ABSTRACTS OF PRESENTATIONS

Second International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives, abstracts of presentation

The need for ‘Diamond Engagement’ around open access to high quality research output

This paper advocates for a co-ordinated cultural shift in their engagement with access to resources in order to make peer-reviewed articles available to a wider audience. This Paper addresses two audiences: scientists, especially those who have been traditionally more resistant to the OA approach, and policy makers. The Scientific Committee is well aware of the difficulties that some research communities face in engaging with the OA approach and would like to offer a way forward to address the current status quo. Social scientists in particular have been struggling with the discussion on OA, given the length of time that the current quality standards and good practice for publication took to set up. The community of researchers perceives that these standards are now guarded by the peer-reviewed ranked journals which do not offer OA for either articles or books, a situation that is certain to persist for some time.   The other important aspect is that payment of Article Processing Charges (APCs) to journals for OA publication is often unaffordable given the limited resources available to the social sciences disciplines. In this context, this paper illustrates how the deposition of articles in public repositories can be beneficial to the research community. At the same time, this Paper encourages policy makers to better invest in the harmonisation of research information metadata standards across Europe using existing public infrastructures, and to ensure good quality of records, interoperability and discoverability. It also links the discussion of OA with an issue that is crucial in both research and policy agendas: demonstration of the impact of publicly-funded research

Digital Library - An Inevitable Resource for Modern Day Research in Developing Countries

Research in any area requires an extensive collection and study of relevant literature. The research literature may be found in different libraries dispersed at different geographical locations. The conventional library systems pose some potential difficulties in acquiring timely information and therefore impede the research activity. This paper presents use of digital libraries in carrying out cost-effective and quality research. With technology innovations, a commensurate progress is required in the development and maintenance of the knowledge base. Statistics have shown that the research activity has increased with the digitization of the information and its easy availability to the researchers especially in developing countries. The digital library has thus become an inevitable source of information for researchers around the globe especially in developing countries to maintain the pace of research in a highly competitive world

Open Access Initiatives: Reframing the role of Librarians

This paper discusses the steps taken by librarians to implement OA in their respective institute libraries in Mumbai. It also identifies the advocacy role that librarians have taken up. It traces the development of OA and touching upon the international and Indian efforts of applying OA in scholarly communication. Charts the further path that librarians can take to support researchers in their scholarly endeavours

Data fluidity in DARIAH -- pushing the agenda forward

This paper provides both an update concerning the setting up of the European DARIAH infrastructure and a series of strong action lines related to the development of a data centred strategy for the humanities in the coming years. In particular we tackle various aspect of data management: data hosting, the setting up of a DARIAH seal of approval, the establishment of a charter between cultural heritage institutions and scholars and finally a specific view on certification mechanisms for data

Contribution of East Africa Region to Open Access Literature: The case of OpenDOAR

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) 2017This paper is based on the findings of a study that evaluated the initiatives taken by East African countries to embrace the open access movement. Specifically, the study analysed the position of East African countries in disseminating open access literature in Africa and globally; determined the contribution of each East African country to global open access literature; identified the type of document as well as Open source software they used. Moreover, the study analysed the subject content of OARs and identified the language for the archived items. The study first used literature review to determine current status of open access in East Africa, then the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) were accessed to get the required data. The results revealed that East African counties make only a miniscule contribution to Open Access literature of about 0.022 percent of items found in global OARs and 1.2 percent by number of repositories. The study concluded that East African countries with a slight exception of Kenya lag far behind in open access literature. The study, therefore, recommends more efforts to be made by individual East African countries to make necessary arrangements required to adopt and use OA repositories to enhance free access to knowledge and information and, consequently, boost socioeconomic development in the region

The Information Commons: a public policy report

This report describes the history of the information commons, presents examples of online commons that provide new ways to store and deliver information, and concludes with policy recommendations. Available in PDF and HTML versions.BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE at NYU SCHOOL OF LAW Democracy Program, Free Expression Policy Project 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th floor New York NY 10013 Phone: (212) 998-6730 Web site: www.brennancenter.org Free Expression Policy Project: www.fepproject.or

The Information Commons: a public policy report

This report describes the history of the information commons, presents examples of online commons that provide new ways to store and deliver information, and concludes with policy recommendations. Available in PDF and HTML versions.BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE at NYU SCHOOL OF LAW Democracy Program, Free Expression Policy Project 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th floor New York NY 10013 Phone: (212) 998-6730 Web site: www.brennancenter.org Free Expression Policy Project: www.fepproject.or

Institutional Repositories in Scholarly Communication: a literature review on models, issues and current trends

This work is report on relevant sources about IR, and some references about the environment they came from. It gives an overview concerning causes, consequences and impact of IR application in the scholarly communication channel and it is trying to understand current trends in changing scholarly communication models through IR. It provides a critical overview about benefits, but also obstacles, problems and issues that need to be faced in developing IR and earns deeper understanding on the role librarians play in the implementation, management and advocacy of IRs

Public Libraries: techno trends and collective memory

By public library I mean here a library providing some kind of universal access to its assets, one whose readership isn’t exclusively tied and restricted to a particular organization – including the generally called public libraries, but also many specialized libraries, such as the academic of the open kind. Despite all efforts, public libraries continue to face strong barriers to their participation in the information society. Participants of the World Meeting on the Future of the ISIS Software recognized that “the ISIS Software Family has a unique technological concept and developmental mission to cope with Information Storage and Retrieval Systems (ISRS), particularly for developing countries where the technology is widely known and used; that the ISIS Software Family has now fully embraced the Free and Open Source Software approach and the support of UNICODE structures to be fully open and multilingual” (Rio Declaration 2008), restating thus the persistent relevance of this software family. OSS (Coar 2006) is defined as software whose source code is freely available, therefore allowing for free inspection and/or utilization, i.e., it is available for study and use by everyone without any payment or any other barrier to access. the lack of technical skill in libraries, a situation that libraries share with much of the public and cultural sectors. The study of OSS ILS, and of the their adaptation to the needs of specific public libraries may be the solution to this. Library Management Systems) that enhances digital archive interoperability between a diverse range of libraries