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We hope to contribute to the field of research in information technology and digital libraries by analyzing the connections between Thematic Digital Universities and digital user-learner profiles. Thematic Digital Universities are similar to digital libraries, and focus on creating and indexing open educational resources, as well as improving learning in the information age. The digital user profile relates to the digital representation of a person's identity and characteristics. In this paper we present the design of an ontology for the digital User-Learner Profile (OntoULP) and its application program. OntoULP is used to structure a user-learner's digital profile. The application provides each user-learner with tailor-made analyses based on informational behaviors, needs, and preferences. We rely on an exploratory research approach and on methods of ontologies, user modeling, and semantic matching to design the OntoULP and its application program. Any user-learner could use the OntoULP and its application program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries are the central agencies for the dissemination of knowledge. Every library aspires to provide maximum opportunities to its users and ensure optimum utilization of available resources. Hence, libraries have been seeking technological aids to improve their services. Near-field communication (NFC) is a type of radio-frequency technology that allows electronics devices--such as computers, mobile phones, tags, and others--to exchange information wirelessly across a small distance. The aim of this paper is to explore NFC technology and its applications in modern era. The paper will discuss potential use of NFC in the advancement of traditional library management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions of advanced education and research, through their libraries, invest substantially in licensed online resources. Only authorized users of an institution are entitled to access licensed online resources. Seamless on-campus access to licensed resources happens mostly through Internet Protocol (IP) address authentication. Increasingly, licensed online resources are accessed by authorized users from off-campus locations as well. Libraries will, therefore, need to ensure seamless off-campus access to authorized users. Libraries have been using various technologies, including proxy server or virtual private network (VPN) server or single sign-on, to facilitate seamless offcampus access to licensed resources. In this paper, authors share their experience in setting up a Shibboleth-based single sign-on (SSO) access management system at the JRD Tata Memorial Library, Indian Institute of Science, to enable authorized users of the institute to seamlessly access licensed online resources from off-campus locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a doorway for users seeking information, library websites should be accessible to all, including those who are visually or physically impaired and those with reading or learning disabilities. In conjunction with an earlier study, this paper presents a comparative evaluation of Ivy League university library homepages with regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates. Data results from WAVE and AChecker evaluations indicate that although the error of Missing Form Labels still occurs in these websites, other known accessibility errors and issues have been significantly improved from five years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-increasing need for information, with its complexity and escalating costs; the enormous growth in publications, and the emergence of subject specialization have compelled librarians to share resources through information networks and systems. This paper describes the necessity of networking among the Himalayan Studies and Research Centers in India, allowing the sharing of information originating from the Himalayan Studies Information System (HIMIS). The paper also discusses in brief the definition of information systems, as well as the objectives and needs of a proposed HIMIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a follow-up to a pilot study published in 2019, the authors collected student research papers from English Composition II courses at three public comprehensive universities from different regions in the United States to classify and compare the sources selected by students at each institution. Working with a representative sample of 712 bibliographic references, the authors used a research-tested taxonomy called The WHY Method to classify each source by three key attributes--Who wrote each source, How it was edited, and whY it was published. The results of this cross-institutional study indicate that student source selection is affected most powerfully by the variables of which institution a student attends, student age, and whether the student is a first-generation university student. Student GPA, gender, class ranking (freshman, sophomore, and so on), and ethnicity were not statistically predictive factors. This study establishes the importance of institutional context in how students construct authority and provides librarians with a tool that enables them to better understand and describe that context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the submission of student papers that tackle issues on government information in the U.S. According to the article, the topics include historical problems associated with information access, the challenges in carrying out instructional services, the development of various government programs as well as its efforts in placing restrictions in terms of access to information. In addition, it states that the articles are contributed by librarians and educators who taught government information subjects.

Existing studies have extensively explored factors that affect users' intentions to use university library website resources (ULWR); yet little attention has been given to factors affecting university library website design. This paper investigates factors that affect university library website design and assesses the success of the university library website from both designers' and users' perspectives. The findings show that when planning a website, university web designers consider university guidelines, review other websites, and consult with experts and other divisions within the library; however, resources and training for the design process are lacking. While website designers assess their websites as highly successful, user evaluations are somewhat lower. Accordingly, use is low, and users rely heavily on commercial websites. Suggestions for enhancing the usage of ULWR are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a method to generate ontologies from glossaries of terms. The proposed method presupposes an evolutionary life cycle based on successive transformations of the original glossary that lead to products of intermediate knowledge representation (dictionary, taxonomy, and thesaurus). These products are characterized by an increase in semantic expressiveness in comparison to the product obtained in the previous transformation, with the ontology as the end product. Although this method has been applied to produce an ontology from the "IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology," it could be applied to any glossary of any knowledge domain to generate an ontology that may be used to index or search for information resources and documents stored in libraries or on the Semantic Web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, standard catalog records have provided bibliographic data that mostly address the basic features of library resources. At the same time, catalogs have offered access to these records through a limited array of names, titles, series, subject headings, class numbers, and a relatively small number of keywords contained within descriptions. Today's catalog users expect access to information well beyond what can be offered by traditional approaches to bibliographic description and access. By pursuing a suite of projects, the Library of Congress (LC) has responded to the challenge of enticing patrons to continue to include the online catalog among the tools they use for information retrieval. Drawing extensively on the power of automation, staff of LC's Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) have created and implemented a variety of initiatives to link researchers, catalogs, and Web resources; increase the content of the catalog record; and link the catalog to electronic resources. BEAT's ongoing work demonstrates how, in the electronic era, it is possible to provide new and improved ways to capitalize on traditional services in the digital age. This paper will illustrate these points by focusing on BEAT's tables of contents projects to demonstrate how library automation can make significant bibliographic enhancement efforts quick, easy, and affordable to achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plotting information about patrons and library locations on a map provides library decision-makers with a spatial view of the library's market area and a better and more complete understanding of the library's user population. This study uses a geographic information system to analyze the Weber County Library System in northern Utah.The paper concentrates on three areas: (1) patron utilization of the main library and its branches, (2) the need for additional branch libraries, and (3) selected demographic characteristics of the population in the census tracts surrounding the library system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to determine the degree to which individual research consultations with a librarian can improve the work of undergraduate students. Citation analysis was used to evaluate the quality of sources selected on draft papers before meeting with a librarian and on final papers after meeting with a librarian. The rating scale presented here offers guidelines for measuring the quality of sources used by students. Findings of this research begin to provide some quantitative evidence demonstrating the positive impact of individual research consultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a thorough overview of information consumption at a modest-sized liberal arts college. It is based on a citation analysis of an extensive sample of bibliographies drawn from papers written for 64 intermediate and advanced courses. The papers, representing 17 academic departments, were written during the 2004-05 academic year. The citations were analyzed by type of resource, and for books and journals, local ownership and age information was noted. The format (electronic or print) of locally available journals was also recorded. Both divisional and overall results are presented, and statistically significant results are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a detailed (but not comprehensive) review of the use of citation data as checklists for library collection evaluation, the use of this technique for evaluating database content is explained. This paper reports an investigation of the fulltext and indexing and abstracting coverage of Library Literature & Information Science Full Text and EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier, based on checking citations to journal articles in the 2004 volumes of Library Resources & Technical Services and Collection Building. Analysis of these citations shows they were predominately to English-language library and information science journals published in the United States, with the majority dating from 2000 to 2004. Library Literature & Information Science Full Text contained 21.1 percent of the citations in full-text format, while the corresponding figure for Academic Search Premier was 16.1 percent. The database coverage also is analyzed by publication date, country of origin, and Library of Congress classification number of cited items. Some limitations to the study are acknowledged, while issues for future research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing interest in ephemera collections within libraries will necessitate the bibliographic control of materials that do not easily fall into traditional categories. This paper discusses the many challenges confronting catalogers when approaching a mixed collection of unique materials of an ephemeral nature. Based on their experience cataloging a collection of Pennsylvania German broadsides and Fraktur at the Pennsylvania State University, the authors describe the process of deciphering handwriting, preserving genealogical information, deciding on cataloging approaches at the format and field level, and furthering access to the materials through digitization and the Encoded Archival Description finding aid. Observations are made on expanding the skills of traditional book catalogers to include manuscript cataloging, and on project management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hierarchical Interface to Library of Congress Classification (HILCC) is a system developed by the Columbia University Library to leverage call number data from the MARC holdings records in Columbia's online catalog to create a structured, hierarchical menuing system that provides subject access to the library's electronic resources. In this paper, the authors describe a research initiative at the Cornell University Library to discover if the Columbia HILCC scheme can be used as developed or in modified form to create a virtual undergraduate print collection outside the context of the traditional online catalog. Their results indicate that, with certain adjustments, an HILCC model can indeed, be used to represent the holdings of a large research library's undergraduate collection of approximately 150,000 titles, but that such a model is not infinitely scalable and may require a new approach to browsing such a large information space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interlibrary loan managers of a consortial group of large academic libraries presented a comprehensive report of their collective activities to their library directors to provide a better picture of their libraries' resource-sharing activities, issues, and trends. The report covered three years of data and addressed trends in overall volume, turnaround time, serials-holding data in OCLC, lending audiovisual materials, reasons for unfilled lending requests, and resource-sharing aspects of electronic licensing. The study documents the importance of technical service's role in maintaining accurate OCLC holdings and in facilitating union listing, two activities that have a tremendous impact on ILL effectiveness and efficiency. It also demonstrates that presenting common issues collectively to top administrators resulted in changes that might not have been achieved so easily at single institutions. This paper summarizes the report on consortial resource sharing, lists the report's four recommendations, and reviews the positive changes in the participating libraries' resource-sharing practices six months later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the rapidly expanding environment of emerging electronic content and the importance of librarians to partner with new research and teaching communities in meeting users' needs to find, identify, select, and obtain the information and resources they need. The methodology and framework of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records could serve as a useful tool in building expanded access and content systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a study that explored ways in which users' subject-searching problems in a local online catalog might be reduced. On a weekly basis, the author of this article reviewed catalog transaction logs to identify topics of subject searches retrieving no records for which appropriate information resources may actually be represented in the catalog. For topics thus identified, the author explored two potential ameliorations of the no-hits search results through the use of authority record cross-references and pathfinder records providing brief instructions on search refinement. This paper describes the study findings, discusses possible concerns regarding the amelioration methods used, outlines additional steps needed to determine whether the potential ameliorations make a difference to users' searching experiences, and suggests related areas for further research.

Papers on the cataloging of electronic resources have focused on electronic journals and Internet resources such as Web sites and not on electronic books. Electronic books are nonserial monographic resources accessed with a computer either directly or remotely. Rules and standards for cataloging electronic resources have changed and continue to change. This article discusses the electronic book as a unique manifestation and provides practical instruction on the application of current cataloging rules. The cataloging elements covered are control fields and variable data fields, including classification, uniform titles, title information, edition information, type and extent of the resource, publication and distribution information, physical description, series statements, notes, and subject analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on news and information being given by the Early Canadiana Online. It states that by spring of 2006, Canada's major official publications will be digitized from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It explains that once the digitization is completed, 1.5 million pages of some of Canada's most significant heritage documents, which includes acts, debates, legislative journals, and sessional papers, will be available with full-text searching on the net with the use of Early Canadiana Online.

The article discusses the ways of accessing geospatial data and maps from the closed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) library. The use of clearinghouse is effective in finding geospatial data because it aggregates data from a variety of sources that creates a more user-friendly and faster way of locating data. Meanwhile, there are two ways of accessing EPA information about paper maps, which is through the National Environmental Publications Information System (NEPIS) or via Online Library System (OLS). The links and other Web sites useful for searching geographical information system (GIS) are also presented.