Web Mirror Sites

SUMMARY

Libraries can play a key role in ensuring permanent access to primary legal information, both domestic and international. Web mirror sites present a particularly efficient and cost-effective way to collect, disseminate, preserve, and ensure accessibility to information far into the future. Through partnerships with the issuing governments and organizations, databases of official information can be loaded on a local server, updated directly from the issuing site, and captured at regular intervals to get a snapshot of the status of legal instruments as of a certain date. The result is similar to adding the various editions of a print book. The Cornell Law Library has recently made freely available two Web mirror sites for researchers and the public. These are the ILO (International Labour Organization) and the ICJ (International Court of Justice) mirror sites. The Law Library is archiving these sites every six months, thereby providing access to previous versions of a treaty article, or other information that was superseded, or amended. The many additional advantages of creating these partnerships with domestic and international institutions are discussed, as well as the process used to create the mirror sites, and maintaining them. The article ends with a proposal for collaboration among libraries to create the research library of the future. The preservation of digital law is a critical issue because information is disappearing. Libraries have a role to play because it is part of their fundamental mission to preserve information for future researchers.     

Implementing a just-in-time collection development model in an academic library

This article describes the development of a system for changing a university library's collection development strategy from the traditional “just in case” model to a “just in time” approach. The reasons for such a change included a desire to be more responsive to user requirements, a need to be more flexible in acquiring interdisciplinary resources and new formats, and a substantial cut in the library's budget. The Collection Development librarians envisioned the collections as a service, using a simpler and more versatile accounting structure. The Access-Based Collection Development (ABCD) model emphasizes making materials available at the point of need rather than having them on hand in anticipation of use. ABCD has four overarching themes: to be sustainable, to be holistic and inclusive, to be flexible and scalable, and to use evidence for decision-making. The authors provide details of the implementation, outcomes, evaluation, and future of the model.     

Designing the Auditor: A Prototype of Locative Radio with Original Sound Content

Location-based sound media are similar to traditional radio in that they rely on communication in sound alone. The smartphone has GPS and Bluetooth, and it is easy to attach sound to locations like a rail station, a neighborhood, or a street. The research team designed a media prototype, Auditor, and produced a soundscape called “The Railroad Dialogues.” The medium and content were tested in a field trial with 42 young, urban headphone listeners. The article reports on the informants’ level of immersion in the sound content and interface, and considers their potential to supplement radio in the future.     

Building Digital Resources: Creating Facilities at INSA

Today libraries are at a transition phase where twin processes of paper-based environment and changing information-seeking patterns in the electronic/digital environment go hand-in-hand. Hence, all components of the information chain are in a state of flux. The rapid growth in computer and communication technologies have greatly benefited the advanced countries, while the developing countries have not adequately reaped the benefits of such facilities to the desired extent. The application of information technology (IT) in India started on a very modest scale. During the past decade or so several Indian libraries have initiated activities to create, acquire, and provide access to electronic resources. The establishment of networks has had a great impact on libraries and information centers (LICs) in the country, and have further buttressed the IT applications in the LICs to a certain extent. The emergence of the Internet, especially the World Wide Web (www), added a new dimension to information creation and delivery, which also globally triggered digitization programs. Buying access or acquiring digital resources started taking root. The digitization of records (document management) crept in, which attracted librarians and people from other professional backgrounds into records management. This was followed by content management, (currently a popular phrase in this part of the world), also known as digitization. The digitization of documents is now becoming a major activity in libraries and archives. The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a premier scientific body engaged in the dissemination of information to the scientific community at large, publishing and promoting scientific endeavors, besides having other multifaceted human welfare-oriented activities. The growing acceptance of digital media has resulted in libraries buying and providing access to Internet resources, acquiring CD-ROM-based data-sets, and providing services for stand alone or networked CD-ROM environments, and digitizing documents. The Academy library facilitates all three. The Academy has initiated several digitization initiatives for content development and management by way of the scanning of publications, image management, and conversion from digital documents to web-enabled resources. The Academy has adopted a three-pronged approach of providing access to digital resources, and acquiring and creating digital resources, for which INSA suitably augments with IT infrastructures and takes initiatives to provide links to requisite data sets for the benefit of its users. INSA developed and provided IT facilities at a modest scale to its users at a time when only a limited few had developed such facilities in the country. The facilities developed at INSA augur well with the initiation of pilot and sponsored projects pertaining to digitization of records and making provision for creating digital resource bases, thereby contributing to the national digital repository on the one hand and providing access and visibility to national resources on the other. The article dwells upon various elements that have contributed to providing services in the changing information seeking patterns of users in the electronic environment, and the building of digital resource bases, while facilitating others to get involved in digital content creation activities. It is hoped that such endeavors shall help in the building up of a national digital knowledge resource base for the country, and INSA would in the process act as a facilitator.     

"大阅读"活动的发展历程及特点分析

“大阅读”活动是一类阅读活动的统称,倡导通过阅读提升社区、社群的氛围,形成社区、社群的凝聚力,从而建设书香社会.它最早起源于英国,随后兴盛于美国,并逐步影响全世界,形成一个世界范围内广泛而持续不断的阅读热潮.“大阅读”活动的组织机构不一,有的由单一的传媒组织推动,也有的由阅读推广组织、传媒组织和图书情报机构等联合推动.通过对“大阅读”活动的发展历程及特点的总结、分析,将对我国开展“大阅读”活动、建设书香社会提供可资借鉴的启示.     

An online nursing leadership literature centre at the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries

Background: Decades of hospital restructuring in Canada resulted in significant reductions of nursing leadership positions and altered a nursing infrastructure important for guiding patient care. The importance of acquiring nursing leadership skills to address the negative effects of restructuring is advocated by Canadian nursing bodies. Objectives: To describe a service innovation for a nursing community. The librarians of the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries (UMHSL) created an online nursing leadership literature centre to support a leadership programme launched by the Nursing Leadership Council (NLC) of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. The article will contribute to the body of literature about health library services for nurses. Methods: The creation of the service is described. A literature search was undertaken to determine what services have been implemented by librarians for nursing leadership programmes, as well as to review the literature with regard to contributions made by librarians for nursing communities. Results: The literature service, comprised of 19 webliographies based on the NLC's leadership topics, is available on the UMHSL website. A webliography, by definition, is a list of electronic works relating to a particular topic. The NLC created its own website that provides nurses with a means to identify, enhance and evaluate leadership competencies, and which is linked to the UMHSL website. Conclusion: The contributions of the UMHSL librarians to this project support the goals of instilling leadership skills in nurses, encouraging evidence‐based nursing practice, and transforming a practice environment to meet the ultimate goal of effective patient care.     

THE IMPACT OF CROWDFUNDING ON JOURNALISM

This article analyzes the impact of crowdfunding on journalism. Crowdfunding is defined as a way to harness collective intelligence for journalism, as readers’ donations accumulate into judgments about the issues that need to be covered. The article is based on a case study about Spot.Us, a platform pioneering community-funded reporting. The study concludes that a crowdfunded journalistic process requires journalists to renegotiate their role and professional identity to succeed in the changing realm of creative work. The study concludes that reader donations build a strong connection from the reporters to the donors, which creates a new sense of responsibility to the journalists. The journalists perceive donors as investors, that cannot be let down. From the donor's perspective, donating does not create a strong relationship from donor to the journalist, or to the story to which they contributed. The primary motivation for donating is to contribute to the common good and social change. Consequently, donors’ motives are essentially more altruistic than instrumental. Thus, when the public donates for a cause, the marketing of a certain type of journalism should be aligned with the features of cause marketing. The traditional role of journalism as a storyteller around the campfire has remained, but the shared story is changing: people no longer share merely the actual story, but also the story of participating in a story process.     

Towards a Canadian farm management resource centre: Preliminary concept study

This report documents a preliminary concept study commissioned in February 1992 by the Canadian Farm Business Management Council to review issues related to the development of a national farm management resource centre. The concept of a resource centre to service the information needs of farm management educators and related service providers was initially proposed as an integral component of a national Farm Business Management Program. However, the specific nature of such a centre has remained undefined. The present study was undertaken to identify issues related to the resource centre concept, to review available options for the design of such a system, and to identify a likely strategy for further development. The study was based on an extensive review of background materials and interviews with several experts in the field. A conference involving representatives of relevant stakeholder groups was also convened to provide additional input. The results, described in this report, suggest a relatively clear and consistent strategy for resource centre development. The specific elements of this strategy are described with respect to the most appropriate user groups and information applications to be served by the centre, the relevant holdings, methods of access and application of information technology, and related administrative and operational concerns. The strategies suggested are clearly consistent with the objectives of the Canadian Farm Business Management Program. Six recommendations are presented that outline a specific course of action toward further development and implementation of the resource centre concept.     

Developing a database of behavioural medicine interventions

OBJECTIVE: To describe the development of the Cochrane Behavioral Medicine Field database of interventions and its contribution to the knowledge base of this field. METHODS: A list of behavioural medicine interventions was solicited from content experts. The resulting list of index terms was used to generate a comprehensive search strategy to retrieve relevant records, and a thesaurus of terms with which to index them. The records are included in a register. A subset of records have been coded for study design, health condition, intervention, study participants, setting and provider and made available in a public online database. RESULTS: The Cochrane Behavioral Medicine Field database consists of over 3500 records of systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials for public educational use. CONCLUSIONS: The register provides a comprehensive listing of studies relating to behavioural medicine interventions. The public online database enables easy access to the evidence base and provides enhanced details of the studies included on it. These databases are a valuable resource for the behavioural medicine community. Other fields are encouraged to duplicate these methods in the design of content-specific databases.     

Embracing GIS Services in Libraries

Summary

As a land-grant research university without a geography or cartography department, Washington State University Libraries present a unique organizational context for the adoption of GIS services. The authors consider the implementation of GIS services at the Washington State University Libraries, particularly at the Holland/New Library, which originated from an ARL/GIS Literacy Grant in 1992. The authors cover the following topics in the development of the service: Historical Background, System Architecture, Project Issues and Service Provision, Reference Services Policies, Current Implementation and Related Campus-Wide Issues, and Future Agenda. The services offered were essentially at a minimum level, that is, only providing limited access to government and commercial geospatial data using Arc View and Landview software. The approach to GIS in reference work has been to view it as a specialized service within a standard reference framework very similar to the computer-mediated searching programs of the past. Future plans for GIS services include shifting from a single desktop workstation to a system-wide network access to spatial data and maintaining a centralized repository for all spatial data whether purchased commercially or developed in-house.     

All Together Now: Planning for Shared Print Archiving at Canada's Western Universities

The Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries is a consortium of twenty-two university libraries in western Canada. Planning for a regional shared print archive has included the formation of several task groups, the engagement of a project consultant, and local development of a holdings registry tool. The original impetus for the project was to clear maximum shelf space at member libraries quickly. The planning challenge that has emerged is to design a project that meets this short-term regional need for repurposed space in member libraries, while building in scalability to address a broader preservation mandate, and that allows linking to related initiatives in other jurisdictions.     

A survey of users and non-users of a UK teaching hospital library and information service

BACKGROUND: The Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was formed in 2002 with the merger of two existing trusts. The library services unified to create a new expanded service with 11 staff. OBJECTIVES: The librarians wanted to test out users' opinions of the service, as a basis for a developmental strategy. They also wanted to find out to what extent they were offering a multi-disciplinary service, available to all staff. Therefore it was decided to include both users and non-users in the survey. METHODS: A twenty-question questionnaire was sent out to a 10% sample of registered users in all staff categories. The same questionnaire was sent out to a 10% sample of non-users, with the help of the Human Resources Department. RESULTS: The library staff and facilities were generally well regarded. The stock needed expansion in various areas, especially allied health and biomedical science. Non-users were in fact often occasional or remote users. Other non-users needed informing that they were entitled to use the service. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is required, especially concerning the information needs of allied health and scientific staff. There is a need for stock expansion. A marketing strategy is required to capture the interest of potential users.     

ERIC on CD-ROM and RIE:

From September 1988 to October 1990, Houston Cole Library spent $4,852.00 for search fees for ERIC online. The popularity of the service was the stimulus to locate Cunds to purchase a workstation for ERIC on CD-ROM. The availability of a University faculty research grant provided the opportunity to fund the workstation and perform a research project dwing the transition. The author conducted a study comparing the ERIC print index, Resources in Education, to the ERIC index in CD-ROM format. The study contrasts the two formats in the areas of accwacy of results, time savings and user satisfaction.     

Library Ranking Europe: A New Tool

ABSTRACT

The interest to improve library services is worldwide. Standards, various kinds of assessments and customer surveys are used as tools. To be more successful in their business libraries should pay more attention to the customer experience and use qualitative methods in evaluating services. Library Ranking Europe (LRE) is a pilot project which looks at public libraries from a customer perspective. The method is mystery shopping, anonymous visits to libraries. The aim is to create a ranking system that stimulates benchmarking. The ranking system consists of different factors – categories and subcategories – which reflect library services. In the evaluation, every category is scored. The LRE scale generates a ranking system that categorizes libraries according to the scores from one to six stars, from Poor to Exceptional. The system will be developed further but after five years of testing, we find that LRE offers a relatively easy way to compare public libraries in different European countries. It even makes it possible to evaluate and compare libraries in big cities and small villages. The ultimate goal of this method is to enhance quality development.     

期刊动态管理监测系统的设计与实现

期刊阅览室是图书馆的重要组成部分,是高校师生从事教学和科研工作的重要场所.文章针对图书馆期刊管理方法上存在的不足,通过使用计算机软件开发和条码阅读技术,研制出一种新的期刊动态管理监测系统.实践证明,该系统界面清晰,操作简便,记录准确,性能稳定,大大提高了图书馆期刊室的管理效率,是一种提高期刊管理科学性的有效方法.     

Radiography of the Great Buddha at Kamakura

Abstract

An environmentally controlled case is described for conserving a Fayum panel painting on loan to the Brooklyn Museum which exhibited a high degree of sensitivity to changes in relative humidity. The case was constructed of aluminium with a glass front, sealed in an air-tight fashion with a gasketted metal frame. It was intended to maintain a level of 50% RH in order to relax the panel painting from its high degree of warping, returning it to its original contour, and to conserve it permanently in this micro-climate. The humidity control agent found very satisfactory for this purpose was silica gel pre-conditioned to produce the 50% RH environment. The method of preparation of the gel was by exposure over a saturated solution of magnesium nitrate hexahydrate. The authors have detailed the construction of the case and method of installation of the Fayum portrait, as well as the technique of silica gel maintenance. The interior climate has been controlled satisfactorily since November 1974.     

书目记录的功能性要求

这项研究以用户的需要为出发点, 采用实体分析技术分析确认书目数据的实体属性和实体间的关系, 定义一个结构清晰的逻辑框架, 同时推荐国家书目记录所必备的基本功能。     

高校学生网络阅读行为及相关特性分析——北京市5所高校学生网络阅读状况调查

文章基于对北京市5所高校学生网络阅读状况的调查，分析了高校学生的网络阅读行为及相关特性。网络阅读已经在广大高校学生的学习和生活中占有重要的地位，他们每天的网络阅读时间和传统阅读时间已经很接近，分别为1．55和2．16小时。他们最常阅读的3类网络文档是网络新闻、博客和学术性书刊文章。高校学生在性别、学历层次、网龄长短、有无博客等方面的不同会导致某些网络阅读特性的差异。文章提出网络阅读系数的概念，用以计量网络阅读在整个阅读中的比重。