From information to imagination: multivalent logic and system creation in personal knowledge management

[Extract] What does personal knowledge management mean for the way that we think, create, write and muse? How does it impact and alter the process of creation? Inversely, how do the media of creation - intuition, pattern recognition, visualization, improvisation, paradoxical thought and synchronicity - shape the way that we manage personal digital libraries? The following explores the role of personal knowledge management in bridging between the shallows of our data streams and the depths of our creative imagination

Purdue Data Orientation Checklist: An Archival Approach for Data Users

The Data Orientation Checklist is intended to help a data user navigate an unfamiliar dataset, research material or digital collection. Whether joining a new research lab or downloading data from a public repository, navigating new data can be confusing and frustrating. This checklist was developed from the perspective of an archivist working with research data and borrows best practices from archival processing and research. Archivists at Purdue University Libraries have been working with data curation initiatives since the mid-2000s. Early in the Libraries’ work with managing research data, Dean of Libraries James Mullins saw the value of archivists’ knowledge in areas such as raw “data” collection, sensitive or personal information management, and defining user groups. Mullins brought the University Archivist onto the Steering Committee for the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) in 2011 and today archivists continue to collaborate with data librarians and faculty researchers on managing, curating, and preserving research data. This checklist was created in 2016 for use in the Purdue G.R.I.P (Graduate Research Information Portal) course Data Management IV, instructed by Carly Dearborn and Megan Sapp Nelson

An Overview of Scholarly Communication, Research Data Management and Digital Scholarship Services in American Academic Libraries: An Empirical Study from Five University Libraries in the States of Massachusetts and Missouri

The core task of academic librarians are to support academic research. The recruitment for the following librarians’ positions including scholarly communication librarians, research data management librarians, and digital scholarship librarians is popular in American academic libraries. Few university libraries provide in-depth digital scholarship services in Taiwan. In order to learn experiential knowledge about digital scholarship services of American academic libraries, qualitative interviews were applied in this research. The interviewees include 4 scholarly communication librarians, 3 research data management librarians, 2 digital scholarship librarians. The research result were stated as the following items: core job descriptions, multiple skills including communication and challenges, the personal trait of good librarians and their passion, the roles and tasks in digital age. Several suggestions were provided in this study, including prioritizing tasks for future work, proposing plans for most challenging works, flexible organizational structure, and developing librarians’ competencies and skills. The research results are helpful to propose the plan for the practical work of digital scholarship services in university libraries in Taiwan

Digital Preservation, Accessibility, and Use of Electronic Theses and Dissertations in University Libraries in Nigeria

This study examined the concepts and aspects of digitization; digital preservation; digital resources; and access to, use of, and challenges posed by electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) in university libraries in six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. It adopted a documentary research approach to highlight a critical examination of the various aspects of digitization (to provide electronic information services) as practiced by various university libraries and some library schools in Nigeria. Print theses and dissertations (T/Ds) are digitized by document scanning or direct text input (alphanumeric characters) into computer systems. Digital resources include e-books, e-journals, ETDs, and other forms of documents in electronic formats. ETDs are preserved through digitization, archiving, and creation of websites and databases as well as through floating institutional digital repositories (IDRs). ETD access is facilitated by tools such as automated library catalogs and classification schemes, online public access catalog, indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, and mobile devices such as smartphones and personal computers. ETDs are capable of meeting research and publication needs of teaching, information service delivery, and knowledge sharing. Challenges to digital preservation, access, and use of ETDs include inadequate information and communications technology (ICT) facilities, low ICT proficiency, and erratic power supply. Thus, this study recommended that management teams of universities in Nigeria commit adequate funding to procure ICT facilities, thus providing automatic standby generating plants and increasing incentives for library and digital preservation staff. Collaboration among stakeholders such as university libraries and the National Library of Nigeria should be encouraged to create a national union catalog of T/Ds in Nigerian universities and thus enable a platform for a national database. Access to IDRs will further strengthen worldwide university networking. This study will thus add value to the existing studies on ICT application in university libraries and e-resources in university libraries in Nigeria

Personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries

Widespread use of the Internet has resulted in digital libraries that are increasingly used by diverse communities of users for diverse purposes and in which sharing and collaboration have become important social elements. As such libraries become commonplace, as their contents and services become more varied, and as their patrons become more experienced with computer technology, users will expect more sophisticated services from these libraries. A simple search function, normally an integral part of any digital library, increasingly leads to user frustration as user needs become more complex and as the volume of managed information increases. Proactive digital libraries, where the library evolves from being passive and untailored, are seen as offering great potential for addressing and overcoming these issues and include techniques such as personalisation and recommender systems. In this paper, following on from the DELOS/NSF Working Group on Personalisation and Recommender Systems for Digital Libraries, which met and reported during 2003, we present some background material on the scope of personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries. We then outline the working group’s vision for the evolution of digital libraries and the role that personalisation and recommender systems will play, and we present a series of research challenges and specific recommendations and research priorities for the field

We are archivists, but are we OK?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the digital environment of the early twenty-first century is forcing the information sciences to revisit practices and precepts built around paper and physical objects over centuries. The training of archivists, records managers, librarians and museum curators has had to accommodate this new reality. Often the response has been to superimpose a digital overlay on existing curricula. A few have taken a radical approach by scrutinising the fundamentals of the professions and the ontologies of the materials they handle. Design/methodology/approach – The article explores a wide range of the issues exposed by this critique through critical analysis of ideas and published literature. Findings – The authors challenge archive and records management educators to align their curricula with contemporary need and to recognise that partnership with other professionals, particularly in the area of technology, is essential. Practical implications – The present generation owe it to future generations of archivists and records managers to ensure that the education that they get to prepare them for professional life is forward-looking in the same way. Originality/value – This paper aims to raise awareness of the educational needs of twenty-first century archives and records professionals

Striking a Balance Between Physical and Digital Resources

In various configurations—be they academic, archival, county, juvenile, monastic, national, personal, public, reference, or research, the library has been a fixture in human affairs for a long time. Digital — meaning, content or communication that is delivered through the internet, is 20 years old (but younger in parts). Basically, both approaches to organizing serve to structure information for access. However, digital is multiplying very fast and libraries all-round contemplate an existential crisis; the more hopeful librarians fret about physical and digital space. Yet, the crux of the matter is not about physical vs. digital: without doubt, the digital space of content or communication transmogrifies all walks of life and cannot be wished away; but, the physical space of libraries is time-tested, extremely valuable, and can surely offer more than currently meets the eye. Except for entirely virtual libraries, the symbiotic relationship between the physical and the digital is innately powerful: for superior outcomes, it must be recognized, nurtured, and leveraged; striking a balance between physical and digital resources can be accomplished. This paper examines the subject of delivering digital from macro, meso, and micro perspectives: it looks into complexity theory, digital strategy, and digitization

Academic digital library in Malaysia: A case study on the status of digital reference services

This paper highlights the current status of digital library services provided by selected public academic libraries in Malaysia. The drift from traditional library to digital library architecture has set drastic changes in favor of adopting knowledge-gain mechanisms via the use of networked and digital environments. With diversity of functions, academic digital library is seen the most awaiting proxy in changing the information culture among academic users. This paper in general attempts to highlight the phenomena of using digital library system in public universities in Malaysia. The focal of the discussion is on digital reference services of academic digital library

Information Outlook, September 2004

Volume 8, Issue 9https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2004/1008/thumbnail.jp

The changing roles and identities of library and information services staff

A review of the changing roles of library, IT and e-learning staff from 1960 to date. Examines convergence and blurring of roles and what constitutes professional identity