Data preservation, the new science and the practitioner librarian

This paper outlines the information management principles of the so-called 'new science', and attempts to put these in the context of traditional library and information science principles. It gives a brief review of some work in the area, in particular focussing on the work show-cased by the annual digital preservation conference series hosted by the Digital Curation Centre in Scotland (http://www.dcc.ac.uk/). There is a danger that scientists (as opposed to LIS professionals) will apply the information management techniques of the new science to their own activities inappropriately, especially to research that is best curated as 'old' not new science. This is something on which information professionals are well placed to give advice and make judgements. More practice-oriented research is needed to enhance understanding of how traditional librarianship practices can be applied to the data intensive scientific research carried out by so-called 'virtual organisations'. This paper makes some initial suggestions about how the tools of library and information practice can be related to the 'new science'. In particular, it highlights their relevance to distinguishing between the information management needs of the 'old' and the 'new' sciences: these needs are quite distinct, though easily confused. This paper relates terms from pure science such as the virtual organisation, cyberinfrastructure and e-science to traditional LIS concepts, and tries to create an understanding of the relationship between the two disciplines for the library practitioner

eLiteracy or information literacy : which concept should we prefer?

To give a comparative analysis of the validity of the concepts of eLiteracy (eL) and Information Literacy (IL). eLiteracy and Information Literacy are different but mutually compatible concepts with validity within specific contexts. By defining concepts clearly, this paper attempts to inform and clarify the framework for practical LIS research

Evaluating the quality of library portals

To investigate ways of demonstrating how portal implementations positively alter user information retrieval behaviour. Design/methodology/approach - An opinion piece reflecting on existing evidence about the nature of portal implementations, which extrapolates trends in user behaviour on the basis of these reflections. Findings - Although portal technologies probably do offer a way for libraries to create information tools that can compete with "one-stop shop" Internet search engines, there are likely difficulties in their pattern of usage which will have to be detected by effective quality measurement techniques. Research limitations/implications - An expression of opinion about the possible pitfalls of using portals to optimise users' information retrieval activity. Practical implications - This opinion piece gives some clear and practical guidelines for the evaluation of the success of library portal implementations. Originality/value - This editorial points out that, because the portal can be defined as a deliberate clone of a typical successful Internet search engine and may be presented to the naïve user in the same terms, the danger is that library portals might also clone the same information habits as Internet search engines, because of their ease of use. In trying to produce a tool that can meet Google on its own terms but with better content, we might reproduce some of the same educational disbenefits as Google: quality information retrieval is not purely a function of content, it is also a function of the user's perceptions and information habits

Digital libraries and the future of the library profession

To argue that unique contemporary cultural shifts are leading to a new form of librarianship that can be characterised as "postmodern" in nature, and that this form of professional specialism will be increasingly influential in the decades to come

Enhancing professional development by writing for publication in library and information science

Argues that enhanced professional development and writing for publication are related activities and are mutually beneficial.By aiming for a more rigorous form of professional writing, greater insight into one's professional practice is possible. The simple examples of the workplace experiment and case study that this paper briefly sketches out could help practitioners improve the type of 'practitioner research' that they undertake

Applying general risk management principles to library administration

Recent areas of digital library innovation, such as digital rights management, have led librarians to apply risk management (RM) principles to certain circumscribed areas of library management. This paper will attempt to argue that risk management principles can in fact be applied much more generally in modern library administration. A conceptual paper based on abstract principles of risk management. That different approaches to risk management apply in digital librarianship, as opposed to traditional, print-based library work. Also, that different models of 'RM' can be used at the level of the employee in contrast to the global perspective of the organisation as a whole. Because this is a conceptual piece, there is ample room for further experimental testing of these hypotheses. This paper rejects some of the principles of RM that are less relevant to the 'people management' problems of hybrid (print-electronic) library administration. It offers an abstract statement of RM principles that should be of genuine practical usefulness to middle managers helping staff cope with the problems of 'mixed media', hybrid library environments. This paper relates ideas from general business risk management to practitioner librarianship in ways that have not been attempted previously

Digital reference services

A guest editorial in a special issue edited by G Chowdhury focusing on digital library services

Strathprints digital repository of research publications

Presentation on the Strathprints Institutional Repository focusing on selecting a suitable workflow and the recent mandate agreed at the University of Strathclyde

The “author pays” model of open access and UK-wide information strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to comment on recent trends in UK information strategy which aim to further the development of a coherent national “author pays” open access (APOA) research publication system. Design/methodology/approach – A description of APOA national policy initiatives, which is put into a wider context by looking at some economic analyses of the principles underlying this form of open access. This is in turn followed by the author's own conclusions, which synthesise these two perspectives. Findings – It is not at all clear that the economics of APOA are well enough understood to guarantee that the original aim of open access – to deal with unaffordable serials price inflation – will be achieved by a large scale move towards a national APOA system in the UK. An enhanced, nationally coordinated move geared towards establishing APOA on a proper footing would be a bold experiment, and, as such, it might not fully achieve its aims. In recognition of this possibility, it would be worth considering the establishment of a similar, enhanced, UK-wide programme for the development of purely repository-based open access materials, to be developed in parallel with an APOA system, as an insurance policy in case the author pays model does not realise its full potential. Research limitations/implications – This paper does not give any clear description of the nature of an enhanced, UK-wide repository-based open access programme. Further investigation would be required to ascertain if this suggestion is feasible. It may be the case that existing national initiatives aimed at supporting the growth of open access subject and institutional repositories have exhausted the potential for coordinated UK-wide development of this strand of the open access movement