The unseen and unacceptable face of digital libraries

The social and organizational aspects of digital libraries are often overlooked but this paper reviews how they can affect users' awareness and acceptance of digital libraries. An analysis of research conducted within two contrasting domains (Clinical and Academic) is presented which highlights issues of user interactions, work practices and the organizational social structures. The combined study comprises an analysis of 98 in-depth interviews and focus groups with lecturers, librarians and hospital clinicians. The importance of current and past roles of the library, and how users interacted with it, are revealed. Web-based digital libraries, while alleviating most library resource and interaction problems, require a change in librarians' and DL designers' roles and interaction patterns if they are to be implemented acceptably and effectively. Without this role change, users will at best be unaware of these digital resources and at worst feel threatened by them. The findings of this paper highlight the importance on DL design and implementation of the social context and supporting user communication (i.e. collaboration and consultation) in their information search and usage activities

Information (and library) science at City University London; 50 years of educational development

The development of education for information and library science at City University London over a 50-year period is described in this article. The development of the Masters course in Information Science, and the later equivalent courses in Library Science and in Information Management in the Cultural Sector are described in detail, together with shorter-lived Masters courses in pharmaceutical and health information. The rationale for changes to the courses, and the influence of the professional and educational contexts, are analysed. Issues emerging from this analysis are discussed in seven themes: the nature of the discipline; the library/information spectrum; the student group; the academic/professional balance; curriculum design; local and global issues; and teaching methods. The discussions of the courses are set in the wider context of changes in library/information education over the period in the UK and worldwide

High strain-rate tensile testing and viscoplastic parameter identification using microscopic high-speed photography

A combined experimental/numerical method for determination of constitutive parameters in high strain-rate material models is presented. Impact loading, using moderate projectile velocities in combination with small specimens (sub mm) facilitate tensional strain rates in the order of 104–105 s−1. Loading force is measured from one-dimensional wave propagation in a rod using strain gauges and deformation is monitored with a high-speed camera equipped with a microscope lens. A sequence of digital photographs is taken during the impact loading and the plastic deformation history of the specimen is quantified from the photographic record. Estimation of material parameters is performed through so called inverse modelling in which results from repeated FE-simulations are compared with experimental results and a best choice of constitutive parameters is extracted through an iterative optimisation procedure using the simplex method. Results are presented from a preliminary tension test of a mild steel (A533B) at a strain rate well over 104 s−1. The sensitivity of the evaluated material parameters to errors in measured quantities is studied. The method, especially the optical technique for measurement of deformation will be further developed