Library Publishing: Exploring the Potential of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Library

Library publishing has become an important and alternative function of academic and research libraries in their quest to serve the scholarly community. Adopting a qualitative approach, through interviews and a review of the content of the KNUST Library’s Strategic Plan and website, this paper explores the potential of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Library to engage fully in library publishing. The paper also examines the policy, infrastructure, and assesses the human (skills and capacity of staff) and technical resources at the KNUST Library to determine its capacity to engage in full-scale library publishing. We found that although the KNUST Library engages in library publishing by disseminating and curating scholarship within the university community through its institutional repository (KNUSTSpace); it is yet to explore other aspects of library publishing that entail the creation and validation of the scholarship it disseminates and curates. To fully fulfill its mandate, we recommend a survey to first solicit views from the faculty at KNUST to determine the scope and type of scholarly publishing initiative to engage in. Given the current state of the library, we suggest retraining and a collaboration with the Department of Publishing Studies and other academic and research libraries with expertise to engage in collaborative library publishing

Building an Intelligent Knowledgebase of Brachiopod Paleontology

Science advances not only because of new discoveries, but also due to revolutionary ideas drawn from accumulated data. The quality of studies in paleontology, in particular, depends on accessibility of fossil data. This research builds an intelligent system based on brachiopod fossil images and their descriptions published in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. The project is still on going and some significant developments will be discussed here. This thesis has two major parts. The first part describes the digitization, organization and integration of information extracted from the Treatise. The Treatise is in PDF format and it is non-trivial to convert large volumes into a structured, easily accessible digital library. Three important topics will be discussed: (1) how to extract data entries from the text, and save them in a structured manner; (2) how to crop individual specimen images from figures automatically, and associate each image with text entries; (3) how to build a search engine to perform both keyword search and natural language search. The search engine already has a web interface and many useful tasks can be done with ease. Verbal descriptions are second-hand information of fossil images and thus have limitations. The second part of the thesis develops an algorithm to compare fossil images directly, without referring to textual information. After similarities between fossil images are calculated, we can use the results in image search, fossil classification, and so on. The algorithm is based on deformable templates, and utilizes expectation propagation to find the optimal deformation. Specifically, I superimpose a warp on each image. Each node of the warp encapsulates a vector of local texture features, and comparing two images involves two steps: (1) deform the warp to the optimal configuration, so the energy function is minimized; and (2) based on the optimal configuration, compute the distance of two images. Experiment results confirmed that the method is reasonable and robust

Contextual factors affecting the development of digital library education in Vietnam

In Vietnam the need for digital library education (DLE) has increased significantly in the last two decades. Educating staff to establish and manage digital libraries has become a critical issue. However, there are no DLE programmes offered by library and information management (LIM) education providers in Vietnam and we do not know why this is the case. The aim of this study is to investigate and understand the factors affecting the development of DLE for LIM practitioners in Vietnam. The interpretive study employed a qualitative approach and its findings are based on the analysis of data gathered in 17 individual interviews and 11 focus groups with key stakeholders, as well as from documentary evidence. The stakeholders involved in this study include LIM practitioners, LIM managers, LIM lecturers, library school deans, government policy makers, academic library directors, professional association chairpersons and LIM students. To guide the data gathering and analysis, an initial conceptual model of factors affecting DLE was developed from three sources: Fullan’s Educational Change theory, Nowlen’s Performance Model in continuing education for practitioners, and Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovations theory. The study found seven major factors were affecting the development of DLE in Vietnam: the government, the information technology infrastructure, the prevailing social and cultural values, the efforts of change agents, the attitudes of key stakeholders, the characteristics of DLE design, and the nexus of the educational needs of library staff and the libraries in which they were working. Of these the government factor was the most influential. These factors were inter-related and affected DLE development at different levels. The initial conceptual model was revised based on the study's findings. The revised model provides a contribution to educational change theories relevant to the identification and understanding of factors affecting professional educational programmes in universities in developing countries. The study’s findings are also of value to governments, libraries, library schools and library associations for developing relevant policies and new curricula for DLE, and for establishing new professional development programmes in DLE for library staff