Intention to adopt blockchain technology for collaborative business processes by academic libraries in South Africa

Globalisation has compelled academic institutions to leverage digital innovations that present new capabilities and novel opportunities because of the stiff competition and movement restrictions during pandemic such as COVID-19, in their operating environments. In this digital era, academic libraries, like any other institution are compelled to re-think of their ways of providing information services to remain relevant to their communities as there are various other sources of information which attract users' attention. Growing demand of information services, declining budgets, rapidly changing world around academic libraries and increase in prices are common challenges experienced by the university libraries globally, which are mostly too complex and large for the institutions to handle on their own. These challenges led to the consortia formation both in developing and developed countries for collective acquisition and sharing of resources. Collaborative technologies should, therefore, be adopted to integrate internal systems for seamless information exchange between different institutions and eliminate duplication of efforts. However, it becomes a challenge to integrate these systems across independent institutions because of lack of trust between the involved parties, in terms of who will control the collaborative business processes. For collaborative processes which are in place, academic libraries still depend on a third party to facilitate their collaborative activities, and consequently incur costs for coordination of such processes. Blockchain represents one of the disruptive technologies with potential to streamline the collaborative activities across academic libraries with high level of trust without the third party intermediation. Although, blockchain technology has caught the attention of different industries, it is still at an infancy stage and yet to find its traction in various business processes. The aim of this study was to investigate the intention to adopt blockchain technology for collaborative business processes by academic libraries in South Africa. The study was anchored in the Technology Adoption in Supply Chain (TASC) model which has been adapted to answer the research questions formulated. Quantitative research approach was adopted, using survey questionnaire. From the questionnaires sent to 23 South African academic libraries which are members of the regional consortia, only 95 usable responses have been collected and analysed using SPSS version 26. Potential applications of blockchain technology were found to be in distributed metadata sharing, a credentialing system, and a library network connection to form Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS). However, participants are uncertain of the intention to adoption blockchain by their academic libraries. Looking at the results of the descriptive analysis, it is evident that academic library workers are positive about relative advantage, compatibility, IT readiness, and interorganisational trust of blockchain technology in their profession. They are not aware and/or have mixed perceptions of the technology complexity, cost, management support, industry support, customer pressure, and security/privacy concern of blockchain technology. This warrants the need to impart knowledge about the technology and its potential value to their profession. Among the adoption factors included in the model, only customer pressure (CP) was found to be significant in influencing the intention to adopt blockchain, while relative advantage (RA), compatibility (CT), complexity (CX), perceived cost (PC), organisational size (OS), management support (MS), IT readiness (IR), industry support (IS), security concern (SC) and inter-organisation trust (TR) were insignificant. This research contributes to the limited empirical research literature in the blockchain technology adoption intention in academic libraries, while also provides the insights for practitioners in the technology adoption decision making, and technology vendors, in the context of developing countries

Understanding EBLIP at an organizational level: an initial maturity model

Objective - Existing research around evidence based practice in the LIS (library and information science) professional context over the past two decades has captured the experience of individual practitioners, rather than the organization as a whole. Current models of evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP) relate to, and apply predominantly to, individuals or specific scenarios. Yet despite a growing demand from institutional and library leaders for evidence to demonstrate why investments in libraries should continue, little is known about how an organization can enhance its maturity in evidence based practice. This paper addresses this gap by seeking to understand what an evidence based university library looks like and answering the questions: how does a university library leader know the library’s service and practice is evidence based? How can a university library measure and progress its maturity in evidence based practice? Methods - Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with library professionals employed at Australian and New Zealand university libraries. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques. The interviews, combined with a literature review and environmental scan of evidence based practices in university libraries, informed the development of a draft capability maturity model as a framework for developing evidence based practice in university libraries. Results - The model identifies and describes characteristics at five different levels of evidence based practice maturity from least mature (Ad hoc/Sporadic) to most mature (Transforming). Three dimensions of experience help to define the characteristics at each level of maturity and provide a framework to understand how a university library might develop its organizational capacity in evidence based library and information practice. Conclusion - Library leaders and practitioners will benefit from the model as they seek to identify and build upon their evidence based practice maturity, enabling more robust decision-making, a deeper understanding of their clients and demonstration of value and impact to their stakeholders

A library management information system in a multi-campus environment

The Office of Library Services in the Central Administration of the State University of New York (SUNY) has, since 1975, been developing a library management information system based on the analysis of library and other bibliographic and academic data which are available in machine readable form. Although primarily designed for the SUNY libraries, the processes are applicable in other academic libraries because of the general availability of the data used in the system. The task has changed over the years as new ideas and opportunities were realized, as new appreciations of the obtained results were attained, and as the technical environment has evolved. Nonetheless, the fundamental structure of the system design has not changed since the first ideas in 1974. This is an interim report. Progress has been agonizingly slow for two reasons. First, the difficulty of obtaining support and resources has been a real hindrance; the work has been squeezed into overcrowded schedules and ever-straitening budgets. Second, many of the machine-readable data which one confidently felt would be available in the late 1970s or very early 1980s are still not available. Some years, at least, will pass before the work can be completed as we see it now. Who knows what new ideas and opportunities will emerge as new results become available? Nonetheless, enough has been achieved to justify this report.published or submitted for publicatio

Index to Library Trends Volume 38

published or submitted for publicatio

Reading Lists in Cambridge: A Standard System?

In June 2008 a committee of librarians from across the University convened to investigate ways of improving library services, with particular regard to elearning and the provision of services to undergraduates. Reading lists quickly emerged as the major factor in undergraduate library use, as influential on the types of resources used by undergraduates, and as an area where there was potential for an improvement to the student experience. One of the committee’s recommendations was that an application be made for an Arcadia Fellowship to investigate issues surrounding the adoption of a standard system for dealing with reading lists. The proposal was felt to map well onto the core issues highlighted by the Arcadia Programme – particularly Changes in Higher Education, New generations of library users, Technology and Changing academic workflows. This report is the result of that Fellowship.The Arcadia Programme has been generously funded by a Grant from the Arcadia Fund http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk

Librarians as Members of Integrated Institutional Information Programs: Management and Organizational Issues

published or submitted for publicatio

Applied and conceptual approaches to evidence-based practice in research and academic libraries

Evidence-based practice is an approach to professional practice that involves a structured process of collecting, interpreting and applying valid and reliable research and evidence to support decision-making and continuous service improvement in professional practice. This paper reports on emerging initiatives in evidence-based practice at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Library, a regional multi-campus university in Australia. It demonstrates how evidence-based practice forms part of our organisational strategy to engage with our community and society. The case study describes a new model of embedding evidence-based practice through a role explicitly dedicated to developing the library’s evidence base. While other libraries may have a person responsible for assessment, performance metrics or data analysis, the Coordinator (Evidence-Based Practice) has a broader mandate – to work with library staff to develop tools, skills and expertise in evidence-based practice. The paper will describe why this role was created and how the Coordinator is working to engage with library staff to understand their business and the evidence needed to support service improvement for the Library. By doing this, USQ Library is building the capacity to demonstrate value to stakeholders, gain a deeper understanding of clients’ needs and experiences, promote robust decision-making and improve service delivery. The paper also outlines an initiative led by the Coordinator (Evidence-Based Practice) to develop a conceptual model of evidence-based practice within academic libraries at the organisational, rather than individual level. Current models of evidence-based library and information practice apply predominantly to individuals. Informed by relevant literature and 16 semi-structured interviews with library professionals from Australian and New Zealand university libraries, three themes emerged to describe how evidence-based practice might be experienced at the organisational level. The lived experience at USQ Library and our research investigations suggest that being evidence-based provides benefits to an academic library’s culture, practice and impact

DeWitt Wallace Library Annual Report 2013-2014

Summary of library and media services activities for 2013-201