Promoting the Use of Library Services: Challenges and Prospects in some Ghanaian Technical Universities

The study examines marketing practices in some selected academic libraries in Ghana which include; Sunyani, Tamale and Accra technical university libraries. The study relied on both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Two hundred and eighty-four (284) students and twenty (20) professional library staff of these universities were studied. The data collected through questionnaire was analyzed with the use of SPSS whiles that of the interviews were recorded, transcribed and interpreted. The findings of the study revealed that the techniques and tools used by these universities were found to be inadequate and social media tools were highly not considered. Inadequate facilities, lack of funds, lack of staff and knowledge of staff in marketing and lack of marketing policies were identified as major challenges faced by the selected libraries in promoting the use of their services. Some recommendations were however suggested and include; advocate for more facilities and funds for marketing, increase number of staff and skills in marketing and develop best marketing policies, tools and techniques for effective promotion activities in their libraries. The study shall be useful to academic libraries and more especially to TUs in terms of policy formulation such as informing library management of the challenges facing their libraries in carrying out promotional activities in their libraries

LIBRARY SERVICES, LIBRARY AUTOMATION PROGRAMMES AND THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRIES IN NIGERIA

Library services are undergoing transformation. The transformation from manual to automated systems is changing the services provided by these libraries and the way they are performed. But the automation programmes of Nigerian libraries are facing serious threat of inadequate funding. Inadequate funding is affecting the ability to adopt good software that incorporates all the features that can turn around library services. It has however been discovered that there are some government parastatals which can be made to be of assistance to these libraries. These are software oriented industries like NITDA, ISPON, Digital Bridge Institute, et cetera. These institutions can be made to work in partnership with the libraries on how their services can be enhanced. Some renowned institutions that have assisted libraries and research in the developed countries were also discussed

Causal Relationship between Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction of Library and Information Professionals: A Canonical Correlation Analysis

This study examines the constructs of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In this study, a canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used to estimate relationships between identified dimensions of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This study confirmed previous research showing that job satisfaction and organizational commitment constructs have positive and canonical relationship. The study samples are 405 of Library and Information Professionals selected randomly at the 2014 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Nigeria Library Association held in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was prepared for the purpose of collection of data and the data were collected using Job Satisfaction Survey dimension of job satisfaction are autonomy, remuneration, promotion, supervision, condition of service, job significant, co-workers, skill variety, procedures as it is used by Humborstad and Perry (2011) while Organizational Commitment Scales affective, normative and continuance as it is used by Field (2002). In this study, three canonical correlation coefficients (CCC) were estimated, and the first two of them were significant (0.653 and 0.597, p0.001). Also the squared canonical correlation coefficient indicates the proportion of variance a dependent variable linearly shares with the independent variable generated from the observed variable’s set (i.e., the canonical variates) where job satisfaction accounted for 21.36% of the variance in organizational commitment while organizational commitment explained 17.15% of the variations in job satisfaction

Understanding cities with machine eyes: A review of deep computer vision in urban analytics

Modelling urban systems has interested planners and modellers for decades. Different models have been achieved relying on mathematics, cellular automation, complexity, and scaling. While most of these models tend to be a simplification of reality, today within the paradigm shifts of artificial intelligence across the different fields of science, the applications of computer vision show promising potential in understanding the realistic dynamics of cities. While cities are complex by nature, computer vision shows progress in tackling a variety of complex physical and non-physical visual tasks. In this article, we review the tasks and algorithms of computer vision and their applications in understanding cities. We attempt to subdivide computer vision algorithms into tasks, and cities into layers to show evidence of where computer vision is intensively applied and where further research is needed. We focus on highlighting the potential role of computer vision in understanding urban systems related to the built environment, natural environment, human interaction, transportation, and infrastructure. After showing the diversity of computer vision algorithms and applications, the challenges that remain in understanding the integration between these different layers of cities and their interactions with one another relying on deep learning and computer vision. We also show recommendations for practice and policy-making towards reaching AI-generated urban policies

The Relation Between Residential Self-Selection and Urban Mobility in Middle Eastern Cities: the Case of Alexandria, Egypt

The present paper attempts to fill a part of the gap in the studies on residential location choices and their relations to urban mobility, socio-economics, and the built environment by presenting the results of a study on Alexandria, Egypt, by analysing the results of a survey in eight neighbourhoods undertaken in 2015. Four questions were answered in this study: (i) “How are the main drivers behind residential location choices in Alexandria connected to various socio-demographic groups or people with different availability to urban and built environments?”, (ii) “How are the main residential self-selections in Alexandria associated with one another and which are the most important?”, (iii) “How are the housing location-related decisions of Egyptians similar to or different from international decisions?”, and (iv) “How can planners and decision-makers use the knowledge produced by this study for urban planning and housing in Egypt?”. Library work and the results of a Χ2 test of independence show that availability of transportation modes, nice neighbourhoods, and affordability are the strongest motives behind decisions. However, socio-economic factors are generally stronger than urban mobility and spatial issues. These findings are partly different from those of high-income countries

ADOPTION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO IMPROVE LIBRARY SERVICE DELIVERY IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Due to the increasing presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in developed countries, this paper examines the adoption of AI for effective library services in academic libraries in Nigeria. The paper defines artificial intelligence while chronicling its history. He also identified the advantages of adopting artificial intelligence in academic libraries, which include ease of use, endless functionality, and the ability to perform complex work, among others, and the challenges faced by library management towards adopting artificial intelligence, which include financial uncertainty, job loss, and technological defects, among others. The paper concluded that adoption of AI in academic libraries sets a new level of efficient and effective library service delivery, but adoption in developing countries such as Nigeria is low due to some identified challenges. The paper recommended that government and library management should come together to suggest the way forward for academic libraries in terms of meeting the latest standard for the use of AI in libraries; library staff must undergo training and retraining in the use of artificial intelligence in providing library services, among other things

Robust Aggregation Mechanism in WSN for Mitigating Attacks

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a collection of sensor nodes connected to base station which is characterized by many to one communication. Many sensor nodes will send data to base station making it many to on communication. The sensor nodes can act as sender and receiver of data as the data is sent to base station through intermediary nodes. The nodes are resource constrained as they are deployed in hostile environment or environment where resources are limited. The nodes are expected to participate in sensing or surveillance. WSNs are widely used in civilian and military applications for sending data and surveillance. As WSN is becoming increasingly popular, security needs to be provided in the network as the nodes are vulnerable to various attacks. Since the nodes are energy constrained, it is very useful to use some aggregation technique in order to reduce communication overhead and also energy consumption. Recently Roy et al. focused on aggregation in WSN for filtering out the impact of attackers on the network. Their focus was to use aggregation in WSN in order to reduce communication overhead and reduce the impact of attacks on WSN. In this paper we implement a variant of protocol that takes care of secure communications over WSN besides reducing energy consumption and mitigating attack impact. The simulation results are encouraging DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15065

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ADOPTION AND UTILIZATION BY LIBRARIANS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated how librarians working in various university libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria, adopt and use artificial intelligence. The study raised four research goals as well as four research questions. A descriptive survey method and random sampling techniques with 450 randomly selected librarians from Kwara State Universities, Nigeria, were used for the research. Five research assistants were trained on how to contact respondents and secure their consent before distributing the structured questionnaire designed by the researcher, who assisted in the tool distribution process. The researcher was able to retrieve 410 copies of the 450 questionnaires that were given to the respondents. However, the rate of return was 91%, which is a respectable amount. A self-designed questionnaire was used to elicit responses from the respondents, and a simple percentage was adapted for data analysis. The results showed that there was little adoption of AI in university libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria. The research also reveals that security scanning devices at the entrances and exits of university libraries are the most prevalent AI systems, while other AI systems such as bots, chatbots, face recognition, touch recognition, RFID technologies, humans, AI classification tools, machine-readable catalogs, and not smart AI features are still missing from the Kwara State University libraries. A self-designed questionnaire was used to elicit responses from the respondents, and a simple percentage ratio was adapted for data analysis. The findings revealed that AI has received minimal attention in university libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria. According to the study, the most common AIs are security scanning equipment at university library entrances and exits, followed by robotics, chatbots, face recognition, and touch recognition. RFID technologies, humanoids, AI classification tools, machine-readable catalogs, and AI smart features are still lacking in Kwara State\u27s university libraries. The results of this study also indicate that librarians in a university library are aware of the many ways in which artificial intelligence can be applied to provide services. The results of the study indicate that obstacles to adoption include significant disruption caused by artificial intelligence in traditional library services, a lack of skills and a need for training prior to adoption, irregular power supply, and a lack of adequate infrastructure for adoption, among other problems. The study recommended the need to organize training for librarians to enhance their skills in using artificial intelligence to provide services, and the university administration and libraries should commit and provide the necessary support for the adoption of artificial intelligence by providing the necessary infrastructure to ensure its rapid implementation

The Guarantees of Laborers to Terminate Work Contract for Technical and Economic Reasons under Palestinian Law: A Comparative Study

This research deals with the guarantees of the employee while the Palestinian legislator authorized the employer to terminate the labor contract for technical and economic reasons loss . This research discusses these guarantees for the legitimate reasons have been regulated under article 41 of the Palestinian Labor Law .This research aims at clarifying the reasonable criterions For the technical reason to make a balance between the conflicting interests between the employer and the employee, as well as the adoption of the criterion of extraordinary event in the loss, in order to achieve a guarantee of the employee in light of the ambiguity of the text and the lack of appropriate criterions, and in the lack of jurisprudence dealing with the appropriate criterions. Then this research deals with common guarantees of technical reason and the loss, whether the objective guarantees that the reasons for termination are not related to the employee, and the need to control the seriousness of the justifications, or the procedural guarantees of controlling the duty of the employer to notify the Ministry of Labor of the reasons for termination. This research in its two requests examines the comparison with the corresponding texts To the Palestinian legislation in the Jordanian and Bahraini labor legislations because of their different and distinctive provisions, and to compare the Jordanian and Bahraini judicial orientations to find out how to deal with them, together with the Palestinian judiciary, the guarantees of substantive and procedural termination