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Joint Master Degree in Digital Library Learning (DILL) Evaluation is a crucial step for the development and improvements of digital libraries. Unfortunately, nowadays only few studies are focused on this matter and even fewer concentrate on how evaluation is conducted in real-world digital libraries. The study contributes to the research presenting the results of a qualitative case study conducted at the Loughborough University Library, based on data collected from eleven semi-structured interviews and document analysis. It reports how evaluation is conducted in a real-world digital library, which are the knowledge and competences of the staff in charge of performing it, which are the obstacles and barriers encountered by the staff and it examines what happens after the conclusion of the evaluation, in particular how results and recommendations are turned to profitable account. The research also aims to act as source of references for researchers who want to investigate this field further. The collected data were analyzed trough constant comparative process and seven main categories matching the research objectives were identified and discussed: definition of evaluation by the interviewees, conceptual purpose of evaluation according to the interviewees, training on evaluation by the interviewees, problems, time constrains, resources, cooperation within the group, individual attitude, project planning, project development, how implement actions from recommendations, dissemination of results, sections taken to implement the recommendations, impact of evaluation projects. Recommendations for the Loughborough University Library and indications for further investigations are also discussed. The research confirms that currently the knowledge about how real-world-digital libraries deals with evaluation are insufficient and it raises several new and controversial questions, which should force the scientific community to investigate deeper the reality of digital library.

Host cell entry is a critical step during pathogenesis of many microbial pathogens including animal pathogenic bacteria and fungal parasites of plants. Some microbes exploit human chemokine G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to enter host cells. Barley MLO, the prototype of a plant-specific protein family, exhibits a topology and subcellular localisation that is reminiscent of GPCRs. Mutations in barley MLO confer resistance against all known isolates of the powdery mildew fungus, Blumeria gramis f. sp. hordei (Bgh), suggesting that MLO function might be exploited for pathogenesis by the fungal parasite. The cytosolic calcium sensor calmodulin was previously identified as a protein interacting with MLO in vivo and was shown to enhance mlo-mediated susceptibility in planta. To identify further proteins that physically interact with A. thaliana MLO isoforms, the yeast split-ubiquitin system was employed. This revealed calmodulin as a common interactor of MLO proteins and identified four additional candidate interactors. To unravel their potential function in defence modulation, barley homologues of the selected candidate genes were tested by transient expression in single barley epidermal cells. However, neither dsRNAi-mediated gene silencing nor overexpression revealed a significant effect on Bgh penetration success in either wild-type (MLO) or mutant (mlo) genotypes. Recently, a gene required for mlo-mediated resistance (ROR2) in barley was found to encode a plasma membrane-resident syntaxin protein. In addition, a genetic screen to identify A. thaliana mutants enabling enhanced entry of the inappropriate Bgh fungus led to the identification of PEN1. The gene was shown to encode a syntaxin that is functionally homologous to barley ROR2. In this study, A. thaliana MLO proteins were demonstrated to interact with a subset of syntaxins in the yeast split-ubiquitin system. To date, it was unclear whether durable broad-spectrum mlo-mediated resistance is a feature restricted to the monocot barley. In this study, A. thaliana insertion mutants of the candidate ortholog of barley MLO, AtMLO2, were isolated and found to be resistant against the powdery mildew fungus Golovinomyces orontii. In addition, Atmlo2 mutants exhibit enhanced resistance to inappropriate powdery mildew fungi. In contrast, infection phenotypes to bacterial or oomycete pathogens appeared unaltered. These results indicate that MLO function is evolutionarily conserved in both monocot and dicot plant species. It is therefore possible that the ability of powdery mildew fungi to target specific MLO isoforms for entry into plant cells was invented at least 200 million years ago.