Initiatives at a cross-cultural level, where libraries, museums and archives work together in creating digital libraries, and making their cultural heritage collections available online, are emerging. Leading academic researchers from the cultural heritage and the publishers sectors approach this issue: Digital library user experience: a focus on current user research; Digital library content: what users want and how they use it; Strategies for institutions: how cultural institutions and publishers respond to the digital challenge.
European digital libraries have existed in diverse forms and with quite different functions, priorities, and aims. However, there are some common features of European-based initiatives that are relevant to non-European communities. There are now many more challenges and changes than ever before, and the development rate of new digital libraries is ever accelerating. Delivering educational, cultural, and research resources-especially from major scientific and cultural organizations-has become a core mission of these organizations. Using these resources they will be able to investigate, educate, and elucidate, in order to promote and disseminate and to preserve civilization. Extremely important in conceptualizing the digital environment priorities in Europe was its cultural heritage and the feeling that these rich resources should be open to Europe and the global community. In this book we focus on European digitized heritage and digital culture, and its potential in the digital age. We specifically look at the EU and its approaches to digitization and digital culture, problems detected, and achievements reached, all with an emphasis on digital cultural heritage. We seek to report on important documents that were prepared on digitization; copyright and related documents; research and education in the digital libraries field under the auspices of the EU; some other European and national initiatives; and funded projects. The aim of this book is to discuss the development of digital libraries in the European context by presenting, primarily to non-European communities interested in digital libraries, the phenomena, initiatives, and developments that dominated in Europe. We describe the main projects and their outcomes, and shine a light on the number of challenges that have been inspiring new approaches, cooperative efforts, and the use of research methodology at different stages of the digital libraries development. The specific goals are reflected in the structure of the book, which can be conceived as a guide to several main topics and sub-topics. However, the author’s scope is far from being comprehensive, since the field of digital libraries is very complex and digital libraries for cultural heritage is even moreso.
ICDL conferences are recognized on of the most important platform in the world where noted expert share their experiences. Many DL experts have contributed thought provoking papers in ICDL 2013. These important papers are reviewed and conceptualized into ICDL on different areas of DL proceedings. The Proceedings have two volumes and has over 1100 pages.
While most discoverability evaluation studies in the Library and Information Science field discuss the intersection of discovery layers and library systems, this book looks specifically at digital repositories, examining discoverability from the lenses of system structure, user searches, and external discovery avenues. Discoverability, the ease with which information can be found by a user, is the cornerstone of all successful digital information platforms. Yet, most digital repository practitioners and researchers lack a holistic and comprehensive understanding of how and where discoverability happens. This book brings together current understandings of user needs and behaviors and poses them alongside a deeper examination of digital repositories around the theme of discoverability. It examines discoverability in digital repositories from both user and system perspectives by exploring how users access content (including their search patterns and habits, need for digital content, effects of outreach, or integration with Wikipedia and other web-based tools) and how systems support or prevent discoverability through the structure or quality of metadata, system interfaces, exposure to search engines or lack thereof, and integration with library discovery tools. Discoverability in Digital Repositories will be particularly useful to digital repository managers, practitioners, and researchers, metadata librarians, systems librarians, and user studies, usability and user experience librarians. Additionally, and perhaps most prominently, this book is composed with the emerging practitioner in mind. Instructors and students in Library and Information Science and Information Management programs will benefit from this book that specifically addresses discoverability in digital repository systems and services.
For over twenty years, digitisation has been a core element of the modern information landscape. The digital lifecycle is now well defined, and standards and good practice have been developed for most of its key stages. There remains, however, a widespread lack of coordination of digitisation initiatives, both within and across different sectors, and there are disparate approaches to selection criteria. The result is 'silos' of digitised content. Stepping away from the Silos examines the strategic context in the UK since the 1990s and its effect on collaboration and coordination of exemplar digitisation initiatives in higher education and related sectors. It identifies the principal criteria for content selection that are common to the international literature in this field. The outputs of the exemplar projects are examined in relation to these criteria. A range of common practices and patterns in content selection appears to have developed over time, forming a de facto strategy from which several areas of critical mass have emerged. The book discusses the potential to improve strategic collaboration and coordinated selection by building on such a platform, and considers planning options in the context of work on national digitisation strategies in the UK and internationally. - Summarises the rise of publicly funded digitisation in the UK from the 1990s to date and identifies the need to improve coordination and content selection criteria - Reviews the role of digitisation in government and organisational strategies from the 1990s to the present day - Examines the strategic position of collaboration within and across different organisations - Identifies common selection criteria and outlines the coverage of exemplar projects - Discusses the apparent emergence of a de facto selection strategy and the potential for national strategic planning of digitised content based on existing outputs and improved collaboration
OCLC Research and Ithaka S+R are examining the impact of increased institutional differentiation in universities on the organization of academic libraries and the services they provide. For decades, models of excellence in academic library service have been shaped by a collections-centric paradigm in which the size of local print inventory is considered a key indicator of quality. OCLC Research and Ithaka are joining forces to develop a new framework for understanding the fit between emerging library service paradigms and university types.
This is the latest in an important series of reviews going back to 1928. The book contains 26 chapters, written by experts in their field, and reviews developments in the principal aspects of British librarianship and information work in the years 2006-2010.
Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination provides Information on how to organize and disseminate library and information science (LIS), a subject that is taught in many international Library Information Science university programs. While there are many books covering different areas of the subject separately, this book covers the entire subject area and incorporates the latest developments. - Presets an overview of the entire subject, covering all relevant areas of library and information science - Contains bulletpoints that highlight key features in each chapter - Written in an accessible language, this book is aimed at a wide audience of LIS academics
Technology has revolutionized the ways in which libraries store, share, and access information, as well as librarian roles as knowledge managers. As digital resources and tools continue to advance, so too do the opportunities for libraries to become more efficient and house more information. Effective administration of libraries is a crucial part of delivering library services to patrons and ensuring that information resources are disseminated efficiently. Digital Libraries and Institutional Repositories: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice addresses new methods, practices, concepts, and techniques, as well as contemporary challenges and issues for libraries and university repositories that can be accessed electronically. It also addresses the problems of usability and search optimization in digital libraries. Highlighting a range of topics such as content management, resource sharing, and library technologies, this publication is an ideal reference source for librarians, IT technicians, academicians, researchers, and students in fields that include library science, knowledge management, and information retrieval.
