Performance Measures of Academic Digital Library Services: A Delphy Study at the University of Camerino

Since the emergence of digital libraries, research and practical developments have grown exponentially, while evaluation activities have been lagging far behind. It is widely acknowledged that when getting at the issue of assessment in a digital library environment, much has yet to be investigated (Saracevic, 2000; Shearer, 2002; Chowdhury & Chowdhury, 2003; Cullen, 2003; Bertot, 2004). As an iterative multistage approach based on consensus, the Delphi research method is suitable for investigating performance measurement processes and their requirement of a stable set of indicators, thought to reflect and assess digital library services and commendable for significantly contributing to broad knowledge within the topic. A Delphi study, aimed at identifying performance measurement indicators of digital library services, will be carried out. On the one hand, it will be deeply rooted in an international perspective of existent researches, projects and standards, which will work as starting points and in due course as terms of comparison. On the other hand, it will have an exclusively Italian setting, drawing together the expertise of a panel of Italian library professionals and researchers, called to think out and reflect on a taxonomy of measures and indicators. The field of application of findings will be the University of Camerino, focus being on the appropriateness of the resulting classification model for this organisation needs and its prospective applicability

La cocina como ritual: cuentos tradicionales africanos

El gusto es uno de los sentidos más desarrollados en los personajes, sean humanos o no, de muchos cuentos populares africanos y de los cuentos de autores europeos ambientados en el gran continente. Al repasar las páginas que plasman un saber antiguo, los productos de la cosecha, los platos preparados, los aguardientes tradicionales y los rituales ligados a todo ello trasladan al oyente neófito a un mundo de sensaciones culinarias insospechadas.Taste is one of the most developed senses in human or non-human characters in popular African tales or in European authors’ tales written about the great continent. Looking at those pages, which give expression to an old wisdom, the land’s products, the cooked dishes, the traditional spirits, and rituals bound to it all, move the neophyte listener to an undreamed-of culinary sensations world

Mircea Eliade en Portugal y sus escritos: Eminescu y Camões.

En este artículo la autora profundiza en los vínculos que el escritor Mircea Eliade estableció entre algunas de las grandes figuras de las letras portuguesas, como Luís de Camões, y el gran poeta nacional rumano Mihai Eminescu, a través de coincidencias temáticas en la obra de ambos

Performance Measurement for Digital Library Services

Aim of this literature review is to draw a picture of past and current research on performance measurement, as applies to digital library services and, at large, to the digital environment, thus consisted of electronic information services and resources. The review starts with a statement of the topic and a tentative definition of digital library to be used as a comparing model for any attempt to measure its performance. A virtuous cycle of good library management puts users and the provision of quality services to the core of its values. Performance measurement supports this process. Assessment for digital library services is outlined in terms of use, services provided, costs, management tools, added value against the mission and goals of the institution. In the last decade, novelties brought about by the introduction of digital technologies in libraries have caused efforts converge to devise both new objective models of statistical data gathering and sets of sound reliable measures and indicators, apt to gauge performance. Breaking fresh ground has proved not to be an easy task: lack of consistency, of comparable data, and standards, due to the evolutionary state of the matter, have given birth to a number of initiatives and projects, mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom, which are still looking for common grounds of development. Testing is in progress and crucial to get evidence of appropriateness, reliability and comparability of performance indicators. At the same time, a number of researchers are looking beyond mere measurement of use of and access, considered too limitative and moving forward to think out new evaluation techniques and a comprehensive view of the digital library. The issue of impact and outcome assessment, in terms of benefits or changes in knowledge, behaviours and attitudes, users can derive from services and resources with potential long-term effects, is the new frontier

Los cambios de la programación radiofónica cuando aparece la televisión

[es] En este artículo se describen algunas de las transformaciones que se produjeron en la programación de la radio cuando apareció la televisión. Más particularmente, se expone cómo esas variaciones en la programación produjeron cambios en el vínculo que se estableció entre la radio y su oyente.[en] This paper describes some of the changes that occurred in the programming of the radio when the television appeared. More particularly, it describes how these variations in the programming changed the link that was established between the radio and his listenerFil: Fraticelli, Damián.UBA; Argentin

Assessing impact of digital library services. An exploratory study at the University of Camerino

Focus of this dissertation is the assessment of digital library services impact on academic library users. This is an academic work, whose eventual outcome will be used for the improvement of services and evidence-based practice. \ud Research started by reviewing international and Italian literature. It emerged that studies on impact and outcomes measurement of digital library services, as part of a user-centred and solely qualitative evaluation process, are sparse, because of the difficulty of translating qualitative criteria of impact into quantifiable measures and indicators, and partly because the process is very much time-consuming. \ud The aim of this research is to build an evaluation model, focused on impact assessment of digital library services offered to users by the Library System of the University of Camerino, workplace of the researcher, to produce recommendations for the organisation and hints for further research. The prototype-like model will be put to the attention of the local library management as assessment tool to become an eventual future reinforcement to the measurement activity already in place. \ud The study is roughly designed to go through these phases: \ud 1. Italian experts in digital library issues are called to give their opinions on the matter with the intent to devise evidence of impact on users; \ud 2. results are fed to a group of local library practitioners, whose task is to confront data against the context they work in and serve; \ud 3. collected data are, then, discussed in depth with local key-informants to possibly find further insight and finally validity of the model. \ud The research takes the form of an exploratory study. It exploits qualitative methods and techniques originated from the social sciences. \ud The evaluation model resulting from the analysis of data is exposed according to academic users activities and groups. It comprises both qualitative and quantitative measures and indicators and the suggested methods of data collection are in accordance. \ud Recommendations are made to the University Library System about how to start a DLS impact assessment activity

Λc reconstruction with artificial neural networks

Il rivelatore ALICE studia collisioni di ioni pesanti ultrarelativistici in modo da creare e di conseguenza studiare lo stato della materia chiamato plasma di quark e gluoni. Questo obiettivo risulta difficoltoso data la sua vita breve, quindi facciamo riferimento a misure indirette per la prova della sua esistenza. In questa tesi abbiamo sfruttato tecniche di machine learning per studiare il decadimento del barione charmato Λc per dedurre alcune sue proprietà. In particolare abbiamo usato il metodo delle reti neurali per ricavare tutte le informazioni possibili con la tecninca di un'analisi multivariata

La creación de un espacio imaginario: los españoles y Lisboa

La atención de los escritores españoles a la realidad lisboeta se ha concentrado fundamentalmente en dos periodos históricos determinados, los siglos XVII y XX, coincidiendo con la dominación de la Casa de Austria sobre el país vecino y con la Revolución de los Claveles, que tanto significó para nuestros intelectuales. En este artículo se analiza la peculiar visión que Miguel de Cervantes y Tirso de Molina plasmaron del espacio lisboeta en sus obras, y la transfiguración de este espacio concreto en un espacio de recuerdos y ensoñaciones en la obra de Antonio Muñoz Molina, para intentar establecer una poética del espacio urbano de Lisboa exclusivamente en autores españoles

La storia di Filerot e Anthusa. Edizione critica, introduzione e traduzione a cura di Angela Tarantino.

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