Public Libraries and the Internet 2006

Examines the capability of public libraries to provide and sustain public access Internet services and resources that meet community needs, including serving as the first choice for content, resources, services, and technology infrastructure

From Artifacts to Aggregations: Modeling Scientific Life Cycles on the Semantic Web

In the process of scientific research, many information objects are generated, all of which may remain valuable indefinitely. However, artifacts such as instrument data and associated calibration information may have little value in isolation; their meaning is derived from their relationships to each other. Individual artifacts are best represented as components of a life cycle that is specific to a scientific research domain or project. Current cataloging practices do not describe objects at a sufficient level of granularity nor do they offer the globally persistent identifiers necessary to discover and manage scholarly products with World Wide Web standards. The Open Archives Initiative's Object Reuse and Exchange data model (OAI-ORE) meets these requirements. We demonstrate a conceptual implementation of OAI-ORE to represent the scientific life cycles of embedded networked sensor applications in seismology and environmental sciences. By establishing relationships between publications, data, and contextual research information, we illustrate how to obtain a richer and more realistic view of scientific practices. That view can facilitate new forms of scientific research and learning. Our analysis is framed by studies of scientific practices in a large, multi-disciplinary, multi-university science and engineering research center, the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS).Comment: 28 pages. To appear in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST

Changing Roles of Library Professionals

Includes bibliographical references (p. 151).Mode of access: Internet

Access in a Networked World: Scholars Portal in Context

published or submitted for publicatio

Libraries and Museums in the Flat World: Are They Becoming Virtual Destinations?

In his recent book, “TheWorld is Flat”, Thomas L. Friedman reviews the impact of networks on globalization. The emergence of the Internet, web browsers, computer applications talking to each other through the Internet, and the open source software, among others, made the world flatter and created an opportunity for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. Friedman predicts that “connecting all the knowledge centers on the planet together into a single global network…could usher in an amazing era of prosperity and innovation”. Networking also is changing the ways by which libraries and museums provide access to information sources and services. In the flat world, libraries and museums are no longer a physical “place” only: they are becoming “virtual destinations”. This paper discusses the implications of this transformation for the digitization and preservation of, and access to, cultural heritage resources

In Search of a New Model: Library Resource Sharing in China - A Comparative Study

This paper reviews the framework of library resource sharing (LRS) in China and examines, from a comparative perspective, cases of recent development, particularly in the 1990s and early 2000s. Highlights include: (1) historical review of LRS in the U.S. and China, particularly in the areas of print union catalogs and union lists, online bibliographic utilities, and interlibrary loan; (2) literature review of Chinese publications, and LRS issues and challenges in China; (3) Analysis of three LRS models to provide a contextual grasp of a paradigm shift taking place in China; and (4) comparative analysis of LRS objectives, structure, and governance, etc., in the U.S. and China. The study also underscores the imperative for building a national digital library system in China to gain a competitive edge in resource sharing and to support the country’s rapid social and economic growth. At this stage of development, the success of China Academic Library & Information System provides a convincing argument for a national digital library system with its methods of governing, financing, and development

Digital repositories and scientific communication challenge

Digital technology has a great influence on scientific communication and scientific research in general. As a result, science has become more highly collaborative, network-based, and data-intensive seeking for different kinds of support for research as well for other activities that follow research such as rapid publication of research results and dissemination and preservation of research data. Having these issues in mind, the traditional system of scientific communication has also begun search for a new publishing and communication platform. At the beginning of the 1990s digital repositories appeared as a possible solution offering several key advantages over the existing publishing and preservation solutions. At the moment digital repositories of scientific information are closest to the position of new mainstream publishing and communication platform in science as they have become more mature and developed networked information systems; as their number in the world is on the rise and as they have become more and more accepted by the scientific community. While first digital repositories were isolated systems, today they distributed federated and highly integrated applications and services. In combination with the open access initiative, digital repositories of scientific information started to offer many benefits for different groups of users. Furthermore, digital repositories could help smaller countries to become more visible in the global scientific community by offering online open access digital peer reviewed scientific content. Digital repositories should solve problems inherited from the existing paper based system of scientific communication: access to scientific information for different categories of users, storage space, slow publishing, quality and quantity of scientific knowledge, organization of scientific knowledge in transparent way, interoperability of information systems and many other issues scientific publishers, universities and their libraries haven’t solved so far. This paper offers an overview of the important characteristics that make digital repositories so important in modern science

INSPIRAL: investigating portals for information resources and learning. Final project report

INSPIRAL's aims were to identify and analyse, from the perspective of the UK HE learner, the nontechnical, institutional and end-user issues with regard to linking VLEs and digital libraries, and to make recommendations for JISC strategic planning and investment. INSPIRAL's objectives -To identify key stakeholders with regard to the linkage of VLEs, MLEs and digital libraries -To identify key stakeholder forum points and dissemination routes -To identify the relevant issues, according to the stakeholders and to previous research, pertaining to the interaction (both possible and potential) between VLEs/MLEs and digital libraries -To critically analyse identified issues, based on stakeholder experience and practice; output of previous and current projects; and prior and current research -To report back to JISC and to the stakeholder communities, with results situated firmly within the context of JISC's strategic aims and objectives

New Trends in Digital University Libraries

The nature of the changes that university libraries face in the digital age is addressed in the document. Work and training schemes for all those involved in the process of electronic publishing within universities are proposed. The role of libraries and computing centers as change agents is defined. The author describes the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations(ndltd) in Humboldt University at Berlin, Germany