The Creation of Primary Sources Digital Collections in an Academic Library

This article discusses the creation of primary sources digital collections in an academic library, including implementation, work processes, digitization and providing accessibility of visual materials. These reflect the practical application of the approach developed in The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library at the University of Haifa regarding the library\u27s position in the field of digital collections. The article denotes the work process model created for these collections, from their reception, through classification, cataloging, scanning and digitization, and to the digital publishing which provides access. Special emphasis is given to practical ways to manage the challenges that arise from handing unique visual materials such as photos, albums, manuscripts, and maps

SFX, Information Needs, the Academic Library, and Its User

Introduction Libraries need an efficient way to manage their diverse electronic resources. At the same time, they need a tool that provides users with easy access to those digital items. Guaranteed simple and reliable access to full text sources (depending on existing subscriptions of course) is one of the main concerns of libraries in the digital age. The tool that supplied the solution to this problem is the OpenURL link resolver. (Ponsford, Stephens & Sewell, 2011). Today, SFX by Ex Libris is the most widely used OpenURL link resolver (Robertson &. Soderdahl, 2004). This article examines whether SFX can be used not only as a link resolver, but also as a tool for assessing user information needs. We shall review SFX\u27s contribution to the assessment of information needs in an academic library and its benefits to the users and to the library. Background Most commonly, link resolvers provide the library patron with the ability to move quickly from a citation in an abstracting and indexing database to the full text itself (Robertson &. Soderdahl, 2004). SFX and other link resolvers seamlessly offer links from one information resource to another. For example, users can jump from a citation in an abstracting and indexing source database to target resources, such as full-text articles, online catalogs, interlibrary loan or other options a library chooses to offer. The whole range of possible options is displayed in one menu, instead of having to perform multiple separate searches to locate what they are looking for. (Wakimoto, Walker & Dabbour, 2006). When integrating SFX software with Google Scholar, which is widely used by academics as one of the main gates to reliable academic sources, it enables users to search the library’s collection for e-journals, and eBooks, all through Google Scholar itself. Clicking on SFX icons in Google Scholar, the user is redirected to the SFX resolver, which displays links to the selected article that is a part of the library\u27s subscriptions elsewhere or displays other services related to the article, such as an interlibrary loan service or other function the library chose to offer. (Xu, 2010; Stowers& Tucker, 2009). SFX was first developed at the University of Ghent by Herbert Van de Sompel and was released as a commercial product by Ex Libris in 2001. SFX is an XML-based product that was not only built on the OpenURL framework, it was the technology for which OpenURL was originally defined and thus was the first OpenURL-based link resolver on the market. (Robertson & Soderdahl, 2004). Since 2001, for ten years now, SFX offers a wealth of features for end users and librarians at over 1800 institutions in more than 50 countries as ExLibris puts it. SFX offers its users four major benefits. First, it allows the retrieval of full text items that are part of the library\u27s subscriptions. Second, it enables users to find full text by its citation details without knowing in which database it is hosted. Third, if there is only a print option of the article available it will direct users to the library catalog for the holding information. In case the library doesn\u27t have the requested item, the interlibrary loan option will be suggested by the software. Last but not least, since 2009, SFX includes a recommender system, bX. By harvesting metadata from the SFX usage log files from all of the subscribing institutions, bX provides recommendations to articles. The bX recommendation service is similar to a commercial web site recommender. When a user searches for a specific article he gets a list of articles other users found interesting. This feature is very useful for users (Ponsford, Stephens, Sewell, 2011; Xu, 2010; Imler, 2011). SFX offers some crucial benefits for libraries, too. It not only helps to manage its electronic resources and provides smooth access to its customers, but also it allows librarians to learn a lot more about user information behavior and needs, using its unique features such as its statistical reports and more. The University of Haifa is located in the northern part of Israel, on Mount Carmel and across the Mediterranean Sea. The university community has about 18,000 students (bacholars, graduates, and PhD students) and over 1,200 faculty members. The Younes & Soraya Nazarian library is a central library which serves the entire university community. Its collection comprises more than 2 million books and electronic resources, among them 45,000 electronic journals. In January 2005, the library integrated the SFX software into its systems. The library experience with SFX and report analysis from the SFX log files will be used to demonstrate the potential advantage of SFX in the area of assessing information needs. How SFX Reveals and Satisfies the Academic User\u27s Information Needs The focus of this article is the contribution of SFX as a tool assisting the library to evaluate user information needs and satisfy some of them. This article will assess information needs by some of the parameters as first suggested by David Nicholas in 2000 and updated to the digital consumer by Nicholas & Herman in 2009 (Nicholas, 2000 ; Nicholas & Herman, 2009). SFX usage & statistical reports, produced at the Younes & Soraya Nazarian library of the University of Haifa, will be the source to the data presented according to these parameters

SFX, Information Needs, the Academic Library, and Its User

Introduction Libraries need an efficient way to manage their diverse electronic resources. At the same time, they need a tool that provides users with easy access to those digital items. Guaranteed simple and reliable access to full text sources (depending on existing subscriptions of course) is one of the main concerns of libraries in the digital age. The tool that supplied the solution to this problem is the OpenURL link resolver. (Ponsford, Stephens & Sewell, 2011). Today, SFX by Ex Libris is the most widely used OpenURL link resolver (Robertson &. Soderdahl, 2004). This article examines whether SFX can be used not only as a link resolver, but also as a tool for assessing user information needs. We shall review SFX\u27s contribution to the assessment of information needs in an academic library and its benefits to the users and to the library. Background Most commonly, link resolvers provide the library patron with the ability to move quickly from a citation in an abstracting and indexing database to the full text itself (Robertson &. Soderdahl, 2004). SFX and other link resolvers seamlessly offer links from one information resource to another. For example, users can jump from a citation in an abstracting and indexing source database to target resources, such as full-text articles, online catalogs, interlibrary loan or other options a library chooses to offer. The whole range of possible options is displayed in one menu, instead of having to perform multiple separate searches to locate what they are looking for. (Wakimoto, Walker & Dabbour, 2006). When integrating SFX software with Google Scholar, which is widely used by academics as one of the main gates to reliable academic sources, it enables users to search the library’s collection for e-journals, and eBooks, all through Google Scholar itself. Clicking on SFX icons in Google Scholar, the user is redirected to the SFX resolver, which displays links to the selected article that is a part of the library\u27s subscriptions elsewhere or displays other services related to the article, such as an interlibrary loan service or other function the library chose to offer. (Xu, 2010; Stowers& Tucker, 2009). SFX was first developed at the University of Ghent by Herbert Van de Sompel and was released as a commercial product by Ex Libris in 2001. SFX is an XML-based product that was not only built on the OpenURL framework, it was the technology for which OpenURL was originally defined and thus was the first OpenURL-based link resolver on the market. (Robertson & Soderdahl, 2004). Since 2001, for ten years now, SFX offers a wealth of features for end users and librarians at over 1800 institutions in more than 50 countries as ExLibris puts it. SFX offers its users four major benefits. First, it allows the retrieval of full text items that are part of the library\u27s subscriptions. Second, it enables users to find full text by its citation details without knowing in which database it is hosted. Third, if there is only a print option of the article available it will direct users to the library catalog for the holding information. In case the library doesn\u27t have the requested item, the interlibrary loan option will be suggested by the software. Last but not least, since 2009, SFX includes a recommender system, bX. By harvesting metadata from the SFX usage log files from all of the subscribing institutions, bX provides recommendations to articles. The bX recommendation service is similar to a commercial web site recommender. When a user searches for a specific article he gets a list of articles other users found interesting. This feature is very useful for users (Ponsford, Stephens, Sewell, 2011; Xu, 2010; Imler, 2011). SFX offers some crucial benefits for libraries, too. It not only helps to manage its electronic resources and provides smooth access to its customers, but also it allows librarians to learn a lot more about user information behavior and needs, using its unique features such as its statistical reports and more. The University of Haifa is located in the northern part of Israel, on Mount Carmel and across the Mediterranean Sea. The university community has about 18,000 students (bacholars, graduates, and PhD students) and over 1,200 faculty members. The Younes & Soraya Nazarian library is a central library which serves the entire university community. Its collection comprises more than 2 million books and electronic resources, among them 45,000 electronic journals. In January 2005, the library integrated the SFX software into its systems. The library experience with SFX and report analysis from the SFX log files will be used to demonstrate the potential advantage of SFX in the area of assessing information needs. How SFX Reveals and Satisfies the Academic User\u27s Information Needs The focus of this article is the contribution of SFX as a tool assisting the library to evaluate user information needs and satisfy some of them. This article will assess information needs by some of the parameters as first suggested by David Nicholas in 2000 and updated to the digital consumer by Nicholas & Herman in 2009 (Nicholas, 2000 ; Nicholas & Herman, 2009). SFX usage & statistical reports, produced at the Younes & Soraya Nazarian library of the University of Haifa, will be the source to the data presented according to these parameters

Cultural Heritage Image Sharing Recommendations Report

Deliverable 13.2 for the WorldFAIR Project’s Cultural Heritage Work Package (WP13). Although the cultural heritage sector has only recently begun to think of traditional gallery, library, archival and museum (‘GLAM’) collections as data, long established practices guiding the management and sharing of information resources has aligned the domain well with the FAIR principles for research data, evidenced in complementary workflows and standards that support discovery, access, reuse, and persistence. As explored in the previous report by Work Package 13 for the WorldFAIR Project, D13.1 Practices and policies supporting cultural heritage image sharing platforms, memory institutions are in an important position to influence cross-domain data sharing practices and raise critical questions about why and how those practices are implemented. Deliverable 13.2 aims to build on our understanding of what it means to support FAIR in the sharing of image data derived from GLAM collections. This report looks at previous efforts by the sector towards FAIR alignment and presents 5 recommendations designed to be implemented and tested at the DRI that are also broadly applicable to the work of the GLAMs. The recommendations are ultimately a roadmap for the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) to follow in improving repository services, as well as a call for continued dialogue around ‘what is FAIR?’ within the cultural heritage research data landscape. Visit WorldFAIR online at http://worldfair-project.eu. WorldFAIR is funded by the EC HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-41 Coordination and Support Action under Grant Agreement No. 101058393

The Library is a Growing Organism: Ranganathan\u27s Fifth Law of Library Science and the Academic Library in the Digital Era

This article seeks to explore some possible creative options all aimed for finding unique ways for the academic library to grow in the digital era. The paper use terms and ideas derived from Darwin\u27s theory of evolution but based first and foremost on the philosophical infrastructure phrased by Ranganathan (1931) at his fifth law for library science: the library is a growing organism because those classical theories can give strength and real support to the academic library institution to innovate with a solid framework instead of random actions here and there. It is a conceptual paper based on literature review and field experience as an academic librarian The paper will focus, through three paths: impart information literacy, digital collection development and new contributions to the body of knowledge through repositories and/or co-publishing of electronic journals in order to demonstrate the usability of creativity and innovativeness grounded in Ranganathan\u27s is fifth law for library science: the library is a growing organism. Implementation this spirit might assist coping better disintermediation, making the academic library organism to expend and flourish. All that can\u27t be done without a deeper acquaintance of the library with its consumers and vice versa. The originality of this article lies in its use of classical theories to deal with the challenges presented by the current environment