Articoli di riviste sul tema "Catalogues of libraries (College, etc.)"

Iceland’s cultural heritage dates back to the Vikings. While crafts have always been important to the Icelandic way of life, the country has become much more art and design conscious with the development of educational and cultural institutions in the last hundred years. The National Library receives copies of all Icelandic publications and publishes the Icelandic national bibliography (which includes art but omits some exhibition catalogues); in addition the Library of the National Gallery collects all published literature on Icelandic art. There is a major art collection in the University Library and a specialist art library at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts. The Nordic House at Reykjavίk accommodates an artotek. Because of its isolation, Iceland is unusually dependent on libraries for knowledge of world art, and much work remains to be done on the bibliography of Icelandic art. However, art librarianship has made substantial progress since the 1970s, and training in art librarianship is available.

Digital libraries are equipped to provide access to multiple contents with potentially infinite number of resources to users. The libraries of the Indian National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES) mainly the ICAR institutions and Agricultural Universities have a collection of huge literature of immense value available in various print and digital forms. These resources if made available at a single platform will go a long way in facilitating its sharing and minimizing the duplication efforts by the partner libraries. Realizing its importance, a requirement of a national level union catalog was felt to ensure single point access for the valuable information on the vast resources of NARES libraries. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) brought solution to a lot of challenging issues to all facets of the university system and the library is not an exemption. The Indian Digital Ensemble of Agricultural Libraries (IDEAL) is a customized platform for Agricultural Libraries of Indian National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES) by adopting the KOHA-an open source integrated library management software for their routine operations in all libraries. KOHA is a software platform built on ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) concept to provide hassle free, ready to use based platform for sharing library holdings through a union catalogue as per the international standards. In this catalogue, the information can be shared at a single platform for all the users for example, students, researchers and faculties, extension workers and others. The system also provides search facilities through various parameters example, title, author, subject, number etc. The libraries of the State Agriculture Universities and its constituent colleges (SAUs) and ICAR institutes have been connected at a central server for its routine activities through IDEAL Platform. An online public access catalog (OPAC) of each library has been created, which provides easy and enhanced experience of accessing the library resources 24 × 7 to the users. This has greatly facilitated sharing and access of library resources among the NARES partners.

The article highlights the research work “Information and bibliographic activities in the modern electronic environment”, “Electronic bibliographic products in the structure of information resources of Federal and Central regional libraries” carried out by the Scientific research Department of bibliography of the Russian State Library in 2017 — the first half of 2018. The author considers a number of general theoretical and methodological issues: what are the library’s information resources; what is the place of bibliographic resources in their structure; and what is the type-specific structure of bibliographic resources of library, including electronic ones. The important part of the library’s information resources are bibliographic resources, including electronic of two main types (classes): innovative (bibliographic databases, electronic catalogues), and traditional (bibliographic catalogues-inventories, indexes, lists, reviews, etc.). The article presents the results of the comparative analysis of resources of the second type created in the Russian State Library and the National Library of Russia in 2009—2017.The websites of both libraries contain digital copies and electronic versions of printed bibliographic publications, as well as original bibliographic products (which have no printed analogues). Online bibliographic products have firmly taken their place in the structure of information resources of national libraries, somewhere supplementing them and somewhere replacing the printed format.

Fine arts and culture have existed in British Columbia from the time that the First Peoples came to the North Pacific coast of Canada. Vancouver’s first fine arts library was established in 1930 at the Vancouver Public Library; significant collections have subsequently been developed at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design and the University of British Columbia. They serve a diverse clientele: students, artists and researchers. Outlook, a province-wide network, provides access via the Internet to library catalogues of public, college and institution libraries throughout the Province.

There are actualized the issues related to the role of reading circle, family and private libraries in the formation of personality. There is also paid attention to the student libraries, the data on which can be obtained from the printed catalogues preserved in the collections of the Russian State Library and other libraries. For the illustration of possible impact of textbooks on historical disciplines over the subject matter and content of works there are considered the early works of S. Yesenin: “The Legend of Evpaty Kolovrat, Baty-Khan, Colour of the Three Hands, Black Idol and Jesus Christ, Our Saviour” (1912), “Martha, the Governor’s Wife” (1914), “Mikola” (1915) etc. The approach, proposed by the author, can be applied to the analysis of works of other writers, as well as in considering the period of personality development and formation of the views of cultural workers, politicians and scientists.

When we put together the special issue for April, I was excited to see so many articles that focused on strategic management of libraries. Many of the articles in College & Research Libraries are focused on library operations, data-driven projects, or information literacy. We only periodically receive submissions on library management and leadership topics dealing with strategy, values, ethics, organizational impact, etc.

This article is a supplement to Barry Cooper's catalogue of 1978 (see below, References). No musical items published before 1801 have entered Aberdeen Public Library since 1979. Of the four Aberdeen University collections mentioned below, Dep is in the library of the Department of Music, while SB and Lib R are in King's College Library. In the course of his original introduction, Barry Cooper mentioned the University's “copyright collection” (p.4), and the inadequacy of its catalogue. Richard Turbet is compiling a checklist of the contents of this collection's 297 volumes, now located within Aberdeen University Library and known as The Stationers’ Hall Collection. As to private collections, Roger Williams has catalogued those in Grampian Region in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, and the catalogues are being prepared for publication. There is early music in the collections at Castle Fraser, Drum Castle, Leith Hall and Brodie Castle. The Montcoffer House private collection, listed in Appendix 3 of the original catalogue, is now housed at Aberdeen University Library MS 2861.

Reviewed research publication dedicated to the reconstruction of the bibliographic catalogue of the personal library of one of the famous in the North Caucasus, historical figures, Lieutenant-General of the Kuban Cossack army which has made a great contribution to the history and culture of the region. Description personal libraries occupies an intermediate position between bibliographic AIDS and reference buildings. Creation of a catalog of the personal library, in most cases, it is the result of joint efforts of bibliographers and specialists from the relevant scientific fields. Descriptions of personal libraries is bibliographic AIDS, which are different from the personal markers. They are very valuable because they give information about the features (owned features) book collections, including such as: autographs, inscriptions, bookplates, traces of reading publications, etc. Also describe the personal libraries provide information as about the content of publications and information about the owner, about how he treated read how to use a particular edition. Give such descriptions and information about the fate of the book, the facts of the biography and creativity. This, in turn, allows professionals to use the catalogues of personal libraries as the primary sources directly, even without going to the books included in the scientific revolution. Of great interest to bibliographers present description and as a source of bibliographic and factual search.

Features of work of libraries in the conditions of quarantine and their activity directed on providing users with necessary іnformation and resources are considered; introduction of new services, creation of new opportunities in the article. Domestic libraries focus on: providing users with the opportunity to work with electronic resources (catalogs, search engines, web portals, repositories, databases; providing online services (electronic references, virtual exhibitions, document indexing, editing bibliographies, etc.); creating the conditions for online events (video conferences, online clubs, webinars, and training courses). Library sites present the results of the analysis and generalization of the experience of domestic and foreign university libraries. New electronic textbooks are posted on library sites, and it is possible to place the works of scientists in university repositories. A special feature of foreign libraries, in addition to a wide range of online services and access to all digital collections of universities and foreign catalogues, is their focus on the reader: users who are debtors are allowed to use electronic resources, automatically extend the date of return of books (book fees, during this period, are not charged). Users can send offers to purchase books not included in the university subscription. Libraries are actively digitizing collections and provide access to the texts and videos of world achievements in scientific experiments for information support of distance learning. The tendency to deepen the cooperation of university libraries with publishers to provide remote access to electronic resources and databases, previously available only on the university network or for a fee, is widespread.

Kunstbibliotheken in Österreich können gemäß ihrer jeweiligen institutionellen Verankerung in drei Gruppen unterteilt werden: in Museums- und Universitätsbibliotheken sowie in Bibliotheken, die in anderen Austellungs-institutionen, Galerien und Kunsthallen untergebracht sind. Gerade in jüngster Vergangenheit ist die Zahl der ‘alternativen’ Ausstellungsräume stark gewachsen, die vorwiegend internationale Gegenwartskunst präsentieren und in ihren Bibliotheken und Archiven grundlegende Materialien dazu sammeln. Museums- und Universitätsbibliotheken verfügen hingegen meist über einen umfangreichen Bestand an Basisliteratur zur bildenden Kunst und Kunstgeschichte, aber auch über Literatur zu ihren Sammlungs- und Studien-schwerpunkten. Insgesamt muß festgestellt werden, daß aufgrund der äußerst unterschiedlichen Organisationsstrukturen Fragen von allgemeinem Interesse (etwa eine zentrale Vernetzung aller Daten oder eine generelle Ausbildungs-regelung) nicht koordiniert werden und die Situation daher recht unzufriedenstellend ist. Immerhin ist aber ein Trend in Richtung länger-fristiger Kooperationen im Ansatz zu erkennen. Zu nennen wären in diesem Zusammenhang etwa der Verein zur Förderung der Errichtung einer Fachhochschule für Informationsberufe (FIB) oder die ‘Kunstreferentensitzungen’, bei denen (seit 1949!) Bibliothekarlnnen aktuelle Probleme und Entwicklungen im Bibliotheksbereich diskutieren.Art libraries in Austria are basically divided into three main groups according to their specific form of institutional organisation: museum libraries, university libraries, and libraries in galleries. The latter are often situated in recently founded institutions and usually put their focus on contemporary art. Museums and university libraries traditionally have rather extensive collections of basic literature on art and art history as well as specialized literature according to the main subject of their collections. It is characteristic of the present stage of development that innovations in the organisation of these libraries (i.e. computer systems for online catalogues, specialized training, etc.) are not being co-ordinated and the results of local improvements are therefore not as rewarding as they could be. Nevertheless, the first steps towards long term cooperation are being taken, and include such initiatives as the Verein zur Förderung der Errichtung einer Fachhochschule für Informationsberufe, FIB (= Association to promote the foundation of an academy for information professions), and the Kunstreferentensitzungen, an assembly of librarians who discuss current trends and problems in library organization.

The National Library of Ireland (NLI) became a legal deposit library in 1927, joining Trinity College which had been, since 1801, subject to British legal-deposit legislation. These two institutions were to form the backbone of the country’s large-scale collection and preservation of written heritage during the twentieth century. In augmenting their collections during this time, they faced similar challenges of space and finance, while also benefitting from the dispersal of major private libraries of big houses in the post-civil war era. This article examines the acquisitions policies of these two libraries in the context of broader trends in the rare book trade. It considers the shifting sands of public and university budgets for library-building during the latter half of the twentieth century and examines where books and archives of Irish interest were bought and sold. In particular, it addresses the impact of the growth of US universities and specialist libraries on the market for Irish material from the 1960s onwards. Responding to this increased competition, the Irish institutions managed their collections and acquisitions in new ways, often at increased cost and using selective buying practices. Drawing on catalogues of sales, auctions and library records, this article offers a broad appreciation of the literary-institutional landscape in a period of vast change in Ireland.

The aim of the article is to represent modern digital communication as an innovative mean of public libraries in Ukraine, and the importance of its development in crisis phenomena conditions. The research methodology founds on the application of a set of general scientific methods (generalisation, analysis, synthesis, prognostication), and special librarian ones. The organic combination of systemic, sociocommunicative, structural and functional research ways has contributed to the achievement of the set goal. The scientific novelty of the study consists in substantiating the value approach to the individualisation of public libraries service activity, when providing a friendly, comfortable communication environment for the user in conditions of digitalisation of social processes becomes the leading aim. Library innovations have been singled out. They are based on innovative information technologies, but have different social and technological grounds, in particular: organisational, service, product, technical, business. Conclusions. In current conditions, public libraries play the role of information hubs, where information streams flow for their further processing and redistribution according to users’ needs. The main goal of individualising the service activity is to provide a user-friendly and comfortable communication environment. The variety of innovations that have rapidly met library activities have different social and technological grounds. We have highlighted the following: organisational, service, product, technical, business ones. Nowadays, the activity of blighty public libraries is developing in innovative directions using various channels of communication with users, in particular, their own sites, blogs, social networks, messengers, online platforms, media formats, channels in Tik- Tok and YouTube. Libraries of Ukraine fill the information space with their own products (databases, electronic catalogues, collections of digitised publications, etc.), provide virtual services, organise access to external resources, etc. The implementation of modern information technologies into library processes has brought library and information users’ services to a new level. The library digital model of today makes it possible to conduct a full-fledged dialogue with distant users, and allow them to access library services at the same level as those readers who work with information directly in book collections.

Library data contains many students’ reading records that reflect their general knowledge acquisition. The purpose of this study is to deeply mine the library book-borrowing data, with concerns on different book catalogues and properties to predict the students’ extracurricular interests. An intelligent computing framework is proposed by the fusion of a neural network architecture and a partial differential equations (PDE) function module. In model designs, the architecture is constructed as an adaptive learning backpropagation neural network (BPNN), with automatic tuning of its hyperparameters. The PDE module is embedded into the network structure to enhance the loss functions of each neural perceptron. For model evaluation, a novel comprehensive index is designed using the calculus of information entropy. Empirical experiments are conducted on a diverse and multimodal time-series dataset of library book borrowing records to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Results validate that the proposed framework is capable of revealing the students’ extracurricular reading interests by processing related book borrowing records, and expected to be applied to “big data” analysis for a wide range of various libraries.

College Enquiry Chat bot is a type of web application, the main moto of this project is to provide information regarding college. It gives the information regarding college only. The information may be like “how many branches in college?”,” what are the courses offered by the college?”,” how many students per each branch?”. By adding some more features and doing some improvements we can embedded this project into working site of college. The chatbot created here is a web-based application which used Natural Language Processing Libraries and Artificial Intelligence Language to have conversations with humans. It is a simple bot which answers the queries regarding the college. Here the chatbot is interaction between human and machine. The machine may be like computer, mobile, tab etc. We can access the information from anywhere and using any device. In order to make a machine easy to understand human language we are using “Natural Language Processing”. The interaction between computer and human will be easy when we use “Natural Language Processing

The Library of the Jesuit college in Lviv is known as the biggest and best-equipped library in the city. It was founded at the beginning of the 17th century, and after one hundred years, there were approximately 12,000 books. But there was a huge loss of books after a great fire in 1734. After that Jesuits restored their book collection. Historiography says that there were approximately 10,000 books in the library at the time of the dissolution of the Society of Jesus. Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify the information about 10,000 books because historians still cannot find an old catalogue of the library. In the article, the author analyzes manuscript III 12719 from the National Library in Warsaw. The author proves that this manuscript is the catalogue of the library of the Jesuit college in Lviv. This catalogue was created in 1774, after the dissolution of the Jesuits. Its author was a former Jesuit monk, Stanisław Chmielowski, who was assigned by Austrian authority to create catalogues of the libraries of the abolished Jesuit colleges. According to this catalogue, the Jesuit library consisted not of 10,000 books but of 5,000. It corresponds to the information from Ludwik Grzebień, the author of the best known research about the Jesuit libraries in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After 1713, the Jesuit library in Lviv was still functioning. Due to the order of Vienna’s authority, the Jesuit library was turned into a public library. It was the first public library in the city. At the same time, the library arranged an educational process in schools in the city. As stated by inscriptions in the catalogue, teachers, clergy, and civil servants were the readers of the library. In 1784, the former Jesuit library became a part of the Lviv University Library.

As Europe becomes a global force, it needs to compete with other trade blocs in the numerous players, of which libraries are one. This has been acknowledged by the CEC's Library Action Programme, initiated in 1985, which covered the creation of machine-readable bibliographies and retroconversion of library catalogues, interconnection of automated systems, innovative library services using new information technology, the development of commercial products etc, for libraries, and exchange of knowledge and experience. The national libraries project has made most progress. In 1991 a further Libraries Programme began, with similar objectives; from many proposals, 14 have been retained. The IMPACT 1 programme (1988) was concerned with the information services market – multimedia databases, networking for shared access to information, electronic document delivery, and development of the market for optical disc products. This programme, which has so far not met with much success, is being followed by IMPACT 2 (approved 1991), which aims on a reduced budget to create a favourable climate for the information services market: improving the understanding of the market, overcoming legal and administrative barriers, increasing the user-friendliness of services, and support for strategic information initiatives. There are a number of specific steps that could be taken to make progress towards the objectives, which would justify a large budget. Moreover, the limited funds should be used to foster pan-European information services, notably in business, finance and law. Related CEC programmes (including ESPRIT and EUREKA) are not well coordinated, and there are several weaknesses, from bureaucracy to a lack of measurement of results. Overall aims of CEC information programmes include developing a European information policy, fostering the information industry as a growth sector, and encouraging existing suppliers to extend their products into global ones. There are good market opportunities, but many challenges to be faced.

AbstractThis research elaborates the engineering design of high value low volume (HVLV) artefacts (aka Capital goods, investment goods). Our goal is to describe what information needs the practitioners have when doing sales engineering and engineering in HVLV projects. The research approach uses Design Research Methodology with four company cases.Our findings are that engineering design of HVLV artefacts reuses several module systems, module libraries, technology catalogues, engineering-to-order and variety of design support systems, configurators, design guidelines, parametric models and lean-based design reasoning patterns etc. This poses major challenges for the engineers; how to use all relevant information and how to find it from different IT-systems.This study indicates that in HVLV context such engineering strategy is required, which guides and drives tactical and operational engineering decisions not only within a project delivery but across project deliveries. Operative and tactical engineering is done during the delivery project and value capture is not achieved in full potential if the engineering strategy is neglected or overruled. This is challenge for current modularisation and ETO-methods and tools.

Accommodating individuals with disabilities in the workplace is a rapidly growing concern. Furthermore, those who are functionally impaired are in a dire need of assistance. In a classroom, the main function of a student is to learn. Learning is facilitated by an instructor's lectures, writings on the board, use of audiovisuals, etc. Generally, it is presumed that students do not have any common functional impairments (visual, auditory, etc.) and, therefore, no special effort is made to accommodate those who may have such impairments. Obviously, the learning of a legally-blind student or one who has impaired hearing, for example, will be compromised if no assistance is provided. Then there are issues such as providing reading materials for the blind (college catalogues, lecture notes, etc., in braille?). What should be done? The purpose of this panel discussion is to, in general, address and discuss the issues involved in educating people with disabilities, particularly those that are not very obvious or visible (ex., wheelchair confinement). How should university campuses resolve this problem in this age of dwindling resources? Sensitive issues, such as “Needs of the many versus the needs of the few?” and “What responsibility do we have to the few that really need such assistance?”, also need to be resolved.

For the benefit of their users, libraries and information centers are preserving a significant amount of electronic data or information in the form of text, images, and numbers. All material is distributed via CD-ROM, DVD, Internet, etc. regardless to where the computer is located or how it is stored. The function of digital libraries in the modern information world, as well as new opportunities and challenges for library services. An electronic collection of physical or digital materials that may also be found elsewhere will be referred to as a digital library. These materials must be complete works that permit full cognitive and practical involvement from people. On the Internet, there are many resources that are accessible for free, and there are also many commercial resources that libraries can subscribe to for a set fee. Many academic libraries in India have consortia-based subscriptions to electronic tools. INFLIBNET is operating consortia like e-ShodhSindhu at University level and N-List Program at College level throughout the India. This paper will discuss the major initiatives/ program taken or organized by University Grant Commission to promote higher education.

This paper is an empirical study that attempted to x-ray the digitisation projects in tertiary institution libraries in North-West Nigeria. Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi (WUFP) and Federal College of Education (Technical) Gusau (FCE (T)) were used as a case study. Purposive sampling technique was used to draw jive (5) sample staff from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto because it has the highest number of staff for the exercise and three (3) staff each from Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi and Federal College of Education (Technical), Gusau. Therefore, a total of eleven (11) staff were chosen as the sample for the study. The respondents composed of professional librarians and Management Information System (MIS) staff of the institutions under study. Eleven (11) structured questionnaires were distributed and all were returned and found useful for the study. The data collected were analyzed and discussed using a frequency table. The findings revealed that digitisation takes place in the libraries under study as the respondents agreed that these libraries are digitising information resources. Problems of inadequate ICT infrastructure, poor digitisation skills by library staff, poor digitisation equipment and inadequate digitisation management skills by the digitisation management stakeholders were discovered as a bane to successful digitisation projects in the institutions under study. The way forward; such as adequate staff training, funding, procurement of the state-of-the-art digitisation equipment etc were recommended.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the training of college librarians, academic and management staff, IT managers and students on how to organise, manage and use a user-friendly library. In Uganda, as in many countries, the problem is that school and/or college libraries are managed by librarians who may have good cataloguing and management skills, but who do not have the pedagogic skills and knowledge of the school curricula that are necessary for librarians to be able to guide and mentor both teachers and students or organise curriculum-related activities or facilitate research. The development of user-friendly libraries contributes in improving education quality through nurturing the interest of students and teachers in literacy activities and active search for knowledge. Under the stewardship of the Belgium Technical Cooperation and the Ministry of Education in Uganda, library stakeholders were trained on how to put users – rather than themselves – in the centre of the library’s operations and introduced to active teaching and learning methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections. Several measures, short and long term were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. Given the disparities in the trainees’ education level and work experience, the training was delivered in seven modules divided into three units for over eight months in 2015. By the end of the training, trainees developed unique library strategic plan, library policies and procedures, capacity to use library systems, physical design and maintenance systems, partnerships, library structure and staff job descriptions. Design/methodology/approach To effectively engage the participants each topic was conducted using active teaching and learning (ATL) methodologies, including: lecture with slides and hands-on practice – each topic was introduced in a lecture form with slides and hands-on exercises. The main goal was to introduce the participants to the concepts discussed, offer opportunities to explore alternative approaches, as well define boundaries for discussion through brainstorming. The question-answer approach kept the participants alert and to start thinking critically on the topic discussed – brainstorming sessions allowed thinking beyond the presentation room, drawing from personal experiences to provide alternatives to anticipated challenges. The goal here was for the participants to provide individual choices and approaches for real life problems; group discussions: case study/ scenario and participant presentations – participants were provided with a scenario and asked to provide alternative approaches that could solve the problem based on their personal experience at their colleges. By the end of the group discussion, participants presented a draft of the deliverable as per the topic under discussion. More so, group discussions were an excellent approach to test participant’s teamwork skills and ability to compromise, as well as respecting team decisions. It was an opportunity to see how librarians will work with the library committees. Group discussions further initiated and cemented the much-needed librarian–academic staff – college management relationship. During the group discussion, librarians, teaching staff, ICT staff and college management staff, specifically the Principals and Deputy Principals interacted freely thus starting and cultivating a new era of work relationship between them. Individual presentation: prior to the workshop, participants were sent instructions to prepare a presentation on a topic. For example, participants were asked to provide their views of what a “user-friendly library” would look like or what would constitute a “user-friendly library”; the college library of HTC-Mulago was asked to talk about their experience working with book reserves, challenges faced and plans they have to address the challenges, while the college librarian from NTC-Kaliro was asked to describe a situation where they were able to assist a patron, the limitations they faced and how they addressed them. Doing so did not only assist to emotionally prepare the participants for the training but also helped to make them start thinking about the training in relation to their libraries and work. Take-home assignment: at the end of each session, participants were given home assignments to not only revise the training material but also prepare for the next day training. Further the take-home assignments provided time for the participants to discuss with their colleagues outside of the training room so as to have a common ground/ understanding on some of the very sensitive issues. Most interesting assignment was when participants were asked to review an article and to make a presentation in relation to their library experiences. Participant reports: participant reports resulted from the take-home assignments and participants were asked to make submission on a given topic. For example, participants were asked to review IFLA section on library management and write a two-page report on how such information provided supported their own work, as well as a participant report came from their own observation after a library visit. Invited talks with library expert: two invited talks by library experts from Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association with the goal to share their experience, motivate the participants to strive higher and achieve great things for their libraries. Library visitation: there were two library visits conducted on three separate days – International Hospital Kampala (IHK) Library, Makerere University Library and Aga Khan University Hospital Library. Each of these library visits provided unique opportunities for the participants to explore best practices and implement similar practices in their libraries. Visual aids – videos, building plans and still photos: these were visual learning aids to supplement text during the lectures because they carried lot of information while initiating different thoughts best on the participants’ past experience and expertise. The training advocated for the use of ATL methodologies and likewise similar methodologies were used to encourage participants do so in their classrooms. Findings Addressing Key Concerns: Several measures, both long and short term, were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. The measures taken included: selected representative sample of participants including all college stakeholders as discussed above; active teaching and learning methodologies applied in the training and blended in the content of the training materials; initiated and formulated approaches to collaborations, networks and partnerships; visited different libraries to benchmark library practices and encourage future job shadowing opportunities; and encouraged participants to relate freely, understand and value each other’s work to change their mindsets. College librarians were encouraged to ensure library priorities remain on the agenda through advocacy campaigns. Short-term measures: The UFL training was designed as a practical and hands-on training blended with individual and group tasks, discussions, take-home assignments and presentations by participants. This allowed participates to engage with the material and take responsibility for their own work. Further, the training material was prepared with a view that librarians support the academic life of teaching staff and students. Participants were tasked to develop and later fine-tune materials designed to support their work. For example, developing a subject bibliography and posting it on the library website designed using open source tools such as Google website, Wikis, blogs. The developed library manual includes user-friendly policies and procedures referred to as “dos and don’ts in the library” that promote equitable open access to information; drafting book selection memos; new book arrivals lists; subscribing to open access journals; current awareness services and selective dissemination of information service displays and electronic bulletins. Based on their library needs and semester calendar, participants developed action points and timelines to implement tasks in their libraries at the end of each unit training. Librarians were encouraged to share their experiences through library websites, Facebook page, group e-mail/listserv and Instagram; however, they were challenged with intimate internet access. College libraries were rewarded for their extraordinary job. Given their pivotal role in the management and administration of financial and material resources, on top of librarians, the participants in this training were college administrators/ management, teaching and ICT staff, researchers and student leadership. Participants were selected to address the current and future needs of the college library. These are individuals that are perceived to have a great impact towards furthering the college library agenda. The practical nature of this training warranted conducting the workshops from developed but similar library spaces, for example, Aga Khan University Library and Kampala Capital City, Makerere University Library, International Hospital Kampala Library and Uganda Christian University Library. Participants observed orientation sessions, reference desk management and interviews, collection management practices, preservation and conservation, secretarial bureau management, etc. Long-term measures: Changing the mindset of librarians, college administrators and teaching staff is a long-term commitment which continues to demand for innovative interventions. For example: job shadowing allowed college librarian short-term attachments to Makerere University Library, Uganda Christian University Library, Aga Khan Hospital University Library and International Hospital Kampala Library – these libraries were selected because of their comparable practices and size. The mentorship programme lasted between two-three weeks; on-spot supervision and follow-up visits to assess progress with the action plan by the librarians and college administration and college library committee; ensuring that all library documents – library strategic plan, library manual, library organogram, etc are approved by the College Governing Council and are part of the college wide governing documents; and establishing the library committee with a job description for each member – this has strengthened the library most especially as an advocacy tool, planning and budgeting mechanism, awareness channel for library practices, while bringing the library to the agenda – reemphasizing the library’s agenda. To bridge the widened gap between librarians and the rest of the stakeholders, i.e. teaching staff, ICT staff, college administration and students, a college library committee structure and its mandate were established comprising: Library Committee Chairperson – member of the teaching staff; Library Committee Secretary – College Librarian; Student Representative – must be a member of the student Guild with library work experience; and Representative from each college academic department. A library consortium was formed involving all the four project supported colleges to participate in resource sharing practices, shared work practices like shared cataloguing, information literacy training, reference interview and referral services as well a platform for sharing experiences. A library consortium further demanded for automating library functions to facilitate collaboration and shared work. Plans are in place to install Koha integrated library system that will cultivate a strong working relationship between librarians and students, academic staff, college administration and IT managers. This was achieved by ensuring that librarians innovatively implement library practices and skills acquired from the workshop as well as show their relevance to the academic life of the academic staff. Cultivating relationships takes a great deal of time, thus college librarians were coached on: creating inclusive library committees, timely response to user needs, design library programmes that address user needs, keeping with changing technology to suite changing user needs, seeking customer feedback and collecting user statistics to support their requests, strengthening the library’s financial based by starting a secretarial bureau and conducting user surveys to understand users’ information-seeking behaviour. To improve the awareness of new developments in the library world, college librarians were introduced to library networks at national, regional and international levels, as a result they participated in conferences, workshops, seminars at local, regional and international level. For example, for the first time and with funding from Belgium Technical Cooperation, college librarians attended 81st IFLA World Library and Information Congress in South African in 2015. College libraries are now members of the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association and have attended meetings of these two very important library organisations in Uganda’s LIS profession. The college librarians have attended meetings and workshops organized by these two organisations. Originality/value At the end of the three units training, participants were able to develop: a strategic plan for their libraries; an organogram with staffing needs and job description matching staff functions; a Library Committee for each library and with a structure unifying all the four project-support Colleges; a library action plan with due dates including deliverables and responsibilities for implementation; workflow plan and organisation of key sections of the library such as reserved and public spaces; furniture and equipment inventory (assets); a library manual and collection development policy; partnerships with KCCA Library and Consortium of Uganda University Libraries; skills to use Koha ILMS for performing library functions including: cataloguing, circulation, acquisitions, serials management, reporting and statistics; skills in searching library databases and information literacy skills; skills in designing simple and intuitive websites using Google Sites tools; and improved working relationship between the stakeholders was visible. To further the user-friendly libraries principle of putting users in the centre of the library’s operations, support ATL methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections the following initiatives are currently implemented in the colleges: getting approval of all library policy documents by College Governing Council, initiating job shadowing opportunities, conducting on-spot supervision, guide libraries to set up college library committees and their job description, design library websites, develop dissemination sessions for all library policies, incorporate user-friendly language in all library documents, initiate income generation activities for libraries, set terms of reference for library staff and staffing as per college organogram, procurement of library tools like DDC and library of congress subject headings (LCSH), encourage attendance to webinars and space planning for the new libraries.

The article is devoted to the modern period of research activity of the Russian State Library ‒ one of the Russian Federation’s national libraries, which, in accordance with the current legislation, are research institutions in library science, bibliography and book studies, and methodological, scientific-information and cultural centers of federal importance, participating in development and implementation of the federal policy in the field of librarianship. The article presents the main directions and subjects of the RSL’s research work in 2015–2018. In addition to traditional areas (the history, theory and practice of librarianship, the disclosure of collections, and the study of monuments of book culture), there have also been developed some research projects aimed at solving current issues of library development in the digital environment (the formation and organization of access to electronic information resources, the creation of digital services, etc.). The article demonstrates major publications of the RSL employees, representing the research results (monographs and articles, catalogues, bibliographic indexes, manuals and reference books). The article analyzes the innovations in organizing scientific activities and the achieved results (including scientometric characteristics), which confirm the status of the Russian State Library as a leading research center in the field of library science, bibliography and book studies.

The integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region has been upg-raded to a national strategy. As a pillar of the Yangtze River Delta, the electronic information industry is developing strongly. Based on the characteristics of electronic information industry, this paper selects the electronic information enterprises in Yancheng area, explores their needs and status quo in comprehensive information, technical information, tool information, professional talents information, etc. It discusses how university libraries can play the social service function, optimize the content of information services, and provide information guarantee for the development of local economy.

Currently, innovations in the field of information technology are increasingly becoming the key to the company’s success, its main competitive advantage. The library business is no exception in this regard. The purpose of the study is to study the current trends in the foreign market of library technologies as a factor that directly affects the methods and forms of library work based on information provided on the websites of foreign companies, as well as in summary reports on the development dynamics of the market of library technologies. Specialized companies offer to libraries the new resource management technologies, metadata sets for expanding collection or software tools for optimizing electronic catalogues. They are the providers of innovation for libraries, intermediaries between the end user and the advanced achievements of IT technologies.The author notes that among the priorities of the development of library technology industry the unchallenged leadership belongs to library-information systems of the new generation: first, library service platforms that use cloud technologies and service architecture, and second, advanced integrated library systems with the addition of Web modules, Web applications, etc. The hidden spring of the development of foreign market of library technologies is the fundamental change in the concept of library automation, the transition from unified library systems, managing print and electronic resources and basing on client-server architecture, to universal library service platforms with cloud storage.The author analyses in detail the trends of the library technology market in the United States as the most developed and active market, as well as in Europe and Latin America. The article draws attention to the companies — leaders in the competitive struggle in the market of library technologies. The author concludes that reorientation to network technologies means for libraries, on one hand, increase of efficiency, access to up-to-date online information, closer communication with users, reduction of non-core costs, and on the other hand, constant dependence on network service providers, whose set increases proportionally to the growing differentiation of the market, the maximum openness and partial de-specialisation, compensated by active participation in digital Humanities projects, and ultimately, loss of institutional autonomy.

Face recognition (FR) has received considerable attention in the field of security, especially in the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in security monitoring. Although significant advances in the field of computer vision are made, advanced face recognition systems provide satisfactory performance only in controlled conditions. They deteriorate significantly in the face of real-world scenarios such as lighting conditions, motion blur, camera resolution, etc. This article shows how we design, implement, and conduct the empirical comparisons of machine learning open libraries in building attendance taking (AT) support systems using indoor security cameras called ATSS. Our trial system was deployed to record the appearances of 120 students in five classes who study on the third floor of FPT Polytechnic College building. Our design allows for flexible system scaling, and it is not only usable for a school but a generic attendance system with CCTV. The measurement results show that the accuracy is suitable for many different environments.

Purpose – Libraries and library professionals face multiple challenges in meeting user needs in the second decade of the new millennium. This is particularly true in academic libraries where students and faculty demand and expect fast, easy, and seamless access to information as well as flexible, comfortable places to work alone as well as collaboratively with colleagues, friends, classmates, and instructors. These same patrons often require the assistance of information specialists to navigate a library’s increasingly large array of online resources. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides historical context and reviews recent trends in the area in the area of learning and study spaces in academic libraries. It also cites the successful information commons at the author’s home institution, Loyola University Chicago, examining its first six years of operation and projecting changes in its next half decade. Findings – The past 15 plus years have seen a major shift in philosophy in the USA and in other parts of the globe in terms of the importance of “library as space” in enhancing the role of the college and university library. As a result, academic institutions, at the urging of librarians, have created spaces known as information commons, learning commons, research commons, etc. in response to user needs for access to technology, group work, social interaction, and knowledge creation. Originality/value – The information commons in all its forms has not been static, indeed it has matured, adapting over time to changing technologies, patron needs, and pedagogies.

Jika melihat dari jenisnya, ada beberapa jenis perpustakaan, antara lain perpustakaan sekolah, perpustakaan universitas, perpustakaan pribadi, perpustakaan nasional, dsb. Perpustakaan sekolah menyajikan produk terkait dengan pendidikan sekolah dasar sampai SMA, perpustakaan universitas menyajikan produk yang terkait dengan pendidikan di bangku kuliah, perpustakaan pribadi menyajikan bahan bacaan yang disukai yang mencerminkan kepribadiannya, sedangkan perpustakaan nasional seharusnya menyajikan produk-produk yang mencerminkan negara tersebut. Sejarah sebuah bangsa yang besar akan bisa dilestarikan dari generasi ke generasi melalui perpustakaan nasional. Indonesia dikenal sebagai negara yang memiliki indegenous knowledge (kearifan lokal) serta kekayaan budaya yang besar dan tersebar dari sabang sampai merauke. Selayaknya kearifan lokal serta kekayaan budaya yang dimiliki tersebut dapat dikoleksi di- dalam sebuah perpustakaan. Melalui perkembangan teknologi informasi, pengembangan perpustakaan menjadi sebuah jawaban agar koleksi kearifan lokal dan kekayaan budaya tersebut dapat diakses oleh bangsa Indonesia dari sabang sampai merauke dengan harapan mampu memperkuat serta mempertahankan identitas nasional Indonesia. Namun sejalan dengan pengaruh globalisasi dan kemajuan teknologi,semakin terindikasi adanya ancaman terhadap lunturnya kearifan lokal dikalangan generasi penerus. Oleh karena itu,dibutuhkan manifestasi baru agar perpustakaan nasional menjadi hal yang menarik untuk diakses dan ditelusuri oleh generasi muda penerus bangsa, agar identitas nasional tetap dapat dipertahankan. Salah satunya adalah dengan mengembangkan perpustakaan melalui teknologi yang akan memberikan pengalaman yang lebih menarik terhadap “petualangan pemustaka” ketika menelusur sebuah perpustakaan.If you look at the type, there are several types of libraries, including school libraries, university libraries, private libraries, national libraries, etc. School libraries present products related to elementary to senior high school education, university libraries provide products related to college education, private libraries provide the preferred reading material that reflects their personality, while the national library should present products that reflect the country. The history of a great nation will be preserved from generation to generation through the national library. Indonesia is known as a country that has indegenous knowledge and great cultural wealth and spread from Sabang to Merauke. Just as well as indegenous knowledge and cultural wealth owned can be collected in a library. Through the development of information technology, library development becomes an answer so that the collection of indegenous knowledge and cultural wealth can be accessed by the Indonesian nation from Sabang to Merauke in the hope of strengthening and maintaining Indonesia’s national identity. But in line with the influence of globalization and technological progress, the more indication of threats to the dissolution of indegenous knowledge among the next generation. Therefore, a new manifestation is needed to make the national library interesting to be accessed and traced by the younger generation of the nation, so that the national identity can be maintained. One way is to develop libraries through technology that will provide a more interesting experience with “ readers adventures” when searching for a library

Mobile applications are software applications developed for small and wireless computing devices such as smartphones and tablets, rather than desktops or laptops. With advancements in networking technologies, mobile applications are increasingly utilized in the field of education, particularly in libraries, to engage more users. They are predominantly preferred for providing library services such as accessing e-resources like e-books, e-journals, e-newspapers, e-patents, etc. Additionally, these applications provide users with access at any time, from anywhere, and help save time. This paper briefly explains the design of a mobile application for Dr. GRD Memorial Library, the main library of PSG College of Technology, using Jotform, a free, no-code app builder that allows sharing multiple forms, links, and other elements in a single app that works on any device. To enhance interactivity, a chatbot is also incorporated using an AI chatbot builder, Chatbase, primarily utilized for adding chat widgets in mobile applications.

Objective – To identify and examine the factors of library publishing services that facilitate scholarly communication. Design – Analysis of library publishing service programs. Setting – North American research libraries. Subjects – Eight research libraries selected from the signatories for the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE) Cornell University Library’s Center for Innovative Publishing; Dartmouth College Library’s Digital Publishing Program and Scholars Portal Project; MIT Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Publishing and Licensing; Columbia University Libraries’ Center for Digital Research and Scholarship; University of Michigan Library’s Scholarly Publishing Office; Duke University Library’s Office of Scholarly Communications; University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources’ Centre for Scholarly Communication; and Simon Fraser University Library’s Scholarly Publishing. Methods – The authors used Roosendaal and Geurt’s (1997) four functions of scholarly communication to analyze and categorize library publishing services provided by libraries included in the study. The four functions of scholarly communication include registration, certification, awareness, and archiving. Main Results – Analysis of the registration functions provided by library publishing services in this study revealed three types of facilitating factors: intellectual property, licensing, and publishing. These include services such as repositories for digital scholarly work and research, ISBN/ISSN registration, and digital publishing. Analysis of archiving functions demonstrated that most programs in the study focus on repository-related services in support of digital content preservation of papers, datasets, technical reports, etc. Analysis of certification functions provided by these services exposed a focus on expert review and research support. These include services like professional assessment of information sources, consultation on appropriate literature and information-seeking tools, and writing or copyright advisory services. Analysis of awareness function showed search aids and knowledge-sharing platforms to be the main facilitating factors. These include services like metadata application, schema, and standards or scholarly portals enabling knowledge-sharing among scholars. Conclusion – This study identified several services offered by these library publishing programs which can be categorized as facilitators under Roosendaal and Geurt’s (1997) four functions of scholarly communication. The majority of the libraries in the study treated library publishing services as part of broader scholarly communication units or initiatives. Digital publishing (registration function) was offered by all programs analyzed in the study, while traditional peer-review services (certification function) were not. Widely adopted among programs in the study were the use of social networking tools (awareness function) and self-publishing (archiving function). The authors recommend developing services that facilitate peer review and assert the need to provide a knowledge-sharing mechanism within the academic community that facilitates the scholarly communication process.

This paper is aimed at development of a college database management system that can be used in any educational institution. Python flask framework is used to implement this application, that can be accessed throughout the institution or by any specific department of the institution. This system offers different features to the students and the members of the staff which includes attendance and marks of the students that can be accessed by both student and staff but can be only updated by staff of particular department . Students as well as staffs have separate logins that can be accessed by them easily . The system also includes a library management system which works in real time,a micro transport management system and a training and placement management system.Library management system keeps track of the books issued and also calculates the fine generated for delay in book returning and transport system maintains the record of each student i.e bus number ,route of that bus etc . A separate system for analysing the placement record of the college is also present . This system is developed to maintain and facilitate easy access to information to every member associated with this system. For this the users must be registered with the system after which they can access their accounts as well as modify data as per the permissions given to them. Python flask framework is the technology that we have used to develop the college management system. Flask is a web framework written in python. It can be classified into microframework because it does not require any particular tolls or libraries. However flask supports extension that can add application features . For frontend we have used HTML,CSS and javascript whereas for backend we have used python flask and mysql.This system helps college and universities to save time , money and resources.

A review of: Shill, Harold B. and Shawn Tonner. “Does the Building Still Matter? Usage Patterns in New, Expanded, and Renovated Libraries, 1995-2002.” College & Research Libraries 65.2 (Mar. 2004): 123-150. Objective – To measure the impact of academic library facility improvements on physical library usage. Design – The facility improvement data used for this study were previously collected through a 68-item Web survey for the companion article “Creating a Better Place: Physical Improvements in Academic Libraries, 1995-2002” (Shill and Tonner). The measurement of library usage was by exit gate counts before and after library improvements. Setting – American academic libraries in which: facility improvement projects were completed between 1995 and 2002, the project space was not smaller than 20,000 square feet, the project space did not include off-site storage or non-public space, and gate-count statistics from before and after facility changes were available. Subjects – Ninety of 384 identified academic libraries were able to provide usable data on: exit gate count, total circulation, in-house collection use, and reference transaction data. Methods – The data collection was undertaken in 2003 for the companion study (Shill and Tonner). A population of 384 libraries potentially able to meet criteria for the study was gathered and each library was invited by e-mail to complete a Web-based survey. Through this initial contact, 357 libraries were confirmed as meeting the study criteria, and responses were received from 182 of those providing a 51% overall response rate. Respondents were asked about institutional characteristics (public or private, Carnegie classification, etc.); project specific features (year of completion, nature of project, etc.); nature and extent of changes (seating, wiring, HVAC, etc.); presence of non-library services in the facility; collection arrangements; before and after quality changes in lighting, seating and a range of services (as assessed by the survey respondent); and before and after project completion gate count usage statistics. Respondents were asked a set of eleven questions each with a five-point scale about facility quality and librarian satisfaction with the former and the changed facility. A further criteria requirement of the availability of pre- and post-project gate count was implemented, reducing the number of libraries to be studied to 90. Facility usage changes were calculated by subtracting the gate count total for the last complete year pre-project from the most recent year gate count post project. Main results - Eighty percent of the 90 libraries reported increased gate count post-project, and 20 percent reported a decline in usage. The median increase across the libraries was 37.4 percent with 25.6 percent of libraries experiencing a post-project increase of 100 percent or more. Renovated facilities were more likely to see usage decline, but there was no statistically significant difference in usage change between renovated and new facilities. Libraries more recently upgraded saw greater usage growth than those renovations completed earlier in the study period, although 75 percent of the facilities continued to experience higher post-project usage levels. Nearly all of the private institutions (93.1%) experienced usage increases and almost half experienced growth of 100 percent or more. No statistically significant relationship was found between changes in post project usage and: The proportion of facility space allocated for library functions The physical location of the library on campus The size of the library facility The level of degrees offered at the institution The availability of wireless access The number of computers in the instruction lab The number of public access workstations A larger number of seats The number of group study rooms The shelving capacity, the use of compact shelving or off-site storage The presence of coffee or snack bars The presence of any non-library facilities There was a statistically significant correlation (Pearson’s r) between increased post project usage and: The institution type (public or private) (p=.000) The number of data ports in the facility (p=.005) The percent of wired seats (p=.034) Ten elements relating to improved quality emerged as statistically significant in relation to increased usage, although the correlation for quality of artificial lighting was not statistically significant (p=.162 n.s.). The statistically significant correlations (Pearson’s r) between quality and increased usage in order of strength of correlation were: the quality of the instruction lab (p=.000); layout (p=.001); public access workstations (p=.006); natural lighting (p=.007); user workspace (p=.008); telecommunications infrastructure (p=.014); overall ambience (p=.020); collection storage (p=.026); heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system (p=.026); and service point locations (p=.038). Conclusion – This study confirmed that 80 percent of libraries experience usage increase after a library improvement project. The study revealed those investments that cause increased use, and also found that a number of variables previously predicted to cause usage growth were not significant. The study also found that quality of the improvements, additions, and the building are a significant driver of increased use. The median 37.4 percent increase demonstrates that, contrary to reports in the literature (Shill and Tonner 460), overall library usage is increasing in these institutions.

A library is a collection of sources of information and similar other resources. The emergence of Intelligent Library Management Systems (ILMS) is a key trend in library automation. In libraries, the management of the book is a very complicated and time-consuming process. A Library includes books, question papers, newspaper journals, and previous year’s project details, etc. The integration of emerging technologies beyond RFID in academic libraries. The introduction lays the groundwork for exploring innovative solutions such as AI, machine learning, and data analytics, aiming to optimize library services and meet evolving user needs. This paper mainly deals with the description and evolution of library systems and their disadvantages over centuries in different parts of the world. The source of information in an Institution is a Library. Here Librarian plays a very important role in managing the Library functions such as adding new students, book data, date of issuing and returning the book, and entering all the relevant details of the books, etc. For this, the student has to wait for his /her turn as the Librarian enters data student by student. Thus, it is a very time-consuming process and costly because of high manpower requirements. An innovative Intelligent Library Management System (ILMS) utilizing AI, GSM, and RFID. Their system aims to streamline library operations and improve user experiences through advanced technology integration. This research showcases the potential of ILMS to modernize library services and meet the demands of the digital era. This paper mainly focuses on the basic library operation and some added features like viewing total books, viewing available books, updating information, searching books, and a facility to request and return books and some alert systems. This paper examines the amalgamation of AI, GSM, and RFID for advanced library management systems. Results demonstrate enhanced efficiency and user experience, showcasing the efficacy of this integrated approach. Our project introduces novel advancements in library management, exemplified by its successful deployment in a real college library. This implementation underscores the worth of our work, offering tangible improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.

Regional library local history is a comprehensive library activity requiring special professional training. The author reveals the issue of teaching library local history at library higher schools; searched educational publications on local history in the electronic catalogues of libraries and bibliographic indices. It was revealed 48 academic publications on library local history for 1930-2014. The study objective is to trace the evolution of educational publications on the problems of teaching librarian local history in a library higher school. It was presented the analysis of textbooks on the following features: types of educational publications, authors, scientific schools and content. The study revealed expanding diversity of educational publications on library local history, from single programs, lectures to textbooks, educational-methodical complexes and electronic textbooks. At the same time, it was found out a lack of new integrated textbooks, «fragmentation» in teaching and representing certain aspects of local librarian history in educational work, insufficient number of electronic textbooks and absence of interactive electronic educational materials for universities. The fundamentals of teaching local librarian history were started by two scientific schools in St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture and Moscow State Institute of Culture. The formation of the library local history as an educational course is associated with the name of N. V. Zdobnov. The largest contribution to the development of educational-methodological support for library local history was made by A. V. Mamontov and N. N. Shcherba. The substantive aspect of educational-methodological support for library local history can be divided into three stages. The first stage (1930-1970) is related to the study of local history bibliography only. The second period (1980-1990) is characterized by creating a number of editions covering general problems of regional studies of library local history and library activities on local history study. In 1990s preconditions appeared to expand study of various aspects of library local history. IIt was connected with changes in the state policy of regional development, as well as a growing interest in regional/local history information. The third stage (2000-2010s) of the evolution of educational publications is related, on the one hand, to a more expanded study of some specific aspects of library local librarian (bibliographic processing of local history documents, local history fund or management of local history activities, etc.), on the other hand, to a complex representation of regional studies in cooperation of libraries, archives, museums and other institutions dealing with issues of local history in the region.

The author analyses participation of the Russian State Library (RSL) in the International Fair of Intellectual Literature non/fictio№ 24, which took place on December 1—5, 2022. The paper presents the review of new scientific publications of the RSL “Pashkov Dom” Publishing House. The top list of the non/fictio№ 24 includes two new publications of the RSL “Pashkov Dom”: the book devoted to L.M. Koval “The Keeper of the History of Leninka” (2021) and “The Art of Valery Pokatov: Pages of Life and Creative Work” (2021).In 2022, the Russian State Library celebrated the 160th anniversary of the opening of the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum. The anniversary stand of the RSL presented publications on the history of the library, catalogues of the collections and exhibitions, issues of the journals “Observatory of Culture”, “Bibliotekovedenie” (Library Science), etc. The leaders of sales were the collection of articles “‘This very first seal was beautiful: round, dimensional, pureʼ. The book culture of the era of Peter the Great” (2022), the publication of the comedy by A.S. Griboyedov “Woe from Wit” (2022), the album-catalogue by S.P. Utva “Gifts of the Imperial House to the Moscow Public Museum and Rumyantsev Museum” (2022).Of particular note is the monograph “Essays on the Development of Bibliographic Activity of the Russian State Library” (2022) and the second edition of the collective work “Scientific Research in Libraries: Subject Themes, Organization, Presentation of Results” (2023).The article summarizes the publishing trends in Russia formulated by the experts on December 2, 2022 at the discussion “Digitalization of book production and the future of the industry, skills of forming a comprehensive publishing project” in the framework of non/fictio№ 24.The significant event of 2022 was the 17th season of the “Big Book” National Literary Award, established by the Centre for the Support of Russian Literature. The solemn ceremony of awarding the prize winners took place on December 8, 2022 at the Pashkov House of the Russian State Library.

Bartynowski’s Papers Materyały do ikonografii królów, zbroi i wojska polskiego Władysław Bartynowski was a famous and remarkable numismatist active in Cracow at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. In fact, he was a collector of various interests. Since early adulthood he used to collect old prints on various topics, including portrayals of famous Polish historical figures, coats of arms, old prints front pages, front page decorative frames etc. In 1882, the collection contained already 4200 units and it was not the end of his activity as a collector. Bartynowski used to work as an antiquar- ian so apart from the prints he owned, many more passed through his hands. He used to purchase them, sell and exchange. After some time, he became very well acquainted with this kind of works. The copies he produced were often so perfect that modern connoisseurs are sometimes unable to distinguish them from their originals. A piece of the collection was donated to the National Museum in Krakow. At the end of his life, Bartynowski decided to publish a collection of prints to serve educational purposes for those who had no access to the originals. To this end, he hired a talented drawer, Karol Wawrosz, who arranged tables of prints redrawn by him or otherwise copied from originals according to their subject. The basis and source for these catalogues were the collections gathered throughout many years as well as Władysław Bartynowski’s knowledge. This is how the work titled “Materyały do ikonografii królów zbroi i wojska polskiego” came into being. It consists of three big files titled Portrayals of kings, Army and Weapons and a notebook titled Materials containing detailed descriptions for tables and drawings. The work was published in print in 1908. It is in black and white, however a part of the volume was extra painted in watercolour by Bronisława Uhmowa, Władysław Bartynowski’s daughter, which add to the beauty of this work. Currently, the Bartynowski’s Files are available in a few libraries but only the black and white version. The paper presents the files in colour based on the copy from the family archive. Individual boards from these files, including the coloured ones, are sometimes to be found in antiquarian bookshops. Unfortunately, due to the lack of proper information on individual pages, they are commonly called the Wawrosz Files.

Attendances are taken in every school and college. The convention attendance system consists of registers marked by teachers which may lead to human error and a lot of maintenance. The system proposed in this study is to deviate from such a traditional system and introduce a new approach to taking attendance using image processing. The system uses a Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and python libraries such as OpenCV, Dlib, and NumPy. As a human, the brain automatically recognizes a face instantly, but the computer is not capable of this high-level generalization. The system automatically starts taking snaps and then applies face detection and recognition technique to the given image the recognized students are marked as present and their attendance is updated with the corresponding time[2]. The working of the system is that it first looks at a picture and finds all the faces in it. second, it focuses on each face and can understand that even if a face is directed in a weird direction or under bad lighting. Third, the system comes up with 68 specific points called landmarks, that exist on every face example the top of the chin, the inner edge of each eyebrow, etc., and then picks out unique features of the face that can be used to tell it apart from other people. Finally, compare the unique features of that face to those already determined faces. Then the person can clock in into the system after the person clocks out, the system automatically transfers the data into an excel sheet.

A Review of: Julien, Heidi and Cameron Hoffman. “Information Literacy Training in Canada’s Public Libraries.” Library Quarterly 78.1 (2008): 19-41. Objective – To examine the role of Canada’s public libraries in information literacy skills training, and to ascertain the perspectives of public library Internet users with regard to their experiences of information literacy. Design – Qualitative research using semi-structured interviews and observations. Setting – Five public libraries in Canada. Subjects – Twenty-eight public library staff members and twenty-five customers. Methods – This study constituted the second phase of a detailed examination of information literacy (IL) training in Canadian public libraries. Five public libraries located throughout Canada were selected for participation. These comprised a large central branch of a public library located in a town with a population of approximately two million, a main branch of a public library in an urban city of about one million people, a public library in a town with a population of about 75,000, a library in a town of 900 people and a public library located in the community center of a Canadian First Nations reserve that housed a population of less than 100 persons. After notifying customers via signage posted in the vicinity of computers and Internet access areas, the researchers observed each patron as they accessed the Internet via library computers. Observations focused on the general physical environment of the Internet access stations, customer activities and use of the Internet, as well as the nature and degree of customer interactions with each other and with staff. Photographs were also taken and observations were recorded via field notes. The former were analyzed via qualitative content analysis while quantitative analysis was applied to the observations. Additionally, each observed participant was interviewed immediately following Internet use. Interview questions focused on a range of issues including the reasons why customers used the Internet in public libraries, customers’ perceptions about their level of information literacy and their feelings with regard to being information literate, the nature of their exposure to IL training, the benefits they derived from such training, and their desire for further training. Public service librarians and other staff were also interviewed in a similar manner. These questions sought to ascertain staff views on the role of the public library with regard to IL training; perceptions of the need for and expected outcomes of such training; as well as the current situation pertinent to the provision of IL skills training in their respective libraries in terms of staff competencies, resource allocation, and the forms of training and evaluation. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data were interpreted via qualitative content analysis through the use of NVivo software. Main Results – Men were more frequent users of public library computers than women, outnumbering them by a ratio ranging from 2:1 to 3.4:1. Customers appeared to be mostly under the age of 30 and of diverse ethnicities. The average income of interviewed customers was less than the Canadian average. The site observations revealed that customers were seen using the Internet mainly for the purposes of communication (e.g., e-mail, instant messaging, online dating services). Such use was observed 78 times in four of the libraries. Entertainment accounted for 43 observations in all five sites and comprised activities such as online games, music videos, and movie listings. Twenty-eight observations involved business/financial uses (e.g., online shopping, exploration of investment sites, online banking). The use of search engines (25 observations), news information (23), foreign language and forum websites (21), and word processing were less frequently observed. Notably, there were only 20 observed library-specific uses (e.g., searching online catalogues, online database and library websites). Customers reported that they used the Internet mainly for general web searching and for e-mail. It was also observed that in general the physical environment was not conducive to computer use due to uncomfortable or absent seating and a lack of privacy. Additionally, only two sites had areas specifically designated for IL instruction. Of the 25 respondents, 19 reported at least five years experience with the Internet, 9 of whom cited experience of 10 years or more. Self-reported confidence with the Internet was high: 16 individuals claimed to be very confident, 7 somewhat confident, and only 2 lacking in confidence. There was a weak positive correlation between years of use and individuals’ reported levels of confidence. Customers reported interest in improving computer literacy (e.g., keyboarding ability) and IL skills (ability to use more sources of information). Some expressed a desire “to improve certain personal attitudes” (30), such as patience when conducting Internet searches. When presented with the Association of College and Research Libraries’ definition of IL, 13 (52%) of those interviewed claimed to be information literate, 8 were ambivalent, and 4 admitted to being information illiterate. Those who professed to be information literate had no particular feeling about this state of being, however 10 interviewees admitted feeling positive about being able to use the Internet to retrieve information. Most of those interviewed (15) disagreed that a paucity of IL skills is a deterrent to “accessing online information efficiently and effectively” (30). Eleven reported development of information skills through self teaching, while 8 cited secondary schools or tertiary educational institutions. However, such training was more in terms of computer technology education than IL. Eleven of the participants expressed a desire for additional IL training, 5 of whom indicated a preference for the public library to supply such training. Customers identified face-to-face, rather than online, as the ideal training format. Four interviewees identified time as the main barrier to Internet use and online access. As regards library staff, 22 (78.6%) of those interviewed posited IL training as an important role for public libraries. Many stated that customers had been asking for formal IL sessions with interest in training related to use of the catalogue, databases, and productivity software, as well as searching the web. Two roles were identified in the context of the public librarian as a provider of IL: “library staff as teachers/agents of empowerment and library staff as ‘public parents’” (32). The former was defined as supporting independent, lifelong learning through the provision of IL skills, and the latter encompassing assistance, guidance, problem solving, and filtering of unsuitable content. Staff identified challenges to IL training as societal challenges (e.g., need for customers to be able to evaluate information provided by the media, the public library’s role in reducing the digital divide), institutional (e.g., marketing of IL programs, staff constraints, lack of budget for IL training), infrastructural (e.g., limited space, poor Internet access in library buildings) and pedagogical challenges, such as differing views pertinent to the philosophy of IL, as well as the low levels of IL training to which Canadian students at all levels had been previously exposed. Despite these challenges library staff acknowledged positive outcomes resulting from IL training in terms of customers achieving a higher level of computer literacy, becoming more skillful at searching, and being able to use a variety of information sources. Affective benefits were also apparent such as increased independence and willingness to learn. Library staff also identified life expanding outcomes, such as the use of IL skills to procure employment. In contrast to customer self-perception, library staff expressed that customers’ IL skills were low, and that this resulted in their avoidance of “higher-level online research” and the inability to “determine appropriate information sources” (36). Several librarians highlighted customers’ incapacity to perform simple activities such as opening an email account. Library staff also alluded to customer’s reluctance to ask them for help. Libraries in the study offered a wide range of training. All provided informal, personalized training as needed. Formal IL sessions on searching the catalogue, online searching, and basic computer skills were conducted by the three bigger libraries. A mix of librarians and paraprofessional staff provided the training in these libraries. However, due to a lack of professional staff, the two smaller libraries offered periodic workshops facilitated by regional librarians. All the libraries lacked a defined training budget. Nonetheless, the largest urban library was well-positioned to offer IL training as it had a training coordinator, a training of trainers program, as well as technologically-equipped training spaces. The other libraries in this study provided no training of trainers programs and varied in terms of the adequacy of spaces allocated for the purpose of training. The libraries also varied in terms of the importance placed on the evaluation of IL training. At the largest library evaluation forms were used to improve training initiatives, while at the small town library “evaluations were done anecdotally” (38). Conclusion – While Internet access is available and utilized by a wide cross section of the population, IL skills are being developed informally and not through formal training offered by public libraries. Canadian public libraries need to work to improve information literacy skills by offering and promoting formal IL training programs.

A review of: Novotny, Eric. “I Don’t Think I Click: A Protocol Analysis Study of Use of a Library Online Catalog in the Internet Age.” College & Research Libraries, 65.6 (Nov. 2004): 525-37. Objective – To explore how Web-savvy users think about and search an online catalogue. Design – Protocol analysis study. Setting – Academic library (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). Subjects – Eighteen users (17 students, 1 faculty member) of an online public access catalog, divided into two groups of nine first-time and nine experienced users. Method – The study team developed five tasks that represented a range of activities commonly performed by library users, such as searching for a specific item, identifying a library location, and requesting a copy. Seventeen students and one faculty member, divided evenly between novice and experienced searchers, were recruited to “think aloud” through the performance of the tasks. Data were gathered through audio recordings, screen capture software, and investigator notes. The time taken for each task was recorded, and investigators rated task completion as “successful,” “partially successful,” “fail,” or “search aborted.” After the searching session, participants were interviewed to clarify their actions and provide further commentary on the catalogue search. Main results – Participants in both test groups were relatively unsophisticated subject searchers. They made minimal use of Boolean operators, and tended not to repair failed searches by rethinking the search vocabulary and using synonyms. Participants did not have a strong understanding of library catalogue contents or structure and showed little curiosity in developing an understanding of how to utilize the catalogue. Novice users were impatient both in choosing search options and in evaluating their search results. They assumed search results were sorted by relevance, and thus would not typically browse past the initial screen. They quickly followed links, fearlessly tried different searches and options, and rapidly abandoned false trails. Experienced users were more effective and efficient searchers than novice users. They used more specific keyword terms and were more persistent to review their search options and results. Through their prior experience, they knew how to interpret call numbers, branch library location codes, and library terminology such as ‘periodicals’. Participants expected the catalogue to rank results based on relevancy like an Internet search engine. While most were observed to understand intuitively the concept of broadening or narrowing a search, a ‘significant minority’ added a term to an already too-narrow search to improve their search results. When interviewed, participants suggested several ways to improve the catalog search query, such as adding summaries and contents, ranking results by relevance and degree of exact match to search terms, including an Amazon-like “find more like this” feature, and providing context-sensitive and interactive online help, especially at the point when a search has produced too many or too few hits. Conclusions – The study concluded that library catalogue users are heavily influenced by trends in Web searching. No matter what type of search a task called for, the participants tended to expect a simple keyword search to lead to optimal results presented in relevancy-ranked order. Because users do not generally know or care about the structure of a bibliographic record, and many have little concept of what a library catalogue is for or what it contains, Novotny suggests that user instruction needs to address these basics. He also suggests that library professionals and library system vendors must work together to address the clear evidence that library catalogues are failing their users.

It is with deep regret that we record the death of John Anthony Chaldecott on 2 May 1998 at the age of 82. He was a founder member of the BSHS and served as Honorary Secretary and as President.After graduating in physics at London University, John took up teaching and lecturing, but this was interrupted by war service in the RAF Meteorological Branch. In the fighting in the Netherlands, he was mentioned in despatches. In 1949, he joined the Science Museum as Assistant Keeper in the Physics Department. There, he was in charge of the Optics Collection and also the Heat and the George III Collections, for which he produced catalogues. For some years, he acted as Secretary to the Museum's Advisory Council.In 1961, John became Keeper of the Science Museum Library, a post he held until his retirement in 1976. His time there was active and eventful. First, the transfer of the Library's nation-wide loans service, together with many of its periodicals, to the National Lending Library of Science and Technology in 1962 entailed a redirection of the Library's resources and services. Then, he was closely involved in the planning of the present Library building on the Imperial College campus in South Kensington, opened in 1969. He made a thorough study of the latest library design and equipment, so as to incorporate as many modern features as possible within a very tight budget. The success of the building owed much to his untiring and meticulous attention to detail.While building was in progress, his attention was assailed from a fresh quarter, this time from the National Libraries Committee. Their conclusions disconcerted the Science Museum and the fact that the Library remained under the Museum's wing, with a redefined role, owed much to John's skill and determination in negotiation. The Library was to specialize in the history of science and he did much to turn the Library towards the new direction. It was his decision to assemble the Library's scattered books and periodicals in this field and house them in a special history of science reading room. All this chimed in with his own interest in this subject. He had gained an M.Sc. in the history and philosophy of science at University College London in 1949, followed up later with a Ph.D. He was active in the BSHS from the beginning and he was Honorary Secretary during 1963–68. He was elected President for the year 1972–73; his presidential address was entitled ‘Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), scientist’. He published a number of papers on historical subjects, but his abiding interest lay in scientific instrument makers; he formed a massive record of information about those active in London from 1750 to 1840, now deposited in the Science Museum Library Archives Collection. Soon after his retirement, he was responsible for a major exhibition at the Science Museum illustrating Wedgwood's life and work and he published an accompanying monograph.Throughout his life, John preserved that calm and even-tempered manner which made him such a pleasant colleague and genial, good-humoured friend. He was always fair and even-handed in his dealings with others.

A review of: Taylor, Robert S. "Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries." College & Research Libraries 29.3 (1968): 178-94. Objective – To better understand the question negotiation process in libraries both in intermediated and in self-help situations. To achieve a richer understanding of the relationship between library users and library systems in order to establish a research agenda and inform librarian education. Design – The first part consisted of qualitative research involving interviews. The second part consisted of a diary study. Setting – Special engineering libraries in the United States and a university campus (Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania). Subjects – The participants in the interviews were special librarians. Special librarians were selected because they have more specialized knowledge and respond to more substantive questions in greater depth than do public and academic librarians who emphasize instruction and who encounter staffing restrictions that prevent them from spending too much time on each inquiry. Detailed information on the selection of the individual participants is not provided. The participants in the diary study were twenty undergraduate students who were enrolled in an information science course. Methods – The interviews were open-ended and unstructured. The interviews lasted sixty to ninety minutes and were taped. No information is provided on transcription or analysis methods or paradigms. In the second part, the students were given a reading assignment on information seeking. They then had to select a search topic and document the steps they took, decisions they made, and resources they used to answer the question. The participants were asked to analyze their original question, the type of answer required, and decisions they made in the process. No details are provided on the analysis of the diaries. Main results – Taylor found five filters required for search definition: 1. Determination of subject; 2. Objective and motivation; 3. Personal characteristics of the inquirer; 4. Relationship of inquiry description to file organization; 5. Anticipated or acceptable answers (183) These five filters provide general information necessary for the for the search definition. These types are not mutually exclusive and may occur simultaneously. In the diary portion he found: 1. All participants consulted other people including librarians and fellow students; 2. None considered the library as a whole; 3. All inquiries required multiple sources; all answers were synthesized from multiple sources; 4. Participants were familiar with library research: they used the classification schedule to search, used subject headings, and used indexes or tables of contents. 5. Question or research problems changed as a result of information found Conclusion – Question negotiation is a dynamic process which requires feedback and iteration to come to a conclusion. The librarian’s job is to work with the inquirer to understand the information need and then to translate the negotiated need into appropriate search strategies. The author suggests that library school reference courses be updated to include instruction related to communication and negotiation in addition to the instruction on resources. He suggests more emphasis on questions instead of commands; that is, a cooperative process to determine what information is needed and how to best fulfill the need instead of assuming the inquirer “knows exactly what he wants, can describe its form (book, paper, etc.) and its label (author and title)” (191). To aid self-help situations, the author recommends better subject description of resources and inquiry-oriented instead of object-oriented systems. He suggests building better query negotiation into self-help systems. At minimum the system should request the user state his objective, if for no other reason than to force the user to reflect on or analyze his question. Help should be available at the time of need, and this can be offered through technology instead of through staffing.

A Review of: Hess, A. N., & Hristova, M. (2016). To search or to browse: How users navigate a new interface for online library tutorials. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 23(2), 168-183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2014.963274 Abstract Objective – To discover how users interact with a new online interface for learning objects, user preferences for types of access when given both browsing and searching options, and user needs for tutorial subject matter. Design – Mixed methods, with quantitative analysis of web traffic and qualitative analysis of recorded search terms through grounded textual theory. Setting – An academic library in the Western United States of America. Subjects – Users of the Libraries’ online tutorials and learning objects. Methods – The researchers collected web traffic statistics and organically occurring searches from the Libraries’ tutorial access interface. They defined the collection period as the 2013/2014 academic year, with collection beginning in September 2013 and ending in April 2014. Web traffic for organic searches, facilitated searches (search results accessed through clicking on particular words in a tag cloud), and categorical browsing was collected via Google Analytics. They categorized other interaction types (accessing featured content, leaving the page, etc.) under an umbrella term of “other.” Their analysis of web traffic was limited to unique page views, with unique page views defined as views registered to different browser sessions. Unique page views were analyzed to determine which types of interface interaction occurred most frequently, both on-campus and off-campus, and whether there were differences in types of interaction preferred over time or by users with different points of origin. Individual organic search keywords and phrases, and the dates and times of those searches, were separately collected and recorded. One of the researchers coded the recorded organic search terms using grounded textual theory analysis, and the researcher formed generalized categories. They sent these categories and a random sample of 10% of the recorded search terms to librarians unaffiliated with the study, and used their categorizations of the search term samples to validate the initial researcher’s textual analysis. Main Results – After analyzing the 5,638 unique page views recorded, researchers found that categorical browsing was used more frequently than facilitated searching throughout the year, and more frequently than organic searching for 6 of the 8 recorded months. Organic searching was used more frequently than facilitated searching during most months, while both organic and facilitated searching were less likely to be engaged in by users working on Saturday or Sunday. They found that interactions in the “other” category were quite high, and the researchers attributed this to featured videos on the interface homepage being required for a number of classes. The researchers discovered that patterns in interface use were similar between on-campus and off-campus users, and that most traffic to the interface was through referral from other websites (such as the library homepage). Direct traffic (from URLs manually typed in or in documents) was the second most frequent point of access, while users arriving at the interface from a search engine interaction was a distant third. Grounded textual theory analysis of the 14,428 collected organic searches achieved a 92% consensus in coding, and showed a user focus in searching for specific resources, tasks, and knowledge, rather than broader conceptual searches. Additionally, researchers noticed that a significant number of users performed organic searches for videos that were featured on the front page, possibly indicating that certain users engage with search functions before viewing page content. Conclusions – The researchers concluded that despite the limitations of the study, the usage volume and trends identified indicate that the Libraries’ online learning objects and tutorials are being used. They also concluded that the categorization and labelling of these learning objects has been successful because the categorical browsing function is used more than the other search functionalities. The researchers determined that they should consider the non-user in the future, and examine the barriers that students, faculty, and staff encounter when attempting to use online learning content. They affirm a need to develop, via further studies, a more thorough understanding of the motivations behind user interactions.

Objective – To determine journal expenditure at nine colleges and universities using three pricing models, and to investigate the impact of an open access pricing model on journal costs according to institution type. Design – Cost analysis of three pricing models for journals. Setting – Nine college and university libraries in the United States. Subjects – 349 journal titles indexed by the Science Citation Index from four subject fields (general biology, cell biology, organic chemistry, and applied physics). Methods – Institutions included in the study were selected from America’s Best Colleges (2004) on the basis of type of institution and quality ratings. Stratified sampling was used to randomly select an institution from the top 25% (Tier 1) and bottom 25% (Tier 4) from four institutional categories (doctoral national universities, master’s universities, bachelor’s liberal arts colleges, and bachelor’s comprehensive colleges). An additional institution was selected from Tier 1 of the doctoral universities category to ensure both a large and small institution was represented in the sample. Institutional access to the 349 journals was determined by searching the nine institutions’ library catalogues between August and October 2004. Print, online and combined print/online access was identified for each title at each institution. A component of the pricing models (below) included costs incurred when academics at the institutions published articles in some journals. To arrive at an estimate of these fees, articles published by authors at each institution were identified in the journal titles. All articles in the 349 titles by staff (first author only) at the nine institutions were costed at the lowest rate listed and assigned as journal expenditure for the institution. The cost analysis of institutional journal expenditure at each institution was conducted using three pricing models: 1. A conventional subscription model Journal expenditure was calculated from four elements: individual title subscriptions; online journal collection costs; online journal aggregator costs; and submission/publication fees. These costs were determined from: online information about journal subscription prices; estimating a proportion of journal collection and aggregator databases costs; and page charges, publication and submission fees for authors from the institution. 2. An open access publishing model based on the Public Library of Science (PLoS) pricing model Two costs comprised the open access publishing model: publication fees and print title subscriptions. Publishing fees were calculated from determining the average number of articles published by authors from an institution in one year. This number was then multiplied by $1,500 – the rate charged by PLoS in 2005. The second component was the cost of existing subscriptions to print titles, on the assumption that libraries will continue these subscriptions despite receiving online access to them. Print titles were costed at $160 per subscription. 3. An equal revenue open access model (designed by the researcher to allow for the assumption that publishers considering taking up the PLoS model would not accept a reduction in revenue). If the PLoS model was implemented across the 349 titles, a substantial reduction in revenue to publishers would occur. Therefore, a multiplier was calculated for each subject area by dividing the aggregate amount (in the conventional model) paid for journals in a subject area by the amount paid under the PLoS model. The multiplier was then applied to the PLoS title cost. An adjustment was also made to reduce the effects of the non-representative sample of institutions. Main results – The conventional pricing model calculations indicate that the association between journal expenditure and library size is stronger than the association between journal expenditure and type of institution. However, type of institution is a factor in journal expenditure with doctoral universities’ expenditure much higher than that of other types of institutions. No associations or trends were found when comparing journal expenditure across institutions for the four subject fields. Under the PLoS pricing model, journal expenditure at all nine institutions would be substantially reduced. If this model was adopted by all publishers they would receive only 15% of the total amount expended on journals by the institutions under the conventional pricing model. The PLoS model would affect institutions’ proportion of total expenditure, with doctoral universities paying 96% of journal expenditure compared with 86% under the conventional model. This result is directly related to publishing activities at institutions. Large research universities, where staff publish at higher rates, would pay a proportionally higher amount of the total expenditure than other types of institutions, where publishing activity is low. The equal revenue model, when compared with the conventional model, would provide substantial reductions in journal expenditure for seven of the institutions. However, under this model the largest doctoral university would see an increase in journal expenditure of 337% from conventional model expenditure: an increase primarily due to the higher publishing activity at the university. Institutions with low publishing activity and least print subscriptions would see the greatest reductions in expenditure if publishers moved from the conventional model to the equal revenue model. Up to 90% of American colleges would see a reduction in journal expenditure if publishers adopted the PLoS or the equal revenue pricing models. Conclusion – Most colleges and universities are consumers rather than producers of scholarly literature and, therefore, a shift from the conventional subscription model to a model based on publication activity will reduce their proportion of total expenditure. On the other hand, large research universities will see an increase in their expenditure as a proportion of total journal costs. Given the cost savings and the access to journals, a pricing model such as the PLoS would benefit most colleges and universities. In turn, under this model revenues to publishers would be reduced substantially. The equal revenue model would benefit the majority of colleges and universities by increasing their access to journal titles while reducing their journal expenditure. For example, a master’s university journal holdings could increase up to ten times with expenditure reduced by between 20–60%. Large research universities, however, would see an increase in journal expenditure for very few additional journal titles.

A Review of: Walter, Scott. “Librarians as Teachers: A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity.” College and Research Libraries 69.1 (2008): 51-71. Objective – This study explores how academic librarians are introduced to teaching, the degree to which they think of themselves as teachers, the ways in which being a teacher has become a significant feature of their professional identity, and the factors that may influence academic librarians to adopt a “teacher identity.” Design – A literature review extended by qualitative semi-structured interviews. Setting – The research took place at an American university with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching designation of “Doctoral/Research — Extensive.” Subjects – Six academic librarians. Methods – The main feature of the article is an extensive literature review around the themes of LIS, teaching, and qualitative research methodologies. The literature review is supplemented by qualitative research consisting of semi-structured interviews of between 45 and 90 minutes each, which were conducted during spring 2004 with six librarians (five women and one man), whose length of professional service ranged from 2 to 32 years. All of the participants worked at the same institution. The data collected were reviewed throughout the process using field memos and a research log. The data were analyzed using a coding process where discrete ideas that emerged from the data were used to identify a small number of themes. The initial conclusions in the study were validated through member checking during the writing phase. “Member checking involves sharing draft study findings with the participants, to inquire whether their viewpoints were faithfully interpreted, whether there are gross errors of fact, and whether the account makes sense to participants with different perspectives” (Centre for Health Evidence). Main Results – Five themes around teaching and teacher identity as they pertain to academic librarians emerged from the data. The first theme was the centrality of teaching. Each participant sought out a position where the teaching role was valued. The role of teacher spilled over into the other roles of the librarian, i.e., reference service, collection development, etc. The next theme was the importance of collegial and administrative support, which is critical to the ability to focus on work as a teacher. The stress of multiple demands emerged as a theme, as time dedicated to teaching was often at the expense of something else. Another theme was the problems with professional education around teaching. Instruction course offerings in library schools were reported to be meagre, and some were badly planned and executed. The fifth theme involved stereotypes and misperceptions. Studies have shown that the academic library profession has been poorly understood by students and faculty. Study participants believed that many of their campus colleagues were either unaware of what they did, or were misinformed by popular culture stereotypes of librarians. Conclusions – The small sample size precluded the making of any definite conclusions based on the study results. Other limitations of the study include the relatively short amount of time spent in the interview process and the narrow range of librarians chosen to participate. The author notes that a subject pool more representative of academic librarians’ full range of opinions regarding the importance of teaching as a professional responsibility would have resulted in more complex themes emerging. While the author is aware of the study’s limitations, he feels there is value in the qualitative research design, in giving voice to individual librarians, and in the provision of insight into some of the research questions found in the literature of learning to teach and of teacher identity. Given the limitations, Walter makes three conclusions about his findings. He points out the lack of a formal introduction to teaching in many library programs which has been explored by other studies and concludes that his study “suggests that continuing lack of attention to this issue results in a difficult introduction into the profession for new academic librarians” (64). Regarding continuing and professional education, Walter concludes that “this study suggests that there are a number of important questions about the content and conduct of these opportunities for instruction librarians that have not been explored in the literature” (64). Finally, Walter concludes that “this study suggests that there is an important connection between research on student perceptions of academic librarians, the study of teacher identity, and the future of the profession” (64).

The term “science” refers to “any system of knowledge that is concerned with the physical world and its phenomena and that entails unbiased observations and systematic experimentation”.1 Therefore, laboratory courses are almost universally considered an integral and mandatory part of instruction on science and technology,2 whatever the field or area of specialization. Consequently, undergraduate chemistry courses (and correlated specialties such as pharmaceutical sciences, biochemistry and some branches of engineering) always include practical disciplines, one of which is instrumental analytical chemistry. Despite being essential for these courses and part of the everyday routine of the faculty affiliated with analytical chemistry departments or programs, several aspects are far from being consensus among lecturers, students and the other people involved. Topics related to course syllabus, general approaches on the implementation and teaching of specific analytical techniques and experiments, their integration with other disciplines, and much more, are a matter of constant discussion and debate. One aspect to be considered is the considerable change in the profile of students that has occurred in recent years. The teaching tools and didactic approaches that university professors and instructors aged > 40 years experienced in their own training are generally not suitable for the present-day undergraduate audience. With former generations, the usual sources of information were printed books and similar materials available in libraries, whereas students today have a greater affinity for consulting online sources,3 which are not always reliable and often return a huge number of search results that require careful evaluation to select which information is relevant and/or reliable. Of course, the facility with which online sources of information are manipulated by our present pupils also has some important advantages: in particular, the near-instantaneous speed of information collection and the virtual accessibility to databases from anywhere on the planet. In addition, until the turn of the millennium, university students were more used to long lectures and experimental classes with relatively complex procedures that often took hours of careful manipulation and numerous laboratory operations (many of them repetitive and tedious). Specifically in the case of practical classes, many of today's students are relatively unaccustomed to experiments that require more than moderate manual skills (at least when compared to their colleagues of previous generations), which may also imply difficulty in organizing their time in the laboratory. Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes we make with our current students is that we consider them ill-prepared or less capable than our generation and attribute their difficulties to this simplistic, crude verdict – when perhaps the biggest problem is that, as educators, we are failing to cope with the rapid evolution in the characteristics and profiles of these young people. The type of change we need so that we can offer practical courses on instrumental analytical chemistry that are more appropriate and better suited for our students is not easy because, in addition to the demand that we change the vision of teaching and paradigms that we have considered as absolute since we entered our academic career, we are also confronted with practical reasons that make this type of change difficult. Laboratory classes demand a huge endeavor from technical and instructional staff and teaching assistants; furthermore, they are comparatively expensive, requiring space, fragile glassware, acquisition and maintenance of instruments, proper disposal of consumables and waste, as well as expenses on faculty salaries.4 The revision of curricula and experimental procedures would impose additional pressure on the workload of the personnel involved and also on the reduced budget availability typical of most public and private universities and colleges (whether in Brazil or anywhere else on the planet). Although there is no easy, direct and universal solution to the problems mentioned above, some alternatives can be tested and adopted with relative ease in most higher education courses on instrumental analytical chemistry. The workload of the experiments can be reduced, supplementing them or eventually even replacing some with practices carried out in virtual environments, which had an unexpected but necessary boost during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.5 Several paid or free-to-use tools have been described for this purpose. For instance, Shallice et al.6 describe a downloadable high-performance liquid chromatography simulator that emulates a basic automated liquid chromatography system capable of binary gradient operation. Similar software emulating other instrumental techniques exist, such as UV-Vis’s spectrometry, electroanalytical techniques, etc., as stand-alone applications, full online resources or even as Excel spreadsheets. In addition to simulated experiments using virtual analytical instruments, other resources that can be used as a supplement to practical instrumental analysis classes are online video libraries, which have also proliferated after the recent period of restriction on face-to-face activities. A well-known example is the collection of the Royal Chemical Society,7 which offers videos demonstrating basic principles and practical aspects of various instrumental techniques (from gas and liquid chromatography to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy). In addition to possible inadequacies due to changes in the profile of typical students currently entering higher education courses in chemistry and related sciences, the evolution of analytical instrumentation, its scope of application and the practical demands imposed on analytical methods that future professionals will apply also pressure us to make changes in the programs of experimental disciplines of instrumental analytical chemistry and in the way we teach the associated techniques. Until the turn of the millennium, the typical program of experimental disciplines of instrumental analytical chemistry in most of the curricula in Brazil and many other countries comprised sequences of isolated experiments using analytical techniques such as gas or liquid chromatography, UV-Vis absorption spectrometry, atomic emission/emission spectrophotometry, etc., with samples and procedures that required relatively simple and quick preparation (usually only sample dissolution, decomposition or extraction). However, due to the natural evolution of analytical instrumentation, the equipment that future professionals will typically find in academic and industrial research laboratories after their impending graduation is very different from that previously employed in the teaching laboratories where their instructors learned analytical chemistry (typically, much simpler equipment that required careful attention and reasonable practical skills from users and operators). The contemporary analytical instruments are much less transparent to the user in their operation; however, as a rule, they incorporate extensive automation and/or mechanization resources, complete control of operation by software and greater operational robustness. From a didactic point of view, modern equipment certainly does not provide students with the same understanding and insight of the basic operational principles of the associated techniques as the instruments of previous generations. However, considering the typical profile of today's students, it possibly would not be advantageous to use those simpler analytical platforms exhaustively merely for didactic purposes. For example, until the turn of the millennium, one of the main demands for students in gas chromatography didactic experiments was to improve and master the manual injection of samples using micro syringes. Today, this didactic approach seems to be preposterous, considering that chromatographs without automatic sample injection are becoming increasingly rare in industrial and even in academic environments. The result is that students are sometimes subjected to tedious laboratory sessions and often completely lose their focus on what would be fundamental in that practical class. In addition, the present demand is increasingly for professionals to be trained to interpret data and propose solutions based on the information gained and not to act as mere operators of laboratory equipment. Thus, it seems to us that we should increasingly design experiments for undergraduate students that incorporate all stages of the analytical process, with particular attention to sampling and sample preparation (taking advantage of features of modern instruments that allow processing more samples in less time and whose operation is less dependent of user ability and manual dexterity) as well as the interpretation and understanding of the analytical data produced. Regarding the above-mentioned focus on the interpretation and understanding of analytical data, it is interesting to note that in 2004, when the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Federation of European Chemical Societies (FECS) established the curricular guidelines to be observed in the analytical chemistry disciplines taught in universities of the European Community (the so-called "Eurocurriculum II"),8 four basic pillars of education in analytical chemistry were defined: Spectroscopy; Chromatography; Chemical Sensors; and Chemometrics and Computer-Based Analytical Chemistry. Thus, it was recognized that in modern analytical chemistry the processing and interpretation of data, as well as its transformation into useful information about the chemical systems studied, is on a par with the three traditional subdivisions of analytical chemistry (spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques, chromatographic techniques and electroanalytical techniques). Although it is important to emphasize that these considerations apply to courses in the European Community, they can be contemplated in the training of chemists anywhere else on the world. Also, they reinforce the indication that the education of analytical chemists should place an increasing emphasis on aspects related to information generation/manipulation and interpretation and not merely on the direct operational aspects of analytical methods and protocols already established. The discussion so far does not pretend to cover all the relevant points whose evaluation would perhaps be necessary for a comprehensive and exhaustive debate of the current status of college/University courses on instrumental analytical chemistry, as well as the possible alternatives and paths to follow. In addition, this text of course echoes the author’s personal opinions and idiosyncrasies, without any pretense at being an absolute expression of the truth (if indeed one exists on this matter). In fact, any discussion of these topics is, by their nature, highly controversial and heavily influenced by the background and area of expertise of those involved. However, we have the firm conviction that the community needs to continuously discuss the education and professional development in analytical chemistry, with emphasis on areas where changes can occur very quickly, always keeping an open mind and a willingness to review supposedly untouchable concepts (and, of course, remembering that its focus should always be on the students).

AbstractRetrospective conversion as a conversion of data from an old to a newer format is usually realized as a transfer of card catalogue into a computer form in a fast and simple way. The National and University Library in Ljubljana, Slovenia, started its first retroconversion project in 1997 with the oldest, partly handwritten catalogue, covering the period 1774-1947. The description of the catalogue is given, taking into account both cards’ characteristics (size, handwritten/penwritten, scripts used etc.) and different cataloguing rules applied at that period (Austrian Library Instruction, Prussian Instruction etc.). The whole process was divided into separate phases according to technologies and human resources available, and specific procedures were designed (transcription, manual and automatic structuring, control etc.). The results are ca. 70,000 records in MARC format, which were included into existing library catalogue. Records for items published until 1830 were contributed to Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) Hand Press Books database hosted by Research Libraries Group (RLG). NUL is currently working on retroconversion of remaining catalogues (ca. 300,000 records) where different procedures have to be designed due to different characteristics. The experience gained during these projects may be found useful by other libraries that are either starting or considering retrospective conversion.

Effective organization, discovery, and retrieval of resources have always been essential functions for any library. Libraries have implemented various new information systems along with traditional library systems such as federated search, webscale discovery, next-generation catalogue, etc. Faceted navigation, known as faceted search, faceted browsing, or guided navigation, has been applied in many e-commerce sites and dominates features in the interaction paradigm. Faceted approach to knowledge organization in searching and navigation features in the online catalogue supports users in finding the information needed in the most effective and efficient manner. This paper discusses faceted searching and navigation application in library Online Public Access Catalogues (OPAC).

A library catalogue is a list of all the holdings of a library or group of libraries. It may include books, non-book materials, e-books, grey literature, etc. An Integrated Library System (ILS) is incomplete without a well-designed cataloguing module. The creation and management of library catalogues require expertise. Globally, there are two popular open-source ILS, namely Evergreen and Koha, with regular updates and significant versions acquired by several libraries worldwide. Both Koha and Evergreen provide intuitive cataloguing interfaces that make it easy for library professionals to add and manage bibliographic information. The present study aims to discuss the cataloguing module of these two open-source ILS, which is based on a review of prior research, information from the ILS’s website, community and demo servers on the web, and the researchers’ hands-on experience with a local installation.

The purpose of this study is to review the published literature and highlight the situation of prison libraries around the world. The study strives to adopt a comprehensive approach while reviewing the literature in order to survey the present status geographically. The available published literature on prison libraries in local and international library and information science journals has been reviewed. The researchers also consulted other sources, such as books, theses, dissertations, conference proceedings, library websites, individuals and professional organizations, including the American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, and IFLA. The databases used included Library and Information Science Abstracts, Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts, Emerald, JSTOR, Google Scholar and ResearchGate. The keywords used for searching can be categorized as ‘prison libraries’, ‘jail libraries’, ‘correctional institution libraries’ and ‘rehabilitation centres’. Overall, findings suggest that the situation of prison libraries in USA, UK, Europe and Asia (only urban areas) is much better as compared to the other regions of the world. This situation is because of the availability of resources, access to the Internet, technology, automated catalogues, cooperation with other libraries such as public libraries, and regular budgets to run library affairs smoothly. A lack of professional staff, the unavailability of library space, limited collections, censorship issues, a poor budgetary situation, the absence of library associations in developing countries, and a lack of cooperation among prison libraries and public libraries are the major causes of the current situation of prison libraries. The study is unique in nature as it highlights the situation of prison libraries worldwide through a wide lens, focusing on standards, services and difficulties, as well as recommendations made by the researchers.