How user-friendly are user interfaces of open access digital repositories?

Digital information resources available on the Internet have become conditio sine qua non of modern research and teaching. In the last decade and a half the Internet and especially the Web had introduced many types of online information resources that emerged and vanished. Only those that were closely associated with important institutions in society (such as libraries and universities) and proved usable survived. Until recently, libraries have been places where university staff seeks quality information for research and teaching, and students for learning. With the proliferation of the Web, students have replaced libraries with search engines and are now using them as primary tools for discovery of information necessary for completion of their written exams, term papers, presentations etc. In their effort to provide researchers, teachers and students with quality content, universities and libraries started development of digital repositories, digital archives of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution. Digital repositories contain research data, journal articles, preprints, technical reports, books, theses and dissertations and other material used in research and educational process. The diverse content of digital repositories represents rich resources for research and teaching, In addition to the diversity and quality of the content, another issue – user interfaces – attracted attention of computer specialists because user interfaces are means of successful use of digital repositories. The research of top 20 open access digital repositories showed that the biggest repositories share common characteristics which help their users in their daily access to the content of repositories. Despite helpful similarities, some of these digital repositories should improve their design to become more attractive and attract younger generations of users seeking knowledge elsewhere on the Internet

DIGITALNI REPOZITORIJI I BUDUĆNOST OČUVANJA I PRIMJENE ZNANSTVENOG ZNANJA

Information and communication technology has a great influence on scientific communication and work of scientists. Ways in which research is conducted have changed; science has become more highly collaborative; network-based, and data-intensive. The existing system of scientific publishing is experiencing pressure for change under the influence of the exponential growth of information production, the dramatic increase in subscription fees, the increasing storage cost of printed documents, and the increasing power and availability of digital technology. To conduct their research more effectively scientists need modern resources of digital information which would support their endeavor. Digital repository is one such type of information resources. Digital repository is an institutional digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution. Digital repositories carry a great potential for the advancement of scientific research. Digital repositories can store different file formats and types of content. An institutional digital repository can contain e-prints of scientific papers, research data, but also e-learning materials and other forms of institutional intellectual outputs. As the number of open access digital repositories grows, it has become evident that institutional repositories are now clearly and broadly being recognized as essential infrastructure for scholarship in the digital world.Informacijska i komunikacijska tehnologija ima velik utjecaj na znanstveno komuniciranje i rad znanstvenika. Načini provođenja istraživanja se mijenjaju; znanstvenici sve više surađuju; računalne mreže sve se više koriste uz nastanak i korištenje sve veće količine podataka. Postoje sustav znanstvenog objavljivanja nalazi se pod pritiskom promjena zbog eksponencijalnog rasta informacijske produkcije, dramatičnog povećanja cijena pretplata (na časopise), povećanih troškova pohrane tiskanih dokumenata i rastućom snagom i dostupnosti digitalne tehnologije. Za učinkovitije provođenje znanstvenih istraživanja, znanstvenicima su potrebni suvremeni izvori digitalnih informacija koji su pružiti podršku njihovim aktivnostima. Jedna takva vrsta informacijskih izvora su i digitalni repozitoriji. Riječ je obično o institucijskim digitalnim arhivima intelektualnih rezultata rada koje su stvorili nastavnici, znanstvenici i studenti neke institucije i koji su dostupni krajnjim korisnicima u instituciji i izvan nje. Digitalni repozitoriji imaju velik potencijal za napredak znanstvenih istraživanja. U digitalnim repozitorijima moguće je pohraniti razne formate datoteka i vrste sadržaja. Institucijski repozitorij može sadržavati e-print verzije znanstvenih radova, podatke istraživanja, ali i obrazovni materijal i druge oblike institucijskih rezultata intelektualnog rada. Kako broj digitalnih repozitorija sa slobodnim pristupom raste, postalo je očito da su institucijskih repozitoriji postali priznati kao esencijalni dijelovi infrastrukture znanosti u digitalnom svijetu

Evaluation of Digital Collections’ User Interfaces

Digital information resources play a very important role in today’s world. They eliminate or reduce prior constraints of distance, fragility of resources, or limited physical access to resources premises a freedom and flexibility in information access unprecedented in human history (Bates, 2002). Their existence would be impossible without information systems that enable their functioning. The life cycle of an information system consists of the standard sequence of development phases. This sequence of development phases includes the process of evaluation or assessment of the information system. Only thorough and frequent evaluation of the information system and its components will ensure its flawless functioning. During the process of evaluation, special attention is given to user interfaces, access points to the content of online information resources. The process of evaluation can be carried out by application of several different methods. This paper puts focus on selected methods for evaluation of information systems and their user interfaces that can be also applied to digital collections (and their user interfaces) available on the Internet. It also presents results from the research of the Croatian national heritage digital collections available on the Internet and common characteristics of their user interfaces

Supporting e-Science : Scientific Research Data Curation

One of the outcomes of the continuous development of science is creation of new methods of scientific research which, as a result, generate different types of research output including research data. While a significant attention is given to preservation of journal articles, books, and papers published in conference proceeding, less attention is given to the preservation of research data. To enable use of data accumulated in previous scientific research projects in a new scientific research, research data should be preserved. The activity of research data preservation is called data curation. Data curation has become necessary if science wants to avoid data loss. Unfortunately, science itself cannot take care of research data easily; it needs help from professionals like librarians and archivists to preserve research data in order to enable their re-use future scientific research. Although there are already some good solutions to this problem such as storing research data in digital repositories, no final decision has been made about who will take the responsibility for this kind of activity in the long run

Digital repositories and the future of preservation and use of scientific knowledge

Informacijska i komunikacijska tehnologija ima velik utjecaj na znanstveno komuniciranje i rad znanstvenika. Načini provođenja istraživanja se mijenjaju; znanstvenici sve više surađuju; računalne mreže sve se više koriste uz nastanak i korištenje sve veće količine podataka. Postoje sustav znanstvenog objavljivanja nalazi se pod pritiskom promjena zbog eksponencijalnog rasta informacijske produkcije, dramatičnog povećanja cijena pretplata (na časopise), povećanih troškova pohrane tiskanih dokumenata i rastućom snagom i dostupnosti digitalne tehnologije. Za učinkovitije provođenje znanstvenih istraživanja, znanstvenicima su potrebni suvremeni izvori digitalnih informacija koji su pružiti podršku njihovim aktivnostima. Jedna takva vrsta informacijskih izvora su i digitalni repozitoriji. Riječ je obično o institucijskim digitalnim arhivima intelektualnih rezultata rada koje su stvorili nastavnici, znanstvenici i studenti neke institucije i koji su dostupni krajnjim korisnicima u instituciji i izvan nje. Digitalni repozitoriji imaju velik potencijal za napredak znanstvenih istraživanja. U digitalnim repozitorijima moguće je pohraniti razne formate datoteka i vrste sadržaja. Institucijski repozitorij može sadržavati e-print verzije znanstvenih radova, podatke istraživanja, ali i obrazovni materijal i druge oblike institucijskih rezultata intelektualnog rada. Kako broj digitalnih repozitorija sa slobodnim pristupom raste, postalo je očito da su institucijskih repozitoriji postali priznati kao esencijalni dijelovi infrastrukture znanosti u digitalnom svijetu.Information and communication technology has a great infl uence on scientifi c communication and work of scientists. Ways in which research is conducted have changed; science has become more highly collaborative; network-based, and data-intensive. The existing system of scientifi c publishing is experiencing pressure for change under the infl uence of the exponential growth of information production, the dramatic increase in subscription fees, the increasing storage cost of printed documents, and the increasing power and availability of digital technology. To conduct their research more eff ectively scientists need modern resources of digital information which would support their endeavor. Digital repository is one such type of information resources. Digital repository is an institutional digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff , and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution. Digital repositories carry a great potential for the advancement of scientifi c research. Digital repositories can store diff erent fi le formats and types of content. An institutional digital repository can contain e-prints of scientifi c papers, research data, but also e-learning materials and other forms of institutional intellectual outputs. As the number of open access digital repositories grows, it has become evident that institutional repositories are now clearly and broadly being recognized as essential infrastructure for scholarship in the digital world

Digital repositories and scientific communication challenge

Digital technology has a great influence on scientific communication and scientific research in general. As a result, science has become more highly collaborative, network-based, and data-intensive seeking for different kinds of support for research as well for other activities that follow research such as rapid publication of research results and dissemination and preservation of research data. Having these issues in mind, the traditional system of scientific communication has also begun search for a new publishing and communication platform. At the beginning of the 1990s digital repositories appeared as a possible solution offering several key advantages over the existing publishing and preservation solutions. At the moment digital repositories of scientific information are closest to the position of new mainstream publishing and communication platform in science as they have become more mature and developed networked information systems; as their number in the world is on the rise and as they have become more and more accepted by the scientific community. While first digital repositories were isolated systems, today they distributed federated and highly integrated applications and services. In combination with the open access initiative, digital repositories of scientific information started to offer many benefits for different groups of users. Furthermore, digital repositories could help smaller countries to become more visible in the global scientific community by offering online open access digital peer reviewed scientific content. Digital repositories should solve problems inherited from the existing paper based system of scientific communication: access to scientific information for different categories of users, storage space, slow publishing, quality and quantity of scientific knowledge, organization of scientific knowledge in transparent way, interoperability of information systems and many other issues scientific publishers, universities and their libraries haven’t solved so far. This paper offers an overview of the important characteristics that make digital repositories so important in modern science

Towards E-science: Scientific Communication on the Verge of Paradigm Change

Information and communication technology (ICT) has a great influence on scientific communication and work of scientists. Globally, scientists are experiencing changes in ways in which they create, find, share, process, store and use scientific information. They communicate in electronic environment with their colleagues, publish their works in electronic journals and store them in digital repositories and create virtual scientific communities. However, all aspects of scientific communication on the Internet are still not known, and require additional research. This paper offers an insight into number of aspects of communication between scientists at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities in Zagreb

DIGITALNI REPOZITORIJI I BUDUĆNOST OČUVANJA I PRIMJENE ZNANSTVENOG ZNANJA

Information and communication technology has a great influence on scientific communication and work of scientists. Ways in which research is conducted have changed; science has become more highly collaborative; network-based, and data-intensive. The existing system of scientific publishing is experiencing pressure for change under the influence of the exponential growth of information production, the dramatic increase in subscription fees, the increasing storage cost of printed documents, and the increasing power and availability of digital technology. To conduct their research more effectively scientists need modern resources of digital information which would support their endeavor. Digital repository is one such type of information resources. Digital repository is an institutional digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution. Digital repositories carry a great potential for the advancement of scientific research. Digital repositories can store different file formats and types of content. An institutional digital repository can contain e-prints of scientific papers, research data, but also e-learning materials and other forms of institutional intellectual outputs. As the number of open access digital repositories grows, it has become evident that institutional repositories are now clearly and broadly being recognized as essential infrastructure for scholarship in the digital world.Informacijska i komunikacijska tehnologija ima velik utjecaj na znanstveno komuniciranje i rad znanstvenika. Načini provođenja istraživanja se mijenjaju; znanstvenici sve više surađuju; računalne mreže sve se više koriste uz nastanak i korištenje sve veće količine podataka. Postoje sustav znanstvenog objavljivanja nalazi se pod pritiskom promjena zbog eksponencijalnog rasta informacijske produkcije, dramatičnog povećanja cijena pretplata (na časopise), povećanih troškova pohrane tiskanih dokumenata i rastućom snagom i dostupnosti digitalne tehnologije. Za učinkovitije provođenje znanstvenih istraživanja, znanstvenicima su potrebni suvremeni izvori digitalnih informacija koji su pružiti podršku njihovim aktivnostima. Jedna takva vrsta informacijskih izvora su i digitalni repozitoriji. Riječ je obično o institucijskim digitalnim arhivima intelektualnih rezultata rada koje su stvorili nastavnici, znanstvenici i studenti neke institucije i koji su dostupni krajnjim korisnicima u instituciji i izvan nje. Digitalni repozitoriji imaju velik potencijal za napredak znanstvenih istraživanja. U digitalnim repozitorijima moguće je pohraniti razne formate datoteka i vrste sadržaja. Institucijski repozitorij može sadržavati e-print verzije znanstvenih radova, podatke istraživanja, ali i obrazovni materijal i druge oblike institucijskih rezultata intelektualnog rada. Kako broj digitalnih repozitorija sa slobodnim pristupom raste, postalo je očito da su institucijskih repozitoriji postali priznati kao esencijalni dijelovi infrastrukture znanosti u digitalnom svijetu

Tranformation of Scholarly Publishing in the Digital Era : Scholars’ Point of View

Scholarly publishing is one of the most important activities for scholars whose career depends on publication of their research results. To find out more about the current situation regarding scholarly publishing at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia, a research project was initiated. Findings showed strong orientation of scholars towards the most traditional publication channel in science - printed journal. Findings also revealed that scholars most frequently write their articles alone; sometimes they wait for more than a year for publication of their articles mainly in journals; they are seldom editors of journals, but they participate in work of editorial boards and they also participate in the peer review. The outcomes of this research showed that scholars are still communicating by using the infrastructure of the old paradigm of scientific communication based on printed information resources and that they suffer from the same problems as their colleagues around the world regarding communication of the results of their scientific research

The Importance of Usability in Development of Digital Libraries

Digital libraries are among the most interesting electronic information resources of our time. They are the collection of services and the collection of information objects and services that support users in accessing information objects available on the Internet. They are complex information systems consisting of many components which depend on each other in their operation. To achieve the flawless operation of digital libraries their developers should evaluate their achievements during the phase of development as well as during the phase of use. As a result of their efforts, users should get usable and easy to use information systems which are adapted to their needs and preferences. Evaluation and usability are two important concepts which may help librarians and computer specialists to design better information systems and better services for them. Usability testing may include one (usually the user interface) or many components of an information system for evaluation. Evaluation also includes the research of user community. Information acquired in such a way may also significantly help in information system improvement. Since the goal of evaluation is to achieve quality and improvement, the final result should be a superior information system like digital library and satisfied users