johnson, Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada
  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 217-224

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This paper reports on discussions drawn from a workshop on the ethical challenges of providing library services to distance learners, which was undertaken at the Libraries Without Walls conference in September 2007 (www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/ lww7/).

    Drawing on our respective experience at the UK's Open University and at Athabasca University, Canada's Open University, we engaged in a dialogue about ethical challenges in providing library support to distance learners. We felt it would be valuable to have a framework of ethical principles to guide our practice. Unable to locate an existing framework, we devised our own, influenced by the UK and Canadian professional codes of ethics for librarians (Canadian Library Association, 1976; CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, 2006), as well as by the Society of College, National and University Libraries’ briefing paper Access for Distance Learners: report of the SCONUL task force (SCONUL, 2001) and the Canadian Library Association's Guidelines for Library Support of Distance and Distributed Learning in Canada (CLA, 1993 [2000]).

    The purpose of the workshop was to test a set of ethical guidelines proposed in an article we wrote for a special issue on ethics in Open Learning (Needham and Johnson, 2007).

    The workshop scenario

    The following scenario was enacted as an opener to the workshop; the characters are a librarian on a helpdesk telephone (L) and a distraught student on the telephone (S):

  • L: Hello. Library Helpdesk. Susan speaking. How can I help you?

  • S: I'm a student on the Science and Society course and I have a real problem with my assignment.

  • L: What's the problem?

  • S: Well, it's due tomorrow. I was supposed to do it over the weekend, but the children wanted to go shopping and my mum's not been too well, and then my partner had to work. You know how it is …

  • L: Well, yes …. So can you get it done tonight?

  • S: I've written a lot of it, but my computer has just blown up, just when I was going online to look for some literature.

  • 24 - The reality of managing change: the transition to Intute

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 235-244

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In 2003 the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded eight internet gateways or hubs within a collective named the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). Their brief was to identify and catalogue the best websites relevant to university and college work. The teams of people who developed the hubs were dispersed geographically across UK universities. They all worked on different subject areas and had unique identities. They had their own websites, databases, strategies and plans. But JISC was concerned: it wanted more value for money. In other words, it wanted the RDN to be used more, to be more widely known and to cost less. The hubs needed to change.

    This paper tells the story of that change. It shares the experience of the transition of the RDN to Intute, and explores the cycle of organizational renewal which began in 2003 with the creation of the RDN Executive at Mimas, at the University of Manchester. As library and information professionals, managers and leaders, we operate in an environment where new technologies, shifting organizational priorities and evolving user needs are pervasive. We respond with projects and initiatives which deliver new services to our users. However, developing them in the first place can be relatively easy compared with ensuring that they are embedded in our wider operations. So we grapple with the organizational and people issues of change, perhaps taking a systematic considered approach or, more likely, relying on our enthusiasm to guide us through. Change is not easy. In the words of William Bridges (2003), ‘It isn't the changes that do you in, it's the transitions. They aren't the same thing. Change is situational: the move to a new site … the reorganization of the roles of the team …. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological; it is a three-phase process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the details of the new situation that the change brings about.’ Without transition change is not sustainable. This paper describes the tools and techniques used in the move to Intute and shares lessons learnt. It gives a strategic management perspective, and describes the Office of Government Commerce's (OGC) Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) approach, before going on to outline the complex people, political, cultural and leadership aspects.

  • 11 - Information skills through electronic environments: considerations, pitfalls and benefits

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 105-114

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The increasing availability of resources in electronic format has obvious benefits for distance learners in particular but in order to maximize those benefits library induction and ongoing support are essential. The use of virtual classroom sessions to provide library support to off-campus students is a relatively new concept; however, meeting students live online allows us to provide advice, guidance and training from induction through to completion of their studies. In this chapter, we describe our approach, discussing what has worked and what has been less successful, as well as outlining some of our plans for the future.

    Background

    Salford is situated in north-west England, less than two miles from Manchester city centre. The University of Salford as we know it today has come together through a complex history of mergers and separations spanning well over 100 years. Throughout this time, it has retained strong links with industry, and partnerships with business, industry and the public sector remain important to Salford's teaching and research activities.

    The university has a student population of around 18,000 and a staff of over 2500. Part-time students account for approximately 23% of total student numbers overall but on postgraduate taught programmes part-time students outnumber full-time students.

    The Information Services Division (ISD) is responsible for library and information technology services at the University of Salford. The schools (academic departments) at Salford are supported by dedicated ISD liaison teams, who work to ensure that the services ISD provides are appropriate. Liaison officers in these teams are subject or IT specialists who support distance learners alongside the campus-based students in their schools.

    Over the past three years, we have worked with the School of the Built Environment to establish a new approach to library support for their internetenabled MERIT research programme and we have recently extended this work to cover one of the School's taught postgraduate programmes, the MSc Real Estate and Property Management.

    MERIT programme

    In January 2004, the School of the Built Environment added an internet-enabled, non-residence PhD programme (the MERIT programme) to its portfolio. The programme has truly international reach, with students located in countries around the world, including Ireland, Canada, Saudi Arabia and UAE. At an initial meeting with the MERIT programme leader, before the first cohort of students registered, it was agreed that ISD would deliver two slots in the four-week induction.

  • 8 - The rise of recommendation and review: a place in online library environments?

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 71-80

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Online collaboration and interaction, self-publishing, personalized categorization and sharing of content: these are all hallmarks of our internet exchanges today. More websites and online services are building on these activities and encouraging their users to add their own content or highlight useful or quality resources.

    This paper is an exploration into the issues surrounding the rise of recommendation and review services and whether they're of benefit to library users in online academic environments. Should we be taking advantage of this opportunity to build communities and conversations, or should this remain the domain of online trade and commerce? Does user-generated content add value to our resources, or does it weaken its integrity? We take a look at the review and recommendation services currently available in academic library online environments, and explore the issues involved in adding user-generated content to our resources, using research undertaken for our own pilot project entitled ‘Around the world in 80+ books’.

    Why investigate user-generated content?

    Reviews, recommendations and personalized categorization are all types of usergenerated content. This content is produced by the end-user or consumer, rather than the traditional sources such as copywriters, publishers and commercial content creators. A personalized perspective or review of a book is one form of user-generated content, as is writing an online journal or weblog; another is uploading music or photographs to file-sharing websites. In the wider picture this is part of the Web 2.0 architecture of participation (O'Reilly, 2005). These days almost half of adult internet users interact or read Web 2.0 sites online, from publishing blogs, posting ratings and reviews, using RSS, tagging web pages, using social networking sites, listening to podcasts and so on (Li, 2007). The development of internet technology has widened our interaction and content creation activities. As Coyle (2007, 290) notes, ‘users have become accustomed to creating content on the Web … [they] have an expectation that they will find a community at their electronic destination. They also expect to interact with their information resources, not to consume them passively.’

    The expectations of our users, along with technical developments such as application programming interfaces (APIs) to import data into our resources, suggest that now is the time actively to investigate adding user-generated content to our online environments.

  • 5 - Project StORe: expectations, a solution and some predicted impact from opening up the research data portfolio

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 39-48

  • Summary

    It has long been recognized that a fundamental role of the university library is the provision of safe custody and the assurance of measured access to the wealth of published scholarship. Traditionally, the library has been synonymous with a collection of books, although an effective 21st-century library service is more likely to be defined by the extent to which it enables access to information in non-print formats, particularly that which is accessible by electronic means. Yet, while the utility of the university library has extended conspicuously to the provision, and interpretation, of digital resources, including most recently the installation of repositories for the preservation and dissemination of research papers, its principal focus has remained upon items or objects that one may consider in some way to have been published, whether in printed or electronic form.

    The persistence of such a limited account of library business is perhaps surprising, given the importance vested by universities in their conduct of research and the kudos they perceive it to bestow upon them, since the research output that is visible from published scholarly and scientific articles represents only a fraction of any institution's research undertakings. It is important to ask, therefore, whether libraries might be expected to display a natural interest in the stewardship of all or any of the larger set of ‘unpublished’ research data that is produced.

    While research publications are, for the moment at least, the commodity upon which research performance is assessed, they each serve a resolutely narrow purpose: to present a case and persuade the reader to a particular point of view. As such, they will generally comprise a finely tuned orchestration of theses, arguments and opinions, developed from a tiny sub-set of data that has been carefully selected and filtered from the much larger accumulation generated. Paradoxically, this larger and predominantly digital collection of research data, from which scholarly articles are eventually derived, constitutes an indisputably valuable asset in its own right, not simply because it is the product of considerable financial and intellectual investment, but for the reason that it has within it the potential for accruing value from further manipulation, analysis and re-use.

  • 12 - Development of information-related competencies in European open and distance learning institutions: selected findings

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 115-124

  • Summary

    Introduction

    While information-related competencies (IRCs) are generally perceived as an essential set of competencies of the knowledge society, understood in its broader sense, they have made little progress educationally (Correia and Teixeira, 2003). Several studies and reports have shown that many students lack IRCs and have highlighted the importance of and need to develop these competencies (e.g. Oberman, 1991; Ray and Day, 1998; Stern, 2003; UNESCO, 2006). Johnston and Webber (2003, 338) note that even in the USA, ‘while much attention has been paid to information literacy by American policy-makers, librarians and academics, the results are still relatively narrow, giving a potentially superficial guide to the nature of a curriculum for information literacy in higher education’. Bruce and Lampson (2002) also argue that despite some progress over the past decade, library and information professionals still report that universal information literacy (IL) is a distant, if not a receding, goal.

    This paper gives an overview and reports some of the selected findings of a research project on the development of IRCs within open and distance learning (ODL) universities in Europe. This research project grew out of the author's curiosity about why progress in developing IRCs has been so modest. It was believed that a better understanding of what academics, senior managers, librarians and students are thinking and doing would help better to engage them in effective development of IRCs. The paper is divided into four parts. The first provides a working definition of the concept of IRCs. The second describes the methodology of the study. The third presents the findings of the survey and the fourth reports findings of the case studies. Because of the space limits of this publication only selected findings are presented in this paper.

    A working definition of information-related Competencies

    Focusing on her research on the higher education (HE) sector in Europe, the author prefers to use the term ‘information-related competencies’ instead of IL in this study. The reasons for using the former term is the conviction that the concept of IL is very elusive, its essence is hard to grasp, and its meaning is not always clear in a European HE environment. It was believed that the concept of competencies is more familiar and better understood among academic staff, students and senior managers in European HE settings.

  • 17 - Reaching the unreachable in India: effective information delivery service model of DELNET and the challenges ahead

  • Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
  • Book:
    Libraries Without Walls 7
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    15 May 2008, pp 171-180

  • Summary

    Introduction

    India has a long history of libraries that were established during the ancient medieval and modern periods. It also has a diverse socio-economic and cultural environment with varying levels of literacy and an uneven spread of ICT infrastructure. It is estimated that about 50,000 libraries exist in India, comprising academic libraries, public libraries, special libraries and libraries attached to research and development institutions, government departments and ministries, industries, etc. The ICT revolution has brought about a radical change in some of the major libraries in India. This technological change is not witnessed uniformly in the wider cross-section of the libraries, as libraries are at varying levels of transformation. They have to use ICT effectively to help the users. The country has also witnessed the growth of library networks during the last 20 years. A number of city library networks were conceptualized through institutional and governmental initiatives but only a few were able to survive. The rest failed to make progress and were shut down.

    The paper highlights the pioneering work being done by Developing Library Network (DELNET), a non-governmental, non-profit-making organization supported partly by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Government of India. It is a major resource-sharing library network in South Asia, connecting more than 1150 libraries in 30 States and Union Territories (UTs) in India and six other countries (see Tables 17.1–3 and Figure 17.1). DELNET serves its member libraries, which are located within and outside India, and offers inter-library loan/document delivery services (ILL/DDS), one of its most popular services.

    Library networking in India

    The genesis of library networking in India can be traced back to the late 1980s. The National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT), a body under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) of the Government of India, took the initiative of supporting the city-based library networks. This led to the establishment of city library networks such as Bombay Library Network (BONET), Calcutta Library Network (CALIBNET), DELNET (Delhi Library Network, which became Developing Library Network in 2000), Madras Library Network (MALIBNET) and Pune Library Network (PUNENET).

A Handbook for Media Librarians
  • Edited by Katherine Schopflin
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 March 2008
  • Media librarians - information workers employed by media organizations such as broadcasters and publishers of newspapers, magazines and websites - often seem to have a low profile in both the information profession and among their employers. Academic, legal and public librarians are often intrigued to discover that some of their peers work for the same people who provide their television programmes and daily newspaper. Yet, media companies, producing vast quantities of content in an increasing variety of formats, need people both to help them fill up column inches, pages or hours, and to organize this content afterwards so that it can be found again. Although unlikely to be called 'librarian' - 'researcher', 'media manager' or 'information manager' are more likely titles - information professionals continue to carry this task out for media organizations throughout the world. This practical handbook, the only one of its kind, explores the issues of central importance facing media librarians, archivists, cataloguers and researchers in their working lives. With chapters contributed by frontline practitioners who have experienced the problems for themselves, it covers: media libraries in the 21st century; managing intranets; picture libraries and librarianship; cataloguing television programmes; managing online subscriptions; legal issues for news databases and archives; regional libraries: a survivor's guide; and, swimming upstream in a media library. Media librarians often have little time for professional development activities. Questions like 'What resource should I buy?', 'Shall I let this user borrow this item?', 'Is it ethical for me to answer that question?' and 'How can I describe this footage?' set policy and precedent every day. This book condenses and synthesises this invaluable knowledge to equip media librarians to face the challenges of today's information world. It will also be essential reading for students of librarianship and information studies, and on other media-related courses.

  • 3 - Picture libraries and librarianship

  • Edited by Katherine Schopflin
  • Book:
    A Handbook for Media Librarians
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 March 2008, pp 41-62

  • Summary

    Most forms of published media use still images to add value to, illustrate or break up spoken or written words. The number of images used has increased in the past few years because of technological possibilities and commercial pressures. Even radio programmes now often run websites illustrated by pictures associated with their broadcasts. The ever-expanding number of platforms for images has made media organizations hungry for new sources. Many media organizations run their own picture archives and, bucking the early 1990s trend for disposing of in-house resources, are finding them profitable sources of income, especially if they have invested in a sales infrastructure or e-commerce platform. Other media organizations rely on external sources of pictures, notably photographic agencies, libraries and archives, which either represent their own unique collections or are mediators for other people's photographs. The range of collections useful for publication may cover not just photographs, but engravings, manuscripts and lithographs.

    This chapter takes an overview of picture collections, how they can be used by picture researchers and the issues that emerge for those managing picture collections. Questions concerning managing collections are largely dealt with in the earlier part of the chapter and the role of the picture librarian in the second part. The author is particularly interested in giving a taste of the picture library world for those new to the profession or considering entering it. Although it is primarily aimed at picture librarians who work for media organizations, those in that position may identify themselves more with the wider picture library community than with the other kinds of information professional within the media or even within their own organization. The author, who currently manages both still and moving images run by the environmental charity Greenpeace, has worked in a range of areas, from a picture collection at fashion magazine publisher Condé Nast, to an information research unit at the BBC, to the library at the Glasgow School of Art. This gives him a unique insight into the common ground shared between librarians working in the media industry and those working in other fields, but also the ability to identify the picture-related issues which concern media librarians in particular.

  • 5 - The virtual media library (II): managing online subscriptions

  • Edited by Katherine Schopflin
  • Book:
    A Handbook for Media Librarians
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 March 2008, pp 79-96

  • Summary

    Most modern media libraries are as much, if not exclusively, virtual spaces as physical ones. Holding reference information in online databases rather than books on shelves has given many managers the idea that the library can be dispensed with. Yet authoritative subscription products do not appear on the company intranet or desktop by accident. Considerable work has been put in by those managing the subscriptions, to ensure that the right product has been selected, at the right price, on the right platform in such a way that their users can access it transparently and know how to use it. They may also have given time to send regular feedback to the online publishers or attend focus groups to ensure that the product remains useful and relevant. Many of these issues were faced by librarians managing reference subscriptions in hard copy. However, new issues have emerged which are specific to products being online, issues which media librarians, normally the earliest users in their organizations of online products like Dialog, DataStar and FT Profile, are ideally placed to confront.

    The authors have extensive experience administering and managing online subscriptions. Joanne Playfoot manages the InfoCentre information team at IPC Magazines, publisher of consumer and lifestyle titles. Managing and controlling users’ access to subscription products within the library has given their unit new status and prominence within the organization. Katharine Schopflin has worked with online subscriptions for a number of employers, most notably for BBC Information & Archives’ research.gateway intranet site, where she acted as the liaison point between vendors and users. They bring their experience to examinesome of the main issues that emerge when managing online subscriptions and why it is important this is done by information staff. A media library's news database subscription is likely to be at the centre of its subscription portfolio, and this chapter looks at this kind of subscription specifically first. However, many media libraries also subscribe to online products offering future events information, biographies or material concerning subject specialisms such as finance, celebrities or defence and the chapter also looks at more general subscription management issues.

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