Greek academic librarians' perceptions of the impact of Google on their role as information providers

The increased popularity of Google search engine in the daily routine in one's workplace and in the academic information seeking process is undeniable. 'Googling' challenges the traditional skills of librarians as information providers and the role of library and information service provision in the digital era. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a qualitative study investigating the perceptions of Greek academic librarians on the impact of Google and 'Googling' on their role as information providers in the digital era. To address the needs of this study a set of semi structured interviews was employed with library managers and librarians. The findings of this study revealed that Greek academic librarians use mainly Google Search for its easy information provision but advise on adequate training on Google sources evaluation before use. It was suggested that libraries need to support life-long learning, and enhance their services quality in order to survive. Additionally, IT and managerial skills acquisition seems to be vital. Research also revealed the essential role of LIS departments in the provision of life-long learning and the organisation of training programmes. © 2008 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

Novel salts of dipicolinic acid as viscosity modifiers for high concentration antibody solutions

Concentrated monoclonal antibody (mAb) solutions can lead to high viscosity as a result of protein-protein interactions and pose challenges for manufacture. Dipicolinic acid (DPA, pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid) is a potential excipient for reduction of protein solution viscosity and here we describe new DPA salts with improved aqueous solubility. Crystallinity and solubility screens identified ethanolamine and diethanolamine as two promising counterions which generated crystalline, high melting point, anhydrous salt forms of DPA at 2:1 M stoichiometry. These salts significantly reduced the solution viscosity of five mAbs, equal to or better than that for the addition of arginine hydrochloride at equivalent osmolality. The presence of the DPA salts in solution did not significantly perturb the melting point of the mAbs, as determined by calorimetry, indicating an absence of any destabilization of protein conformation. Addition of the DPA salts to the mAb solutions stored at 5 °C over 6 months did not cause additional loss of the monomer fraction, though evidence of increased aggregation and fragmentation for three of the five mAbs was observed during 40 °C (accelerated and stressed) storage. Overall, this study demonstrates that ethanolamine-DPA and diethanolamine-DPA can serve as two novel excipients for viscosity reduction and could be considered by formulation scientists when developing highly concentrated mAb formulations