'Cloud computing' in library automation: benefits and drawbacks

In recent years it has become common to hear about the virtues and benefits of the so-called ¿cloud¿ for the use of corporate software. Although the use of the cloud in the business environment has already transformed the concept of data storage and resource management, its use in the field of libraries and information centers is somewhat less widespread. This article aims to outline its benefits and drawbacks.Lloret Romero, MN. (2012). 'Cloud computing' in library automation: benefits and drawbacks. Bottom Line. 25(3):110-115. doi:10.1108/08880451211276566S110115253Choubey, R., Dubey, R. and Bhattacharjee, J. (2011), “A survey on cloud computing security, challenges and threats”,International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, Vol. 3 No. 3.Creeger, M. (2009), “Cloud computing: an overview”,ACM Queue, Vol. 7 No. 5

ROI. Measuring the social media return on investment in a library

Purpose: In all projections for 2011, ROI has become of the great challenges of social media marketing for the business environment. However in the case of non-profit organizations, there is no need for such calculations. It is not as necessary to know how the effort made in these media compares to the benefits that can be obtained. This paper aims to compare the parameters governing social media ROI at an enterprise level and at the level of non-profit institutions. Additionally, the use of social media tools in a strategic plan and to save costs in the institution is discussed. Design/methodology/approach: Where ROI is defined as a mere indicator of return on investment, it involves the direct costs and revenues of each transaction. Combining the world of social media marketing, which is full of intangibles, with the current crisis makes knowing "real" return one of the greatest current needs. When demanding returns from institutions that have never been analyzed from this standpoint, it is important to understand how a tool like this can be used to justify an entity's visibility, brand improvement and ultimately, an increase in the institution's quality and use by users. Also, it should be taken into account that while in 2010 branding was the primary goal of communication in social media, this year in view of the increasingly endemic crisis, a ROI analysis can help an institution to evidence how the cost savings inherent in using these as opposed to former marketing tools substantiate their use. However, this interest involves a great risk of simplification. Findings: The analysis used to measure ROI can follow these lines: The consumption by previous users can be compared with that of current arrivals on the network. Comparisons can be made between the behavior of a user prior to following the library on social media and after doing so. The extent to which the success of new developments, events etc. has improved after being communicated in social networks can be measured. The influence of brand perception on users' consumption and the extent to which the new media have changed this perception can be measured. Originality/value: Conducting a ROI analysis of a library's social media marketing campaign can help it evaluate various aspects in the library. Social media can be considered as an interesting information dissemination tool requiring only minimal effort which can be used by the library to promote reading and publicize its informational and cultural efforts. Social media can also be used as dynamic, provision of service and marketing resources with a clear reduction in costs compared to other more traditional types of advertising and publicizing. Given that in the management of these tools, it is the contents and ideas that are essential rather than the economic resources available, social media are particularly useful for small and medium libraries as they provide the possibility of increasing the visibility of the institution and improving its service and its users' experience. Opening a new channel of communication with users on the internet is a challenge for libraries that can be optimized with the development of a strategy for the use of social media. The library should make an effort to manage these resources efficiently and obtain the largest possible return on their use. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Lloret Romero, MN. (2011). ROI. Measuring the social media return on investment in a library. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances. 24(2):145-151. doi:10.1108/08880451111169223S145151242Gómez Pereda, N. and Merlo Vega, J.A. (2010), “Experiencias bibliotecarias con las tecnologías sociales: dossier”, Educación y biblioteca, Vol. 177, pp. 58‐125.Zarabozo, A. (2008), “Blogs y bibliotecas”, Biblioasturias, No. 11, pp. 10‐12

Model for the centralized acquisition of collections in times of crisis

The paper discusses how the inclusion of digital collections has led to a new licensing model that has changed the financial management and administration of budgets for the purchase of collections, starting with the acquisition of scientific journals for specialized centers and extending to all types of resource materials.Lloret Romero, MN. (2012). Model for the centralized acquisition of collections in times of crisis. Bottom Line. 25(4):59-63. doi:10.1108/08880451211292603S5963254Frazier, K. (2001), “The librarian's dilemma: contemplating the costs of the ‘big deal’”, D‐Lib Magazine, Vol. 7 No. 3, available at: www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/frazier/03frazier.html.Best, R. D. (2009). Is the «Big Deal» Dead? The Serials Librarian, 57(4), 353-363. doi:10.1080/03615260903203702Gatten, J.N. and Sanville, T. (2004), “An orderly retreat from the big deal: is it possible for consortia?”, D‐Lib Magazine, Vol. 10 No. 10, available at: www.dlib.org/dlib/october04/gatten/10gatten.html.Oder, N. (2010), “UC libraries, Nature Publishing Group in heated dispute over pricing; Boycott possible”, Library Journal, 10 June, available at: www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/885271264/uc_libraries_nature_publishing_group.html.csp.Pesch, O. (2008). Library Standards and E-Resource Management: A Survey of Current Initiatives and Standards Efforts. The Serials Librarian, 55(3), 481-486. doi:10.1080/03615260802059965Peters, T. A. (2001). What’s the big deal? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 27(4), 302-304. doi:10.1016/s0099-1333(01)00232-

Integración e interoperabilidad hacia la mejora de los servicios para el usuario

Presentación en las XI Jormadas de la Asociación de Usuarios de Ex Libris en España (Expania) celebradas en la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) el 4 y 5 de junio de 2014, con un programa centrado en la interoperabilidad y la integración de servicios y datos.Desde el principio los SIGBs se han centrado en la gestión de la colección: compras, catalogación, préstamo, ubicación en estanterías (inventario), y más recientemente préstamo interbibliotecario. Sin embargo actualmente las bibliotecas ofertan nuevos servicios que suponen nuevos ámbitos de gestión: asesoramiento a investigadores; publicación en sistemas OJS¿; difusión de contenidos en repositorios; implicación en planes de docencia, temas de derechos de autor¿ En este nuevo contexto, la presente comunicación aborda el problema desde la posición de un docente universitario especializado en documentación y bibliotecas ¿Habría que ir a un nuevo concepto de sistema integrado que abarcara estos nuevos ámbitos? ¿Cómo se preve que evolucione el mercado de los sistemas de gestión de biblioteca? ¿Qué dice el estado del arte al respecto?.Lloret Romero, MN. (2014). Integración e interoperabilidad hacia la mejora de los servicios para el usuario. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/38158

Cultural Peer Production in Times of Crisis

The current crisis has called into question the validity of the two main logics that have dominated cultural production in recent years, that is the capitalist market and the welfare state. According to the first one, cultural production is considered as a mere object of consumption controlled exclusively by the law of supply and demand. This logic has gone into crisis since the power of consumption of many citizens has decreased, therefore cultural offerings have been reduced. As an alternative to this private logic of cultural production, the state logic has intended to enhance the number of cultural producers by means of different subsidies. However, over the last five years we have witnessed how different Western European States have dramatically reduced the budgetary allocations for culture. The main result of this crisis is the fact that cultural production has been left in the hands of big private companies whose economic power enables them to monopolize it, thus reducing its plurality and diversity dangerously. As an alternative to this situation, new proposals emerge with the aim to democratize cultural production without depending on the rules established by the liberal market or the State¿s subsidies. These proposals are a consequence of the development of peer-to-peer (P2P) communication technologies. The convergence of free web platforms and free software that allow users to share their own resources and to have access to materials produced by others have changed the field of traditional production. The emergence of peer-to-peer collaborative projects forces us to question the traditional production model. In the following text we will tackle in a theoretical way how the P2P production model is proposed as the best alternative to face the crisis in the contemporary cultural panorama. This theoretical approach will be accompanied by the description of some P2P projects that have been developed in the fields of art, cinema, photography or theatre.García Puchades, W.; Lloret Romero, MN. (2013). Cultural Peer Production in Times of Crisis. International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society. 9(3):163-170. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/38900S1631709

Soundcool Project: Collaborative Music Creation

[EN] This paper addresses four criteria that the Soundcool project meets: to "be sustainable", "be future-oriented", "be transformative" and "be innovative". Soundcool is a pedagogical and technological project. A brief description of the technology behind Soundcool will be useful for the reader before addressing the four criteria. Soundcool is like a ¿Lego¿ for sound; Soundcool is composed of a series of software modules that run on a central computer, or host computer. Each module is sort of a musical instrument; it could be a synthesizer, a sampler, a sound effect processor, etc. these modules can be interconnected in different ways allowing the users, i.e. the students, to create their own arrangements, as we call the module creations and interconnections. Then, each module can be controlled either with the mouse or, what is more interesting, with a mobile device through WiFi. This way, every student can control one or several modules of the whole arrangement from their mobile device contributing to a collaborative and participative experience.This work is supported by Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation, project 16- AC-2016 and Cátedra Telefónica-UPV 2016-17Robles-Mateo, E.; Serquera, J.; Lloret Romero, MN.; Sastre, J. (2018). Soundcool Project: Collaborative Music Creation. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 715:416-420. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73210-7_50S416420715Sastre, J., Cerdà, J., García, W., Hernàndez, C.A., Lloret, N., Murillo, A., Picó, D., Serrano, J.E., Scarani, S., Dannenberg, R.B.: New technologies for music education. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on e-Learning and e-Technologies in Education (ICEEE) Ed., pp. 149–154. IEEE (2013)Wright, M.: The Open Sound Control 1.0 Spec., V. 1.0, 26 March 2002. http://opensoundcontrol.org/Regelski, A.T.: Music and music education: theory and praxis for ‘making a difference. In: Lines, D.K. (ed.) Music Education for the New Millennium: Theory and Practice Futures for Music Teaching and Learning. Blackwell Publishing, Malden (2005)Nicolls, S.: Seeking out the spaces between: using improvisation in collaborative composition with interactive technology. Leonardo Music J. 20, 47–55 (2010)Miranda, A., Santos, G., Stipicich, S.: Algunas características de investigaciones que estudian la integración de las TIC en la clase de ciencia (Some characteristics of research exploring the integration of ICT in science class). Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa, 12(2) (2010). http://redie.uabc.mx/index.php/redie/article/View/259Almirón, M.E., Porro, S.: Las Tic en la enseñanza: un análisis de casos (ICT in education: an analysis of cases). Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa 16(2), 152–160 (2014)Zabala, V., Arnau, L.: Métodos para la enseñanza de las competencias (Methods for teaching of skills), Barcelona, Graó, pp. 59–81 (2014

Cambios en la comunicación académica mediante análisis predictivo y nuevas tendencias del e-branding universitario

[EN] The world trends have changed the way of seeing society, getting goods or acquiring knowledge. Cultural movements have been affected by digital change, generating a new current among universities. They are permuting the way of learning, understanding, reasoning and proposing, which allows an evolution of the professional profile, a new movement of university style for education throughout life, something that is being achieved, through platforms and devices that allow to educate more, in less time for less cost and in any place. The 100 top universities were researched according to the Shanghai ranking through google trends to know the last fourteen years and the last twelve months and which have been the countries of greatest interest, the percentage of search and all the topics of greatest interest related to them. It is evident that online learning is imminent and that the software generated for this has had, has and will have a great relevance for the change of learning in students and how these trends influence students worldwide; besides the need to compare universities to have quality education[ES] Las tendencias mundiales han cambiado la forma de ver la sociedad, de conseguir bienes o de adquirir conocimiento, los movimientos culturales se han visto afectados por el cambio digital, generando una nueva corriente entre las universidades. Están permutando la vía de aprender, comprender, razonar y proponer, lo que permite una evolución del perfil profesional, un nuevo movimiento de estilo universitario para la educación a lo largo de la vida, algo que se está logrando, a través de plataformas y dispositivos que permiten educar más, en menor tiempo por menor costo y en cualquier lugar. Se investigó a las 100 mejores universidades según el ranking Shanghái por medio de google trends para conocer los últimos catorce años y los últimos doces meses y cuales han sido los países de mayor interés, el porcentaje de búsqueda y todos los temas de mayor interés relacionados a ellas. Es evidente que el aprendizaje en línea es inminente y que los softwares generados para esto han tenido, tienen y tendrán una gran relevancia para el cambio del aprendizaje en los estudiantes y como estas tendencias influyen en los estudiantes a nivel mundial; además de la necesidad de comparar las universidades para tener una educación de calidad.Del Pino Espinoza, AD.; Lloret Romero, MN. (2019). Cambios en la comunicación académica mediante análisis predictivo y nuevas tendencias del e-branding universitario. Universidad y Sociedad. 11(2):48-54. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/160698S485411

Teachers: mutation or extinction

[EN] The university professor is obliged to move towards a techno-digital profile in which he integrates his current competences with the digital ones. Those who do not adapt to this will be functional illiterates and will be vulnerable to extinction. Digital skills will be essential for future teaching because our young people are already digital.[ES] El docente universitario está obligado a mutarse hacia un perfil tecno-digital en el que integre sus competencias con las digitales. Los que no se adapten serán analfabetos funcionales y tenderán a la extinción. Las aptitudes digitales serán imprescindibles para la docencia futura porque nuestros jóvenes ya son digitales.Cabrera, M.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Lloret Romero, MN. (2019). Docentes: mutación o extinción. Telos: cuadernos de comunicación, tecnología y sociedad. 12(112):75-79. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/160429S75791211

Disclosing the network structure of private companies on the web: the case of Spanish IBEX 35 share index

[EN] Purpose - It is common for an international company to have different brands, products or services, information for investors, a corporate blog, affiliates, branches in different countries, etc. If all these contents appear as independent additional web domains (AWDs), the company should be represented on the web by all these web domains, since many of these AWDs may acquire remarkable performance that could mask or distort the real web performance of the company, affecting therefore on the understanding of web metrics. The purpose of this paper is to determine the amount, type, web impact and topology of the AWDs in commercial companies in order to get a better understanding on their complete web impact and structure. Design/methodology/approach - The set of companies belonging to the Spanish IBEX-35 stock index has been analysed as testing bench. The authors proceeded to identify and categorise all AWDs belonging to these companies, and to apply both web impact (web presence and visibility) and network metrics. Findings - The results show that AWDs get a high web presence but relatively low web visibility, due to certain opacity or less dissemination of some AWDs favoring its isolation. This is verified by the low network density values obtained, that occur because AWDs are strongly connected with the corporate domain (although asymmetrically), but very weakly linked each other. Research limitations/implications - The categories used to classify the various AWD, although they are clearly distinguishable conceptually, have certain limitations in practice, since they depend on the form adopted by companies to publish certain content or to provide certain services or products. Otherwise, the use of web indicators presents certain problems of accuracy that could be softened if applied with caution and in a relational basis. Originality/value - Although the processes of AWDs creation and categorisation are complex (web policy seems not to be driven by a defined or conscious plan), their influence on the web performance of IBEX 35 companies is meaningful. This research measures the AWDs influence on companies under webometric terms for the first time.This research has been funded under the project APOSTD/2013/002 from the Regional Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (Generalitat Valenciana) in Spain.Orduña Malea, E.; Delgado López-Cózar, E.; Serrano-Cobos, J.; Lloret Romero, MN. (2015). Disclosing the network structure of private companies on the web: the case of Spanish IBEX 35 share index. Online Information Review. 39(3):360-382. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2014-0282S36038239

Design of Virtual Hands for Natural Interaction in the Metaverse

[EN] The emergence of the Metaverse is raising important questions in the field of human-machine interaction that must be addressed for a successful implementation of the new paradigm. Therefore, the exploration and integration of both technology and human interaction within this new framework are needed. This paper describes an innovative and technically viable proposal for virtual shopping in the fashion field. Virtual hands directly scanned from the real world have been integrated, after a retopology process, in a virtual environment created for the Metaverse, and have been integrated with digital nails. Human interaction with the Metaverse has been carried out through the acquisition of the real posture of the user's hands using an infrared-based sensor and mapping it in its virtualized version, achieving natural identification. The technique has been successfully tested in an immersive shopping experience with the Meta Quest 2 headset as a pilot project, where a transactions mechanism based on the blockchain technology (non-fungible tokens, NFTs) has allowed for the development of a feasible solution for massive audiences. The consumers' reactions were extremely positive, with a total of 250 in-person participants and 120 remote accesses to the Metaverse. Very interesting technical guidelines are raised in this project, the resolution of which may be useful for future implementations.This research is part of the R+D project PID2020-118021RB-I00, funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and R+D project UJI-B2022-48 funded by University Jaume I.Cerdá Boluda, J.; Mora, MC.; Lloret Romero, MN.; Scarani, S.; Sastre, J. (2024). Design of Virtual Hands for Natural Interaction in the Metaverse. Sensors. 24(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/s2403074124