Users’ evaluation of digital libraries (DLs): Their uses,their criteria,and their assessment

Millions of dollars have been invested into the development of digital libraries. There are many unanswered questions regarding their evaluation, in particular, from users’ perspectives. This study intends to investigate users’ use, their criteria and their evaluation of the two selected digital libraries. Nineteen subjects were recruited to participate in the study. They were instructed to keep a diary for their use of the two digital libraries, rate the importance of digital library evaluation criteria, and evaluate the two digital libraries by applying their perceived important criteria. The results show patterns of users’ use of digital libraries, their perceived important evaluation criteria, and the positive and negative aspects of digital libraries. Finally, the relationships between perceived importance of digital library evaluation criteria and actual evaluation of digital libraries and the relationships between use of digital libraries and evaluation of digital libraries as well as users’ preference, experience and knowledge structure on digital library evaluation are further discussed.     

The application of workflow management to digital heritage resources

Recent years have witnessed a noticeable proliferation in Digital Library Systems (DLSs) and their specialized form represented in Digital Heritage Resources (DHRs). DHRs usually manage a complex and varied mix of digital heritage objects of different types and formats. They tend to be complex in nature and usually involve complex, simultaneous and intersecting workflows. As a result, DHRs impose implementation challenges on any solutions that aim to manage their workflows. Thus, despite the proliferation of DHRs, it is a noteworthy trend that there is a general lack of workflow management solutions that can be utilized in such systems. As a research area that is rarely covered, this paper therefore presents the design and development of a novel Workflow Management System (WfMS) built to integrate with DHRs specifically, and DLSs in general. In this context, an experimental WfMS aimed to test the validity of workflow management integration with DHRs. The devised WfMS was built as a workflow management solution that can adequately address the specific hurdles imposed by DHR implementations. Additionally, a novel DHR implementation framework called DISPLAYS (Digital Library Services for Playing with Antiquity and Shared Heritage) is presented as a test bed for the proposed WfMS.     

HELENA: An intelligent digital assistant based on a Lifelong Health User Model

Digital Assistants are overgrowing in the mobile application industry and are now implemented in various commercial devices. So far, their use in the health domain is limited and often narrowed to remote monitoring of specific patient pathology. The main contribution of this paper is HELENA, a conversational agent endowed with healthcare knowledge that supports users in managing their lifelong health user model (LHUM) by providing simple services.The proposed platform has been evaluated in a user study involving 160 participants who gave feedback on the digital assistant and the profile conceptualization. The results showed that LHUM is comprehensive and inclusive (76.25% positive feedback), and the users appreciated that all personal health data were available in one single profile (83.75% positive feedback). Furthermore, the user interaction was pleasant, functional, and efficient. Also, measurement management, data sharing, and food diary management have been broadly appreciated. The outcomes of our investigation suggest that adopting a lifelong comprehensive user profile by digital assistants is a promising research direction.     

Taxonomy of e-readiness assessment measures

To benefit from the advantages of information society, on the one hand, and to be afraid of being left further behind by Global Society and the increase in the digital divide, on the other hand, stimulate countries to be part of Global Information Society. These issues have led policymakers to move towards such a society by identifying the objectives, goals and targets. Planning to achieve these objectives needs a real understanding of the current situation, which is obtained by e-readiness assessment measures. There has been a proliferation of e-readiness assessment measures in recent years that each one has a certain objective. This paper elaborates on and categorizes these measures that help scholars and policymakers to (1) select the measures that fit in with their objectives, (2) prevent the repetitive research, (3) identify the defects and flaws of previous measures and correct them in their own measures, and (4) use the experiences of previous measures to construct their own ones. Based on definitions, objectives, dimensions, methods and approaches, in this paper, the measures are categorized and finally, a measure for e-readiness assessment is presented. Since this measure is a convergence of e-readiness assessment measures, the experienced modelers have consensus on it and it is more suitable to measure e-readiness of countries. Also, it can be exploited as the basis and standard for internationally comparable information society statistics.     

Who do you trust? The digital destruction of shared situational awareness and the COVID-19 infodemic

Developments in centrally managed communications (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) and service (e.g. Uber, airbnb) platforms, search engines and data aggregation (e.g. Google) as well as data analytics and artificial intelligence, have created an era of digital disruption during the last decade. Individual user profiles are produced by platform providers to make money from tracking, predicting, exploiting and influencing their users’ decision preferences and behavior, while product and service providers transform their business models by targeting potential customers with more accuracy. There have been many social and economic benefits to this digital disruption, but it has also largely contributed to the digital destruction of mental model alignment and shared situational awareness through the propagation of mis-information i.e. reinforcement of dissonant mental models by recommender algorithms, bots and trusted individual platform users (influencers). To mitigate this process of digital destruction, new methods and approaches to the centralized management of these platforms are needed to build on and encourage trust in the actors that use them (and by association trust in their mental models). The global ‘infodemic’ resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, highlights the current problem confronting the information system discipline and the urgency of finding workable solutions.     

Design and development challenges for an E2E DRM content business integration platform

Current studies on Digital Rights Management (DRM) have focused on controlling access to and copies of contents, centered exclusively on the end of the value chain (end users). This focus has been oriented towards security and encryption as a means of solving the issue of illegal copying by purchasers. In this paper, we propose End-to-End Digital Rights Management (E2E DRM) that involves the protection of the content throughout the entire value chain. This concept is given form in the new technologies for representing intellectual property (IP) which, in a secure and unequivocal manner, identify the content at each point in the value chain: from the author to the end user, the content is identifiable in any of the transactions and statuses through which it passes. The key concept which E2E DRM must provide is not only the governability of access and copying, but also that of all the processes associated with the content business. We establish an E2E DRM model and architecture, and propose the R&D management of its design and implementation that makes it possible to protect content from content creator to purchaser. Finally, the paper also analyzes their impact from a global perspective.     

元数据在数字图书馆中的应用

本文从数字图书馆的信息资源组织人手，介绍了使用广泛的MARC元数据、都柏林核心元素集、因特网内容选择平台、资源描述框架，并探讨了元数据在数字图书馆的应用。     

Digital innovation and entrepreneurship transformation through open data hackathons: Design strategies for successful start-up settings

The organization of open data hackathons or digital innovation competitions is a significant opportunity for nascent entrepreneurs to collaborate with external partners, promote new ideas and extend their applications to a new start-up. Prior studies have not thoroughly compared the execution of different strategies in many hackathons or digital innovation competitions. They only focus on the actions that the organizers of a specific hackathon have implemented or the challenges they have faced. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine goals and design strategies that contribute to the successful execution of open data hackathons and innovation competitions. Six case studies of open data hackathons and innovation competitions held between 2014 and 2018 in Thessaloniki have been explored to understand the co-ordination between the multiple stakeholders of these events and improve the execution of open data hackathons and innovation competitions. The outcomes indicate that the most critical design strategy was the involvement of mentors in the event and the level of support provided to nascent entrepreneurs to accelerate their creativity, develop applications and launch their prototypes on the market.     

Why do small and medium enterprises use social media marketing and what is the impact: Empirical insights from India

Increasingly firms are looking to use social media to connect with different stakeholders as plans on building presence on such platforms are becoming part of top-level strategy. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that would help the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of India to adopt Social Media Marketing (SMM) mechanisms for improving their business impact. Adoption of SMM by SMEs has considerable impact on the improvement of business outcome of the SMEs. A theoretical model has been developed with the help of theory borrowed from TAM and UTAUT2 with some modifications to explore this impact through business performance, sales, connect with customers, identify customer' needs and creativity of the employees. The theoretical model has been validated empirically using a survey of 310 firms and subsequent analysis have been carried out using structured equation modelling. The results highlight that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and compatibility positively affect impact of SMM after adoption by the SMEs. The facilitating conditions have insignificant impact whereas cost has a significant but negative impact on the use of SMM by SMEs. Since there are a few studies in this context, the study contributes to existing literature on the impact of SMM in SMEs in an emerging economy.     

Evaluating a digital library self-archiving service: The BDBComp user case study

In this article, we present an overview of a self-archiving service for the Brazilian Digital Library of Computing (BDBComp) and describe a user experiment conducted to evaluate it. This experiment involved several potential real users, including computer science graduate students and professors, and archivists/librarians. The results of this study and their implications for similar services are described and analyzed, following sound statistical principles, which can serve as a basis for other similar studies. These results and their analysis indicate that we have successed in building a usable, efficient and learnable self-archiving service, properties which are essential to bring users to the system.     

关于建设我国数字图书馆的思考

建设和发展数字图书馆是当今的趋势和必然。本文从图书馆的演变、我国的国情及国外数字图书馆的建设现状论述了建设数字图书馆的重大意义、分析了建设我国数字图书馆的基本思路，提出了加快我国数字图书馆建设的建议。     

基于SOA的数字化校园服务注册研究及实现

研究了UDDI的工作原理和信息模型结构,并根据校园数字化建设的实际情况,设计并实现了UDDI服务注册中心,有效地解决了不同部门应用系统的数据交换和信息共享问题。     

国外及港、澳、台地区数字图书馆建设概述

本文主要介绍了美国、英国、加拿大、日本及其他国家和地区的数字图书馆建设发展状况，重点介绍了其数据库的研究，以此为我国数字图书馆的研究发展起到借鉴作用。     

金砖国家信息通信技术/数字化发展水平研究

基于国际电信联盟（ITU）曾经使用的信息通信技术发展指数（旧IDI），提出改进的信息通信技术/数字化发展指数（新IDI）。2007年以来，金砖五国信息化和数字经济水平均有较大提升，其中四国的信息通信技术（ICT）/数字化发展水平已达到或接近G20国家中等水平。金砖五国中，俄罗斯ICT接入指数最高，中国、南非和印度ICT接入情况得到了明显改善；中国ICT应用指数增长近3倍，其他四国也在ICT应用领域得到显著提高；在ICT技能上，俄罗斯、中国与南非已有超过90%、巴西为超过85%的国民拥有互联网上交流和使用的条件；总体看来，俄罗斯相关发展水平长期领先，中国、巴西与南非居中，印度与其他四国有一定差距。相比2007年，金砖国家平均信息通信技术/数字化发展指数（IDI）水平在2020年时和G20平均水平的差距已大幅缩小，主要得益于其网络建设和普及。分析表明，IDI与各国在信息通信领域发表的SCI论文数和WOS中的非SCI论文数（不考虑2020年）存在正相关，中国以及巴俄印三国（不考虑2020年）专利数量与IDI指数之间具有一定的正相关，巴西、俄罗斯、南非三国的IDI与本国人均生产总值的关联度不显...     

Impact of digital surge during Covid-19 pandemic: A viewpoint on research and practice

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an inevitable surge in the use of digital technologies due to the social distancing norms and nationwide lockdowns. People and organizations all over the world have had to adjust to new ways of work and life. We explore possible scenarios of the digital surge and the research issues that arise.An increase in digitalization is leading firms and educational institutions to shift to work-from-home (WFH). Blockchain technology will become important and will entail research on design and regulations. Gig workers and the gig economy is likely to increase in scale, raising questions of work allocation, collaboration, motivation, and aspects of work overload and presenteeism. Workplace monitoring and technostress issues will become prominent with an increase in digital presence. Online fraud is likely to grow, along with research on managing security. The regulation of the internet, a key resource, will be crucial post-pandemic.Research may address the consequences and causes of the digital divide. Further, the issues of net neutrality and zero-rating plans will merit scrutiny. A key research issue will also be the impact and consequences of internet shutdowns, frequently resorted to by countries. Digital money, too, assumes importance in crisis situations and research will address their adoption, consequences, and mode. Aspects of surveillance and privacy gain importance with increased digital usage.     

Digital service analysis and design: The role of process modelling

Digital libraries are evolving from content-centric systems to person-centric systems. Emergent digital services are interactive and multidimensional, associated systems multi-tiered and distributed. A holistic perspective is essential to their effective analysis and design, for beyond technical considerations, there are complex social, economic, organisational, and ergonomic requirements and relationships to consider. Such a perspective cannot be gained without direct user involvement, yet evidence suggests that development teams may be failing to effectively engage with users, relying on requirements derived from anecdotal evidence or prior experience. In such instances, there is a risk that services might be well designed, but functionally useless. This paper highlights the role of process modelling in gaining such perspective. Process modelling challenges, approaches, and success factors are considered, discussed with reference to a recent evaluation of usability and usefulness of a UK National Health Service (NHS) digital library. Reflecting on lessons learnt, recommendations are made regarding appropriate process modelling approach and application.     

开发中的数字图书馆系统工程：—兼谈汕头大学数字图书馆建设进程

本文概述了一些主要国家数字图书馆的研究开发状况，介绍了汕头大学数字图书馆建设的进程及建设特色数据库的方案。     

数字图书馆建设之我见

本文首先从数字图书馆的提出入手，结合数字图书馆建设的状况，对数字图书馆的特征进行了分析；随后，指出目前数字图书馆建设中存在着四个方面的问题；针对这些问题，我们认为，数字图书馆系统的建设必须着重考虑和研究两方面的问题，即系统的框架结构和六方面的具体实现技术。     

Investigation of behavior and perception of digital library users: A cognitive style perspective

Cognitive style is an influential factor in users’ information seeking. The study presented in this paper examines how users’ cognitive styles affect their behavior and perception in digital libraries. Fifty participants took part in this study. Two dimensions of cognitive styles were considered: (a) Field Dependence/Independence; (2) Verbalizer/Imager. The results showed that Intermediate users and Verbalizers have not only more positive perception, but they also complete the tasks in effective ways. Implications for the design of personalized digital libraries are also discussed.     

The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress,challenges and key themes

The emergence of novel and powerful digital technologies, digital platforms and digital infrastructures has transformed innovation and entrepreneurship in significant ways. Beyond simply opening new opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs, digital technologies have broader implications for value creation and value capture. Research aimed at understanding the digital transformation of the economy needs to incorporate multiple and cross-levels of analysis, embrace ideas and concepts from multiple fields/disciplines, and explicitly acknowledge the role of digital technologies in transforming organizations and social relationships. To help realize this research agenda, we identify three key themes related to digitization—openness, affordances, and generativity—and, outline broad research issues relating to each. We suggest that such themes that are innate to digital technologies could serve as a common conceptual platform that allows for connections between issues at different levels as well as the integration of ideas from different disciplines/areas. We then summarize the contributions of the 11 papers presented in this Special Issue relating them to one or more of these themes and outlining their implications for future research.