Search

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the establishment of metrics that can be used by libraries to analyze, anticipate, and plan for resource allocation for specialized print-based collections within an academic library. In the context of transactions associated with the circulation of library materials, that is checkouts, renewals, and holds, the resources this study will propose includes two ratios that can be used for evaluating and justifying continued allocation of library resources to specialized print collections. These ratios proposed are the Proportionate Number (P/N) and Internal P/N (I-P/N) Ratios. Beginning with the conceptual framework of how data driven decision making can contribute to the operation of the library, the study will also provide concrete examples of how to analyze data from an Integrated Library System (ILS). Data will be presented for the case study of Gumberg Library at Duquesne University. The study hopes to address a perceived gap in the literature that percentage of users accessing a collection is often not considered in the analysis of circulation data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Michigan State University Libraries (MSUL) digital repository contains numerous collections of openly available material. Since 2016, the digital repository has been using Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) subject headings as its primary subject vocabulary in order to streamline faceting, display, and search. The MSUL FAST use case presents some challenges that are not addressed by existing MARC-focused FAST tools. This paper will outline the MSUL digital repository team's justification for including FAST headings in the digital repository as well as workflows for adding FAST headings to Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) metadata, their maintenance, and utilization for discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document provides information on East Asian libraries in North American institutions for the fiscal year 2022-2023. It includes data on physical and electronic collections, fiscal support, staffing, and public services. The document highlights specific collections and acquisitions at certain institutions and mentions challenges faced by some libraries. It also provides contact information for libraries conducting research on East Asian studies. The document offers a comprehensive overview of the East Asian library collections and resources available at these institutions. [Extracted from the article]

How can novel AI techniques be made and put to use in the library? Combining methods from data and library science, this article focuses on Natural Language Processing technologies, especially in national libraries. It explains how the National Library of Sweden's collections enabled the development of a new BERT language model for Swedish. It also outlines specific use cases for the model in the context of academic libraries, detailing strategies for how such a model could make digital collections available for new forms of research, from automated classification to enhanced searchability and improved OCR cohesion. Highlighting the potential for cross-fertilizing AI with libraries, the conclusion suggests that while AI may transform the workings of the library, libraries can also play a key role in the future development of AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala, houses the treasures of ancient knowledge in India. It has come in to existence out of royal interest. The kings of Travancore, as a rule, were valorous as well as lovers of art and literature. Srimulam Thirunal was mainly responsible for the spread of Oriental literature throughout the world. It was he who instituted the department for the publication of manuscripts which in due course grew into the present institution. It is located at Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Its origin goes back to the illustrious Maharaja of Travancore, Swati Tirunal (1829-1846). The institute carries out researches on Indian language manuscripts, major part of which are in Sanskrit. Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library has over 65,000 works mostly of palm leaf manuscripts. Currently the Oriental Institute and Manuscript Library is headed by Dr. R. B. Sreekala, Professor and Head of the Department, Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala. The paper highlights the techniques used for the conservation and preservation of the rare manuscript collection in Oriental Research & Manuscript Library, Thiruvananthapuram. It further investigates the hardware and software available for digitizing the invaluable collection of manuscripts for the future generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology in libraries has played an essential role in serving today's communities. This study provides an overview of the integrated library systems/software (ILSs) used in libraries in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It aims to highlight the strengths and possibilities of ILSs and briefly explain their advantages and disadvantages along with the cost of implementation. The data was gathered from questionnaires sent via an online survey and from direct interviews with certain academic libraries over the period of 2019 to 2020. Fifty-three of 67 libraries that fulfilled the study have implemented an ILS. To deeply understand the application, a direct interview with some libraries was conducted to learn the advantages and disadvantages. The result of the study showed that the most used ILSs are SLiMS and INLISlite and other programs like Apollo, Athenium Light, Simpus, Spektra, Jibas, KOHA, and Openlibrary. The budget spent is an average of300 USD. While the ILSs have helped these libraries improve services, IT expertise and adequate resources are needed, especially when the systems present problems. An easy-to-use system that costs less will potentially be used in this area of research. This study will be particularly helpful for any library in Indonesia. These findings may also be generalized to libraries in other countries facing economic and technological similarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated influence of institutional management on collection development in Federal Colleges of Agriculture in Northern Nigeria. The study has 3 objectives which include to: determine the types of collection available in Federal College of Agriculture libraries in Northern Nigeria; find out the influence of institutional management on collection development in Federal College of Agriculture libraries in Northern Nigeria and find out the challenges faced by the library management on collection development in Federal College of Agriculture libraries. In order to achieve the stated objectives 3 research questions were asked. The study used a descriptive research design with a population of 72 management staff of Federal College of Agriculture libraries in Northern Nigeria and the sample size drawn was 36 respondents. Out of the 36 copies of questionnaire administered, 28 copies were returned which represent 78%. Data collected was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there is availability of collection in all the libraries under study. It was revealed that the college management has a lot of influence on collection development of the college libraries. Finally, the findings revealed that funds are not sufficiently provided, which affects adequacy of collections, there is also delay in the delivery of Collections among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mounting digital images of art objects on a Web site is only the first step in providing patron access to such materials. Libraries and museums have a responsibility to provide not only high-quality digital reproductions but also high-quality access from an integrated library catalog with controlled vocabulary and consistent access points. While some digital collections may have excellent internal searchability and require no more than collection level cataloging in a library's OPAC, others may demand cataloging of individual components of the collection. A particular collection's significance, its potential audience, the types of access required, as well as factors such as its size and cohesiveness need to be considered before becoming locked into a specific Web design-especially when it is that of another institution. This paper examines several online library catalogs in which records for art objects as well as historical objects and natural history specimens have been merged, with varying degrees of success, and briefly addresses a modest proposal to catalog ceramic objects at the Ohio State University Libraries. The importance of consistent subject access in a merged catalog, regardless of the thesaurus or thesauri used, is stressed. Library consortia and bibliographic utilities may offer an economically appealing alternative for libraries that cannot design and construct their own digital libraries but these external organizations often have limited capability for—or interest in—modifying the design for a particular library and even less interest in cataloging the collections. Libraries, too, must be faulted for simply listing available electronic resources, either alphabetically or in broad subject categories, on a separate portion of their Web page and failing to provide full catalog records in their catalog. Finally, it is emphasized that the current debate over the viability of MARC 21 versus other metadata standards remains largely irrelevant to the importance of continuing to cultivate a monolithic online catalog, maintaining cataloging standards, and not mindlessly developing what amounts to a separate, rudimentary catalog solely for electronic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of the article discusses selected academic and popular publications on the history of libraries and librarianship in Poland which were issued between 1945 and 2015. In that period, information about the most important historical resources of various Polish libraries and early book collections was made available. In addition, the period was marked by progress in the study of materials originating before the end of the 18th century. Scholars published a range of methodological works and works about sources, contributing to the development of scholarship. At the same time, there were too few editions of source materials. After 1989, scholars intensified their efforts to find sources in foreign collections, especially in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Germany. Polish collections kept abroad are yet to be fully researched and to have their inventories and catalogues published. The vast body of literature is uneven when it comes to its focus on individual historical periods, regions, subregions and local centres. It comprises publications on the history of libraries, their function and role in culture with regard to the history of publications focused on the types of libraries or individual libraries — of different traditions, sizes and the book, and stature. Scholars also explored the history of private book collections, reading rooms and libraries, as well as biographies of librarians and collectors. The quality of the publications varies. There are gaps in, for example, the history of libraries in the former Polish eastern borderlands and ‘blank pages’ in the historiography of Polish librarianship after the Second World War. There is a visible shortage of quantification of phenomena from the past of libraries, despite the fact that there are some possibilities in this respect. What is also needed is development in comparative studies, including from an international perspective, although this would require Polish historians to become more interested than before in the history of librarianship in other countries.

The ownership of MARC bibliographic data has been an issue between OCLC and other companies in the marketplace. Two lawsuits are discussed between OCLC and Clarivate and SkyRiver. The "WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative" provides a basis for many library contracts and how OCLC lays claim to bibliographic data. The "ICOLC Statement on the Metadata Rights of Libraries" is used as a general framework for discussing issues surrounding who owns MARC records and how they can be used or re-used. Most librarians are interested in free and open use of MARC records whether or not they may have passed through the OCLC system at some point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Acquisitions Section (AS) Acquisitions Managers and Vendors Interest Group meeting at the 2018 American Library Association's Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. It mentions that Rosemary Jarrell reported on the data available to libraries from vendors for assessing collections. It cites hardest aspects of usage statistics such as multiple platforms, time-consuming, inconsistent.

The Semantic Web allows data to be linked on the Web and structures information for use by humans and machines. Furthermore, it makes relationships between data explicit, enabling the creation of Linked Data. Based on a literature review, the principles and technologies underlying Linked Data are presented – namely, the Resource Description Framework and models developed for libraries, archives and museums. Europeana aggregates European institutions' digital cultural heritage, having developed a model that follows linked-data principles. For a deeper understanding of this model, the Europeana Data Model is presented with examples of two representation approaches and the advantages of metadata enrichment in information discovery. The experience of the University of Coimbra with Europeana is briefly explained. Finally, the authors discuss the challenges that cultural heritage institutions face in adopting these models and freeing their information from the silos it is in, taking advantage of the potential that Linked Data provides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participating in collaborative scientific research through citizen science, a component of open science, holds significance for both citizen scientists and professional researchers. Yet, the advantages for those orchestrating citizen science initiatives are often overlooked. Organizers encompass a diverse range, including governmental entities, non-governmental organizations, corporations, universities, and institutions like libraries. For libraries, citizen science holds importance by fostering heightened civic and research interests, promoting scientific publishing, and contributing to overall scientific progress. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the specific ways in which citizen science can benefit libraries and how libraries can effectively utilize citizen science to achieve their goals. The paper is based on a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles that discuss the direct benefits of citizen science on libraries. A list of the main benefits of citizen science for libraries has been compiled from the literature. Additionally, the reasons why it is crucial for libraries to communicate the benefits of citizen science for their operations have been highlighted, particularly in terms of encouraging other libraries to actively engage in citizen science projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After several centuries of intensive collection development activity, the major research library collections of North America and Western Europe, taken as a whole, can be expected to provide reasonable coverage for all of the world's languages and peoples. One might also expect that any two languages with a similar number of speakers and a similar publishing output might have similar profiles in terms of the amount and quality of materials available to scholars in Western library collections. For the Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus (Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars, Nogais, and a few others), however, this is not the case. This article (which is Part II of a three-part series) demonstrates that, despite the scholarly value, intrinsic interest, and potential geopolitical significance of publications in North Caucasus Turkic languages, these publications are severely under-represented in Western libraries and, relatedly, in Western scholarship about religion, politics, history, culture, war and revolution on the northern perimeter of the Muslim world. Print and online bibliographic resources for the study of the Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus are considered, and are used selectively to assess the strength of Western library collections. Part I of this article appeared in the previous issue of Slavic & East European Information Resources (vol. 18, nos. 3-4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histopathology image processing, analysis and computer-aided diagnosis have been shown as effective assisting tools towards reliable and intra-/inter-observer invariant decisions in traditional pathology. Especially for cancer patients, decisions need to be as accurate as possible in order to increase the probability of optimal treatment planning. In this study, we propose a new image collection library (HICL-Histology Image Collection Library) comprising 3831 histological images of three different diseases, for fostering research in histopathology image processing, analysis and computer-aided diagnosis. Raw data comprised 93, 116 and 55 cases of brain, breast and laryngeal cancer respectively collected from the archives of the University Hospital of Patras, Greece. The 3831 images were generated from the most representative regions of the pathology, specified by an experienced histopathologist. The HICL Image Collection is free for access under an academic license at . Potential exploitations of the proposed library may span over a board spectrum, such as in image processing to improve visualization, in segmentation for nuclei detection, in decision support systems for second opinion consultations, in statistical analysis for investigation of potential correlations between clinical annotations and imaging findings and, generally, in fostering research on histopathology image processing and analysis. To the best of our knowledge, the HICL constitutes the first attempt towards creation of a reference image collection library in the field of traditional histopathology, publicly and freely available to the scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intriguing new opportunity for research into the nineteenth-century history of print culture, libraries, and local communities is performing full-text analyses on the corpus of books held by a specific library or group of libraries. Creating corpora using books that are known to have been owned by a given library at a given point in time is potentially feasible because digitized records of the books in several hundred nineteenth-century library collections are available in the form of scanned book catalogs: a book or pamphlet listing all of the books available in a particular library. However, there are two potential problems with using those book catalogs to create corpora. First, it is not clear whether most or all of the books that were in these collections have been digitized. Second, the prospect of identifying the digital representations of the books listed in the catalogs is daunting, given the diversity of cataloging practices at the time. This article will report on progress towards developing an automated method to match entries in early nineteenth-century book catalogs with digitized versions of those books, and will also provide estimates of the fractions of the library holdings that have been digitized and made available in the Google Books/HathiTrust corpus., INTRODUCTION Digital libraries such as Google Books and HathiTrust have created tantalizing opportunities for research into the history of American culture: automated analyses of the entire corpus of books published [...]

We study the phenomenon of the big deal, a subscription model for scientific journals that emerged at the turn of the millennium aimed especially at library consortia, which were offered the opportunity to exponentially increase their access to scientific information, thus breaking the previous trend of continuous cuts to the collections of the periodicals available in libraries. Its strengths such as the expansion of the availability of content, and its impact on the diversification of use and the productivity of researchers are presented herein. Likewise, its weaknesses are highlighted, such as the constant increase in prices and the finding of the concentration of use in a limited set of content. These disadvantages have led to questioning and resulted in the evaluation of big deals, a search for alternatives, and cancellations in times of crisis. In recent years, the latter have been linked to the perception that the cost--benefit balance of big deals has been altered by the proliferation of open-access content. Finally, we address the revision of the traditional big deal through transformative agreements where subscription costs are offset by publication costs, which are intended to be a mechanism to accelerate the transition to open access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-expressions have drawn increasing interest lately due to various potential applications. The task is, however, difficult as it incorporates many challenges from the fields of computer vision, machine learning and emotional sciences. Due to the spontaneous and subtle characteristics of micro-expressions, the available training and testing data are limited, which make evaluation complex. We show that data leakage and fragmented evaluation protocols are issues among the micro-expression literature. We find that fixing data leaks can drastically reduce model performance, in some cases even making the models perform similarly to a random classifier. To this end, we go through common pitfalls, propose a new standardized evaluation protocol using facial action units with over 2000 micro-expression samples, and provide an open source library that implements the evaluation protocols in a standardized manner. Code is publicly available in https://github.com/tvaranka/meb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 2023 American Library Association Ebooks Interest Group meeting covering discussions on censorship, ebook licensing practices, and digital content sustainability in libraries. Topics include presentations by publishers on digital licensing practices, updates on controlled digital lending and state legislative initiatives, and initiatives such as the Ebook Purchase program by Victoria Public Library to support local authors and expand digital collections sustainably.

In today's world storing a large amount of data, large datasets, handling data in various forms is a challenging task. Data is getting produced rapidly with major small sized files. Hadoop is the solution for the big data problem except few limitations. This method is suggested to provide a better one for small file sizes in terms of storage, access effectiveness, and time. In contrast to the current methods, such as HDFS sequence files, HAR, and NHAR, a revolutionary strategy called VFS-HDFS architecture is created with the goal of optimizing small-sized files access problems. In HDFS When a user requests any file, the client will communicate to NameNode and NameNode will revert in the form of metadata of the file. The metadata contains the information about the blocks and locations. When the client gets this metadata information of a particular file, it communicates with the DataNodes and accesses the data sequentially. In the proposed work caching is introduced to store all the files. When a user requests for an existing file, the data will be retrieved from the cache itself preventing revisiting the NameNode followed by the DataNodes, which reduces the time improving access efficiency. Classification is used to classify the files as per their category and Bucket per category file table holds the metadata of the individual category wise container. The existing HDFS architecture has been wrapped with a virtual file system layer in the proposed development. However, the research is done without changing the HFDS architecture. Using this proposed system, better results are obtained in terms of access efficiency of small sized files in HDFS. A case study is performed on the British Library datasets on.txt and.rtf files. The proposed system can be used to enhance the library if the catalogue is categorized as per their category in a container reducing the storage, improving the access efficiency at the cost of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the work is to find out the impact of collection management practices of academic libraries and the challenges of library users when accessing library materials. Design/Methodology: A survey was conducted to ensure that a wider number of library users were involved. The convenience sampling technique was used to select library users and the quantitative data obtained were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 software. Findings: The main findings were: the electronic and non electronic resources of the two libraries were inadequate; University of Cape Coast Library had a section for the visually impaired, whilst University of Education, Winneba does not; some users of both libraries failed to get involved in the selection process and materials mainly used in the libraries were textbooks. Research Limitations: The work is limited to the outcome of collection building activities performed by library staff on the usage of the information resources of the libraries of two Ghanaian universities built by the Government to train graduate teachers for the country. Practical Implication: Materials in libraries are meant to be used hence collection management practices have a direct link on the patronage of libraries. Social implication: Libraries as agents of education need to be accountable to their stakeholders as public funds are used in their establishment. Originality: Using the end users of libraries to assess the influence collection management practices have on the available information resources is a way of ensuring that libraries meet the goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous archives and collections of past documents have become available recently thanks to mass scale digitization and preservation efforts. Libraries, national archives, and other memory institutions have started opening up their collections to interested users. Yet, searching within such collections usually requires knowledge of appropriate keywords due to different context and language of the past. Thus, non-professional users may have difficulties with conceptualizing suitable queries, as, typically, their knowledge of the past is limited. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for the temporal correspondence detection task that requires finding terms in the past which are semantically closest to a given input present term. The approach we propose is based on vector space transformation that maps the distributed word representation in the present to the one in the past. The key problem in this approach is obtaining correct training set that could be used for a variety of diverse document collections and arbitrary time periods. To solve this problem, we propose an effective technique for automatically constructing seed pairs of terms to be used for finding the transformation. We test the performance of proposed approaches over short as well as long time frames such as 100 years. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed methods outperform the best-performing baseline by 113 percent for the New York Times Annotated Corpus and by 28 percent for the Times Archive in MRR on average, when the query has a different literal form from its temporal counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Spectral unmixing is an important technique for hyperspectral data exploitation. In order to solve the unmixing problem using a collection of previously available spectral signatures (i.e., a spectral library), sparse unmixing aims at finding the optimal subset of endmembers to represent the pixels in a hyperspectral image. The classic collaborative unmixing globally assumes that all pixels in a hyperspectral scene share the same active set of endmembers. This assumption rarely holds in practice, as endmembers tend to appear localized in spatially homogeneous areas rather than spread over the whole image. To address this limitation, in this letter, we introduce a new strategy to preserve local collaborativity for sparse hyperspectral unmixing. The proposed approach, which is called local collaborative sparse unmixing, considers the fact that endmember signatures generally appear distributed in local spatial regions instead of uniformly distributed throughout the scene. The proposed approach, which includes spatial information in the standard collaborative formulation, has been experimentally validated using both simulated and real hyperspectral data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]